Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe,
Ofrick;

I'm juftly kill'd with mine own treachery.

Ham. How does the Queen?

King. She fwoons to fee them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink

Oh my dear Hamlet.-The drink, the drink,
I am poifon'd

[Queen dies. Ham. Oh villainy! ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery feek it out→→→→→

Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Thou art flain,
No med'cine in the world can do thee good.
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treach'rous inftrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lye,
Never to rise again. Thy mother's poifon'd.
I can no morethe King, the King's to blame.
Ham. The point envenom'd too?

Then venom do thy work.

All. Treafon, treason.

1

[Stabs the King:

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

Ham. Here, thou inceftuous, murd'rous, damned

Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is the Union here?

Follow my mother.

Laer. He is juftly ferv'd.

It is a poifon temper'd by himself.

[King dies.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father's death come not on thee,
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.

Ham. Heav'n make thee free of it. I follow thee.

I'm dead, Horatio.

Wretched Queen, adieu!

You that look pale, and tremble at this chance, 5 That are but mutes or audience to this act,

s That are but mutes or audience to this act,] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe,

X

or at most only mute performers, that fill the ftage without any part in the action.

Had I but time, as this fell Serjeant death
Is strict in his arrest, oh, I could tell you-
But let it be-Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'ft, report me and my cause aright
To the unfatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it.

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

Ham. As th'art a man,

Give me the cup. Let go; by heav'n, I'll hav't.
Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things ftanding thus unknown, fhall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Abfent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story. [March afar off, and fbout within.
What warlike noife is this?

SCENE VI.

Enter Ofrick.

Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with Conquest come from
Poland,

To the Ambaffadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

Ham. O, I die, Horatio:

The potent poifon quite o'er-grows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophefy, the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with th' occurrents more or less,
Which have follicited. The rest is filence.

[Dies.

6 Which have follicited.] Sollicited, for brought on the

event.

WARBURTON.
Hor.

1

Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, fweet

Prince;

And flights of angels fing thee to thy Reft!
Why does the Drum come hither ?

Enter Fortinbras, and English Ambassadors, with drum, colours, and attendants.

Hor. What is it you would fee?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havock. Oh proud
Death!

What feast is tow'rd in thy infernal cell,
That thou so many Princes at a fhot
So bloodily haft ftruck?

Amb. The fight is difmal,

And our affairs from England come too late :
The ears are fenfelefs that should give us hearing;
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rofinerantz and Guildenstern are dead,
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor. Not from his mouth,

Had it th' ability of life to thank you :

He never gave commandment for their death.
But fince fo jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack Wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies.
High on a Stage be placed to the view,
And let me speak to th' yet unknowing world,

7 This quarry cries on hav:ck.] I fuppofe, when unfair sportsmen Hanmer reads,

cries out, havock.

To ery on, was to exclaim against.

destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the cenfure was, to cry, Havock.

How these things came about. So fhall

So fhall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, cafual flaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd caufe;
And, in this upfhot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on th' inventors' heads.

All this can I

And call the Noblefs to the audience.

3 3.3

For me, with forrow I embrace my fortune;
I have fome rights of memory in this Kingdom,
Which, now to claim my vantage doth invite mes
Hor. Of that I fhall have alfo cause to speak,

And from his mouth whofe voice will draw on more: But let this fame be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild, left more mifchance On plots and errors happen.

Fort. Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a foldier, to the Stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd moft royally. And for his paffage,
The Soldiers' mufick, and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

And from his mouth whofe voice will draw no more.] This is the reading of the old Quarto's, but certainly a mistaken one. We fay, a man will no more draw breath; but that a man's voice will drawnomore, is, I believe, an expreffion without any authority. I chufe to espouse the reading of the elder folio ;

And from his mouth, whofe voice will draw on mpre. And this is the poet's meaning

Hamlet, just before his death, had faid;

But I do prophefy, th? election lights

On Fortinbras: He has my dy ing voice; So tell him, &r. Accordingly, Horatio here delivers that meffage; and very justly infers, that Hamlet's voice will be feconded by others, and procure them in favour of Fortimbras's succession.

THEOB.

Take

Take up the body.

Such a fight as this Becomes the field, but here fhews much amifs. Go, bid the Soldiers fhoot.

[Exeunt, marching: after which, a peal of
Ordnance is foot off.

If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which diftinguishes it from the reft, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are fo numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale, The scenes are interchangeably diverfified with merriment and folemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and inftructive obfervations, and folemnity, not ftrained by poetical violence above the natural fentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual fucceffion, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of converfation. The pretend ed madness of Hamlet caufes much mirth, the mournful diftraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every perfonage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horrour, to the fop in the laft, that exposes affectation to juft contempt.

The conduct is perhaps not wholly fecure against objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual progreffion, but there are fome scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madnefs of Hamlet there appears no adequate caufe,

for he does nothing which he
might not have done with the re-
putation of fanity. He plays the
madman moft, when he treats
Ophelia with fo much rudeness,
which feems to be useless and
wanton cruelty.

Hamlet is, through the whole
play, rather an inftrument than
an agent. After he has, by the
ftratagem of the play, convicted
the King, he makes no attempt
to punish him, and his death is at
laft effected by an incident which
Hamlet has no part in producing.

The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedi ent of neceffity, than a stroke of art. A fcheme might easily have been formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.

The poet is accused of having fhewn little regard to poetical juftice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpofe; the revenge which he demands is not obtained but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the deftruction of an ufurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmlefs, and the pious.

X 4

ACT

1