It is a poison temper'd by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: 340
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me!

Ham. 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 tell you-
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor.

Ham.

Never believe it:

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.

As thou'rt a man,

Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.

O good Horatio, what a wounded name,

[Dies.

350

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 shot within. What warlike noise is this?

360

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

Ham.

To the ambassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows 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 the occurrents, more and less,

[March within.

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

Enter FORTINBRAS, and the ENGLISH AMBASSADORS, with drum, colors, and ATTENDANTS.

Fort. Where is this sight?

Hor.

What is it you 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 shot

So bloodily hast struck?

First Amb.

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late:

381

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,

Fort.

You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arrived, 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 forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune:

390

I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, 400
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,

Fort.

And from his mouth whose voice will draw on

more:

But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance

On plots and errors happen.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this

410

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead
bodies: after which a peal of ordnance is
shot off.