Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the King's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able

as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you go to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice: Ishall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. if your mind dislike anything, obey: I will forestall their repair hither, and say, you are not fit. Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is 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 the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have 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 with a sore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, 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, doth 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 eneiny.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil

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

Laer.

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: But in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters of known honour,

I have a voice and precedent of peace,

To keep my name ungor'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Laer.

You know the wager?
Ham.
Very well, my lord;
Your grace hath laid the odds on the weaker side.
King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both.
But since he's 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.
King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table
If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
Or quit in auswer of the third exchange,
Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings
In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

Come on, sir.

[They play

One.

No.

Judgment.

Well,-again.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.
Laer
King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl
is thine;

Here's to thy health. Give him the cup.

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come.-Another hit; What say you?

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.
King. Our son shall win.
Queen.

[They play.

He's fat, and scant of breath Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows. The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam. King. Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon me. King. It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

[Aside Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now. King.

I do not think it. Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience. Aide.

Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You but

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

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

am justly 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,-O my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink;-I am poison'd! [Dies. Ham. O villainy! How? Let the door be lock'd:

Treachery! seek it out.
[LAERTES falls.
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 ractice
Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here 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.
Osr.& Lords. 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 thy union here?
Follow my mother.

[KING dies.
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.

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?
Hor.

What is it ye would see? If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havoc.- O proud death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shoot,

So bloodily hast struck!

1 Amb.

The sight 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 fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.

Not from his mouth,
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 England,
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 hear
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 iny 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 always cause to speak' And from his mouth whose voice will draw on

more:

But let this same be presently perform'd,
E'en while men's minds are wild; lest more mis
chance,

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 soldier's music, and the rights of war,
Speak loudly for him.

Take up the body:-Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid he soldiers shoot. [A dead March. [Exeunt, marching; after which a peal of ordnance shut off.

Duke of VENICE.

SCENE I.-Venice. A Street.

Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

Rod. Never tell me, I take it much unkindly That thou, lago, who hast had my purse As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this. Iago. But you'll not hear me. If ever I did dream

Of such a matter, abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them; with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war,
Nonsuits my mediators. For, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was hr

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife,
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick,
Wherein the tongued consuls can propose
As masterly as he: mere prattle, without
practice,

Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election,

And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christen'd and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and
calm'd

By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And 1,-bless the mark! his Moor-ship's ancient.
Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his
hangman.

Iag. Why, there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service;

Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affin'd

To love the Moor.

Iag. O sır, content you;

I follow him to serve my turn upon him
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time much like his master's ass,
For naught but provender; and when he's old,
cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords
Do well thrive by them, and, when they have
lin'd their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;

And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.

In following him I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In complement extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Rod. What a fall Fortune does the Thick-lips
owe,
If he can carry 't thus!

Iago. Call up her father,

Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such chances of vexation on 't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire
yell,

As when (by night and negligence) the fire
Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What, hoa! Brabantio! signior Brabantio,
hoa!

Iago. Awake; what, hoa! Brabantio! thieves! thieves!

Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags? Thieves! thieves!

BRABANTIO, above.

your gown;

Rod. Sir, sir, sir,

Bra. But thou must needs be sure, My spirit and my place have in their power To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.

Patience, good sir.

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is
Venice;

My house is not a grange.

Rod. Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you.

Iago. Sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse: you'll have your nephews neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.

Bra. What profane wretch art thou? Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs.

Bra. Thou art a villain.
Iago.
You are a senator.
Bra. This thou shalt answer.
Roderigo.

I know thee,

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech

you,

If 't be your pleasure and most wise consent
(As partly I find it is), that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a la-civious Moor:

If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But if you know not this, my manners tell me
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thas would play and trifle with your reverence: Your daughter,-if you have not given her

leave,

I say again, hath made a gross revolt:
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every whore: Straight satisfy your-
self:

If she be in her chamber, or your house
Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra.
Strike on the tinder, hoa!
Give me a taper; call up all my people:
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppresses me already:
Light, I say! light!

[Exit from above. lago. Farewell; for I must leave you: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall) Against the Moor; For, I do know, the state (However this may gall him with some check) Cannot with safety cast him. For he's embark'd With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars, (Which even now stand in act), that for their souls, Another of his fathom they have none To lead their business: in which regard, Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search:
And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit.
Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with
torches.

Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is,
And what's to come of my despised time
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
Where didst thou see her?-O, unhappy girl!—
With the Moor, say'st thou ?-Who would be a
father?-

How didst thou know 'twas she?-O, she deceives

me

Past thought!

What said she to you?-Get more tapers;

Raise all my kindred.-Are they married, think you?

Rod. Truly, I think they are.

Bra. O heaven! How got she out?-O treason of the blood!

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds

By what you see them act.--Are there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?
Rod.
Yes, sir; I have indeed.
Bra. Call up my brother.-O, would you had
had her!-

Some one way, some another.-Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

Rod. I think I can discover him, if you please To get good guard, and go along with me.

I

Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call、 may command at most;-Get weapons, hoa! And raise some special officers of night.On, good Roderigo. I will deserve your pains. Exit.

Nay, but he prated,

Oth. "T is better as it is.
lago.
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assur'd of this,
That the magnifico is much belov'd,
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential,
As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Oth.
Let him do his spite:
My services, which I have done the signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. "Tis yet to know
(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate), I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege; and my demerits
May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine

For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?

Enter CASSIO, at a distance, and certain Officers with torches.

Iago. Those are the raised father and his friends You were best go in.

Oth.
Not I: I must be found;
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul,
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

lago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants of the duke; and my lieu

tenant.

The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

Cas.
The duke does greet you, general;
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

Oth. What is the matter, think you? Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine: It is a business of some heat. The galleys Have sent a dozen sequent messengers This very night, at one another's heels; And many of the consuls, rais'd and met,

Are at the duke's already: you have been hotly call'd for;

When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The senate hath sent about three several quests,
To search you out.
Oth.
"Tis well I am found by you.
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And go with you.

[Exit. Cas. Ancient, what makes he here? lago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack;

If it prove lawful prize he's made for ever.
Cas. I do not understand.

Oth.
Hola! stand there!
Rod. Signior, it is the Moor.
Bra.

Iago. You, Roderigo!

Down with him, thief! [They draw on both sides. Come, sir, I am for you.

Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.

Good signior, you shall more command with years Than with your weapons.

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her:
For I'll refer me to all things of sense
(If she in chains of magic were not bound),
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled dearling of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou,-to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in setA
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That weaken motion:-I'll have it disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant:
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

Oth.

Hold your hands,

Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter.- Where will you that I g.
To answer this your charge?

Bra.
To prison: till fit time
Of law, and course of direct session,
Call thee to answer.

Oth.
What if I do obey?
How may the duke be therewith satisfied;
Whose messengers are here about my side
Upon some present business of the state,
To bring me to him?

Off.
"Tis true, most worthy signior
The duke's in council; and your noble self,
I am sure is sent for.
Bra.
How! the duke in council?
In this time of the night ?-Bring him away:
Mine's not an idle cause: the duke himself,
Or any of my brothers of the state,
Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own:
For if such actions may have passage free,
Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be. [Ea

SCENE III.-The same. A Council Chamber. The DUKE and Senators, sitting; Officers attending. Duke. There is no composition in these news, That gives them credit.

1 Sen.

Indeed, they are disproportion'd; My letters say, a hundred and seven galleys. Duke. And mine, a hundred forty. 2 Sen. And mine, two hundred; But though they jump not on a just account (As in these cases where the aim reports, 'Tis oft with difference), yet do they all confirm A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.

Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgment: I do not so secure me in the error, But the main article I do approve

In fearful sense.

Sailor. Within.] What hoa! what hoa! what hoa!