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 serjeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,
But let it be: - Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it; "

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

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 a while,

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.

Tam. O," I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit;
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 lefs, 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! Why does the drum come hither? [March within.

Enter FORTIN BRAS, 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. Fort. This quarry cries on havock! - O proud death!

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

1. Amb. The sight is dismal;

V

And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless, that should give us hear-

ing,

To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,

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

Hor. Not from his mouth,

4

Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from Eng-
land,

hear

Are here arriv'd; 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
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. 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,

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

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 pas

sage,

The soldiers' musick, and the rites of war,

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies.

Such a sight as this

[A dead march.

Becomes the field, but here shews much amifs.

Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off.

O THE L

L

O.

Persons Represented.

Duke of Venice.

Brabantio, a Senator.

Two other Senators.

Gratiano, brother to Brabantio.

Lodovico, kinsman to Brabantio.

Othello, the Moor:

Cassio, his Lieutenant;

Jago, his Ancient.

Roderigo, a Venetian Gentleman.

Montano, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus.

1 Clown, servant to Othello.

Herald.

Desdemona, daughter to Brabantio, and wife to

Othello.

Emilia, wife to Iago.

Bianca, a courtezan, mistrefs to Cassio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attendants, etc.

SCENE, for the first Act in Venice; during the

rest of the play, at a sea-port in Cyprus.