I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane;
Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham. As th' art a man,

Give me the cup; let go; by Heav'n I'll have't.
Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown shall live be-
hind me?

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity a while,

And in the harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my tale.

[March afar off, and shot within.

What warlike noise is this?

Enter OSRIC.

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from To the embassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio:

[Poland,

The potent poison quite o'ergrows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophecy, th' election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with th' occurrents more or 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!

Enter FORTINBRAS, and English Embassadors, with Drum, (SS) Colours, and Attendants. Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor. What is it you would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud
Death! (89)

What feast is toward in thy infernal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck?

Emb. 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,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor. Not from his mouth,

(88) Fortinbras comes with a drum, because his head, viewed with the north side of the moon downwards, resembles a drum; vide his prototype and figure given ante, No. 52.

(89) Proud Death. The many deaths that take place at the close of the play, intimate that all the rest of the moon goes out of view, or becomes obscured, (as implied by the expression, the sight is dismal,) except that part in which lie Horatio and Fortinbras. These two characters have both, in fact, the same prototype for their heads, and may both be seen, in her expiring crescent.

Had it th' ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since so full 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,

And let me speak to th' yet unknowing world,
How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forced cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook,

Fallen on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us haste to hear it,

And call the Noblesse 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
But let this same be presently performed, [more:
Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mis-
On plots and errors happen.
[chance

For. Let four captains (90)

(90) Four human likenesses, corresponding with such four captains, may be recognized in the map, two at Ham

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,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him

Take up the body: such a sight as this

Becomes the field, but here shews much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[Exeunt, marching: after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off.

let's head, and two at his feet: but the characters they fill, like those of the embassadors from England, are so inconsiderable, that it is not thought necessary to draw or point them out.

Knights attending on the King, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers,

and Attendants.

SCENE lies in Britain.