Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the margent, ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: why is this impawned, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid, on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

Ham. How, if I answer, no? [person in trial. Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [exit. Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well, to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same breed, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on), only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: he sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming Ham. In happy time. [down. Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric, and Attendants, with foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[the King puts the hand of Laertes into that of Hamlet.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you But pardon it, as you are a gentleman. [wrong; This presence knows, and you must needs have 'How I am punish'd with a sore distraction. [heard, What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: if't be so
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

Laer. I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungor'd: but till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Ham. I embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.—
Give us the foils; come on.

Laer. Come, one for me.

[ance

Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes: in more ignorYour skill shall, like a star i'the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.

[Hamlet,

Laer. You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.--Cousin You know the wager?

Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds o'the weaker side.. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both: But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? [they prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. [table: King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire; The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings [cups; In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the

Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
Ham. Good madam,-

King. Gertrude, do not drink.
[me.
Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon
King. It is the poison'd cup; it is too late. [aside.
Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
King. I do not think it.

Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[aside.

[they play.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes. You do but I pray you, pass with your best violence; [dally; I am afeard you make a wanton of me. Laer. Say you so? Come on. Osr. Nothing, neither way. Laer. Have at you now. [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. King. Part them, they are incens'd. Ham. Nay, come again. [the Queen falls. Osr. Look to the queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my Osr. How is it, Laertes? [lord?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. [Osric; Ham. How does the queen?

King. She swoons, to see them bleed. [Hamlet! Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink.--Ö my dear The drink, the drink;-I am poison'd! [dies. Ham. O villainy!-Ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! seek it out. [Laertes falls. Lacr. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art No medicine in the world can do thee good, [slain; In thee there is not half an hour's life; The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie, Never to rise 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, to thy work. [stabs the King. Osr. and Lords. Treason! treason! King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio:-wretched queen, adieu! You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time, (as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you, But let it be:-Horatio, I am dead; Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it;

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham. As thou'rt a man,

[it-

Give me the cup; let go; by heaven, I'll have
O God:-Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, [me;
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story. [march afar off,and shot within.
What warlike noise is this? [from Poland,
Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest como
To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England :
But I do prophecy, the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited.—The rest is silence. [dies.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night,

sweet prince

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither? [march within.
Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and
others.

Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor. What is it, you would see?
If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !-O proud
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, [death!
That thou so many princes, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

1 Amb. The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing, To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead Where should we have our thanks? Hor. Not from his mouth,

Had it the ability of life to thank you;

He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
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 speak, to the yet unknowing world

How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim, my vantage doth invite me.
Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:

But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even whilst men's minds are wild; lest more mis-
On plots and errors happen.
[chance

Fort. Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd most royally; and, for his passage,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.—

Take up the bodies.-Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [a dead march. [exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off."

Caius Marcius Coriolanus, a noble Roman.

Titus Lartius,

Cominius,

Generals against the Volscians.

Menenius Agrippa, Friend to Coriolanus.

Sicinius Velutus, Tribunes of the People. Junius Brutus,

Young Marcius, Son to Coriolanus.

A Roman Herald.

Tullus Aufidius, General of the Volscians.

Lieutenant to Aufidius.

Conspirators with Aufidius.

A Citizen of Antium.

Two Volscian Guards.

SCENE I. ROME. A STREET.

Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, 2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: what authority surfeits on, would relieve us: if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? [commonalty.

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienced men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: you must in no way say, he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the capitol. Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?
Enter Menenius Agrippa.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'would all the rest were so!

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand?

Where go you [you. With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too.

Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine Will you undo yourselves? [honest neighbours, 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment: for the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you; and you slander The helms o'the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cit. Care for us!-Truc, indeed!-They