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. [Aside. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. I do not think it. •King. Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience. Aside. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally; pray you, pass with your best violence; I am afeard, you make a wanton of me.3 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. [The Queen falls. Look to the queen there, ho! Osr. 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, I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. King. She swoons to see them bleed. The queen carouses-] i. e. (in humbler language) drinks good luck to you. 3 you make a wanton of me.] You trifle with me as if you were playing with a child. Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my The drink, the drink ;-I am poison'd! [Dies. Envenom'd too!-Then, venom, to thy work. 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," Is the union here?] It should seem from this line, and Laertes's next speech, that Hamlet here forces the expiring King to drink some of the poisoned cup, and that he dies while it is at his lips. 5 That are but mutes or audience to this act,] That are either auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action. Had I but time, (as this fell sergeant, death, Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright Hor. Never believe it; I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, 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 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? 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; On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice; 8 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; 6 (as this fell sergeant,] A serjeant is a bailiff, or sheriff's officer. 7 The potent poison quite o'er-crows-] Alluding to a victorious cock exulting over his conquered antagonist. 8 -- the occurents,] i. e. incidents. • Which have solicited,] Solicited for excited. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and Others. Fort. Where is this sight? Hor. What is it, you would see? If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search. death! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,2 That thou so many princes, at a shot, So bloodily hast struck? 1 Amb. The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late : The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Hor. Ꭶ 'This quarry cries on havock!] To cry on, was to exclaim against. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry game than was reasonable, the censure was to cry, Havock. JOHNSON. or 2 What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,] An Allusion to the Choa, or feasts of the dead, which were anciently celebrated at Athens, and are mentioned by Plutarch in The Life of Antonius. his mouth,] i. e. the king's. 3 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw no 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 prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, The soldier's musick, 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. [A dead March. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; after which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off." 4 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;] Of sanguinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence, or, to use our poet's own words, by "carnal stings." The speaker alludes to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude. 5 Of deaths put on-] i. e. instigated, produced., some rights of memory in this kingdom,] Some rights, which are remembered in this kingdom. 7 If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, |