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King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is

thine;

Here's to thy health. Give him the cup.

[Trumpets found, foot goes off.

Ham. I'll play this bout first. Set it by a while.

Come.

Another hit. What say you?

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confefs.
King. Our fon fhall win.

Queen. He's fat, and fcant of breath.

[They play.

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
The queen caroufes to thy fortune, Hamlet.
Ham. Good Madam-

King. Gertrude, do not drink

Queen. I will, my lord:-I pray you, pardon me. King. It is the poifon'd cup. It is too late. [Afide. Ham. I dare not drink yet, Madam. By and by. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.

Leer. I'll hit him now.

King. I do not think't.

Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Afide.

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

dally

I pray you, pafs with your best violence

I am afraid, 7 you make a wanton of me.

-7

Laer. Say you fo? come on.

Ofr. Nothing neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.

[Play.

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

-you make a wanton of me.] A wanton was, a man feeble and effeminate. In Cymbeline, Imogen fays,

"I am not fo citizen a wanton,
"To die, ere I be fick." JOHNSON.

King.

King. Part them, they are incens'd.
Ham. Nay, come again.

Ofr. Look to the queen there, ho!

[The Queen falls.

Hor. They bleed on both fides,-How is it, my

lord?

Ofr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own fpringe,
Ofrick;

I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?

King. She fwoons to fee them bleed.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink

Oh, my

dear Hamlet!-The drink, the drink

I am poifon'd

[The Queen dies.

Ham. O villainy! ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! feek it out

Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art flain, No medicine in the world can do thee good.

In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous inftrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
Never to rife again. Thy mother's poifon'd.
I can no more the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point envenom'd too?

Then venom do thy work.

All. Treafon, treason!

[Stabs the King.

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

Ham, Here, thou inceftuous, murd'rous, damned

Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is the union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly ferv'd.

It is a poifon temper'd by himself.

[King dies.

Exchange forgivenefs with me, noble Hamlet;

Mine and my father's death come not on thee,
Nor thine on me!

Y-3

[Dies.

Ham.

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, 8 That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time (as this fell ferjeant death Is ftrict in his arreft) oh, I could tell youBut let it be-Horatio, I am dead; Thou liv'ft, report me and my cause aright To the unfatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Here's yet fome liquor left.

Ham. As thou'rt a man,

Give me the cup. Let go, by heaven, I'll have it. Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things ftanding thus unknown, fhall live behind

me?

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Abfent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my ftory. [March afar off, and fhot within.
What warlike noife is this?

Enter Ofrick.

Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with conqueft come from Poland,

To the ambaffadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio :

The potent poifon quite o'er-grows my fpirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophefy, the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

8 That are but mutes or audience to this at,] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the ftage without any part in the action.

JOHNSON.

So

So tell him, with the occurrents, more or lefs,

9 Which have folicited. The reft is filence. [Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night,

I

fweet prince;

And flights of angels fing thee to thy reft!
Why does the drum come hither?

Enter

• Which have folicited.] Solicited, for brought on the event. WARBURTON.

1 Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, feet prince;

And flights of angels fing thee to thy reft!] Let us review for a moment the behaviour of Hamlet, on the ftrength of which Horatio founds this culogy, and recommends him to the patronage of angels.

Hamlet, at the command of his father's ghoft, undertakes with feeming alacrity to revenge the murder; and declares he will banish all other thoughts from his mind. He makes, however, but one effort to keep his word; and on another occafion, defers his purpofe till he can find an opportunity of taking the murderer when he is leaft prepared for death, that he may infure damnation to his foul. Though he may be faid to have affaffinated Polonius by accident, yet he deliberately procures the execution of Rofencrantz and Guildenstern, who appear to have been unacquainted with the treacherous purpoles of the mandate which they were employed to carry. Their death (as he declares in a fubfequent converfation with Horatio) gives him no concern, for they obtruded themfelves into the fervice, and he thought he had a right to destroy them. He is not lefs accountable for the distraction and death of Ophelia. He comes to interrupt the funeral defigned in honour of this lady, at which both the king and queen were prefent; and, by fuch an outrage to decency, renders it still more neceflary for the ufurper to lay a fecond ftratagem for his life, though the firft had proved abortive. He comes to infult the brother of the dead, and to boat of an affection for his fifter, which, before, he had denied to her face; and yet at this very time must be confidered as defirous of fupporting the character of a madman, fo that the openness of his confeffion must not be imputed to him as a virtue. He apologizes to Horatio afterwards for the abfurdity of this behaviour, to which, he fays, he was provoked by that nobleness of fraternal grief, which, indeed, he ought rather to have applauded than condemned. Dr. Johnfon has obferved, that to bring about a reconciliation with Laertes, he has availed himself of a dishoneft fallacy; and to conclude, it is obvious to the most careless spectator

Y 4

Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others.

Fort. Where is this fight?

Hor. What is it you would fee?

If aught of woe, or wonder, ceafe your fearch.
Fort. This quarry cries, on havock! Oh proud
death!

What feaft is tow'rd in thy infernal cell,
That thou fo many princes at a fhot
So bloodily haft ftruck?

Amb. The fight is difmal,

And our affairs from England come too late :
The cars are fenfelefs that fhould give us hearing;
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rofencrantz and Guildenftern are dead.
Where fhould 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 fince, fo jump upon this bloody queftion,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a ftage be placed to the view,

And let me fpeak to the yet unknowing world,

fpectator or reader, that he kills the king at last to revenge himfelf, and not his father.

Hamlet cannot be faid to have purfued his ends by very warrantable means; and if the poet, when he facrificed him at laft, meant to have enforced fuch a moral, it is not the worst that can be deduced from the play.

I have dwelt the longer on this fubject, because Hamlet feems to have been hitherto regarded as a hero, not undeferving the pity of the audience, and becaufe no writer on Shakespeare has taken the pains to point out the immoral tendency of his character. STEEVENS.

2 This quarry cries, on havock !] Hanmer reads,

To cry on,

-cries out, havock!

was to exclaim against. I fuppofe, when unfair sportsmen deftroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the cenfure was to cry, Havock. JOHNSON.

How

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