Ham. Nay, come, again.

Osr.

[The Queen falls.

Look to the queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric; I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.

Ham. How does the queen?

King.

She swounds to see them bleed,

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,─O my dear Ham

let,

The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.

Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! Seek it out.

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 of 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.

All. Treason! treason!

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[Dies.

330

[Stabs the King.

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

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer.

He is justly served;

It is a poison temper'd by himself.

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

[King dies.

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[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 livest; 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't.

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O good 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 awhile,

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?

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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'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights

On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;

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

[Dies.

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

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

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[March within.

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others.

Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor.

What is it ye would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,

That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily has struck?

First 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?

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,

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390

Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n 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,

Even 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 passage.
The soldiers' 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.

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410

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies, after

which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

SCENE I. King Lear's palace.

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND.

Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

Glou. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety. Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?

Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it.

Kent. I cannot conceive you.

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Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair; there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? Edm. No, my lord.

Glou. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

Edm. My services to your lordship.

Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. 30 Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving.

Glou. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The king is coming.

Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants.

Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

Glou. I shall, my liege. [Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund. Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death, Our son of Cornwall, And you, our no less loving son of Albany,

We have this hour a constant will to publish

Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife

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May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,

Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,

Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,

And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,—

Since now we will divest us, both of rule,

Interest of territory, cares of state,

Which of you shall we say doth love us most?

That we our largest bounty may extend

Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,

Our eldest-born, speak first.

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Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour:
As much as child e'er loved, or father found;

SHAK. III.-12

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