Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio.-Wretched queen, adieu !— I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: Ham. As thou'rt a man, Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have it.— Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! Absent thee from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.— Dies. [March afar off, and shot within. What warlike noise is this? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the embassadors of England gives This warlike volley. Ham. [Falls.] O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: But I do prophesy the election 'lights On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; So tell him, with the occurrents, more and 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! [March within. Why does the drum come hither? Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Embassadors, and others, Fort. Where is this sight? Hor. What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havock.-O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck? 1 Emb. The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late : That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : Hor. Had it th' ability of life to thank you: Not from his mouth, He never gave commandment for their death. Fall'n on the inventors' heads; all this can I 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 kingdom; Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more: Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance, Fort. To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, 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 away the dead bodies ; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off. |