Hamlet, William Shakespeare [reading women TXT] 📗

is such a kind of gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman. Horatio If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say you are not fit. Hamlet 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, etc. King Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. The King puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s. Hamlet

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
With sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honour and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was’t 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,
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.

Laertes

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 ungored. But till that time,
I do receive your offer’d love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Hamlet

I embrace it freely;
And will this brother’s wager frankly play.
Give us the foils. Come on.

Laertes Come, one for me. Hamlet

I’ll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star i’ the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

Laertes You mock me, sir. Hamlet No, by this hand. King

Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
You know the wager?

Hamlet

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.

Laertes This is too heavy, let me see another. Hamlet This likes me well. These foils have all a length? They prepare to play. Osric 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 answer 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 heavens to earth,
“Now the king drinks to Hamlet.” Come, begin:
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Hamlet Come on, sir. Laertes Come, my lord. They play. Hamlet One. Laertes No. Hamlet Judgment. Osric A hit, a very palpable hit. Laertes Well; again. King

Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
Here’s to thy health. Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. Give him the cup.

Hamlet I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. They play. Another hit; what say you? Laertes 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.

Hamlet Good madam! 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. Hamlet I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. Queen Come, let me wipe thy face. Laertes My lord, I’ll hit him now. King I do not think’t. Laertes Aside. And yet ’tis almost ’gainst my conscience. Hamlet

Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard you make a wanton of me.

Laertes Say you so? come on. They play. Osric Nothing, neither way. Laertes Have at you now! Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. King Part them; they are incensed. Hamlet Nay, come, again. The Queen falls. Osric Look to the queen there, ho! Horatio They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? Osric How is’t, Laertes? Laertes

Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.

Hamlet How does the queen? King She swounds to see them bleed. Queen

No, no, the drink, the drink⁠—O my dear Hamlet⁠—
The drink, the drink! I am poison’d. Dies.

Hamlet

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

Laertes

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.

Hamlet

The point envenom’d too!
Then, venom, to thy work. Stabs the King.

All Treason! treason! King O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt. Hamlet

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother. King dies.

Laertes

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.

Hamlet

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