66 William Shakespeare: Hamlet: Act 5

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare

Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

with Michael Poston and Rebecca Niles

Folger Shakespeare Library

https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/

Created on Apr 23, 2016, from FDT version 0.9.2.

ACT 5

Scene 1

Enter Gravedigger and Another.

GRAVEDIGGER Is she to be buried in Christian burial,

when she willfully seeks her own salvation?

OTHER I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave

straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it

Christian burial.5

GRAVEDIGGER How can that be, unless she drowned

herself in her own defense?

OTHER Why, ’tis found so.

GRAVEDIGGER It must be se offendendo; it cannot be

else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself10

wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three

branches—it is to act, to do, to perform. Argal, she

drowned herself wittingly.

OTHER Nay, but hear you, goodman delver—

GRAVEDIGGER Give me leave. Here lies the water;15

good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to

this water and drown himself, it is (will he, nill he)

he goes; mark you that. But if the water come to him

and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he

that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his20

own life.

OTHER But is this law?

GRAVEDIGGER Ay, marry, is ’t—crowner’s ’quest law.

OTHER Will you ha’ the truth on ’t? If this had not been

a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’25

Christian burial.

GRAVEDIGGER Why, there thou sayst. And the more

pity that great folk should have count’nance in this

world to drown or hang themselves more than

their even-Christian. Come, my spade. There is no30

ancient gentlemen but gard’ners, ditchers, and

grave-makers. They hold up Adam’s profession.

OTHER Was he a gentleman?

GRAVEDIGGER He was the first that ever bore arms.

OTHER Why, he had none.35

GRAVEDIGGER What, art a heathen? How dost thou

understand the scripture? The scripture says Adam

digged. Could he dig without arms? I’ll put another

question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the

purpose, confess thyself—40

OTHER Go to!

GRAVEDIGGER What is he that builds stronger than

either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

OTHER The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a

thousand tenants.45

GRAVEDIGGER I like thy wit well, in good faith. The

gallows does well. But how does it well? It does

well to those that do ill. Now, thou dost ill to say the

gallows is built stronger than the church. Argal, the

gallows may do well to thee. To ’t again, come.50

OTHER “Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright,

or a carpenter?”

GRAVEDIGGER Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

OTHER Marry, now I can tell.

GRAVEDIGGER To ’t.55

OTHER Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off.

GRAVEDIGGER Cudgel thy brains no more about it,

for your dull ass will not mend his pace with

beating. And, when you are asked this question

next, say “a grave-maker.” The houses he makes60

lasts till doomsday. Go, get thee in, and fetch me a

stoup of liquor.

The Other Man exits
and the Gravedigger digs and sings.

In youth when I did love, did love,

Methought it was very sweet

To contract—O—the time for—a—my behove,65

O, methought there—a—was nothing—a—meet.

HAMLET Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He

sings in grave-making.

HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of

easiness.70

HAMLET ’Tis e’en so. The hand of little employment

hath the daintier sense.

GRAVEDIGGER sings

But age with his stealing steps

Hath clawed me in his clutch,

And hath shipped me into the land,75

As if I had never been such.

He digs up a skull.

HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it and could sing

once. How the knave jowls it to the ground as if

’twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder!

This might be the pate of a politician which this ass80

now o’erreaches, one that would circumvent God,

might it not?

HORATIO It might, my lord.

HAMLET Or of a courtier, which could say “Good

morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, sweet lord?”85

This might be my Lord Such-a-one that praised my

Lord Such-a-one’s horse when he went to beg it,

might it not?

HORATIO Ay, my lord.

HAMLET Why, e’en so. And now my Lady Worm’s,90

chapless and knocked about the mazard with a

sexton’s spade. Here’s fine revolution, an we had

the trick to see ’t. Did these bones cost no more the

breeding but to play at loggets with them? Mine

ache to think on ’t.95

GRAVEDIGGER sings

A pickax and a spade, a spade,

For and a shrouding sheet,

O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

He digs up more skulls.

HAMLET There’s another. Why may not that be the100

skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his

quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why

does he suffer this mad knave now to knock him

about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell

him of his action of battery? Hum, this fellow might105

be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,

his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,

his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines and the

recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full

of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more110

of his purchases, and double ones too, than the

length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very

conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box,

and must th’ inheritor himself have no more, ha?

HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord.115

HAMLET Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calves’ skins too.

HAMLET They are sheep and calves which seek out

assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow.—

Whose grave’s this, sirrah?120

GRAVEDIGGER Mine, sir.

Sings.O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

HAMLET I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in ’t.

GRAVEDIGGER You lie out on ’t, sir, and therefore ’tis125

not yours. For my part, I do not lie in ’t, yet it is

mine.

HAMLET Thou dost lie in ’t, to be in ’t and say it is thine.

’Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou

liest.130

GRAVEDIGGER ’Tis a quick lie, sir; ’twill away again

from me to you.

HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for?

GRAVEDIGGER For no man, sir.

HAMLET What woman then?135

GRAVEDIGGER For none, neither.

HAMLET Who is to be buried in ’t?

GRAVEDIGGER One that was a woman, sir, but, rest

her soul, she’s dead.

HAMLET How absolute the knave is! We must speak by140

the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the

Lord, Horatio, this three years I have took note of

it: the age is grown so picked that the toe of the

peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he

galls his kibe.—How long hast thou been145

grave-maker?

GRAVEDIGGER Of all the days i’ th’ year, I came to ’t

that day that our last King Hamlet overcame

Fortinbras.

HAMLET How long is that since?150

GRAVEDIGGER Cannot you tell that? Every fool can

tell that. It was that very day that young Hamlet

was born—he that is mad, and sent into England.

HAMLET Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

GRAVEDIGGER Why, because he was mad. He shall155

recover his wits there. Or if he do not, ’tis no great

matter there.

HAMLET Why?

GRAVEDIGGER ’Twill not be seen in him there. There

the men are as mad as he.160

HAMLET How came he mad?

GRAVEDIGGER Very strangely, they say.

HAMLET How “strangely”?

GRAVEDIGGER Faith, e’en with losing his wits.

HAMLET Upon what ground?165

GRAVEDIGGER Why, here in Denmark. I have been

sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.

HAMLET How long will a man lie i’ th’ earth ere he rot?

GRAVEDIGGER Faith, if he be not rotten before he die

(as we have many pocky corses nowadays that will170

scarce hold the laying in), he will last you some

eight year or nine year. A tanner will last you nine

year.

HAMLET Why he more than another?

GRAVEDIGGER Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his175

trade that he will keep out water a great while; and

your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead

body. Here’s a skull now hath lien you i’ th’ earth

three-and-twenty years.

HAMLET Whose was it?180

GRAVEDIGGER A whoreson mad fellow’s it was.

Whose do you think it was?

HAMLET Nay, I know not.

GRAVEDIGGER A pestilence on him for a mad rogue!

He poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once.185

This same skull, sir, was, sir, Yorick’s skull, the

King’s jester.

HAMLET This?

GRAVEDIGGER E’en that.

HAMLET, taking the skull Let me see. Alas, poor 190

Yorick! I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite

jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his

back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in

my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung

those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.195

Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your

songs? your flashes of merriment that were wont to

set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your

own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my

lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch200

thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh

at that.—Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

HORATIO What’s that, my lord?

HAMLET Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this

fashion i’ th’ earth?205

HORATIO E’en so.

HAMLET And smelt so? Pah!He puts the skull down.

HORATIO E’en so, my lord.

HAMLET To what base uses we may return, Horatio!

Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of210

Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole?

HORATIO ’Twere to consider too curiously to consider

so.

HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither,

with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it, as215

thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander

returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth

we make loam; and why of that loam whereto he

was converted might they not stop a beer barrel?

Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,220

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

O, that that earth which kept the world in awe

Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw!

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords attendant, and the
corpse of Ophelia, with a Doctor of Divinity.

But soft, but soft awhile! Here comes the King,

The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow?225

And with such maimèd rites? This doth betoken

The corse they follow did with desp’rate hand

Fordo its own life. ’Twas of some estate.

Couch we awhile and mark.They step aside.

LAERTES What ceremony else?230

HAMLET That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark.

LAERTES What ceremony else?

DOCTOR

Her obsequies have been as far enlarged

As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful,

And, but that great command o’ersways the order,235

She should in ground unsanctified been lodged

Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers

Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on

her.

Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,240

Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home

Of bell and burial.

LAERTES

Must there no more be done?

DOCTOR No more be done.

We should profane the service of the dead245

To sing a requiem and such rest to her

As to peace-parted souls.

LAERTES Lay her i’ th’ earth,

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,250

A minist’ring angel shall my sister be

When thou liest howling.

HAMLET, to Horatio What, the fair Ophelia?

QUEEN Sweets to the sweet, farewell!

She scatters flowers.

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;255

I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,

And not have strewed thy grave.

LAERTES O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that cursèd head

Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense260

Deprived thee of!—Hold off the earth awhile,

Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.

Leaps in the grave.

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,

Till of this flat a mountain you have made

T’ o’ertop old Pelion or the skyish head265

Of blue Olympus.

HAMLET, advancing

What is he whose grief

Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow

Conjures the wand’ring stars and makes them stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,270

Hamlet the Dane.

LAERTES, coming out of the grave

The devil take thy soul!

HAMLET Thou pray’st not well.They grapple.

I prithee take thy fingers from my throat,

For though I am not splenitive and rash,275

Yet have I in me something dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand.

KING Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN Hamlet! Hamlet!

ALL Gentlemen!280

HORATIO Good my lord, be quiet.

Hamlet and Laertes are separated.

HAMLET

Why, I will fight with him upon this theme

Until my eyelids will no longer wag!

QUEEN O my son, what theme?

HAMLET

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers285

Could not with all their quantity of love

Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

KING O, he is mad, Laertes!

QUEEN For love of God, forbear him.

HAMLET ’Swounds, show me what thou ’t do.290

Woo’t weep, woo’t fight, woo’t fast, woo’t tear

thyself,

Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?

I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine?

To outface me with leaping in her grave?295

Be buried quick with her, and so will I.

And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw

Millions of acres on us, till our ground,

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, an thou ’lt mouth,300

I’ll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN This is mere madness;

And thus awhile the fit will work on him.

Anon, as patient as the female dove

When that her golden couplets are disclosed,305

His silence will sit drooping.

HAMLET Hear you, sir,

What is the reason that you use me thus?

I loved you ever. But it is no matter.

Let Hercules himself do what he may,310

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

Hamlet exits.

KING

I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.

Horatio exits.

To Laertes. Strengthen your patience in our last

night’s speech.

We’ll put the matter to the present push.—315

Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.—

This grave shall have a living monument.

An hour of quiet thereby shall we see.

Till then in patience our proceeding be.

They exit.

Scene 2

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

That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay5

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—

And praised be rashness for it; let us know,

Our indiscretion sometime serves us well

When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn

us10

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will—

HORATIO That is most

certain.

HAMLET Up from my cabin,15

My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark

Groped I to find out them; had my desire,

Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew

To mine own room again, making so bold

(My fears forgetting manners) to unfold20

Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,

A 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,25

That on the supervise, no leisure bated,

No, not to stay the grinding of the ax,

My head should be struck off.

HORATIO Is ’t possible?

HAMLET

Here’s the commission. Read it at more leisure.30

Handing him a paper.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

HORATIO I beseech you.

HAMLET

Being thus benetted round with villainies,

Or I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play. I sat me down,35

Devised a new commission, wrote it fair—

I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and labored much

How to forget that learning; but, sir, now

It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know40

Th’ effect of what I wrote?

HORATIO 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,45

As peace should still her wheaten garland wear

And stand a comma ’tween their amities,

And many suchlike ases of great charge,

That, on the view and knowing of these contents,

Without debatement further, more or less,50

He should those bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving time allowed.

HORATIO How was this sealed?

HAMLET

Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.

I had my father’s signet in my purse,55

Which was the model of that Danish seal;

Folded the writ up in the form of th’ other,

Subscribed it, gave ’t th’ impression, placed it

safely,

The changeling never known. Now, the next day60

Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent

Thou knowest already.

HORATIO

So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to ’t.

HAMLET

Why, man, they did make love to this employment.

They are not near my conscience. Their defeat65

Does by their own insinuation grow.

’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes

Between the pass and fell incensèd points

Of mighty opposites.

HORATIO Why, what a king is this!70

HAMLET

Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon—

He that hath killed my king and whored my mother,

Popped in between th’ election and my hopes,

Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage—is ’t not perfect75

conscience

To quit him with this arm? And is ’t not to be

damned

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?80

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’s mine,

And a man’s life’s no more than to say “one.”

But I am very sorry, good Horatio,85

That to Laertes I forgot myself,

For by the image of my cause I see

The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favors.

But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me

Into a tow’ring passion.90

HORATIO Peace, who comes here?

Enter Osric, a courtier.

OSRIC Your Lordship is right welcome back to

Denmark.

HAMLET I humbly thank you, sir. Aside to Horatio.

Dost know this waterfly?95

HORATIO, aside to Hamlet No, my good lord.

HAMLET, aside to Horatio 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,100

but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

OSRIC 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 the105

head.

OSRIC I thank your Lordship; it is very hot.

HAMLET No, believe me, ’tis very cold; the wind is

northerly.

OSRIC It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.110

HAMLET But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for

my complexion.

OSRIC Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as

’twere—I cannot tell how. My lord, his Majesty

bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager115

on your head. Sir, this is the matter—

HAMLET I beseech you, remember. He motions to

Osric to put on his hat.

OSRIC Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith.

Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes—believe

me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent120

differences, of very soft society and great showing.

Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or

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 in125

you, though I know to divide him inventorially

would dozy th’ arithmetic of memory, and yet but

yaw 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 rareness130

as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his

mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage,

nothing more.

OSRIC Your Lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

HAMLET The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the135

gentleman in our more rawer breath?

OSRIC Sir?

HORATIO Is ’t not possible to understand in another

tongue? You will to ’t, sir, really.

HAMLET, to Osric What imports the nomination of140

this gentleman?

OSRIC Of Laertes?

HORATIO His purse is empty already; all ’s golden words

are spent.

HAMLET Of him, sir.145

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—150

HAMLET 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’s155

unfellowed.

HAMLET 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 Barbary160

horses, against the which he has impawned, as I

take 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, and165

of very liberal conceit.

HAMLET 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.170

HAMLET The phrase would be more germane to the

matter if we could carry a 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—175

that’s the French bet against the Danish. Why is this

all “impawned,” as you call it?

OSRIC The King, sir, hath laid, sir, that in a dozen

passes between yourself and him, he shall not

exceed you three hits. He hath laid on twelve for180

nine, and it would come to immediate trial if your

Lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

HAMLET How if I answer no?

OSRIC I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person

in trial.185

HAMLET Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his

Majesty, it is 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 odd190

hits.

OSRIC Shall I deliver you e’en so?

HAMLET To this effect, sir, after what flourish your

nature will.

OSRIC I commend my duty to your Lordship.195

HAMLET Yours. Osric exits. 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.200

HAMLET He did comply, sir, with his dug before he

sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same

breed that I know the drossy age dotes on) only got

the tune of the time, and, out of an habit of

encounter, a kind of yeasty collection, which carries205

them through and through the most fanned

and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to

their trial, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

LORD My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by

young Osric, who brings back to him that you210

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 purposes. They follow

the King’s pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is215

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 gentle220

entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.

HAMLET She well instructs me.Lord exits.

HORATIO You will lose, my lord.

HAMLET I do not think so. Since he went into France, I

have been in continual practice. I shall win at the225

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

gaingiving as would perhaps trouble a woman.230

HORATIO If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will

forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.

HAMLET Not a whit. We defy augury. There is a

special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be

now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be235

now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The

readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves

knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.

A table prepared. Enter Trumpets, Drums, and Officers
with cushions, King, Queen, Osric, and all the state,
foils, daggers, flagons of wine, and Laertes.

KING

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

He puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s.

HAMLET, to Laertes

Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;240

But pardon ’t as you are a gentleman. This presence

knows,

And you must needs have heard, how I am punished

With a sore distraction. What I have done

That might your nature, honor, and exception245

Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.

Was ’t Hamlet wronged 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.250

Who does it, then? His madness. If ’t be so,

Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged;

His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.

Sir, in this audience

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil255

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts

That I have shot my arrow o’er the house

And hurt my brother.

LAERTES I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive in this case should stir me most260

To my revenge; but in my terms of honor

I stand aloof and will no reconcilement

Till by some elder masters of known honor

I have a voice and precedent of peace

To keep my name ungored. But till that time265

I do receive your offered love like love

And will not wrong it.

HAMLET I embrace it freely

And will this brothers’ wager frankly play.—

Give us the foils. Come on.270

LAERTES Come, one for me.

HAMLET

I’ll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance

Your skill shall, like a star i’ th’ darkest night,

Stick fiery off indeed.

LAERTES You mock me, sir.275

HAMLET No, by this hand.

KING

Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,

You know the wager?

HAMLET Very well, my lord.

Your Grace has laid the odds o’ th’ weaker side.280

KING

I do not fear it; I have seen you both.

But, since he is better, we have therefore odds.

LAERTES

This is too heavy. Let me see another.

HAMLET

This likes me well. These foils have all a length?

OSRIC Ay, my good lord.285

Prepare to play.

KING

Set me the stoups 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.

The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath,290

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,

The trumpet to the cannoneer without,295

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,

“Now the King drinks to Hamlet.” Come, begin.

And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Trumpets the while.

HAMLET Come on, sir.

LAERTES Come, my lord.They play. 300

HAMLET One.

LAERTES No.

HAMLET Judgment!

OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.

LAERTES Well, again.305

KING

Stay, give me drink.—Hamlet, this pearl is thine.

Here’s to thy health.

He drinks and then drops the pearl in the cup.

Drum, trumpets, and shot.

Give him the cup.

HAMLET

I’ll play this bout first. Set it by awhile.

Come. They play. Another hit. What say you?310

LAERTES

A touch, a touch. I do confess ’t.

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.315

She lifts the cup.

HAMLET Good madam.

KING Gertrude, do not drink.

QUEEN

I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.She drinks.

KING, aside

It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.

HAMLET

I dare not drink yet, madam—by and by.320

QUEEN Come, let me wipe thy face.

LAERTES, to Claudius

My lord, I’ll hit him now.

KING I do not think ’t.

LAERTES, aside

And yet it is almost against my conscience.

HAMLET

Come, for the third, Laertes. You do but dally.325

I pray you pass with your best violence.

I am afeard you make a wanton of me.

LAERTES Say you so? Come on.Play.

OSRIC Nothing neither way.

LAERTES Have at you now!330

Laertes wounds Hamlet. Then in scuffling they change

rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes.

KING Part them. They are incensed.

HAMLET Nay, come again.

The Queen falls.

OSRIC Look to the Queen there, ho!

HORATIO

They bleed on both sides.—How is it, my lord?

OSRIC How is ’t, Laertes?335

LAERTES

Why as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric.

He falls.

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

HAMLET

How does the Queen?

KING She swoons to see them bleed.

QUEEN

No, no, the drink, the drink! O, my dear Hamlet!340

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.She dies.

HAMLET

O villainy! Ho! Let the door be locked.Osric exits.

Treachery! Seek it out.

LAERTES

It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.

No med’cine in the world can do thee good.345

In thee there is not half an hour’s life.

The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,

Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice

Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie,

Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned.350

I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame.

HAMLET

The point envenomed too! Then, venom, to thy

work.Hurts the King.

ALL Treason, treason!

KING

O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.355

HAMLET

Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damnèd Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?

Forcing him to drink the poison.

Follow my mother.King dies.

LAERTES He is justly served.

It is a poison tempered by himself.360

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.—

I am dead, Horatio.—Wretched queen, adieu.—365

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.370

Thou livest; report me and my cause aright

To the unsatisfied.

HORATIO Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.

Here’s yet some liquor left.He picks up the cup. 375

HAMLET As thou ’rt a man,

Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I’ll ha ’t.

O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall I leave behind

me!380

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.

A march afar off and shot within.

What warlike noise is this?385

Enter Osric.

OSRIC

Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To th’ ambassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

HAMLET O, I die, Horatio!

The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.390

I cannot live to hear the news from England.

But I do prophesy th’ election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice.

So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less,

Which have solicited—the rest is silence.395

O, O, O, O!Dies.

HORATIO

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

March within.

Why does the drum come hither?

Enter Fortinbras with the English Ambassadors with
Drum, Colors, and Attendants.

FORTINBRAS Where is this sight?400

HORATIO What is it you would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

FORTINBRAS

This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death,

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell

That thou so many princes at a shot405

So bloodily hast struck?

AMBASSADOR 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 fulfilled,410

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

Where should we have our thanks?

HORATIO Not from his

mouth,

Had it th’ ability of life to thank you.415

He never gave commandment for their death.

But since, so jump upon this bloody question,

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,420

And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world

How these things came about. So shall you hear

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,

Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,425

And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall’n on th’ inventors’ heads. All this can I

Truly deliver.

FORTINBRAS Let us haste to hear it

And call the noblest to the audience.430

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.

HORATIO

Of that I shall have also cause to speak,

And from his mouth whose voice will draw on435

more.

But let this same be presently performed

Even while men’s minds are wild, lest more

mischance

On plots and errors happen.440

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 royal; and for his passage,

The soldier’s music and the rite of war445

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.

They exit, marching, after the which, a peal of

ordnance are shot off.