The Works of William Shakespeare

poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit. Ham. What call you the carriages? Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it?

171

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. Ham. How if I answer 'no'?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. 179

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, 'tis the breathing time of day with me; let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I re-deliver you e'en so? Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit Osric.] He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues

else for's turn.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, 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. 2:29 |

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, ht will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes? Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[The King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet's. Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I've done

With sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honour and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
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,

250

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot mine 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 ungored. 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.

250

Come, one for me. Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ig

norance

Your skill shall, like a star i̇' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.

270

Laer. You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? Нат. 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: But since he is 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? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer.

King. Stay: give me drink. pearl is thine:

No.

Judgement.

Here's to thy health. [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. Give him the cup.

Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. [They play.] 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. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. 300 Ham. Good madam! King.

Gertrude, do not drink.

Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. King. [Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

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 't. Laer. [Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;

310

[They play.

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! [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes.

King.
Part them; they are incensed.
Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls.
Osr.
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.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my
dear Hamlet,-

She swounds to see them bleed.

320

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

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!

329

Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the King. All Treason! treason!

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

Ilam. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.

Laer.

King dies.

He is justly served; It is a poison temper'd by himself. 339 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 livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Hor.

Ham.

351

Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.
As thou'rt a man,
Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.
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? 360 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?

370

[March within. Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others. Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor.

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,

What is it ye would see? | 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

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily hast 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, 381
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, 30 jump upon this bloody question,

389

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:
For he was likely, had he been put on,

sage,

The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

410

You from the Polack wars, and you from Eng-To have proved most royally: and, for his pas
land,
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 judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

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, bearing off the
dead bodies; after which a peal of ord
nance 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. 11

Kent. I cannot conceive you.

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.

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 Bur-
gundy, Gloucester.
Glou. I shall, my liege.

Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker

In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age; 40
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
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.

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; 60
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Cor. [Aside] What shall Cordelia do? Love,
and be silent.

Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line
to this,

With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
Reg. Sir, I am made

Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
[Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund. And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

Lear. Nothing!

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond; nor more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,

Lest it may mar your fortunes.
Cor.
Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall

carry

100

Half fove with him, half my care and duty: Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?
Cor.

Ay, good my lord.
Lear. So young, and so untender?
Cor. So young, my lord, and true.
Lear. Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy

dower:

For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs

From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me

110

Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous
Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter.
Kent.

120

Good my liege,

Lear. Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight! So be my grave my peace, as here I give Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?

I do invest you jointly with my power,
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly

course,

140

With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you. [Giving the crown.
Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers-
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from

Kent.

the shaft.

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man! Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,

150

On thine allegiance, hear me !
Since thou hast sought to make us break our vOW,
Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd
pride

To come between our sentence and our power,
Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee, for provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world;
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,

This shall not be revoked.

Kent. Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. [To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

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