Until their greater pleasures Arst be known That are to censure⚫ them.
Car. We are not the first,
Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
For thee, oppressed king, an I cast down;
Myseir could else out-frown false fortune's frown.-
Shall we not see these daughters, and these sisters?
Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like bird's i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them
[Exeunt Lear and Cordelia, guarded. Edin. Come hither, captain; hark. Take thou this note; (Giving a Paper.] go, follow them to prison:
One step I have advanced thee; if thou dest
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes: Know thou this,--that men
Are as the time is: to be tender-minded
Does not become a sword:-Thy great employment
Will not bear question; either say, thou'lt do't,
Or thrive by other means.
By me invested, he compeers the best.
Gon. That were the most, if he should husband you.
Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets.
Gon. Holloa, bolloa!
That eye, that told you so, look'd but a-squint *.
Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
From a full-flowing stomach.-General,
Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:
Witness the world, that I create thee here
My lord and master.
Gon. Mean you to enjoy him?
Alb. The let-alone + lies not in your good will.
Edm. Nor in thine, lord.
Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes.
Reg. Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine. [To Edmund. Alb. Stay yet; hear reason:-Edmund, I arrest thee
On capital treason; and, in thy arrest,
This gilded serpent: [Pointing to Gon.]-for your
claim, fair sister,
I bar it in the interest of my wife;
'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
And I, her husband, contradict your bans.
If you will marry, make your love to me,
My lady is bespoke.
Alb. Thou art arm'd, Gloster :-Let the trumpet sound:
If none appear to prove upon thy person,
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
There is my pledge; [Throwing down a Glove.] I'll
prove it on thy heart,
Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaim'd thee.
Reg. Sick, O, sick!
Gon. If not, I'll ne'er trust poison.
Edm. There's my exchange: [Throwing down a
Glove.] what in the world he is
Edm. About it; and write happy, when thou hast That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:
Mark,-I say, instantly; and carry it so,
As I have set it down.
Of. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats ;
It it be man's work, I will do it. [Exit Officer.
Flourish.-Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, Off cers, and Attendants.
Alb. Sir, you have shewn to-day your valiant
And fortune led you well: you have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day's strife:
We do require them of you; so to use them,
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.
Edm. Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable king
To some retention, and appointed guard;
Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side,
And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent
My reason all the same; and they are ready
Tomorrow, or at further space, to appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this time,
We sweat, and bleed: the friend hath lost his
Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach, On him, on you, (who not?) I will maintain My truth and honour firmly.
Alb. A herald, ho!
Edm. A herald, ho, a herald !
Alb. Trust to thy single virtue ; for thy soldiers, All levied in my name, have in my name Took their discharge.
Reg. This sickness grows upon me.
[Trumpet answers within.
Enter EDGAR, armed, preceded by a Trumpet. Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears
Upon this call o' the trumpet.
Her. What are you?
Your name, your quality? and why you answer This present summons?
Edg. Know, my name is lost;
By treason's tooth bare-gnawn, and canker-bit: Yet am I noble, as the adversary
I come to cope withal.
Alb. Which is that adversary?
Edg. What's he, that speaks for Edmund earl of
Gloster?
Edm. Himself:-What say'st thou to him?
Edg. Draw thy sword;
That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
Alluding to the proverb: Love being jealous makes a good eye look a-squint?, + The hindrance. ti.e. Valour.
My oath, and my profession: I protest,-
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword, and fire-new fortune,
Thy valour, and thy heart,-thou art a traitor:
Faise to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;
And, from the extremest upward of thy head,
To the descent and dust beneath thy feet,
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou, No,
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent,
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou liest.
Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name;
But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
And that thy tongue some 'say of breeding breathes,
What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn :
Back do I toss these treasons to thy head;
With the hell-hated fie o'erwhelm thy heart;
Which (for they yet glance by, and scarcely bruise),
This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
Where they shall rest for ever.-Trumpets, speak.
[Alarums.-They fight.-Edmund falls.
Alb. O save him, save him!
Gon. This is mere practice §, Gloster:
By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to answer An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd, But cozen'd and beguiled.
Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it :-Hold, Sir:-
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil :-
No tearing, lady; I perceive, you know it.
[Gives the Letter to Edmund.
Gon. Say, if I do; the laws are mine, not thine:
Who shall arraign me fort?
Alb. Most monstrous!
Know'st thou this paper?
Gon. Ask me not what I know. [Exit Goneril.
Alb. Go after her: she's desperate; govern her.
[To an Officer, who goes out.
Edm. What you have charged me with, that have
And more, much more: the time will bring it out; 'Tis past, and so am I: but what art thou,
That hast this fortune on me? If thou art noble, I do forgive thee.
Edg. Let's exchange charity.
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund ;
If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to scourge us:
The dark and vicious place where thee he got,
Cost him his eyes.
Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophecy
A royal nobleness:-1 must embrace thee;
Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I
Did hate thee, or thy father!
Edg. Worthy prince,
I know it well.
Alb. Where have you hid yourself?
How have you known the miseries of your father? Edg. By nursing them, my lord.-List a brief
And, when 'tis told, O, that my heart would burst!-
The bloody proclamation to escape,
That follow'd me so near, (0 our lives' sweetness!
That with the pain of death we'd hourly die,
Rather than die at once !) taught me to shift
Into a mad-man's rags; to assume a semblance
That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit
Met 1 my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,
Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair;
Never (0 fault!) reveal'd myself unto him,
Until some half hour past, when I was armn'd,
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart,
(Alack, too weak the conflict to support!)
Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
Burst smilingly.
Edm. This speech of yours hath moved me,
And shall, perchance, do good: but speak you on;
You look as you had something more to say.
Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this.
Edg. This would have seem'd a period
To such as love not sorrow; but another,
To amplify too much, would make much more,
And top extremity.
Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man,
Who having seen me in my worst estate,
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society: but then, finding
Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms
He fasten'd on my neck, and bellow'd out
As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;
Told the most piteons tale of Lear and him.
That ever ear received: which in recounting
His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
Began to crack: twice then the trumpet sounded
And there I left him tranced.
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See'st thou this object, Kent?
[The Bodies of Goneril and Regan ar brought in.
Kent. Alack, why thus?
Edm. Yet Edmund was beloved:
The one the other poison'd for my sake,
And after slew herself.
Alb. Even so.-Cover their faces.
Edm. I pant for life :-Some good I mean to do, Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,Be brief in it,-to the castle; tor my writ Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia : Nay, send in time.
Edg. To who, my lord?-Who has the office
send Thy token of reprieve.
Edm. Well thought on; take my sword, Give it the captain.
Alb. Haste thee, for thy life.
Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison, and To lay the blame upon her own despair, That she fordid herself.
Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence [Edmund is borne off
I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She's dead as earth :- Lend me a looking glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Because if his adversary was not of equal rank, Why, then she lives. Edmund might have declined the combat. • For ever,
Eat. Is this the promised end •?
Edg. Or image of that horror?
4. Fall, and cease+?
Lear. This leather stirs; she lives! If it be so, It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.
Kent. O my good master!
Lear. Pi'y thee, away.
Edg. Tis noble Kent, your friend.
Off. Edmund is dead, my lord.
Alb. That's but a trifle here.-
You lords, and noble friends, know our intent.
What comfort to this great decay may come,
[Kneeling. Shall be applied: for us, we will resign,
During the life of this old majesty,
To him our absolute power:-You, to your rights;
[To Edgar and Kent.
With boot, and such addition as your honours
Have more than merited.-All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings.—0, see, see!
Laur. A plagne upon you, murderers, traitors all!
Ight have saved her; now she's gone for ever!
Cornelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!
Waat is't thou say 'st?-Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman:-
I'd the slave that was a hanging thee.
f. Tis true, my lords, he did.
Leer. Did I not fellow ?
Lear. And my poor toolŷ is hang'd! No, no, no
life:
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you, undo this button; thank you, Sr.-
Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-her lips,-
Look there, look there!-
[He dies.
Edg. He faints!-My lord, my lord,-
Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break!
Edg. Look up, my lord.
Kent. Vex no! his ghost:-0, let him pass!|| he
hates him,
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
Edg. O, he is gone, indeed.
Kent. The wonder is, he hath endured so long: He but usurp'd his life.
Aib. Bear them from hence.-Our present bust
Is general woe. Friends of my soul, you twain
(To Kent and Edgar.
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
Kent. I have a journey, Sir, shortly to go;
My master calls, and I must not say, no.
Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne nost: we, that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
[Exeunt, with a dead March
HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.
CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.
HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius.
POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.
HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet.
LAERTES, Son to Polonius.
GUILDENSTERN,
OSRIC, a Courtier.
Another Courtier.
A Priest.
MARCELLUS, Officers. BERNARDO,
A Captain.-An Ambassador.
GROST of Hamlet's Father.
FORTINERAS, Prince of Norway.
GERYRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother o
OPHELIA, Daughter of Polonius.
Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other A tendants.
Ber. In the same figure like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it Horatio Hor. Most like :-It harrows me with fear and wonder.
Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.
Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
Fran. I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho? Who is In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.
Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again tonight?.
Ber. I have seen nothing.
Mar. Horatio, says, 'tis but our fantasy;
And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us;
Therefore I have entreated him, along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That, if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down awhile;
Her. In what particular thought to work, I know | We do it wrong, being so majestical,
Bat, in the gross and scope of mine opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that
knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So mightly toils the subject of the land;
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
Ad foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is, that can inform me ?
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him),
Did lay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart
And carriage of the article design'd +,
His fell to Hamlet: now, Sir, young Fortinbras,
of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
That hath a stomach || in't: which is no other
(Asit doth well appear unto our state),
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage ¶ in the land.
Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so:
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was,
and is, the question of these wars.
Her. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy ++ state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star 1,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
Aud prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Lato our climatures and countrymen.-]
Re-enter GHOST.
But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
0, speak!
Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
[Cock crows.
Speak of it :-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summions. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or tire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation †.
Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt,
SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of State in the
Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS
LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and
Attendants.
King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's
death
The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in tuneral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:-For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,→
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands,
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So much for him
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject:-And we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.
Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we shew
our duty.
King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell.
[Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.
[Exit Ghost. And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And lose your voice: what wouldst thou beg,
Laertes,
The covenant to confirm that bargain.
Fall of spirit without experience.
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