King.

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

Ham.
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 a sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honour, and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil,
Free me so far in your most gen'rous thoughts,
That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

Laer.
I am satisfy'd in nature,
Whose motive in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge.
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.

Laer.
Come, one for me.

Ham.
I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance
Your skill shall like a star i'th' darkest night appear.

Laer.
You mock me, sir.

Ham.
No, on my honour.

King.

Give them the foils, young Osrick. Cousin Hamlet, you know the wager.

Ham.
Very well, my Lord:
Your Grace has laid the odds o'th' 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?

Osr.
Ay, my good Lord.

King.
Give me a bowl of wine.
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 onyx 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 trumpets to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heav'ns, the heav'ns to earth:
Now the King drinks to Hamlet. Come, begin; [Trumpets the while.
And you the judges bear a wary eye.

Ham.

Come on, sir.

Laer.

Come, my Lord.

Ham.

One.

Laer.

No.

Ham.

Judgment.

Osr.
A hit, a very palpable hit. [Drums, trumpets, and shouts.

Laer.
Well—again. Flourish, a piece goes off.

King.

Stay, give me the drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine. Here's to thy health. Give him the cup.

Ham.
I'll play this bout first, set it by, a while. [they play
Come—another hit—what say you?

Laer.
I do confess't.

King.
Our son shall win.

Queen.
The Queen salutes thy fortune, Hamlet.

Ham.
Good madam—

King.
Gertrude, do not drink.

Queen.
I have, my Lord; I pray you pardon me.

King.
It is the poison'd cup, it is too late. [Aside.

Ham.
I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

Laer.

I'll hit him, now. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

Ham.
Come, for the third; Laertes, you but dally:
I pray you press with your best violence,
I'm sure you make a wanton of me.

Laer.
Say you so? Come on. [Play. [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then in scuffling they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes.]

King.
Part them, they are incens'd.

Ham.
Nay, come again.

Osr.
Look to the Queen there, ho!

Hor.
How is it, my Lord?

Osr.
How is't, Laertes?

Laer.

Why, as a woodcock caught in mine own springe; I'm justly killed with mine own treachery.

Ham.
How does the Queen?

King.
She swoons, to see them bleed.

Queen.
No, no, the drink, the drink—O my dear Hamlet.
The drink, the drink—I am poison'd. [She dies.

Ham.
O villainy! hoa! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.

Laer.
It is here, Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treach'rous 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, do thy work.

Laer.
He's justly serv'd: it is a poison temper'd by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's death come not on thee,
Nor thine on me! [Dies.

Ham.
Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee,
Wretched Queen, farewel!
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 serjeant Death

Is strict in his arrest) O! I could tell you—
But let it be—Horatio, I am dying.
Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright,
To the unsatisfy'd.

Hor.
Never believe it:
I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane,
Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham.
As thou'rt a man,
Give me the cup; let go, I'll hav't.
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.
If thou did'st ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity a while,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.—O! I die, Horatio:
The potent poison quite o'ergrows my spirit;
* ^noteI cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophesy, th' election lights
On Fortinbrass; he has my dying voice,
So tell him, with th' occurrents more or less,
Which have solicited. O—the rest is silence. [Dies.

Hor.
There crack'd the cordage of a noble heart.
Good night, sweet Prince;
And choirs of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Take up the bodies; such a sight as this,
Becomes the field, but here shews much amiss. [Exeunt.† ^note The End of Hamlet.

^note THE TEMPEST* [Footnote: 1Kb].