Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, sirrah?

First Clo. Mine, sir.

[Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made

130

For such a guest is meet. Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.

First Clo. You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.

Ham. 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

First Clo. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me to you. 140

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?
First Clo. For no man, sir.

Ham. What woman, then?

First Clo. For none, neither.

Ham. Who is to be buried in't?

First Clo. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

Ham. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken a 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 been a grave-digger?

First Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

Ham. How long is that since?

First Clo. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and sent into England.

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

First Clo. Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.

Ham. Why?

First Clo. "Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.

Ham. How came he mad?

First Clo. Very strangely, they say.
Ham. How strangely?

First Clo. Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
Ham. Upon what ground?

170

First Clo. Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot? 179 First Clo. I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die- as we have many pocky corses nowadays, that will scarce hold the laying in-he will last you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

Ham. Why he more than another?

First Cio. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his 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; this skull has lain in the earth three and twenty 191

years.

Ham. Whose was it? JJ

First Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?

Ham. Nay, I know not.

First Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

Ham. This?

First Clo. E'en that.

200

Ham. Let me see. [Takes the skull.] Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne 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. 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 chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

Hor. What's that, my lord?
Ham. Dost thou think Alexander looked o'

this fashion i' the earth?

Hor. E'en so.

Ham. And smelt so? pah!

Hor. E'en so, my lord."

220

[Puts down the skull.

Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into 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 Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe.
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!
But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.
Enter Priests, &c. in procession; the Corpse of
OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following.
KING, QUEEN, their trains, &c.

The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
Couch we awhile, and mark.

[Retiring with Horatio.
Laer. What ceremony else?
Ham.
That is Laertes,

A very noble youth: mark.
Laer. What ceremony else?
First Priest. Her obsequies have been as
far enlarged

249

As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o'ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,

Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home

Of bell and burial.

Laer. Must there no more be done? First Priest.

260

No more be done: We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls. Laer

Lay her ' the earth: And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling.

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ! Queen. Sweets to the sweet: farewell! [Scattering flowers. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;

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

And not have strew'd thy grave.

270

Laer. O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head. Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: Leaps into the grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

Ham. Advancing] What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand

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.
Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
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?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I :

300

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,
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, 310
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham.

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, The cat will mew and dog will have his day. [Exit. King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. Exit Horatio. [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;

320

We'll put the matter to the present push.
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt
SCENE II. A hall in the castle.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO. Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;

You do remember all the circumstance?
Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,

That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall: and that should
teach us

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.-

Hor.

10

That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark Groped I to find out them; had my desire, Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew To mine own room again; making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal [tio,Their grand commission; where I found, HoraO 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, That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off. Hor.

Is't possible?

20

Ham. Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
Hor. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus be-netted round with villanies,

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, 30 They had begun the play-I sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:

I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair and labor'd much
How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?

40

Hor. Ay, good my lord. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma 'tween their amities, And many such-like 'As'es of great charge, That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow'd.

Hor. How was this seal'd? Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in form of the other, Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,

50

The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this em.ployment;

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow:
'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes 60
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.

Hor.

Why, what a king is this!

Ham. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon

He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,

Popp'd in between the election and my hopes,
Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
And with such cozenage-is't not perfect con-
science,

To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,

To let this canker of our nature come
In further evil?

70

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine; And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.'

But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
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 towering passion.
Hor.

Peace! who comes here? 80
Enter OSRIC.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?

Hor. No, my good lord.

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

90

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly. 99 Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, -as 'twere,-I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head: sir, this is the

matter,

Ham. I beseech you, remember.—

Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent 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.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, fand 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 rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing

more.

[him.

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? Osr. Sir?

130

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know you are not ignorant— Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. Well, sir?

Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is-

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.

Osr. I mean, sir, tor his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

Ham. What's his weapon?
Osr. Rapier and dagger.

150

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has im, poned, 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, and of very liberal conceit. Ham. What call you the carriages? Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry 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; that's the French bet against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it?

171

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. Ham. How if I answer no?'

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. 179 Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, 'tis 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 odd hits.

Osr. Shall I re-deliver you e'en so? Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit Osric.] He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn.

Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he-and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on -only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most ffond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

Hor. Nay, good my lord. Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

229

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury: there's 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 be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes? Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with foils, &c. King Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[The King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet's. Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;

But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
This presence knows,

And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd 246

With sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honor and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Wast Hamlet wrong'd 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.
Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

250

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

260

Laer. I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most 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 time, I do receive your offer'd love like love, And will not wrong it. Ham. I embrace it freely, And will this brother's wager frankly play. Give us the foils. Come on. Laer.

Come, one for me. Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ig

norar.ce

Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

Laer.
You mock me, sir.
Ham. No, by this hand.

270

King Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. King. I do not fear it; I have seen you both: But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord.

Here's to thy health. [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. Give him the cup.

Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. [They play.] Another hit; whatsay you? Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. 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. 300 Ham. Good madain! King.

Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. King. [Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.

My lord, I'll hit him now.

King.
I do not think't.
Laer [Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my

conscience.

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

310

[They play.]

I pray you, pass with your best violence:
I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
Laer. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing, neither way.
Laer. Have at you now!

[Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling,
they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds
Laertes.
King.
Part them; they are incensed.
Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it,
my lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric:

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

She swounds to see them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-O my dear Hamlet,

320

The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.

Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! Seek it out.

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;

No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd; the foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here i lie,
Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd:
I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point!-envenom'd too!
Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the King.

All Treason! treason!

329

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

hurt.

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.

[King dies.

339

Laer. He is justly served; It is a poison temper'd by himself. 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,
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;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Hor.
Never believe it:

351

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't.
O 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 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? 360 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:
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 less,
Which have solicited-The rest is silence [Dies.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night,
sweet prince;
370

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

[March within. Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others. Fort. Where is this sight?