TPTT The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: ACT V
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
SCENE I. A churchyard.
SCENE II. A hall in the castle.
About the Play
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SCENE II. A hall in the castle.
Enter HAMLET and HORATIO
HAMLET
      So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;
      You do remember all the circumstance?
HORATIO
      Remember it, my lord?
HAMLET
      Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
5     That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
      Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
      And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
      Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
      When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
10    There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
      Rough-hew them how we will,--
HORATIO
      That is most certain.
HAMLET
      Up from my cabin,
      My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
15    Groped I to find out them; had my desire.
      Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
      To mine own room again; making so bold,
      My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
      Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,--
20    O royal knavery!--an exact command,
      Larded with many several sorts of reasons
      Importing Denmark's health and England's too,
      With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
      That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
25    No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
      My head should be struck off.
HORATIO
      Is't possible?
HAMLET
      Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
      But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
HORATIO
30    I beseech you.
HAMLET
      Being thus be-netted round with villanies,--
      Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
      They had begun the play--I sat me down,
      Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:
35    I once did hold it, as our statists do,
      A baseness to write fair and labour'd much
      How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
      It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know
      The effect of what I wrote?
HORATIO
40    Ay, good my lord.
HAMLET
      An earnest conjuration from the king,
      As England was his faithful tributary,
      As love between them like the palm might flourish,
      As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
45    And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
      And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
      That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
      Without debatement further, more or less,
      He should the bearers put to sudden death,
50    Not shriving-time allow'd.
HORATIO
      How was this seal'd?
HAMLET
      Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
      I had my father's signet in my purse,
      Which was the model of that Danish seal;
55    Folded the writ up in form of the other,
      Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
      The changeling never known. Now, the next day
      Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
      Thou know'st already.
HORATIO
60    So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
HAMLET
      Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
      They are not near my conscience; their defeat
      Does by their own insinuation grow:
      'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
65    Between the pass and fell incensed points
      Of mighty opposites.
HORATIO
      Why, what a king is this!
HAMLET
      Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon--
      He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,
70    Popp'd in between the election and my hopes,
      Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
      And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience,
      To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,
      To let this canker of our nature come
75    In further evil?
HORATIO
      It must be shortly known to him from England
      What is the issue of the business there.
HAMLET
      It will be short: the interim is mine;
      And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.'
80    But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
      That to Laertes I forgot myself;
      For, by the image of my cause, I see
      The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours.
      But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
85    Into a towering passion.
HORATIO
      Peace! who comes here?
Enter OSRIC
OSRIC
      Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
HAMLET
      I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?
HORATIO
      No, my good lord.
HAMLET
90    Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to
      know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a
      beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at
      the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say,
      spacious in the possession of dirt.
OSRIC
95    Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I
      should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
HAMLET
      I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of
      spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.
OSRIC
      I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
HAMLET
100   No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is
      northerly.
OSRIC
      It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
HAMLET
      But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
      complexion.
OSRIC
105   Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as
      'twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his
      majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a
      great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,--
HAMLET
      I beseech you, remember--
HAMLET moves him to put on his hat
OSRIC
110   Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith.
      Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe
      me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent
      differences, of very soft society and great showing:
      indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or
115   calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the
      continent of what part a gentleman would see.
HAMLET
      Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;
      though, I know, to divide him inventorially would
      dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw
120   neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the
      verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of
      great article; and his infusion of such dearth and
      rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his
      semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace
125   him, his umbrage, nothing more.
OSRIC
      Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
HAMLET
      The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman
      in our more rawer breath?
OSRIC
      Sir?
HORATIO
130   Is't not possible to understand in another tongue?
      You will do't, sir, really.
HAMLET
      What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
OSRIC
      Of Laertes?
HORATIO
      His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.
HAMLET
135   Of him, sir.
OSRIC
      I know you are not ignorant--
HAMLET
      I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did,
      it would not much approve me. Well, sir?
OSRIC
      You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--
HAMLET
140   I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with
      him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to
      know himself.
OSRIC
      I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation
      laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
HAMLET
145   What's his weapon?
OSRIC
      Rapier and dagger.
HAMLET
      That's two of his weapons: but, well.
OSRIC
      The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary
      horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take
150   it, six French rapiers and 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.
HAMLET
155   What call you the carriages?
HORATIO
      I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.
OSRIC
      The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
HAMLET
      The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we
      could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might
160   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?
OSRIC
      The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes
165   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.
HAMLET
      How if I answer 'no'?
OSRIC
170   I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
HAMLET
      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;
175   if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.
OSRIC
      Shall I re-deliver you e'en so?
HAMLET
      To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
OSRIC
      I commend my duty to your lordship.
HAMLET
      Yours, yours.

Exit OSRIC

180   He does well to commend it himself; there are no
      tongues else for's turn.
HORATIO
      This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
HAMLET
      He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.
      Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I
185   know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of
      the time and outward habit of encounter; 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
190   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.
HAMLET
      I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's
195   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.
HAMLET
      In happy time.
Lord
      The queen desires you to use some gentle
200   entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
HAMLET
      She well instructs me.
Exit Lord
HORATIO
      You will lose this wager, my lord.
HAMLET
      I do not think so: since he went into France, I
      have been in continual practise: I shall win at the
205   odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here
      about my heart: but it is no matter.
HORATIO
      Nay, good my lord,--
HAMLET
      It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of
      gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.
HORATIO
210   If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will
      forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
      fit.
HAMLET
      Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
      providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
215   '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 has aught of what he
      leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c
KING CLAUDIUS
      Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's
HAMLET
220   Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;
      But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
      This presence knows,
      And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
      With sore distraction. What I have done,
225   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,
230   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,
235   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.
LAERTES
      I am satisfied in nature,
240   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,
245   To keep my name ungored. But till that time,
      I do receive your offer'd love like love,
      And will not wrong it.
HAMLET
      I embrace it freely;
      And will this brother's wager frankly play.
250   Give us the foils. Come on.
LAERTES
      Come, one for me.
HAMLET
      I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
      Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
      Stick fiery off indeed.
LAERTES
255   You mock me, sir.
HAMLET
      No, by this hand.
KING CLAUDIUS
      Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
      You know the wager?
HAMLET
      Very well, my lord
260   Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.
KING CLAUDIUS
      I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
      But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.
LAERTES
      This is too heavy, let me see another.
HAMLET
      This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
They prepare to play
OSRIC
265   Ay, my good lord.
KING CLAUDIUS
      Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
      If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
      Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
      Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:
270   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,
275   The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
      The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
      'Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
      And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
HAMLET
      Come on, sir.
LAERTES
280   Come, my lord.
They play
HAMLET
      One.
LAERTES
      No.
HAMLET
      Judgment.
OSRIC
      A hit, a very palpable hit.
LAERTES
285   Well; again.
KING CLAUDIUS
      Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
      Here's to thy health.

Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within

      Give him the cup.
HAMLET
      I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.

They play

290   Another hit; what say you?
LAERTES
      A touch, a touch, I do confess.
KING CLAUDIUS
      Our son shall win.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
      He's fat, and scant of breath.
      Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
295   The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
HAMLET
      Good madam!
KING CLAUDIUS
      Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
      I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
KING CLAUDIUS
      (Aside) It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.
HAMLET
300   I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
      Come, let me wipe thy face.
LAERTES
      My lord, I'll hit him now.
KING CLAUDIUS
      I do not think't.
LAERTES
      (Aside) And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
HAMLET
305   Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
      I pray you, pass with your best violence;
      I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
LAERTES
      Say you so? come on.
They play
OSRIC
      Nothing, neither way.
LAERTES
310   Have at you now!
LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
      Part them; they are incensed.
HAMLET
      Nay, come, again.
QUEEN GERTRUDE falls
OSRIC
      Look to the queen there, ho!
HORATIO
      They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
OSRIC
315   How is't, Laertes?
LAERTES
      Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
      I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
HAMLET
      How does the queen?
KING CLAUDIUS
      She swounds to see them bleed.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
320   No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,--
      The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.
Dies
HAMLET
      O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
      Treachery! Seek it out.
LAERTES
      It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
325   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 practise
      Hath turn'd itself on me lo, here I lie,
330   Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd:
      I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.
HAMLET
      The point!--envenom'd too!
      Then, venom, to thy work.
Stabs KING CLAUDIUS
All
      Treason! treason!
KING CLAUDIUS
335   O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
HAMLET
      Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
      Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
      Follow my mother.
KING CLAUDIUS dies
LAERTES
      He is justly served;
340   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
HAMLET
      Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
345   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--
350   But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
      Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
      To the unsatisfied.
HORATIO
      Never believe it:
      I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
355   Here's yet some liquor left.
HAMLET
      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!
360   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?
OSRIC
365   Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
      To the ambassadors of England gives
      This warlike volley.
HAMLET
      O, I die, Horatio;
      The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
370   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
HORATIO
375   Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
      And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
      Why does the drum come hither?
March within
Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      Where is this sight?
HORATIO
      What is it ye would see?
380   If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      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 hast struck?
First Ambassador
385   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:
390   Where should we have our thanks?
HORATIO
      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,
395   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
400   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
      Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
405   Truly deliver.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      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,
410   Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
HORATIO
      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
415   On plots and errors, happen.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      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,
420   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.
A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off
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