QUEEN. No, no, the drink, the drink,- my dear Hamlet! 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. LAER. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good, OSR. & LORDS. Treason! treason! KING. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt. Dane, the onixe, Drink off this potion: Is thy union* here? Follow my mother." 4tos. LAER. [King dies. He is justly serv'd; C [Dies. HAM. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. unbated] See IV. 7. King. the foul practice] See "pass of practice," IV. 7. King. Is thy union here? follow my mother] A bitter sarcasm. Take this as thy lot or portion! the richly prepared cup! D'ye find here an union? Go with, follow the queen! temper'] Prepared, having the ingredients mixed. I am dead, Horatio: Wretched queen, adieu! Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright HOR. Never believe it; I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, HAM. Give me the As thou'rt a man,cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it. O God! Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ?b If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, [March afar off, and Shot within. What warlike noise is this? OSR. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley. HAM. O, I die, Horatio; • That are but mutes or audience to this act] That are either auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action. JOHNSON. blive behind me] Survive me. If thou didst ever-to tell my story] There is hardly a bosom that can be unmoved by the interest and feeling excited in this passage: but it is its ease, that constitutes its felicity; it is its unlaboured, simple beauties that give the character of sublimity to this solemn and dignified farewel. Kent, though not indeed with so high an interest and such exquisite feeling, utters a similar sentiment, when Lear expires. "Would not upon the rack of this rough world The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit; (64) So tell him, with the occurrents, (65) more or less, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! 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 havock!-O proud death! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,() 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? the news from England] i. e. the fate of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. the occurrents, more or less, which have solicited] Which have importunately and irresistibly urged on-he would have said, "this sad catastrophe." • This quarry cries on havock] This heap of prey (see quarry, Macb. IV. 3. Rosse) proclaims that, which is the signal of desolation in war, havoc. The phrase, cries on, is much in the same way applied to murder in Othello; "Whose noise is this, that cries on murder?" V. 1. Iago. our affairs from England] Matters of our embassage. HOR. ་ Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life to thank you; (69) ⚫ for no, 4tos. • So 4tos. And call the noblest to the audience. Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life He never gave commandment for their death] Had it the means, that life affords, not from the mouth of the king; from whom they, as the creatures and spies of his villanies, would have received protection, and whose more atrocious aims, when disclosed to them, would appear to have been directed against the life of his nephew, Hamlet. This obscure intimation, this mystery thrown over the transaction, would heighten curiosity and the interest of the communications, presently expected from Horatio. jump upon this bloody question] Close upon, and as if by a spring or bound reaching it. "Just or jump at this dead hour," are the different readings of the folios and quartos in I. 1. Marc. с * put on by cunning] Produced. rights of memory, &c.] Borne in memory, not forgotten; and thence to have effect given them. rites, 1623, ⚫ now, 4tos. And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:a But let this same be presently perform'd, Even while men's minds are wild," lest more mis chance, On plots, and errors, happen. FORT. Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; d To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, Take up the bodies: Such a sight as this [A dead March. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; after which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off." f • I shall have always cause—whose voice shall draw on more] From Hamlet's, whose dying voice or suffrage will produce or draw in its train many more. For always, the quartos read also. The fo. of 1632 gives the line "Of that I shall alwayes cause to speak." bare wild] Unsettled. e On plots and errors happen] i. e. in consequence, the effect of. d put on] Put to the proof, tried. for his passage] As to order taken for the ceremony of conveying him. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that in the first Act chills the blood |