Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: David Bevington
Not Peer Reviewed

Hamlet (Modern, Quarto 2)

[5.2]
Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
3500Hamlet
So much for this, sir. Now shall you see the other.
You do remember all the circumstance?
Horatio
Remember it, my lord!
Hamlet
Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
3505Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it: let us know,
Our indiscretion sometime serves us well
When our deep plots do fall, and that should learn us
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
3510Rough-hew them how we will.
Horatio
That is most certain.
Hamlet
Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark
Groped I to find out them, had my desire,
3515Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again, making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unfold
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio--
Ah, royal knavery!--an exact command,
3520Larded with many several sorts of reasons
Importing Denmark's health, and England's to[o],
With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
That on the supervise, no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the ax,
3525My head should be struck off.
Horatio
Is't possible?
Hamlet
[Showing a document] Here's the commission. Read it at more leisure.
But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?
Horatio
I beseech you.
3530Hamlet
Being thus benetted round with villains--
Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play--I sat me down,
Devised a new commission, wrote it fair.
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
3535A baseness to write fair, and labored much
How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
Th'effect of what I wrote?
Horatio
Ay, good my lord.
3540Hamlet
An earnest conjuration from the King,
As England was his faithful tributary,
As love between them like the palm might flourish,
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
3545And many suchlike "as, sir" of great charge,
That on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further more or less,
He should those bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving time allowed.
3550Horatio
How was this sealed?
Hamlet
Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the model of that Danish seal;
Folded the writ up in the form of th'other,
3555Subscribe[d] it, gave't th'impression, placed it safely,
The changeling never known. Now the next day
Was our sea fight, and what to this was sequent
Thou knowest already.
Horatio
So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Hamlet
They are not near my conscience. Their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow.
'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensèd points
3565Of mighty opposites.
Horatio
Why, what a King is this!
Hamlet
Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon?
He that hath killed my King and whored my mother,
Popped in between th'election and my hopes,
3570Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
And with such coz'nage--is't not perfect conscience?
Enter a Courtier [Osric].
Courtier
Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
Hamlet
I humbly thank you, sir. [Aside to Horatio] Dost know this water-fly?
Horatio
[Aside to Hamlet] No, my good lord.
3590Hamlet
[Aside to Horatio] Thy state is the more gracious, for 'tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the King's mess. 'Tis a chough, but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
3595Courtier
Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
Hamlet
I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. [Put] your bonnet to his right use. 'Tis for the head.
Courtier
I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
3600Hamlet
No, believe me, 'tis very cold. The wind is northerly.
Courtier
It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
Hamlet
But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot [f]or my complexion.
3605Courtier
Exceedingly, my lord, it is very sultry, as 'twere--I cannot tell how. My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that 'a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter--
Hamlet
[Reminding Osric once more about his hat] I beseech you, remember.
3610Courtier
Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly 3610.1come to court Laertes--believe me, an absolute gentlemen, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a 3610.5gentleman would see.
Hamlet
Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dazzle th'arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article, 3610.10and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.
Courtier
Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in 3610.15our more rawer breath?
Courtier
Sir?
Horatio
[To Hamlet] Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do't, sir, really.
[To Osric] What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
3610.20Courtier
Of Laertes?
Horatio
[To Hamlet] His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.
[To Osric] Of him, sir.
Courtier
I know you are not ignorant--
I would you did, sir. Yet in faith if you did, it would not 3610.25much approve me. Well, sir?
Courtier
You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--
3612.1Hamlet
I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself.
I mean, sir, for his weapon. But in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
Hamlet
What's his weapon?
Cour.
Rapier and dagger.
3615Hamlet
That's two of his weapons--but well.
Courtier
The King, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses, against the which he has impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hanger, and so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to 3620the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.
Hamlet
What call you the carriages?
3622.1Horatio
[To Hamlet] I knew you must be edified by the margin ere you had done.
Courtier
The carriage, sir, are the hangers.
Hamlet
The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we 3625could 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 all you call it?
3630Courtier
The King, sir, hath laid, sir, 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.
3635Hamlet
How if I answer no?
Courtier
I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
Hamlet
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 3640gentleman willing, and the 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.
Courtier
Shall I deliver you so?
Hamlet
To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will.
Cour.
I commend my duty to your lordship.
Hamlet
Yours.
[Exit Courtier, Osric.]
['A] 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
'A did so, sir, with his dug before 'a 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, out of an habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty collection, which carries them through and through the most profane and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.
Enter a 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 3657.5you will take longer time?
Hamlet
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.
The King and Queen and all are coming down.
In happy time.
The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
She well instructs me.
[Exit Lord.]
Horatio
You will lose, my lord.
Hamlet
I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been 3660in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. 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 gaingiving as 3665would perhaps trouble a woman.
Horatio
If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.
Hamlet
Not a whit, we defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be, 'tis not 3670to 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 of what he leaves knows what is't to leave betimes. 3673.1Let be.
A table prepared. [Enter] Trumpets, drums, and officers with cushions, King, Queen, [Osric,] and all the state, foils, daggers, and Laertes. [Wine is borne in.]
Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
[The King puts Laertes's hand into Hamlet's.]
Hamlet
[To Laertes] Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong,
But pardon't as you are a gentleman. This presence knows,
And you must needs have heard, how I am punished
With a sore distraction. What I have done
That might your nature, honor, and exception
Roughly awake, I hear proclaim was madness.
3685Was't Hamlet wronged 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,
3690Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts
3695That I have shot my 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 honor
3700I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters of known honor
I have a voice and precedent of peace
To [keep] my name ungored. But all that time
I do receive your offered love like love,
3705And will not wrong it.
Hamlet
I embrace it freely, and will this brother's wager
frankly play.--
Give us the foils.
Laertes
Come, one for me.
3710Hamlet
I'll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance
Your skill shall like a star i'th' darkest night
Stick fiery off indeed.
Laertes
You mock me, sir.
Hamlet
No, by this hand.
Give them the foils, young Osric.
[Foils are handed to Hamlet and Laertes.]
Cousin Hamlet,
You know the wager.
Hamlet
Very well, my lord.
Your grace has laid the odds o'th'weaker side.
I do not fear it; 3720I have seen you both.
But since he is better, we have therefore odds.
Laertes
This is too heavy. Let me see another.
[He exchanges his foil for another.]
Hamlet
This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
Osric
Ay, my good lord.
[They prepare to play.]
Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.
If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
3730Let 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 then 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 heaven to earth,
"Now the King drinks to Hamlet." Come, begin.
Trumpets the while.
3740And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Hamlet
Come on, sir.
Laertes
Come, my lord.
[They fence. Hamlet scores a hit.]
Hamlet
One.
Laertes
No.
3745Hamlet
[To Osric] Judgment.
Osric
A hit, a very palpable hit.
Drum, trumpets, and shot. Flourish. A piece goes off.
Laertes
Well, again.
Stay. Give me drink. Hamlet this pearl is thine.
[He drinks, and throws a pearl in Hamlet's cup.]
3750Here's to thy health.--Give him the cup.
Hamlet
I'll play this bout first. Set it by awhile.
Come. [They fence.] Come, another hit. What say you?
Laertes
I do confess't.
[To the Queen] Our son shall win.
Queen
He's fat and scant of breath.--
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
[The Queen takes a cup of wine to offer a toast to Hamlet.]
The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
Hamlet
Good madam.
Gertrude, do not drink.
Queen
I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me.
[She drinks.]
[Aside] It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.
Hamlet
I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
Queen
Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laertes
[Aside to the King] My lord, I'll hit him now.
[Aside to Laertes] I do not think't.
Laertes
[Aside] And yet it is almost against my conscience.
3770Hamlet
Come for the third, Laertes, you do but dally.
I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am sure you make a wanton of me.
Laertes
Say you so? Come on.
[They fence.]
3775Osric
Nothing neither way.
Laertes
Have at you now!
[Laertes wounds Hamlet with his unbated rapier.] In scuffling they change rapiers. [Hamlet wounds Laertes.]
Part them! They are incensed.
Hamlet
Nay, come again.
[Laertes falls down. The Queen falls down.]
3780Osric
Look to the Queen there, ho!
Horatio
They bleed on both sides. [To Hamlet] How is it, my lord?
Osric
How is't, Laertes?
Laertes
Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
3785I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
Hamlet
How does the Queen?
She swoons to see them bleed.
Queen
No, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet,
The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.
[She dies.]
Hamlet
Oh, villainy! Ho, let the door be locked.
Treachery! Seek it out.
[Exit Osric.]
Laertes
It is here. Hamlet, thou art slain.
3795No med'cine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour's life.
The treacherous instrument is in my hand,
Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice
Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie
3800Never to rise again. Thy mother's poisoned.
I can no more. The King, the King's to blame.
Hamlet
The point envenomed to[o]? Then, venom, to thy work.
[He stabs the King.]
Treason, treason!
Oh, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Hamlet
[Forcing the King to drink] Here, thou incestuous, damnèd Dane,
Drink of[f] this potion. Is the onyx here?
3810Follow my mother.
[The King dies.]
Laertes
He is justly served.
It is a poison tempered by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
3815Nor thine on me!
[He 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,
3820Had I but time, as this fell sergeant Death
Is strict in his arrest, oh, I could tell you--
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead,
Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
3825Horatio
Never believe it.
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Here's yet some liquor left.
[He attempts to drink from the poisoned cup, but is prevented by Hamlet.]
Hamlet
As thou'rt a man,
Give me the cup! Let go! By heaven I'll ha't.
3830Oh, God, Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall I leave behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
3835To tell my story.
A march afar off.
What warlike noise is this?
Enter Osric.
Osric
Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
3840To th'ambassadors of England gives this warlike volley.
Hamlet
Oh, I die, Horatio.
The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit.
I cannot live to hear the news from England,
But I do prophesy th'election lights
3845On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.
So tell him, with th'occurrents more and less
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
[He dies.]
Horatio
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
3850And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
[March within.]
Why does the drum come hither?
Enter Fortinbras, with the [English] Ambassadors, [with Drum, Colors, and Attendants].
Fortinbras
Where is this sight?
3855Horatio
What is it you would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fortinbras
This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
3860So bloodily hast struck?
Ambassador
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 fulfilled,
3865That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Where should we have our thanks?
Horatio
Not from his mouth,
Had it th'ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
3870But since so jump upon this bloody question
You from the Polack wars and you from England
Are here arrived, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placèd the view,
And let me speak to [th']yet unknowing world
3875How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and for no cause,
And in this upshot, purposes mistook
3880Fall'n on th'inventors' heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.
Fortinbras
Let us haste to hear it,
And call the noblest to the audience.
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.
3885I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
Horatio
Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth 3890whose voice will draw no more.
But let this same be presently performed,
Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance
On plots and errors happen.
3895Fortinbras
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royal; and for his passage,
3900The soldiers' music and the rite 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.
Exeunt.