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 would'st 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 inan, of aught he leaves,knows ;-what is't to leave betimes.3 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. Sir, in his audience,5 I am satisfied in nature, Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil You know the wager? Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds" o' the weaker side. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both:But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. 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. King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that If Hamlet give the first or second hit, table: or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; This presence knows, and you must needs have In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the cups; heard, How I am punish'd with a sore distraction. That might your nature, honour, and exception, 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. bubbles burst; or, in other words, display their emptiness.' 1 All that passes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio. 2 i. e. misgiving, a giving against, or an internal feeling and prognostic of evil. 3Since no man, of aught he leaves,-knows; What is it to leave betimes! This is the reading of| the folio; the quarto reads, 'Since no man has aught of what he leaves. What is't to leave betimes.' Has is evidently here a blunder for knows. Johnson thus interprets the passage:- Since no man knows aught of the state which he leaves, since he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should we be afraid of leaving life betimes?' Warburton's explanation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the poet's meaning farther than he intended. It is true that by death we lose all the goods of life; yet seeing this loss is no otherwise an evil than as we are sensible of it; and since death removes all sense of it, what matters it how soon we lose them.' This argument against the fear of death has been dilated and placed in a very striking light by the late Mr. Green.-See Diary of a Lover of Literature, Ipswich, 1810, 4to. p. 230.-Shakspeare himself has elsewhere said, the sense of death is most in apprehension,' 4 i. e. the king and queen. 5 This line is not in the quarto. 6 i. e. unwounded. This is a piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, Laer. Ham. Laer. Ham. Come, my lord. [They play. One. No. Judgment. Well, again. Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit, Laer. ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's apology. 7 The king had wagered six Barbury horses to a few rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about twenty to one.These are the odds here meant. The odds the King means in the next speech were twelve to nine in favour of Hamlet, by Laertes giving him three. 8 Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel resembling our wine measures; but of no determinate quantity; for there are gallon-stoups, pint-stoups, mutchkin-stoups, &c. The vessel in which water is fetched or kept is also called a water-stoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine. 9 An union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size. And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would say singular, and by themselves alone. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. Thus in the second part of If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody :'— "Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes, According to Rondeletus, pearls were supposed to have an exhilarating quality.' Uniones quæ a conchis, &c. valde cordiale sunt. Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet subsequently asks him tauntingly, 'Is the union here ?› King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl | Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father's death come not upon thee; Nor thine on me! is thine; Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup. [Trumpets sound; and Cannons shot off within. He's fat, and scant of breath. King. Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon me. 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 conscience. [Aside. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally; I pray you, pass with best violence; your 1 am afeard, you make a wanton2 of me." Laer. Say you so? come on. Osr. Nothing neither way. Laer. Have at you now. [They play. [LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuf- King. [Dies. The drink, the drink;-I am poison'd! Laer. It is here, Hamlet; Hamlet, thou art slain; 5 [Dies Hor. : I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, [March afar off, and Shot withen. To the ambassadors of England gives Ham. O, I die, Horatio; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Fort. Where is this sight? What is it, you would see? death! 1 Amb. The sight is dismal; Envenom'd too!-Then, venom, to thy work.4 Laer. He is justly serv'd; It is a poison temper'd by himself. 1 i. e. the queen drinks to thy good success. 2 i. e. you trifle or play with me as if I were a child. 3 See note on Act iv. Sc. 7. 4 In the quarto of 1603: The poison'd instrument within my hand? Then venom to thy venom; die, damn'd villain : Come, drink, here lies thy union here. [King dies. 'These 6 To overcrow, is to overcome, to subdue. noblemen laboured with tooth and naile to overcrowd, and consequently to overthrow one another.'-Holin shed's History of Ireland. 7 The occurrents which have solicited the occurrences or incidents which have incited.' The sentence is left unfinished. 8This quarry cries on havoc! To cry on, was to 5 A sergeant was a bailiff or sheriff's officer. Shak-exclaim against. I suppose when unfair sportsmen speare, in his 74th Sonnet, has likened death to an ar- destroyed more game than was reasonable, the censure rest: when that fell arrest, Without all bail shall carry me away.' And death, sergeant of the eternal Judge, was to call it havoc.-Johnson. Quarry was the term used for a heap of slaughtered game. See Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. 9 It has been already observed that jump and just, or exactly, are synonymous. Vide note on Act i. Sc. 1 10 'Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts' Of san King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl | Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father's death come not upon thee; Nor thine on me! is thine; Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup. [Trumpets sound; and Cannons shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come-Another hit; What say you? [They play. touch, I do comes [Dies 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, this act, Quarry was the term used for a heap of slaughtered game. See Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. 9 It has been already observed that jump and just, or exactly, are synonymous. Vide note on Act i. Sc. 1 10 'Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts Of san |