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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. Treason, treason.

[Stabs the King.

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

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

Dane,

1

Drink off this potion is the Union here?

Follow my mother,

Laer. He is juftly ferved.

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,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time, (as this fell Serjeant death
Is ftrict in his arreft) 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,

Absent thee from felicity a while,

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

SCENE

SCENE

Enter Ofrick.

VI.

Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with Conqueft 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 fpirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England.
But I do prophefie, th' election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

So tell him, with the occurrents more or lefs,

! Which have follicited.-The reft is filence. [Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart; good night, fweet Prince;

And flights of angels wing thee to thy Reft! 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 fee?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries- on havock. Oh proud death!

What feaft is tow❜rd in thy infernal cell,

That thou fo many Princes at a fhot
So bloodily haft ftruck?

5 Which have follicited.

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Sollicited, for brought on the

6 And flights of angels SING thee to thy Reft!] What language is this of flights finging. We fhould certainly read,

And flights of angels WING thee to thy Reft.

i. e. carry thee to Heaven.

Amb.

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 Rofincrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where fhould 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,
How these things came about. So fhall you hear
Of cruel, bloody, and unnatural acts;
Of accidental judgments, cafual flaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upfhot, purposes miftook,

Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort. Let us hafte to hear it,

And call the Nobless to the audience.

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 me.
Hor. Of that I fhall have alfo cause to fpeak,
And from his mouth whofe voice will draw on more:
But let this fame be prefently 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 foldier, to the Stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd moft royally. And for his paffage,

Not from his mouth,] That is, the King's.

The

The Soldiers' mufick, 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.
Go, bid the foldiers fhoot.

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

ACT II. SCENE VII. PAGE 175.

The rugged Pyrrhus, he &c.] The two greatest Poets of this and the laft age, Mr. Dryden, in the preface to Troilus and Creffida, and Mr. Pope, in his note on this place, have concurred in thinking that Shakespear produced this long paffage with design to ridicule and expose the bombaft of the play from whence it was taken; and that Hamlet's commendation of it is purely ironical. This is become the general opinion. I think juft otherwife; and that it was given with commendation to upbraid the false taste of the audience of that tirne, which would not fuffer them to do juftice to the fimplicity and fublime of this production. And I reafon, Firft, From the Character Hamlet gives of the Play, from whence the paffage is taken. Secondly, From the paffage itself. And Thirdly, From the effect it had on the audience.

Let us confider the character Hamlet gives of it, The Play, I remember, pleas'd not the million, 'twas Caviar to the general; but it was (as I received it, and others, whofe judgment in fuch matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent Play well digefted in the fcenes, fet down with as much modefty as cunning. I remember, one faid, there was no falt in the lines to make the matter favoury; nor no matter in the phrafe that might indite the author of affection; but called it an honest method. They who fuppofe the paffage given to be ridiculed, muft needs fuppofe this character to be purely ironical. But if fo, it is the strangeft irony that ever was written. It pleafed not the multitude. This we must conclude to be true, however ironical the reft be. Now the reafon given of the defigned ridicule is the fuppofed bombaft. But those were the very plays, which at that time we know took with the multitude. And Fletcher wrote a

kind of Rehearsal purpofely to expofe them. But say it is bombaft, and that, therefore, it took not with the multitude. Hamlet prefently tells us what it was that displeased them. There was no falt in the lines to make the matter favoury ; nor no matter in the phrase that might indite the author of affection; but called it an honeft method. Now whether a perfon fpeaks ironically or no, when he quotes others, yet common fenfe requires he fhould quote what they fay. Now it could not be, if this play difpleafed because of the bombaft, that those whom it difpleafed fhould give this reafon for their diflike. The fame inconfiftencies and abfurdities abound in every other part of Hamlet's fpeech fuppofing it to be ironical: but take him as fpeaking his fentiments, the whole is of a piece; and to this purpose, The Play, I remember, pleased not the multitude, and the reafon was its being wrote on the rules of the ancient Drama; to which they were entire ftrangers. But, in my opinion, and in the opinion of those for whofe judgment I have the highest efteem, it was an excellent Play, well digefted in the fcenes, i. e. where the three unities were well preferved. Set down with as much modefty as cunning, i. e. where not only the art of compofition, but the fimplicity of nature, was carefully attended to. The characters were a faithful picture of life and manners, in which nothing was overcharged into Farce. But thefe qualities, which gained my efteem, lost the public's. For I remember one faid, There was no falt in the lines to make the matter favoury, i. e. there was not, according to the mode of that time, a fool or clown to joke, quibble, and talk freely. Nor no matter in the phrafe that might indite the author of affection, i. e. nor none of those paffionate, pathetic love fcenes, fo effential to modern Tragedy, But he called it an honeft method. i. e. he owned, however taftless this method of writing, on the ancient plan, was to our times, yet it was chafte and pure; the diftinguishing character of the Greek Drama. I need only make one obfervation on all this; that, thus interpreted, it is the jufteft picture of a good tragedy, wrote on the ancient rules, And that I have rightly interpreted it appears farther from what we find added in the old Quarto, An honeft method, as wholefome as fweet, and by very much more HANDSOME than FINE, . e. it had a natural beauty, but none of the fucus of falfe art.

2. A fecond proof that this fpeech was given to be admired, is from the intrinfic merit of the speech itself: which contains the description of a circumstance very happily imagined,

namely

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