king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can;
if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.
OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e’en so?
HAMLET To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
OSRIC I commend my duty to your lordship.
HAMLET Yours, yours.
Exit OSRIC
He does well to commend it himself; there are no
tongues else for’s turn.
HORATIO This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
HAMLET He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.
Thus has he–and many more of the same bevy that I
know the dressy 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.
HAMLET I am constant to my purpose; 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 down.
HAMLET In happy time.
Lord The queen desires you to use some gentle
entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
HAMLET She well instructs me.
Exit Lord
HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord.
HAMLET I do not think so: since he went into France, I
have been in continual practise: I shall win at the
odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here
about my heart: but it is no matter.
HORATIO Nay, good my lord,–
HAMLET It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of
gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.
HORATIO If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will
forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
fit.
HAMLET Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s 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 has aught of what he
leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c
KING CLAUDIUS Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES’ hand into HAMLET’s
HAMLET Give me your pardon, sir: I’ve done you wrong;
But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman.
This presence knows,
And you must needs have heard, how I am punish’d
With sore distraction. 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 purposed evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house,
And hurt my brother.
LAERTES 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 ungored. But till that time,
I do receive your offer’d love like love,
And will not wrong it.
HAMLET I embrace it freely;
And will this brother’s wager frankly play.
Give us the foils. Come on.
LAERTES Come, one for me.
HAMLET I’ll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star i’ the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.
LAERTES You mock me, sir.
HAMLET No, by this hand.
KING CLAUDIUS Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
You know the wager?
HAMLET Very well, my lord
Your grace hath laid the odds o’ the weaker side.
KING CLAUDIUS I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
But since he is better’d, we have therefore odds.
LAERTES This is too heavy, let me see another.
HAMLET This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
They prepare to play
OSRIC Ay, my good lord.
KING CLAUDIUS Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
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
In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
‘Now the king dunks to Hamlet.’ Come, begin:
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
HAMLET Come on, sir.
LAERTES Come, my lord.
They play
HAMLET One.
LAERTES No.
HAMLET Judgment.
OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.
LAERTES Well; again.
KING CLAUDIUS Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
Here’s to thy health.
Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within
Give him the cup.
HAMLET I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.
They play
Another hit; what say you?
LAERTES A touch, a touch, I do confess.
KING CLAUDIUS Our son shall win.
QUEEN GERTRUDE He’s fat, and scant of breath.
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
HAMLET Good madam!
KING CLAUDIUS Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN GERTRUDE I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
KING CLAUDIUS [Aside]
It is the poison’d cup: it is too late.
HAMLET I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, let me wipe thy face.
LAERTES My lord, I’ll hit him now.
KING CLAUDIUS I do not think’t.
LAERTES [Aside]
And yet ’tis almost ‘gainst my conscience.
HAMLET Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
LAERTES Say you so? come on.
They play
OSRIC Nothing, neither way.
LAERTES Have at you now!
LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS Part them; they are incensed.
HAMLET Nay, come, again.
QUEEN GERTRUDE falls
OSRIC Look to the queen there, ho!
HORATIO They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
OSRIC How is’t, Laertes?
LAERTES Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.
HAMLET How does the queen?
KING CLAUDIUS She swounds to see them bleed.
QUEEN GERTRUDE No, no, the drink, the drink,–O my dear Hamlet,–
The drink, the drink! I am poison’d.
Dies
HAMLET O villany! Ho! let the door be lock’d:
Treachery! Seek it out.
LAERTES It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom’d: the foul practise
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.
HAMLET The point!–envenom’d too!
Then, venom, to thy work.
Stabs KING CLAUDIUS
All Treason! treason!
KING CLAUDIUS O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
HAMLET Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.
KING CLAUDIUS dies
LAERTES He is justly served;
It is a poison temper’d by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me.
Dies
HAMLET 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 livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
HORATIO Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here’s yet some liquor left.
HAMLET As thou’rt a man,
Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I’ll have’t.
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart