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 arrived, 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 judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forced cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fallen 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,

E'en while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance,

On plots, and errors, happen.

Fort. Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally: and, for his pas

sage,

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, marching; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

*

*

ROMEO AND

JULIET.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

ESCALUS, Prince of Verona.

PARIS, a young nobleman, kinsman to the Prince. MONTAGUE, heads of two houses at variance with CAPULET,

each other.

An old Man, cousin to Capulet.

ROMEO, Son to Montague.

MERCUTIO, kinsman to the Prince, and friend to Romeo. TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet.

LADY MONTAGUE, wife to Montague.
LADY CAPULET, wife to Capulet.

JULIET, daughter to Capulet.

Nurse to Juliet.

Citizens of Verona; several men and women, relations to both houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants.

SCENE, VERONA; Mantua.