Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, Ofrick; I'm juftly kill'd with mine own treachery. Ham. How does the Queen? King. She fwoons to fee them bleed, Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink Oh my dear Hamlet.-The drink, the drink,— I am poifon'd [Queen dies, Ham. Oh villainy! ho! let the door be lock'd: Treachery! feek it out Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Thou art flain, Then venom do thy work. All. Treafon, treason. [Stabs the King: King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt. Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is the Union here? Follow my mother. Laer. He is justly serv'd. It is a poifon temper'd by himself. [King dies. Exchange forgivenefs with me, noble Hamlet; [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, 5 That are but mutes or audience to this at,] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe, X or at moft only mute performers, that fill the ftage without any part in the action. you Had I but time, as this fell Serjeant death Hor. Never believe it. I'm more an antique Roman than a Dane. Ham. As th'art a man, Give me the cup. Let go; by heav'n, I'll hav't. Things ftanding thus unknown, shall live behind me ? Abfent thee from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, Ofr. Young Fortinbras, with Conqueft come from To the Ambaffadors of England gives This warlike volley. Ham. O, I die, Horatio : The potent poifon quite o'er-grows my spirit; [Dies. 6 Which have follicited.] Sollicited, for brought on the event. WARBURTON. Hor. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, fweet Prince; And flights of angels fing 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, ceafe your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havock. Oh proud What feast is tow'rd in thy infernal cell, Amb. The fight is difmal, And our affairs from England come too late : Hor. Not from his mouth, Had it th' ability of life to thank you : He never gave commandment for their death. 7 This quarry cries on back.] I fuppofe, when unfair (portfm-n Hanmer reads, cries out, havock. To cry on, was to exclaim against. destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the cenfure was, to cry, Havock. How these things came about. So shall you hear Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters; Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I Fort. Let us hafte to hear it, And call the Noblefs to the audience. For me, with forrow I embrace my fortune; $ 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 mifchance 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, The Soldiers' mufick, and the rites of war And from his mouth whale voice will draw no more.] This is the reading of the old Quarte's, but certainly a miflaken one, We fay, a man will no more draw breath; but that a man's voice will draw no more, is, I believe, an expreflion without any authority. I chufe to efpoufe the reading of the elder folio ; And from his mouth, whose voice will draw on more. And this is the poet's meaning. Hamlet, just before his death, had faid; But I do prophefy, th' eledien lights On Fortinbras: He has my dy ing voice; So tell him, &r. Accordingly, Horatio here de livers that message; and very justly infers, that Hamlet's voice will be feconded by others, and procure them in favour of Fore tinbras's fucceffion. THEOB. Take Take up the body. Such a fight as this Becomes the field, but here fhews much amifs. Go, bid the Soldiers shoot. [Exeunt, marching: after which, If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which diftinguishes it from the reft, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praife of variety. The incidents are fo numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The fcenes are interchangeably diverfified with merriment and folemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and inftructive obfervations, and folemnity, not ftrained by poetical violence above the natural fentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual fucceffion, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of converfation. The pretend ed madness of Hamlet caufes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tendernefs, and every perfonage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that in the first act chills the blood with horrour, to the fop in the laft, that expofes affectation to juft contempt. The conduct is perhaps not wholly fecure against objections. The action is indeed for the moft part in continual progreffion, but there are fome fcenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate caufe, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of fanity. He plays the madman moft, when he treats Ophelia with fo much rudeness, which feems to be ufelefs and wanton cruelty. Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an inftrument than an agent. After he has, by the ftratagem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him, and his death is at laft effected by an incident which Hamlet has no part in producing. The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedi ent of neceffity, than a stroke of art. A fcheme might eafily have been formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl. The poet is accused of having fhewn little regard to poetical juftice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpofe; the revenge which he demands is not obtained but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification. which would arife from the deftruction of an ufurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmlefs, and the pious, X 4 ACT |