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[Stabs the King.

King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Hum.Here,thou incestuous, murd'rous,damned
Dane,

Drink off this potion:-Is the union here?
Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly serv'd;

[King dies.

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!

[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 serjeant, 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.

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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.-

Enter Fortinbras, the English Embassadors, and others.

For. Where is this sight?

Hor. What is it, you would see?

5 If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havock !--O proud
death!

What feast is toward in thine infernal cell,
That thou so many princes, at a shot,
10 So bloodily hast struck?

Emb. 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,
15 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.
20 But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world,
25 How these things came about: So shall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

30 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;
35I 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

[March afar off, and shout within. 40 What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come
from Poland,

To the embassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-grows 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 or less,
Which have solicited,The rest is silence.

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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

45 Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.

50 Take up the bodies:Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shews much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

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"

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Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, and Attendants.

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, in Cyprus.

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That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse,

Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;

And, in conclusion,

Non-suits my mediators; for, certes 2, says he,
5 I have already chosen my officer.
And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife 3;

As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of 10 That never set a squadron in the field,

this.

Iago. But you 'll not hear me:

If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.
Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in
thy hate.
[of the city, 15
Iago. Despise me if I do not. Three great ones
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:|
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,

Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric“,
Wherein the toged consuls' can propose

As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof,
At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds
Christian and heathen,must be be-lee'd and calm'd
By debtor and creditor, this counter-caster';
20 He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

1 On

The story is taken from Cynthio's Novels. 2i. e. certainly, in truth. Obsolete. these lines Dr. Johnson observes, "This is one of the passages which must for the present be resigned to corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose." -Mr. Tyrwhitt ingeniously proposes to read, "damn'd in a fair life," and is of opinion, that "Shakspeare alludes to the judgement denounced in the Gospel against those of whom all men speak well.” He adds, that "the character of Cassio is certainly such, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally understood. Well-bred, easy, sociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not sufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealousy of his superiors. It may be observed too, that Shakspeare has thought it proper to make lago, in several other passages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival." Theoric, for theory. Consuls, for counsellors. It was anciently the practice to reckon up And

sums with counters,

3 X 2

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I follow him to serve my turn upon him;
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender, and, when he's old,|
cashier'd;

lago. Are your doors lock'd?"

Bra. Why? wherefore ask you this?

[mons?

Iago. Sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on

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Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them, and, when they have|25|
lin'd their coats,

[soul;

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some
And such a one I do profess myself.
For, sir,

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Bra. What, have you lost your wits?

Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my
voice?

Bra. Not 1; What are you?
Rod. My name is-Roderigo.
Bra. The worse welcome:

I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors:
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
My daughter is not for thee: and now, in madness,
30 Being full of supper, and distempering draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
To start my quiet.

Red. Sir, sir, sir,—

Bra. But thou must needs be sure,

35 My spirit, and my place, have in them power To make this bitter to thee.

Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips 40 If he can carry 't thus ! [owe,

Iago. Call up her father,

Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on 't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Patience, good sir.

[Venice;

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is My house is not a grange'.

Rod. Most grave Brabantio,

In simple and pure soul I come to you.

Iago. Sir, you are one of those, that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruffians. 45 You'll have your daughter cover'd with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and geanets for germans.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. Iago. Do; with light timorous accent, and dire 50 yell,

As when, by night and negligence, the fire

It has been observed, that the Scots, when they

Bra. What profane 10 wretch art thou? Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two "backs.

"That is,

compare person to person, use this exclamation. 2 i. e. by recommendation from powerful friends. 3 The meaning is, Do I stand within any such terms of propinquity or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him? * Knave is here used for servant, but with a mixture of sly contempt. Full fortune may mean a complete piece of good fortune. To owe is in ancient language, to own, to possess. 'i. e. broken. "You are in a populous city, not in a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed." Grange is strictly and properly the farm of a monastery, where the religious reposited their corn. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which stands solitary, a grange. "Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson, or any lineal descendant, however remote. ? A jennet is a Spanish horse. 10 That is, what wretch of gross and licentious language? "This is an ancient proverbial expression in the French language, whence Shakspeare probably borrowed it.

Bra.

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seech you,

5

If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd' even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported-with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondalier,-10
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility,

:

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter,--if you have not given her leave,--
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,

2

To an extravagant and wheeling stranger, [self:
Of here and every where: Straight satisfy your-
If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!

Give me a taper;-call up all my people:-
This accident is not unlike my dream,
Belief of it oppresses me already :-

Light, I say! light!

lago. Farewell; for I must leave you:
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall)

Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with some check,-
Cannot with safety cast' him; for he 's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' war,
(Which even now stands in act) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have not,
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must shew out a flag and sign of love,

Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely

find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

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20

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you?

Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. O heaven!-how got she out?-O treason
of the blood!-
[minds
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters'
By what you see them act.-Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

Rod. Yes, sir; I have, indeed.

Bra. Call up my brother.-O, 'would you had
had her!-

Some one way, some another.-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod. I think, I can discover him; if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.
Bra. Pray you lead on.
At every house I'll

call;

I may command at most:-Get weapons, ho! 25 And raise some special officers of might.On, good Roderigo; I'll deserve your pains.

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[Exeunt.

Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants.
Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff' o' the conscience
To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service: Nine or ten times
I had thought to have jerk'd him here under the

ribs.

Oth. 'Tis better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but he prated,

40 And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms Against your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir, Are you fast marry'd? for, be sure of this,45 That the magnifico' is much belov'd;

And hath, in his effect, a voice potential

As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
50 Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his spite:

My services, which I have done the signiory, Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know, (Which, when I know that boasting is an honour, 55 I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being

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'Dr. Johnson observes, that the even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. Mr. Steevens thinks that odd is here ambiguously used, as it signifies strange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even; but acknowledges that the expression is very harsh. travagant is here used in the signification of wandering. Despised time, is time of no value. i. e. by which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illusions and to false imaginations. Stuff of the conscience, is substance, or essence, of the conscience. 'The chief men of Venice are, by a peculiar name, called Magnifici, i.e. magnificoes. * Double has here its natural sense.-The president of every deliberative assembly has a double voice. For example: the lord mayor in the court of aldermen has a double voice. 3 X 3 From

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