Ham. The phrase would be more german Enter King, QUEEN, LAERTES, LOR13, Osric, to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by and Attendants, with Foils, &c. our sides; I would, it might be hangers till then. But, on : Six Barbary horses against six King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against [The King puts the Hand of Laertes into that of HAMLET. the Danisb: Why is this impawned, as you call Ham. Give me your pardon, Sir: I have done it? Osr. The king, Sir, hath laid, that in a dozen But pardon it, as you are a gentlemar. you wrong ; passes between your self and him, he shall not exceed you three bits; he hath laid, on twelve | This presence knows, and you must needs have for nine ; and it would come to immediate How I am punish'd with a sore distraction. heard, trial, if your lordsbip would vouchsafe the an. What I have done, swer. Ham. How, if I answer, no? That might your nature, honour, and exception, Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your Was't Hamlet' wrong'd Laertes ? Never, Ham Roughly awake, I bere proclaim was madness. person in trial. let: Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it if Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me : let the foils be brought, the gen- | And, when he is not himself, does wrong Latleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, ! Then Hamlet' does it not, Hamlet denies it. ertes, will win for him, if I can ; if not, I will gain who does it then? His madness ? Il't be so, nothing but my shame, and the odd hits. Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd, Sir, in this andience, Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, [Erit. Ham. Yours, yonrs.--He does well to com That I have shot my arrow o'er the house, And hurt my brother. mend it himself, there are no tongues else for's ; Laer. I am satisfied in nature, turn. Hor. This lapwing + runs away with the shell / Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most on his head. Ham. He did comply t with his dug, before to my revenge : but in my terms of honour, he sucked it. Thus bas he (and many more of Till by some elder masters, of known houour, I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement, the same breed, that, I know, the drossy o age I have a voice and precedent of peace, dotes on, only got the tune of the time, and to keep my name ungor'd : + But till that time, outward habit of encounter ; a kind of yesty! i do receive your offer'd love like love, collection, which carries them through and And will not wrong it. through the most fonds and winnowed opinions ; Ham, I embrace it freely; and do but blow thein to their trial, the bubbles And will this brother's wager frankly play.-are out. Give us the foils; come on. Laer. Come, one for me. Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ig. Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him norance to you by 'young Osric, who brings back to your skill shall, like a star i'the darkest night, him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends Stick flery off, indeed. to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laer. You mock me, Sir. Ham. No, by this band. King. Give them the foils, young Osric. follow the king's pleasure : if his fitness speaks, Cousin Hamlet, mine is ready ; now, or wbensoever, provided You know the wager? be so able as now, Ham. Very well, my lord ; Lord. The king, and queen, and all are com- Your grace hath Jaid the odds o'the weaker side. ing down. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you Ham. In happy time. Lord. The queen desires you to use some But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. gentle entertainment to Laertes, before Laer. Tbis is too heavy, let ine see another. to play. Ham. This likes me well ; These foils have all Ham. She well instructs me. (Erit LORD. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. a length ? (They prepare to play. Ham. I do not think so ; since he went into Ost. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the stoups of wipe upon that France, I have been in continual practice; I table : shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not If Hamlet gives the first or second hit, think, how ill all's here about my heart : but it or qnit in answer of the third exchange, is no matter. Let all the battlements their ordnance fire; Hor. Nay, good my lord, --- The king shall drink to Hamilet's better breath; Harn. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind And in the cnp an union $ shall be throw, of gain-giving, ** as would, perhaps, trouble a Richer than that which four successive kings woman. In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it : I will forestal + their repair hither, and say, you and let the kettle to the trumpet speak, cups ; are not fit. Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is the cannons to the heavens, the heaven to The trumpet to the cannoneer without, a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If earth, it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, Now the King drinks to Hamlet.-Come, it will be now; if it be not now; yet it will come : the readiness is all : Since no man, of begin And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. angbt be leaves, knows wbat is't to leave betimes ? Ham. Come on, Sir. Let be. Laer. Come, my lord. (They play. Ham. One. • A kin. + A bird which runs about immediately AIRT is hatched. Compliment. Worthless. a Frothy. T For fond read fanned. • The king and qucen's presence: + Unwounded, ** Misgiving. tt Prevent. Large jugi: A precious pennt. 7. both: you fall thee; Laer. No. Mine and my father's death come not upon Ham. Judgment. Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Nor thine on me. (Dies. Laer. Well, -again. Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow King. Stay, give me drink; Hamlet, this thee. pearl is thine ; I am dead, Horatio :-Wretched queen, adieu ! Here's to thy health.-Give bim the cup. You that look pale and tremble at this chance, [Trumpels sound; and Cannon shot off That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time, (as this fell sergeant, * death, Aam. I'll play this bout first, set it by is strict in bis au rest,) oh! I could tell you, awhile. But let it be :-Horatio, I am dead ; Come. - Another bit; What say you? Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright (They play. To the unsatistied. Laer. A touch, a touch, I do coniess. Hor. Never believe it ; King. Our son shall win. I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, Queen. He's fat, and scant o'breath. Here's yet some liquor left. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, * rub thy brows : Ham. As thou'rt a man, The queen carouses + to thy fortune, Hamlet. Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it.-Ham. Good madam, O God !-Horatio, what a wounded name, King. Gertrude, do not drink. Thivgs standing thus unknown, shall live be. Queen. I will, my lord ; I pray you, pardon hind me ? me. If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, King. It is the poison'd cup ; it is too late. Absent thee froin felicity awhile, (Aside. And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, Ham. I dare not driuk yet, madam ; by and To tell my story... by. [March afar oft', and Shot within. What warlike noise is tbis 7 Ors. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come King. I do uot think it. from Poland, Laer. And yet it is almost against my con- To the ambassadors of England gives science, (Aside. This warlike volley. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes : You do Ham. 0 I die, Horatio ; but dally ; The potent poison quite o'er-crows + my spirit ; I pray you, pass with your best violence; I cannot live to hear the news from England: I am afeard you make a wanton 1 of me. But I do propbesy the election lights Laer. Say you so ? come on. On Fortinbras ; he has my dying voice ; (They play. So tell him, with the occurrents, 1 more or less, Osr. Nothing neither way. Which have solicited, --The rest is silence. Laer. Have at you now. (Dies. (LAERTES wounds HAMLET ; then, in scuf Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night, fing, they change Rapiers, and HAMLET sweet prince; wounds LAKRTES. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! King. Part them, they are incens'd. Why does the drum come hither? Ham. Nay, come again. [The QUEEN falls. (March within. Ost. Look to the queen there, ho ! Enter FORTINBRAS, the ENGLISH AMBASHor. They bleed on both sides :-How is it, SADORS, and others. my lord ? Osr. How is't, Laertes ? Fort. Where is this sight? Mor. What is it, you would see? Fort. This quarry cries on havoc 11-O proud Ham. How does the queen ? death ! King. She swoons to see them bleed. What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,-0 myThat thou so many princes, at a shot, dear Hamlet ! So bloudily hast struck ? The drink, the drink : I am poison'd ! [Dies. I Amb. The sight is dismal : Ham. O villany !-Ho ! let the door be And our affairs from England come too late ; lock'd : The ears are senseless, that should give us Treachery! seek it out. (LAERTES falls. hearing, Laer. It is here, Hamlet : Hamlet, thou art To tell him, his commandment is fulfillid, slain ; That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : No medicine in the world can do thee good, Wbere should we have our thanks! Jo thee there is not half an hour's life ; Hor. Not from his mouth, ** The treacherous instrument is in thy band, Had it the ability of life to thank you ; Unbated and envenom'd : the foul practice He never gave commandment for their death. Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie, But since, so jump + upon this bloody question, Never to rise again : Thy mother's poison'd; You from the Polack 11 wars, and you from I can no more; the king, the king's to blame. England, Ham. The point Are here arriv'd; give order that these bodies Envenom'd too !-Then, venom, to thy work. High on a stage be placed to the view ; (Stabs the King. And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world, Osr.& Lords. Treason ! treason ! How these things come about : So shall you hear King. O yet defend me, friends, I am but or carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; hurt. of accidental judgments, casual slaughters; Ham. Here, thon incestuous, murd'rous, of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause ; damned Dane, And, in this upsbot, purposes mistook Drink off this potion :- Is the union here? Fall'n on the inventors' heads : all this can I Follow my mother. (King dies. Truly deliver. Laer. He is justly serv'd ; Fort. Let us haste to hear it, • A sergeant is a sheriff's officer. Incidents, Incited. | Heap of dead game. • Handkerchief. Drinks good luck to you. TA word of censure when more game was destroyed # Boy. The foil without a button, and poisoned than was reasonable. •* I. e. The king's. point. Mixed. t: By chance. it Polish. And call the noblest to the audience. Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune ; ) For he was likely, had he been put on, I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, To have prov'd most royally: and, for bis pas Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. sage, Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, The soldier's music, and the rites of war, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies : -Such a sight as this But let this same be presently perform'd Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Even while men's minds are wild; lest more Go, bid the soldiers shoot. (A dead march. mischance (Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; after On plots and errors, happen. which, a Peut of Ordnance is shot off, Fort. Let four captains more : In reply to an objection which was raised by an eminent critic, and has been repeated with considerable jur tice by all who have since written on the incidents of this play, viz. that "there appears no adequate canse for the feigned madness of Hamlet ; as he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity; playing the nadman most wben he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty,”--the following novel and satisfactory opinion, condensed from the remarks of a most intelligent and pruise-worthy commentator, may be advantageonsly quoted ----Hamlet resolved to counterfeit madness that he might kill his uncle without being considered as a traitor and a murderer : this he must have been, having no proof against his father's assassin, except what was said by the ghost to himself alone ; and of course it would have no weight with any other person. Wishing for additional evidence, he had recourse to the play, which confirming the story of the ghost, he would instantly have gratified his vengeance by killing his uncle, but for the extraordinary circumstance of finding him on his knees at prayer ; and shortly afterwards he actually supposed he bod done it, when he stabbed Polonius behind the arras, and, finding his mistake, solemnly conjured his mother to retain the secret of his madness being feigned. His treatment of “the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious Ophelia” may be explained in the same way; for if he behaved in snch a frantic manner to her, who was .. the objeet of his tenderest regard, it is a certain consequence that not a doubt could be entertained by others of the reality of his distraction; and thus the delusion was complete.---Bowdler versus Johnson. OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. THE story upon which this beautiful and instructive tragedy is founded, was taken, according to Mr. Pope, from Cynthio's novels. It was probably written in the year 1611. Mustapha, Selymus's general, invaded Cyprus in May 1570, and conquered it in the following year. His fleet first sailed towards that island; but immediately changing its course for Rhodes, formed a junction with another squadron, and then returued to the attack of Cyprus : thus the actual historical periods of the performance are satisfactorily determined. In addition to the admirable lesson set forth in this impressive tragedy, so well calculated to produce an excellent effect upon the human mind, by pourtraying that baneful passion, which, when once indulged, is the inevitable destroyer of conjugal happiness ; it may justly be considered as one of the noblest efforts of dramatic genius, that has appeared in any age, or in any language. “The fiery opeoness of Othello, (says Dr. Johnson) nagnanimous, artless, and credulous ; boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge---the soft simplicity of Desdemona, confident of merit, and conscious of inbocence; her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness to suspect that she can be suspected---the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of bis interest and bis vengeance---are such proofs of Shakspeare's skill in human nature, as I suppose it is in vain to seek in any modern writer ; whilst even the inferior characters would be very conspicuous in any other piece, not only for their justness, but their strength.” In proportion to the enormity of such a crime as adultery, should be the caution with which a suspicion of it is permitted to be entertained ; and our great dramatic moralist was no doubt desirous of enforcing this maxim, when he made it, as he has done, the subject of no less than four of bis most finished productions. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. DUKZ OF VENICE, CLOWN, Servant to Othello, HERALD. DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and OTHELLO, the Moor. Wife to Othello. Cassio, his Lieutenant. EMILIA, W ife to lago. LAGO, his Ancient. BIANCA, a Courtezan, Mistress to Cassio. RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman. MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the Go Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicans, vernment of Cyprus. Sailors, Attendants, &c. SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice ; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-port in Cyprus. ACT I. says he, I have already chose my officer. And what was he? Forsooth, a great arithmetician, One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, That never set a squadron in the field, That thou, lago,—who hast had my purse, Nor the division of a battle knows As if the strings were thine,-shouldst know of More than a spinster ; unless the bookish thethis. oric, I Tago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :-- Wherein the toged consuls $ can propose If ever I did dream of such a matter, As masterly as he : mere prattle, without prac. Abhor me. tice, (tion : Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in Is all his soldiership. But he, Sir, had the electhy hate. And 1,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof, lago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds ones of the city, Christian and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, calm'd Oft capp'd' to him ;-avd, by the faith of man, By debitor and creditor ; this counter-caster, || I know my price, I am worth no worse a place : He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, But he, as loving his own pride and purposes, Evades them, with a bombast circumstance, ť • Certainly. Horribly stufi'd with epithets of war; + For wife some read life, supposing it to allude to the And, in conclusion, nonsuits denunciation in the Gospel,"Woe onto you when all men shall speak well of you.' Theory. Rulers of the state. | It was anciently the • Saluted. + Circumlocution. practice lo reckon up sums with counters. |
