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 swoons to see them bleed.

Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink
Oh
my

dear Hamlet.The drink, the drink, I am poison'd

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

Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Thou art slain,
No med'cine in the world can do thee good.
In thee there is not half an hour of life ;
The treach'rous instrument 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 poison'd.
I can no more the King, the King's to blame.

Ham. The point envenom'd too?
Then venom do thy work. [Stabs the King

All. Treason, treason,
King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned

Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is the Union here?
Follow my mother.

Laer. He is justly fervid.
It is a poison temper'd by himself.
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, $ That are but mutes, or audience to this act, $ That are but mutes or audience or at most only nute performers,

to this act,] That are either that fill the stage without any mere auditors of this catastrophe, part in the action.

[King dies,

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'st, report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor. Never believe it.
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 hav’t.
Oh good 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 fout within.
What warlike noise is this?

Ofr. 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-grows 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 th' occurrents more or less,
6 Which have sollicited. The rest is silence. (Dies.

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

WARBURTON

Hor,

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

Prince;
And fights of angels sing thee to thy Rest!
Why does the Drum come hither?

Enter Fortinbras, and English Ambassadors, with

drum, colours, and attendants.

Fort. Where is this fight?

Hor. What is it you would see?
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 shot
So bloodily haft ftruck?

Amb. The light 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 fulfillid,
That Rofincrantz 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 since so 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 suppose, when unfair sportsmın Hanmer reads,

deitroyed more quarry or game cries out, ha:vock. than was reasonable, the centure To cry on, was to exclaim against. was, to cry, Havock.

How

X 3

How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts ;
Of accidental judgments, casual Naughters ;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause

ร์
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.

- 24h!"24, 139497
Fort. Let us haste to hear it, so ,.757343
And call the Noblefs to the audience. +
For me, with forrow I embracę my fortune; 5W
I have some rights of memory in this Kingdom, 5T
Which, now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
8 And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this fame be presently perform’d,
Even while men's minds are wild, left 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 passage,
The Soldiers' musick, and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

• And from his mouth włole Hamlet, just before his death,

voice will draw no more.] bad laid ; This is the reading of the old But I do propbefy, th? ele&tion Quarto's, but certainly a mistaken lights one, We say, a man will no

Or Fortinbras: He bas my dya more draw breath; but that a ing voice ; man's voice will draw nomore, is, So tell him, &r. I believe, an expresion without Accordingly, Horatio here deany authority. I chose to espouse livers' that message; and very the reading of the elder folia ; juftly infers, that Hamlet's voice And from his mouth, whose will be seconded by others, and voice will draw on more.

procure them in favour of Faro And this is the poet's meaning, tinbras's fucceffion. THEOB.

Take

!

Take up the body. Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here Thews much amiss.
Go, bid the Soldiers shoot.
[Exeunt, marching : after which,

after which, a peal of
Ordnance is pot off.
If the dramas of Shakespeare for he does nothing which he
were to be characterised, each by might not have done with the re-
the particular excellence which putation of fanity. He plays the
distinguishes it from the rest, madman most, when he treats
we must allow to the tragedy of Ophelia with so much rudeness,
Hamlet the praise of variety: which seems to be useless and
The incidents are so numerous, wanton cruelty.
that the argument of the play Hamlet is, through the whole
would make a long tale. The play, rather

The play, rather an instrument than scenes are interchangeably diver- an agent. After he has, by the fified with merriment and folem-' ftratagem of the play, convicted nity ; with merriment that in the King, he makes no attempt cludes judicious and instructive to punish him, and his death is at observations, and folemnity, not last effected by an incident which ftrained by poetical violence a- Hamlet has no part in producing. bove the natural sentiments of The catastrophe is not very man, New characters appear happily produced ; the exchange from time to time in continual of weapons is rather an expedi. fucceffion, exhibiting various ent of neceflity, than a stroke of forms of life and particular modes art. A scheme might easily have of conversation. The pretend- been formed, to kill Hamlet with ed; madnefs of Hamlet causes the dagger, and Laertes with the much mirth, the mournful bowl. distraction of Ophelia fills the The poet is accused of having heart with tenderness, and every shewn little regard to poetical personage produces the effect in. justice, and may be charged with tended, from the apparition that equal neglect of poetical probain the first act chills the blood bility. The apparition left the with horrour, to the fop in the regions of the dead to little purJaff, that exposes affectation to pose; the revenge which he dejuft contempt.

mands is not obtained but by the The conduct is perhaps not · death of him that was required wholly secure against objections. to take it; and the gratification The action is indeed for the most which would arise from the de. pare in continual progression, but ftruction of an usurper and a there are some scenes which nei- murderer, is abated by the un. ther forward nor retard it. Of timely death of Ophelia, the the feigned madness of Hamlet young, the beautiful, the harmChere appears no adequate cause, less, and the pious.

X 4

ACT