How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

[Byron In Exile]

Queen Gertrude
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

Laertes
Drown'd! Oh... where?

Queen Gertrude
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laertes
Alas, then, she is drown'd?

Queen Gertrude
Drown'd, drown'd.

Laertes
Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly doubts it.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Hamlet
The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
Couch we awhile, and mark.

Retiring with Horatio

Laertes
What ceremony else?

Hamlet
That is Laertes,
A very noble youth: mark.

Laertes
What ceremony else?

First Priest
Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.

Laertes
Must there no more be done?

First Priest
No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Laertes
Lay her i' the earth:
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

Hamlet
What, the fair Ophelia!

Queen
Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

Scattering flowers

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.

Laertes
O, treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:

Leaps into the grave

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

Hamlet
[Advancing] What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
Hamlet the Dane.

Leaps into the grave

Laertes
The devil take thy soul!

Grappling with him

Hamlet
Thou pray'st not well.
I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

King
Pluck them asunder.

Queen
Hamlet, Hamlet!

All
Gentlemen!

Horatio
Good my lord, be quiet.

The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave

Hamlet
Why I will fight with him upon this theme
Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

Queen
O my son, what theme?

Hamlet
I loved Ophelia! Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

King
O, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen
For love of God, forbear him.

Hamlet
'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?
I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen
This is mere madness:
And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.

Hamlet
Hear you, sir;
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

 

[Byron In Exile]

King
Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
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 heavens to earth,
'Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Hamlet
Come on, sir.

Laertes
Come, my lord.

They play

Hamlet
One.

Laertes
No.

Hamlet
Judgment.

Osric
A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laertes
Well; again.

King
Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
Here's to thy health.

Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within

Give him the cup.

Hamlet
I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.

They play

Another hit; what say you?

Laertes
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.

Hamlet
Good madam!

King
Gertrude, do not drink!

Queen
I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.

King
[Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.

Hamlet
I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

Queen
Come, let me wipe thy face.

Laertes
My lord, I'll hit him now.

King
I do not think't.

Laertes
[Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.

Hamlet
Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afear'd you make a wanton of me.

Laertes
Say you so? come on.

They play

Osric
Nothing, neither way.

Laertes
Have at you now!

Laertes wounds Hamlet; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes

King
Part them! They are incensed!

Hamlet
Nay, come, again.

Queen falls

Osric
Look to the queen there, ho!

Horatio
They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

Osric
How is't, Laertes?

Laertes
Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.

Hamlet
How does the queen?

King
She swounds to see them bleed!

Queen
No, no, the drink, the drink, -- O my dear Hamlet, --
The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.

Queen dies

Hamlet
O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! Seek it out.

Laertes
It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise
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!

Hamlet
The point! -- envenom'd too!
Then, venom, to thy work!

Stabs King Claudius

All
Treason! Treason!

King
O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.

Hamlet
Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.

King dies

Laertes
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.

Laertes dies

Hamlet
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,
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.

Horatio
Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.

Hamlet
As thou'rt a man,
Give me the cup: let go! By heaven, I'll have't.
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

March afar off, and shot within

What warlike noise is this?

Osric
Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Hamlet
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 occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.

Hamlet dies

Horatio
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

March within

Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others

Fortinbras
Where is this sight?

Horatio
What is it ye would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fortinbras
This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck?

First Ambassador
The sight is dismal;
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?

Horatio
Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you:
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
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 came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
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' reads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fortinbras
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,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Horatio
Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance
On plots and errors, happen.

Fortinbras
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites 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