SCENE II. A hall in the castle. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark  Shakespeare homepage  |  Hamlet  | Act 5, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  SCENE II. A hall in the castle. 

 Enter HAMLET and HORATIO  HAMLET  So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; 

 You do remember all the circumstance? 

 HORATIO  Remember it, my lord? 

 HAMLET  Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, 

 That would not let me sleep: methought I lay 

 Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, 

 And praised be rashness for it, let us know, 

 Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 

 When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us 

 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

 Rough-hew them how we will,-- 

 HORATIO  That is most certain. 

 HAMLET  Up from my cabin, 

 My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark 

 Groped I to find out them; had my desire. 

 Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew 

 To mine own room again; making so bold, 

 My fears forgetting manners, to unseal 

 Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,-- 

 O royal knavery!--an exact command, 

 Larded with many several sorts of reasons 

 Importing Denmark's health and England's too, 

 With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, 

 That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, 

 No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, 

 My head should be struck off. 

 HORATIO  Is't possible? 

 HAMLET  Here's the commission: read it at more leisure. 

 But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed? 

 HORATIO  I beseech you. 

 HAMLET  Being thus be-netted round with villanies,-- 

 Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, 

 They had begun the play--I sat me down, 

 Devised a new commission, wrote it fair: 

 I once did hold it, as our statists do, 

 A baseness to write fair and labour'd much 

 How to forget that learning, but, sir, now 

 It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know 

 The effect of what I wrote? 

 HORATIO  Ay, good my lord. 

 HAMLET  An earnest conjuration from the king, 

 As England was his faithful tributary, 

 As love between them like the palm might flourish, 

 As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear 

 And stand a comma 'tween their amities, 

 And many such-like 'As'es of great charge, 

 That, on the view and knowing of these contents, 

 Without debatement further, more or less, 

 He should the bearers put to sudden death, 

 Not shriving-time allow'd. 

 HORATIO  How was this seal'd? 

 HAMLET  Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 

 I had my father's signet in my purse, 

 Which was the model of that Danish seal; 

 Folded the writ up in form of the other, 

 Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, 

 The changeling never known. Now, the next day 

 Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent 

 Thou know'st already. 

 HORATIO  So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. 

 HAMLET  Why, man, they did make love to this employment; 

 They are not near my conscience; their defeat 

 Does by their own insinuation grow: 

 'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes 

 Between the pass and fell incensed points 

 Of mighty opposites. 

 HORATIO  Why, what a king is this! 

 HAMLET  Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon-- 

 He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, 

 Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, 

 Thrown out his angle for my proper life, 

 And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience, 

 To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, 

 To let this canker of our nature come 

 In further evil? 

 HORATIO  It must be shortly known to him from England 

 What is the issue of the business there. 

 HAMLET  It will be short: the interim is mine; 

 And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.' 

 But I am very sorry, good Horatio, 

 That to Laertes I forgot myself; 

 For, by the image of my cause, I see 

 The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours. 

 But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me 

 Into a towering passion. 

 HORATIO  Peace! who comes here? 



 Enter OSRIC  OSRIC  Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. 

 HAMLET  I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly? 

 HORATIO  No, my good lord. 

 HAMLET  Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to 

 know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a 

 beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at 

 the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say, 

 spacious in the possession of dirt. 

 OSRIC  Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I 

 should impart a thing to you from his majesty. 

 HAMLET  I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of 

 spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. 

 OSRIC  I thank your lordship, it is very hot. 

 HAMLET  No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is 

 northerly. 

 OSRIC  It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. 

 HAMLET  But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my 

 complexion. 

 OSRIC  Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as 

 'twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his 

 majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a 

 great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,-- 

 HAMLET  I beseech you, remember-- 



 HAMLET moves him to put on his hat  OSRIC  Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. 

 Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe 

 me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent 

 differences, of very soft society and great showing: 

 indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or 

 calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the 

 continent of what part a gentleman would see. 

 HAMLET  Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; 

 though, I know, to divide him inventorially would 

 dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw 

 neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the 

 verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of 

 great article; and his infusion of such dearth and 

 rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his 

 semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace 

 him, his umbrage, nothing more. 

 OSRIC  Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. 

 HAMLET  The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman 

 in our more rawer breath? 

 OSRIC  Sir? 

 HORATIO  Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? 

 You will do't, sir, really. 

 HAMLET  What imports the nomination of this gentleman? 

 OSRIC  Of Laertes? 

 HORATIO  His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent. 

 HAMLET  Of him, sir. 

 OSRIC  I know you are not ignorant-- 

 HAMLET  I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, 

 it would not much approve me. Well, sir? 

 OSRIC  You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is-- 

 HAMLET  I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with 

 him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to 

 know himself. 

 OSRIC  I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation 

 laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed. 

 HAMLET  What's his weapon? 

 OSRIC  Rapier and dagger. 

 HAMLET  That's two of his weapons: but, well. 

 OSRIC  The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary 

 horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take 

 it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their 

 assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the 

 carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very 

 responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, 

 and of very liberal conceit. 

 HAMLET  What call you the carriages? 

 HORATIO  I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done. 

 OSRIC  The carriages, sir, are the hangers. 

 HAMLET  The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we 

 could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might 

 be hangers till then. 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 'imponed,' as you call it? 

 OSRIC  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. 

 HAMLET  How if I answer 'no'? 

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

 HAMLET  Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his 

 majesty, 'tis 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 an I can; 

 if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. 

 OSRIC  Shall I re-deliver you e'en so? 

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

 OSRIC  I commend my duty to your lordship. 

 HAMLET  Yours, yours. 



 Exit OSRIC  He does well to commend it himself; there are no 

 tongues else for's turn. 

 HORATIO  This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. 

 HAMLET  He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. 

 Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I 

 know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of 

 the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of 

 yesty collection, which carries them through and 

 through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do 

 but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. 



 Enter a Lord  Lord  My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young 

 Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in 

 the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to 

 play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. 

 HAMLET  I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's 

 pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now 

 or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. 

 Lord  The king and queen and all are coming down. 

 HAMLET  In happy time. 

 Lord  The queen desires you to use some gentle 

 entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. 

 HAMLET  She well instructs me. 



 Exit Lord  HORATIO  You will lose this wager, my lord. 

 HAMLET  I do not think so: since he went into France, I 

 have been in continual practise: I shall win at the 

 odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here 

 about my heart: but it is no matter. 

 HORATIO  Nay, good my lord,-- 

 HAMLET  It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of 

 gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman. 

 HORATIO  If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will 

 forestall their repair hither, and say you are not 

 fit. 

 HAMLET  Not a whit, we defy augury: there's 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 has aught of what he 

 leaves, what is't to leave betimes? 



 Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils,  & c  KING CLAUDIUS  Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. 



 KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's  HAMLET  Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong; 

 But pardon't, as you are a gentleman. 

 This presence knows, 

 And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd 

 With 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 Hamlet: 

 If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, 

 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 mine arrow o'er the house, 

 And hurt my brother. 

 LAERTES  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, 

 To keep my name ungored. But till that time, 

 I do receive your offer'd love like love, 

 And will not wrong it. 

 HAMLET  I embrace it freely; 

 And will this brother's wager frankly play. 

 Give us the foils. Come on. 

 LAERTES  Come, one for me. 

 HAMLET  I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance 

 Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, 

 Stick fiery off indeed. 

 LAERTES  You mock me, sir. 

 HAMLET  No, by this hand. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, 

 You know the wager? 

 HAMLET  Very well, my lord 

 Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  I do not fear it; I have seen you both: 

 But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. 

 LAERTES  This is too heavy, let me see another. 

 HAMLET  This likes me well. These foils have all a length? 



 They prepare to play  OSRIC  Ay, my good lord. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  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 CLAUDIUS  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 CLAUDIUS  Our son shall win. 

 QUEEN GERTRUDE  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 CLAUDIUS  Gertrude, do not drink. 

 QUEEN GERTRUDE  I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. 

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

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

 QUEEN GERTRUDE  Come, let me wipe thy face. 

 LAERTES  My lord, I'll hit him now. 

 KING CLAUDIUS  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 afeard 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 CLAUDIUS  Part them; they are incensed. 

 HAMLET  Nay, come, again. 



 QUEEN GERTRUDE 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 CLAUDIUS  She swounds to see them bleed. 

 QUEEN GERTRUDE  No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,-- 

 The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. 



 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 CLAUDIUS  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 CLAUDIUS 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. 



 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. 



 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  PRINCE FORTINBRAS  Where is this sight? 

 HORATIO  What is it ye would see? 

 If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 

 PRINCE 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. 

 PRINCE 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. 

 PRINCE 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 