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?

Ham. 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.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down. Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me.

Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord.

[Exit Lord.

Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. 3 But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart but it is no matter.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman.

Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not fit. Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is 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, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes Let be.

Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, c.

King.Come,Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

[2] Mild and temperate conversation. JOHNSON.
[3] I shall succeed with the advantage that I am allowed.
[] Gain-giving is the same as misgiving, STEEVENS.

MALONE.

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 hear proclaim was madness.5
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 purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

Laer. 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 ungor'd: But till that time,
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; come on.

Laer. Come, one for me.

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

Stick fiery off indeed.

Laer. You mock me, sir.

Ham. No, by this hand.

King. Give them the foils, young Osric.. -Cousin
Hamlet,

You know the wager?

Ham. Very well, my lord;

Your grace hath laid the odds o'the weaker side.
King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both :-

[5] I wish Hamlet had made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave man to shelter himself in falsehood. JOHNS. f61 This was a piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's submission. STEEV,

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.

[They prepare to play.

King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table7 :— 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 heaven to earth,

Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;-
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.

Laer. Well,-again.

[They play.

King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl is thine ;9

Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup.

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within.

Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by a while.

Come.-Another hit; What say you?

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.

King. Our son shall win.

Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.

[They play.

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows:

[7] Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel, resembling our wine measure; but of no determinate quantity, that being ascertained by an adjunct, as gallon-stoup, pint-stoup, mutchkin-stoup, &c. The vessel in which they fetch or keep water is also called the waterstoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine. RITSON. [8] An union is the finest sort of pearl, and has its place in all crowns and coronets. THEO. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been equally common to royal and mercantile prodigality. It may be observed, likewise, that pearls were supposed to possess an exhilirating quality. STEEVENS.

[9] Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet seems to suspect this, when he afterwards discovers the effects of the poison, and tauntingly asks him," Is the union here ?" STEEVENS.

The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
Ham. Good madam,-

King. Gertrude, do not drink.

Queen. I will, 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. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.

Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.

King. I do not think it.

Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Aside. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally; I pray you, pass with your best violence;

I am afeard, you make a wanton of me.

Laer. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.

[They 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!

[The Queen falls.

Hor. They bleed on both sides :-How is it, my lord? Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, Osric; I am justly kill'd 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!

[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,
In thee there is not half an hour's life;
The treacherous 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, to thy work.

Stabs the King,

Osr. Lords. Treason! treason!

King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

Ham. Here,thou incestuous, murd'rous,damned Dane, Drink off this potion :-Is the union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly serv'd;

It is a poison temper'd by himself.

[King dies.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.
Ham. 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 liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it ;

I am 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; by heaven I'll have it.—
O God!-Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me?
If thou didst 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.- [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 ;

The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit ;
I cannot live to hear the news from England:

But I do prophecy the election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited,-The rest is silence.

[Dies.

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart ;-Good night, sweet

prince ;