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HAMLET
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ABRIDGED BY LEON GARFIELD
(with additional staging by Martin Lamb, Right Angle)
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CAST LIST
Cast in order of appearance:
NARRATOR
GERTRUDE
HAMLET
CLAUDIUS
HORATIO
LAERTES
OPHELIA
POLONIUS
GHOST
GRAVEDIGGER
the Queen, Hamlet’s mother, now wife of Claudius
Prince of Denmark
King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle
friend and confidant of Hamlet
Polonius’ son
Polonius’ daughter
a councillor of state
of the late King, Hamlet’s dead father
THE PLAYER KING
THE PLAYER QUEEN
MURDERER
the players
MESSENGER
COURTIERS
SERVANTS
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HAMLET
Scene 1.
The Royal Council Chamber. Day
The King and Queen sit fondly side by side. Behind them stands Polonius,
the doting old Lord Chamberlain. The brightly coloured court looks
smiling on. But one figure sits apart, and all in black. It is Prince Hamlet.
He stares at his mother, the Queen, then turns away.
[During the narration the King, the Queen and Hamlet should be
identified by either movement or lighting].
Narrator:
Something was rotten in the state of Denmark. The King was dead,
poisoned by a serpent in his orchard, so it was said.
And the poison lingered on …
His brother was the new King and the widowed Queen, eager to be
married again, was now that brother’s wife …
But the dead King had left a son, Prince Hamlet, whose heart was eaten up
with grief for his dead father.
The Queen calls to Hamlet, to gain his attention.
Queen:
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off
Do not for ever seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die.
Hamlet:
Ay, madam, it is common.
Queen:
If it be, why seems it so particular with thee?
Hamlet:
Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not “seems”.
King:
‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But you must know, your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost his.
We pray you, throw to earth this unprevailing woe,
And think of us as of a father.
Hamlet stares at him. The King sighs, and, with his Queen, leaves the
chamber, followed by the court. Hamlet is alone.
Hamlet:
Frailty, thy name is woman!
A little month! Or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow’d my poor father’s body.
O God! A beast, that wants discourse of reason,
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Would have mourn’d longer,- married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.
But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue!
(Horatio, Barnardo and Marcellus enter. Hamlet is surprised to see them.)
Horatio, or do I forget myself!
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
Horatio:
My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
Hamlet:
I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.
Horatio:
Indeed, my lord, it follow’d hard upon.
Hamlet:
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
(Hamlet is momentarily distracted).
My father, – me thinks I see my father/
Horatio:
O where, my lord?
Hamlet:
In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
Horatio:
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Hamlet:
Saw? Who?
Horatio:
My lord, the King your father.
Hamlet:
The King my father!
Horatio:
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch, been thus encountered:
A figure like your father.
Armed at point, exactly cap-a-pe.
Hamlet:
I will watch tonight; perchance ‘twill walk again.
My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well;
I doubt some foul play.
Then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
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Scene 2.
A room in Polonius’s House. Day.
Narrator:
Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, the King’s cautious old counsellor, loved
Hamlet and believed that he loved her. But Laertes her brother, who was
bound for France, warned her of the danger of a Prince’s love.
Laertes:
For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood. No more.
Ophelia:
No more but so?
Laertes:
Perhaps he loves you now; but you must fear,
His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain
If with too credent ear you list his songs.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you out of the shot and danger of desire.
But here my father comes!
Enter Polonius.
Polonius:
Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for.
(He offers Laertes a farewell embrace)
There; my blessing with thee!
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell!
Laertes:
Farewell Ophelia, and remember well
What I have said to you. (He embraces her.)
Ophelia:
‘Tis in my memory lock’d.
Exit Laertes.
Polonius:
What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
Ophelia:
So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
Polonius:
What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Ophelia:
He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
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Of his affection to me.
Polonius:
Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl!
Ophelia:
My lord, he hath importuned me with love
In honourable fashion.
Polonius:
Go to, go to.
Springes1 to catch woodcocks.
In few, Ophelia, do not believe his vows.
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you slander any moment’s leisure
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to’t, I charge you!
Ophelia:
I shall obey, my lord.
They exit.
Scene 3.
On the Battlements. Night.
Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus stand together.
Hamlet:
What hour now?
Horatio:
I think it lacks of twelve.
Look, my lord, it comes.
Hamlet:
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
The ghost appears, and walks towards Hamlet.
Ghost:
I am thy father’s spirit;
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night.
Hamlet:
I will follow it.
Horatio:
Do not, my lord.
They try to restrain Hamlet. He frees himself and draws his sword.
Hamlet:
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(to Horatio) I say away! – (to the ghost) Go on: I’ll follow thee!
snares
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The ghost beckons Hamlet, mounts steps towards a high lonely platform.
Hamlet follows. Hamlet's companions have been left behind. Hamlet is
alone with the ghost.
Ghost:
List, list, O list2,
If thou didst ever thy dear father love,
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Hamlet:
Murder?
Ghost:
Murder most foul, as in the best it is.
‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
Hamlet:
O my prophetic soul! My uncle?
Ghost:
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts Won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
Hamlet:
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
Ghost:
Fare thee well … Adieu, adieu, adieu …
Remember me.
The ghost exits. Hamlet is left alone weeping with grief, pity and rage.
Blackout.
Narrator:
Hamlet resolved to hide his terrible knowledge under a cloak of madness.
Scene 4.
Polonius’s apartments in the castle. Day.
Polonius is seated at a table. Suddenly his daughter Ophelia, comes
rushing in. It is clear that she is upset.
Ophelia:
Oh my lord, my lord, I have been so afrighted!
Polonius:
With what, i’ the name of God?
Ophelia:
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
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listen
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Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced:
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me!
Polonious:
What said he?
Ophelia:
He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Long stay’d he so;
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
That it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being.
Polonius:
Mad for thy love?
Ophelia:
My Lord, I do not know,
But truly I do fear it.
Polonius:
This is the very ecstasy of love;
Have you given him any hard words of late?
Ophelia:
No, my good lord, but as you did command,
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.
Polonius:
That hath made him mad.
Come, go we to the king:
This must be known.
Blackout.
Scene 5.
The Royal Apartment. A little later.
Polonius, with Ophelia, has just finished relaying the gist of the last scene
to the King and Queen.
Polonius:
…that hath made him mad.
King:
(to the Queen) Do you think ‘tis this?
Queen:
It may be; very likely.
King:
(to Polonius) How may we try it further?
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Polonius:
(to the King and Queen) You know, sometimes he walks four hours
together
Here in the lobby.
At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him;
(to the King) Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter.
King:
We will try it.
Queen:
But look where sadly, the poor wretch comes reading.
Hamlet enters alone, his dress much disordered. King, Queen, Ophelia
and Polonius exit.
Hamlet:
Bloody, bawdy villain!3
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal4, peak5 and can say nothing.
(new thought) The spirit that I have seen6
May be the devil; and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; and perhaps abuses me to damn me.
(new thought) To be7, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, – to sleep No more.
(new thought) About, my brain! I have heard8
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim’d their malefactions;
I’ll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle; I’ll observe his looks.
The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
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Act 2, sc.2, from line 618
Act 2, sc.2 line 604
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to pine away
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Act 2, sc.2 from line 637
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Act 3, Sc. 1 from line 56
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Act 2, sc.2 from line 627
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Polonius and the King creep up on Hamlet. Polonius beckons off and
Ophelia enters. With whispers and gestures, Polonius urges Ophelia into
the same space as Hamlet. Polonius and the King hide where they can
overhear.
Hamlet:
(to Ophelia) Nymph, in thy orisons9
Be all my sins remember’d!
Ophelia:
Good my lord, how does your honour for this many a day?
Hamlet:
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
Ophelia:
My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have long’d to redeliver. (She approaches and holds out a bundle of
ribbon-tied letters and a necklace.)
Hamlet:
No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
Ophelia:
My honour’d lord, you know right well you did.
Hamlet:
(Taking the offerings.) I did love you once.
Ophelia:
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet:
You should not have believed me; I loved you not.
Ophelia:
I was the more deceived
Hamlet
Where’s your father?
Ophelia:
At home, my lord.
Hamlet:
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s
own house. Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners? To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
Farewell.
Hamlet flings the keepsakes in the air and exits. Ophelia sinks to the
ground. The King and Polonius emerge from concealment.
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prayers
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King:
Love? His affections do not that way tend. There’s something in his soul.
Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go.
Blackout.
Scene 6.
A great chamber. Day.
The court are all assembled. The King and Queen are sitting side by side.
Hamlet sits beside Ophelia and closely observes the King. Three travelling
players, a King (paper crown), a Queen (paper crown), and a Murderer
(hooded), are erecting a prop Apple Tree. The King beckons Hamlet,
wishing to know the content of the play.
King:
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?
Hamlet:
No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest. No offence i’ the world.
King:
What do you call the play?
Hamlet:
The Mouse-trap.
The King nods. He signs to the musicians. They sound a fanfare. The
players take their places. The action of the play is carried on in
dumbshow, to the accompaniment of music. The player King and the
player Queen come on, and fondly embrace.
The player King lies down to sleep. The player Queen draws aside. The
Murderer enters and cunningly pours poison in the player King's ear. The
player King jerks in violent pain, then dies. The player Queen rushes
forward and clasps her dead husband with extravagant grief.
The Murderer takes the player Queen by the arm, and offers her jewels. At
first she resists, but then little by little, she capitulates. The player Queen
and the Murderer embrace passionately. The Murderer takes the paper
crown from the dead King and places it on his head.
The (real) King rises from his seat. He is enraged and terrified by the
image of his own crime. The court rises in consternation.
King:
Give me some light! Away!
Hamlet:
What, frightened with false fire?
The King rushes away, followed by the distracted Queen and all the court,
and the confused players and musicians. Hamlet and Horatio are left
alone. Polonius returns, much agitated.
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Polonius:
My lord, the queen would speak with you!
Hamlet:
I will come to my mother by and by.
Polonius moves across stage to:
Scene 7.
The Queen’s bedchamber. Continuous.
Polonius:
He will come straight. Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear
with. I’ll silence me e’en here.
Queen:
Fear me not. Withdraw I hear him coming.
Polonius hides behind the arras10. Hamlet enters.
Hamlet:
Now, mother, what’s the matter?
Queen:
Hamlet, thou has thy father much offended.
Hamlet:
Mother, you have my father much offended.
(Het makes his mother sit and he reaches for a hand mirror.)
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Queen:
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!
Polonius:
(behind the curtain) What ho! Help, help, help!
Hamlet:
How now? A rat ?…(rushing to the curtain)
Dead for a ducat, dead! (He thrusts his sword through the curtain. There is
a cry, and the sound of a body falling. Hamlet draws out his bloody
sword.) Is it the King?
Queen:
Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Hamlet:
Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen:
As kill a king?
Hamlet:
Ay, lady, ‘twas my word.
(He draws aside the curtain and sees Polonius dead.)
Thou wretched rash, intruding fool, farewell.
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hanging tapestry (or curtain) that comes down to floor level
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(Suddenly the ghost of the late King appears to Hamlet and he stares at it
wild eyed.)
(to the ghost) Do you not come your tardy son to chide?
Ghost:
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
Queen:
Whereon do you look?
Hamlet:
(pointing at the ghost) On him, on him!
Look you, how pale he glares!
Do you see nothing there?
Queen:
Nothing at all.
Hamlet:
Why, look you there! Look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Queen:
This is the very coinage of your brain.
Hamlet:
(to the Queen) My pulse, as yours doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music; it is not madness.
(points to the dead body of Polonius) For this same lord,
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so.
I must be cruel, only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
Hamlet departs with the body.
Blackout.
Narrator:
The old man’s death was monstrous. Straightaway Hamlet was despatched
to England. Secret letters, carried by spies condemned him to death. The
bloody deed had struck terror into the King’s heart and driven Ophelia to
madness.
Scene 8.
The Royal Apartment. Day. Some days later.
The King and Queen are in discussion with Horatio when a strange,
distracted wailing is heard. Ophelia enters all in ragged white, crying and
laughing and singing. Wild flowers are in her hair, and she carries a posy.
The death of her father and the loss of Hamlet have driven her mad.
Ophelia:
(singing) He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf ,
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At his heels a stone.
Queen:
What would she have?
Horatio:
She speaks much of her father. She is importunate, indeed, distract.
Ophelia:
White his shroud as the mountain snow
Larded with sweet flowers
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true love showers.
She exits.
King:
Follow her close, give her good watch.
Horatio follows her.
King:
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. First her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he the most violent author
Of his own just remove.
Narrator:
Laertes had returned from France. Enraged by news of his father’s death,
he had stirred up rebellion.
Laertes enters as though he’s had to force his way in.
Laertes:
O thou vile King, give me my father!
Queen:
Calmly, good Laertes.
King:
Let him go, Gertrude. Tell me, Laertes
Why thou art thus incensed.
Laertes:
Where is my father?
King:
Dead.
Queen:
(indicating the King) But not by him!
King:
He which hath your noble father slain, pursued my life.
Before Laertes can react, Ophelia returns, in her distracted state. Laertes
stares at her in horror.
Ophelia:
They bore him bare-faced on the bier,
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And in his grave rain’d many a tear –
She stops and plucking flowers from her posy, presents them to Laertes.
Laertes:
O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens! Is’t possible a young maid’s wits
Should be as mortal as an old man’s life?
Ophelia:
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance;
I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.
Ophelia exits.
Laertes weeps for his sister. The Queen watches her go, then follows.
A messenger enters with a letter.
King:
What news?
Messenger:
Letters, my lord, from Hamlet.
King:
From Hamlet? Laertes, you shall hear them.
Leave us.
The messenger exits.
King:
(reads) “High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your
kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes…”
What should this mean?
Laertes:
Let him come:
It warms the very sickness in my heart
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth
“Thus diest thou”.
The Queen enters, distraught.
Queen:
(to Laertes) One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
So fast they follow. - Your sister’s drown’d, Laertes.
Laertes:
Drown’d! Oh, where?
Queen:
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
There with fantastic garlands did she come,
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.
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Laertes:
Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears.
Only I’ll be revenged.
Blackout.
Scene 9.
A churchyard. Day.
A gravedigger goes about his work. Hamlet and Horatio approach.
Narrator:
Hamlet had also written to Horatio and the two had reunited. Their journey
to the castle took them through the churchyard.
Hamlet:
What man doest thou dig it for?
Gravedigger: For no man, sir.
Hamlet:
What woman, then?
Gravedigger: For none, neither.
Hamlet:
Who is to be buried in’t?
Gravedigger: One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead. (He picks up a
skull from the earth.) Here’s a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth
three and twenty years.
Hamlet:
Whose was it?
Hamlet takes the skull and gazes at it wonderingly.
Gravedigger: A whoreson mad fellow’s it was! This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull,
the King’s jester.
Hamlet:
Alas, poor Yorick! - I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest. But
soft! But soft! Aside: here comes the king, the queen, the courtiers.
A funeral procession approaches. The King, Queen, Laertes and all the
court follow a coffin. A priest is in attendance. Hamlet and Horatio
withdraw behind a monument, to watch. The procession reaches the grave,
and the coffin is lowered in. The priest turns away.
Queen:
(scattering flowers on the coffin) Sweets to the sweet; farewell!
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Hamlet:
What, the fair Ophelia?
Laertes:
Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms!
He leaps down into the grave. Hamlet rushes upon the scene.
Hamlet:
What is he whose grief bears such an emphasis?
Laertes:
The devil take thy soul!
Hamlet leaps down into the grave and grapples with Laertes.
King:
Pluck them asunder!
Horatio:
Good my lord, be quiet.
Hamlet:
I will fight with him upon this theme.
Queen:
Hamlet, Hamlet.
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.
(Courtiers drag the warring youths apart. They glare at each other. Then
Hamlet shrugs his shoulders.)
(to Horatio) I pray you, good Horatio wait upon him.
Blackout.
Scene 10.
An apartment in the castle. Day.
The King and Laertes are together.
Narrator:
Laertes must be avenged. Hamlet must die. To this end, the fearful King
devised a fencing match between the Prince and Laertes but the contest
will be unequal for all the rapiers are foiled except one.
Laertes:
I will do’t. And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of mountebank,
So mortal that, if I gall him slightly, it may be death.
King:
And that he calls for a drink, I’ll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce; whereupon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
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Our purpose may hold there.
Cross fade to:
The great hall of the castle where Hamlet and Horatio are together.
Courtiers gather in anticipation of the fencing match.
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.
Let be.
Trumpets sound, heralding the approach of the King and Queen, and all
the court, to witness the fencing match. They seat themselves. The King
puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s.
Hamlet:
(to Laertes) What I have done, 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.
Who does it then? His madness.
Laertes:
In my terms of honour
I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement.
Foils are brought forward. They are offered first to Laertes. He chooses
one and flourishes it.
Laertes:
This is too heavy; let me see another.
He takes another, which suits him better. He exchanges a secret nod with
the King while Hamlet chooses a sword for himself.
Hamlet:
This likes me well.
A servant brings a goblet of wine and sets it beside the King. The King
raises the glass.
King:
Now drinks the King to Hamlet! Come, begin.
The adversaries swords are put together.
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Hamlet:
Come on, sir.
They fence. Hamlet scores a hit. The King frowns. Then stands and raises
his glass to Hamlet.
King:
A hit, a very palpable hit. Hamlet, this pearl is thine!
Here’s to thy health. (He drops something in the goblet and hands it to his
servant) Give him the cup.
Hamlet:
(refusing the drink) I’ll play this bout first. Set it by awhile.
(the servant sets the poisoned cup down again beside the Queen)
(to Laertes) Come.
(They fence again. Again Hamlet scores a hit.)
Another hit, what say you?
Laertes:
A touch, a touch, I do confess.
The Queen is pleased with Hamlet’s success and picks up the goblet.
Queen:
The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet!
King:
Gertrude, do not drink!
Queen:
I will, my lord. (She drinks).
King:
(aside) It is the poison’d cup. It is too late!
The fencers pause between bouts.
Queen:
(to Hamlet) Come, let me wipe thy face.
Hamlet goes to his mother, and whilst he does so, Laertes lunges at him
and wounds his arm. Hamlet turns incensed. They begin to fence again,
but with a deadly fury. Suddenly Laertes is disarmed. Hamlet takes up the
fallen sword, stares at its unbated ( unfoiled) tip. He throws his own
sword to Laertes, and with the poisoned sword begins to fight again.
Laertes is wounded.
King:
Part them! They are incensed.
The Queen falls.
Hamlet:
How does the Queen?
The fighting stops.
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Laertes knows he is soon to die, having been wounded with the poisoned
sword.
Laertes:
(aside) I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery
Laertes: as a woodcock to mine own springe.
The Queen is dying. Hamlet is at her side. But still the King cannot
confess to the poison.
King:
She swounds to see them bleed!
Queen:
No, no, the drink, the drink! – o my dear Hamlet, - I am poisoned!
She dies
Hamlet:
O villany! Ho! Let the door be lock’d: treachery! Seek it out!
Laertes:
It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom’d. The King – the King’s to blame.
Hamlet:
(looking at the unfoiled rapier tip) The point envenom’d too!
(He seizes the King and stabs him with the poisoned blade.
He takes hold of the poisoned goblet and forces its contents down the
King's throat.) Venom, to thy work.
The King dies.
Laertes:
He is justly served.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;
Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me!
He dies.
Hamlet
Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu.
This fell sergeant, death, is strict in his arrest.
(to Horatio) O good Horatio, 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. 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!
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END
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