Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe,

Ofrick;

I'm juftly kill'd with mine own treachery.

Ham. How does the Queen?

King. She fwoons to fee them bleed,

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink

Oh my dear Hamlet.-The drink, the drink,—

I am poifon'd

[Queen dies, Ham. Oh villainy! ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! feek it out

Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Thou art flain,
No med'cine in the world can do thee good.
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treach'rous inftrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lye,
Never to rife again. Thy mother's poison'd,
I can no more—the King, the King's to blame.
Ham. The point envenom'd too?

Then venom do thy work.

All. Treafon, treason.

[Stabs the King:

King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned

Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is the Union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly serv'd.

It is a poifon temper'd by himself.

[King dies.

Exchange forgivenefs with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's death come not on thee,
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.

Ham. Heav'n make thee free of it. I follow thee. I'm dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu! You that look pale, and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act,

5 That are but mutes or audience to this at,] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe,

X

or at moft only mute performers, that fill the ftage without any part in the action.

you

Had I but time, as this fell Serjeant death
Is strict in his arrest, oh, I could tell
But let it be-Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'ft, report me and my cause aright
To the unfatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it.

I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Here's yet fome liquor left.

Ham. As th'art a man,

Give me the cup. Let go; by heav'n, I'll hav't.
Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things ftanding thus unknown, shall live behind me ?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Abfent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my ftory. [March afar off, and fhout within.
What warlike noife is this?

Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with Conqueft come from
Poland,

To the Ambaffadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio :

The potent poifon quite o'er-grows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophefy, the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with th' occurrents more or less,
Which have follicited.-The reft is filence.

[Dies.

6 Which have follicited.] Sollicited, for brought on the

event.

WARBURTON.

Hor.

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, fweet

Prince;

And flights of angels fing thee to thy Reft!

Why does the Drum come hither?

Enter Fortinbras, and English Ambassadors, with drum, colours, and attendants.

Fort. Where is this fight?

Hor. What is it you would fee?

If aught of woe or wonder, ceafe your search.

Fort.

This quarry cries on havock. Oh proud
Death!

What feast is tow'rd in thy infernal cell,
That thou fo many Princes at a fhot
So bloodily haft ftruck?

Amb. The fight is difmal,

And our affairs from England come too late :
The ears are fenfelefs that fhould give us hearing;
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rofincrantz and Guildenstern are dead,
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor. Not from his mouth,

Had it th' ability of life to thank you :

He never gave commandment for their death.
But fince fo jump upon this bloody queftion,
You from the Polack Wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies.
High on a Stage be placed to the view,
And let me fpeak to th' yet unknowing world,

7 This quarry cries on back.] I fuppofe, when unfair (portfm-n Hanmer reads,

cries out, havock.

To cry on, was to exclaim against.

destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the cenfure was, to cry, Havock.

How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd caufe;
And, in this upfhot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us hafte to hear it,

And call the Noblefs to the audience.

For me, with forrow I embrace my fortune;
I have fome rights of memory in this Kingdom,
Which, now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
Hor. Of that I fhall have alfo caufe to speak,

$ And from his mouth whofe voice will draw on more: But let this fame be prefently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild, left more mifchance On plots and errors happen.

Fort. Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a foldier, to the Stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd moft royally.

And for his paffage,

The Soldiers' mufick, and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

And from his mouth whale voice will draw no more.] This is the reading of the old Quarte's, but certainly a miflaken one, We fay, a man will no more draw breath; but that a man's voice will draw no more, is, I believe, an expreflion without any authority. I chufe to efpoufe the reading of the elder folio ;

And from his mouth, whose

voice will draw on more.

And this is the poet's meaning.

Hamlet, just before his death, had faid;

But I do prophefy, th' eledien lights

On Fortinbras: He has my dy ing voice; So tell him, &r. Accordingly, Horatio here de livers that message; and very justly infers, that Hamlet's voice will be feconded by others, and procure them in favour of Fore tinbras's fucceffion.

THEOB.

Take

Take up the body.

Such a fight as this Becomes the field, but here fhews much amifs. Go, bid the Soldiers shoot.

[Exeunt, marching: after which,
after which, a peal of
Ordnance is foot off.

If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which diftinguishes it from the reft, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praife of variety. The incidents are fo numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The fcenes are interchangeably diverfified with merriment and folemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and inftructive obfervations, and folemnity, not ftrained by poetical violence above the natural fentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual fucceffion, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of converfation. The pretend ed madness of Hamlet caufes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tendernefs, and every perfonage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horrour, to the fop in the laft, that expofes affectation to juft contempt.

The conduct is perhaps not wholly fecure against objections. The action is indeed for the moft part in continual progreffion, but there are fome fcenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate caufe,

for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of fanity. He plays the madman moft, when he treats Ophelia with fo much rudeness, which feems to be ufelefs and wanton cruelty.

Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an inftrument than an agent. After he has, by the ftratagem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him, and his death is at laft effected by an incident which Hamlet has no part in producing.

The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedi ent of neceffity, than a stroke of art. A fcheme might eafily have been formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.

The poet is accused of having fhewn little regard to poetical juftice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpofe; the revenge which he demands is not obtained but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification. which would arife from the deftruction of an ufurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmlefs, and the pious,

X 4

ACT