Ham. I dare not drink yet, Madam; by and by. 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, país with your beft violence; I am afraid you make a wanton of me. Of. Nothing neither way. Laer. Have at you now. [Play. [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in fcuffing, they change Rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. King. Part them, they are incenfed. Ham. Nay, come again. Ofr. Look to the Queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both fides. Ofr. How is't, Laertes? How is't, my [Lord? Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, I'm juftly killed with nine own treachery. Oh Ham. How does the Queen? King. She fwoons to fee them bleed. Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink my dear Hamlet, the drink, the drink,I am poifoned---- [Queen dies. Ham. Ch villainy! ho! let the door be locked a Treachery feek it out---- Laer. It is here, Hamlet, thou art flain; No medicine in the world can do thee good; (75) The treacherous infrument is in thy hard, Unbated and ent esined 1 The King in the fourth act, in the fcene betwixt nim and Laertes, fays; -So that with cafe, Unbated and envenomed: the foul practice Then venom do thy work. All. Treafon, treafon. [Stabs the King. King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt. Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Drink off this potion: is the Union here? [Dane, Follow my mother. [King dies. Laer. He is juftly ferved. It is a poifon tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet; [Dies. Or with a little fhuffling, you may chufe A fword unbated, and in a pafs of practice In which paffage the old Folios read, Afword unbait ed which makes nonfenfe of the place, and deftroys the Poet's meaning. Unbated fignfies unabated, unblunted, not charged with a button as foils are. There are many passages in our Author, where bate and abate fignify to blant. But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge Meaf for Meaf Love's Labour Loft. For from his metal was his party steeled, 2 Henry IV. So likewife Ben Johnfon, in his Sad Shepherd; Had I but time, (as this fell ferjeant death Thou liveft, report me and my caufe aright Hor. Never, believe it, I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane; Ham. As th' art a man, Give me the cup; let go; by Heav'n I'll have't. And in this harih world draw thy breath in pain, Enter OSRIC. Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with conqueft come from To the amballadors of England gives This warlike volley. Ham. O,I die, Horatio: [Poland, The potent poifon quite o'ergrows my fpirit: On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice; And flights of angels fing thee to thy reft! Enter FORTINBRAS, and English Ambassadors, with Fort. Where is this fight? Hor. What is it you would fee? O proud If aught of woe or wonder, ceafe your fearch. What feaft is toward 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: .. Hor. Not from his mouth, Had it th' ability of life to thank you : He never gave commandment for their death. (77) But fince fo full upon this bloody queftion, 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 fpeak to th' yet unknowing world, How these things came about. So fhall you hear Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts; Of accidental judgments, cafual flaughters; (76) -Oh, proud Death! What feaft is toward in thy eternal cell,] This epithat, I think, has no great propriety here. I have chofe the roading of the old Quarto editions, infernal. This communicates an image fuitable to the circumftance of the havoc which Fortinbras looks on and would reprefent in a light of honer. Upon the fight of so many dead bodies, he exclaims against Death, as an execrable, riotous deftroyer, and as preparing to make a favage and hellifh feaft. (77) He never gave commandment for their death.] We must either believe the Poet had forgot himself with regard to the circumftance of Roĥincrantz and Guildenstern's death, or we muft understand him thus; that he no otherways gave a command for their deaths, than in putting a change upon the tenour of the King's commiffion, and warding off the fata! fentence from his own head. Of deaths put on by cunning, and forced caufe; Fallen on th' inventors' heads. Truly deliver. Fort. Let us haste to hear it, All this can I And call the Nobleffe to the audience. For me, with forrow I embrace my fortune; Fort. Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a foldier, to the stage; For he was likely, had he been put on, [chance To have proved moft royally. And for his paffage, The foldier's mufic, and the rites of war Speak loudly for him------ Take up the body: fuch a fight as this Becomes the field, but here fhews much amifs. [Exeunt, marching: after which, a peal of (78) And from his mouth, while voice will draw no more:] This is the reading of the old Quartos, but certainly a mittaken one. We fay, a man will no more draw breath, but that a man's voice will draw o more is, I believe, an expreflion without any authority. I chufe to efpoufe the reading of the elder Folio, And from his mouth, whofe voice will draw on more. And this is the Poet's meaning. Hamlet, just before his death, had faid; But I do prophefy, the election lights On Fortinbras; he has my dying voi e; So tell him, &c. Accordingly, Horatio here delivers that meffage, and ver, justly infers that Hamlet's voice will be feconded by others and procure them in favour of Fortinbras's fucceflion. |