The dramatic works of Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson and Stevens [sic. Wanting pp

But, on: Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: Why is this impawned, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid, on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. Ham. How, if I answer, no?

Osr. I mean, my lord the opposition of your person in trial.

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me; let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [Exit. Ham. Yours, yours.- He does well to commend it himself: there are no tongues else for's

turn.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play.

Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,—

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind

of gain-giving¶, as would, perhaps, trouble a

woman.

Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal ** their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is 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, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be.

Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[The King puts the Hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.
This presence tt knows, and you must needs
have heard,

How I am punish'd with a 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, Ham-
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, [let:
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 my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
Laer.
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, [time,
To keep my name ungored #: But till that
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Ham.
I embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.
Give us the foils; come on.

Laer.
Come, one for me.
Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine
ignorance

Your skill shall, like a star i'the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

Laer.

You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? Ham.

A bird which runs about immediately as it is hatched.

+ Worthless. ** Prevent.

Frothy.
For fond read fann'd.
1 The king and queen's presence.

Very well, my lord;

+ Compliment.

Misgiving Uuwounded,

Your grace hath laid the odds o'the weaker side. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you

both :[odds. But since he's better'd, we have therefore Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a length? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. [table:King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that 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 heaven to
earth,

[begin;-
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come,
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer. Come, my lord.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

[They play.

One.

No.

Judgment.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.
Laer.
Well,-again.
King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this
pearl is thine;

Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup.
[Trumpets sound: and Cannon shot
off within.

Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile.

Come.-Another hit; What say you?

[They play. Laer. 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.
Ham. Good madam,-
King. Gertrude, do not drink. [me.
Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon
King. It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.
[Aside.
Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by
and by.

Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
King.
I do not think it.
Laer. And yet it is almost against my con-
science.
[Aside.
Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You
do but daily;

I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard, you make a wanton || of me.
Laer. Say you so? come on. [They play.
Osr. Nothing neither way.

Laer. Have at you now.
[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in
scuffling, they change Rapiers, and
HAMLET Wounds LAERTES.

King. Part them, they are incensed.
Ham. Nay, come again. [The Queen falls.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
Hor. They bleed on both sides :-How is
Osr. How is't, Laertes?
[it, my lord?
Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own
springe, Osric;

I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?

King.

She swoons to see them bleed. Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-0

my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink ;-I am poison'd. [Dies. Ham. O villany!-Ho! let the door be lock'd: [LAERTES falls. Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;

Treachery! seek it out.

No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour's 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.
Ham. The point

Envenom'd too!-Then, venom to thy work.
[Stabs the King.
Ors. & Lords. Treason! treason!
King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but
hurt.
[damned Dane.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous,
Drink off this potion :-Is the union here?
Follow my mother.
[King dies.
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!

Laer.

[Dies.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I fol

low 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.
Never believe it;
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane,
Here's yet some liquor left.
Ham.
As thou'rt a man,-
Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have
O God!-Horatio, what a wounded name, [it.
Things standing thus unknown, shall live be
hind me!

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 occurrentst, more or
less,

Which have solicited .-The rest is silence.

[Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night, sweet prince;

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

[March within. Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and Others.

- Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.
What is it, you would see?
If aught of wo, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry ý cries on havock !-O
proud death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many prinees, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

The sight is dismal;

1 Amb.
And our affairs from England come too late:
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?
Not from his mouth ¶,

Hor.

Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death."
But since, so jump** upon this bloody ques
tion,
[England,
You from the Polack ++ wars, and you from
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 come about: So shall you
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; [hear,
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.

Fort.
Let us haste to hear it,
And call the noblest to the audience.
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;
I have some rights of memory in this king-
dom,
[me.
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite
Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth, whose voice will draw

on more:

Let four captains

But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more
On plots and errors, happen. [mischance,
Fort.
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on, [sage,
To have proved most royally: and, for his pas
The soldier's music, and the rights of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this
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. Heap of dead game. || A word

of censure when more game was destroyed than was reasonable.

** By chance.

+ Polish.

i. e., The king's.

If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterized, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of va riety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that chills the blood with horror, to the fop, that exposes affectation to just contempt.

The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual progression. but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most, when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be wanton cruelty. Hamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an instrument than an agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing.

The poet is accused of having shown little regard to poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; 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 arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abased by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious.-JOHNSON.

Rod. Tush, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,

That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse, As if the strings were thine,-shouldst know of this.

lago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate. [ones of the city, Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, Oft capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man, I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:

But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance t,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits

My mediators; for, certes ‡, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows [rick,
More than a spinster; unless the bookish theo-
Wherein the toged consuls ¶ can propose
As masterly as he mere prattle, without
practice,
[tion:
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the elec-
And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof,

At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds Christian and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and calm'd

By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster**; He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, And I, (God bless the mark !) his Moorship's ancient. [his hangman. Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse

of service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stoud heir to the first. Now, Sir, be judge
yourself,

Whether I in any just term am affin'd tt
To love the Moor.

Rod. I would not follow him then.
Jago. O, sir, content you;

I follow him to serve my turn upon him :
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender; and, when he's old,
cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves; Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their
lords,
[lined their coats,
Do well thrive by them, and, when they have
Do themselves homage: these fellows have
some soul:
And such a one do I profess myself.
For, sir,

* Saluted. + Circumlocution. Certainly. For wife some read life, supposing it to allude to the denunciation in the Gospel, Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of Rulers of the state. ** It was anciently the practice to reckon up sums with counters.

sou

Theory.

Related.

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips
If he can carry't thus!
[owet,
Iago.
Call up her father,
Rouse him: make after him, poison his de-
light,

[men,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Bra. What profane wretch art thou ? Iago. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kins-your daughter and the Moor are now making And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be

joy,

Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call
aloud.
[dire yell,
lago. Do; with like timorous accent, and
As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.

Thieves ! thieves !

Rod. What ho! Brabantio! signior Bra-
bantic, ho! [thieves! thieves! thieves!
Iago. Awake! what, ho! Brabantio!
Look to your house, your daughter, and your
[bags !
BRABANTIO, above, at a Window.
Bra. What is the reason of this terrible
What is the matter there?
[summons?
Rod. Signior, is all your family within?
Iago. Are your doors lock'd?
Bra. Why? wherefore ask you this?
lago. 'Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for
shame, put on your gown; [soul; |
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your
Even now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.

Bra. That, have you lost your wits?
Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know
Bra. Not I; What are you? [my voice?
Rod. My name is-Roderigo.
Bra.
The worse welcome:
I have charged thee, not to haunt about my

doors:

In honest plainness thou hast heard me say, My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,

Being full of supper, and distempering f
draughts,

Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,--
Bra.
But thou must needs be sure,
My spirit, and my place, have in them power
To make this bitter to thee.
Rod.

the beast with two backs.
Bra. Thou art a villain.

lago.
You are a senator.
Bra. This thou shalt answer: I know thee,
Roderigo.
[beseech_you,

Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But
If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even ** and dull watch o'the night,
Transported-with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondoliert
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance #,
We then have done you bold and saucy
[me,
But, if you know not this, my manners tell
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility [rence :
I thus would play and trifle with your reve-
Your daughter, if you have not given her
leave,-

wrongs;

I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,
In an extravagant § and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every where: Straight satisfy
yourself:

If she be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

Bra.

Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper ;-call up all my people:-
This accident is not unlike my dream,
Belief of it oppresses me already :-
Light, I say! light! [Exit from above.
Iago. Farewell; for I must leave you:
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produced (as, if I stay, I shall,)
Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with some check,
|Cannot with safety cast |||| him; for he's em
bark'd

With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars, (Which even now stand in act,) that, for their Another of his fathom they have not, [souls, To lead their business: in which regard, Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, Yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and sign of love, * Outward show of civility. + Own, possess. f Intoxicating. || A lone farm house. Relations. + A waterman. #Approbation. §§ Wandering.

Patience, good sir.

ti. e., Is broken.

** Midnight.

|||| Dismiss.

« Vorige Doorgaan »

Boeken

The dramatic works of Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson and Stevens [sic ...