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Hamlet: Act V, Scene 2

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Hamlet
Act V, Scene 2

Elsinore. A hall in Elsinore castle.

Theatrical design for the fight scene

Theatrical design for the fight scene

Dimitri Tavadze, 1974

  1. Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet

1 - 2
  1. So much for this, sir, now shall you see the other—
  2. You do remember all the circumstance?

Horatio

3
  1. Remember it, my lord!

Hamlet

4 - 11
  1. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
  2. That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
  3. Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
  4. And prais’d be rashness for it—let us know
  5. Our indiscretion sometime serves us well
  6. When our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us
  7. There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
  8. Rough-hew them how we will—

Horatio

12
  1.                             That is most certain.

Hamlet

13 - 26
  1. Up from my cabin,
  2. My sea-gown scarf’d about me, in the dark
  3. Grop’d I to find out them, had my desire,
  4. Finger’d their packet, and in fine withdrew
  5. To mine own room again, making so bold,
  6. My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
  7. Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio—
  8. Ah, royal knavery!—an exact command,
  9. Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
  10. Importing Denmark’s health and England’s too,
  11. With, ho, such bugs and goblins in my life,
  12. That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
  13. No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
  14. My head should be struck off.

Horatio

27
  1.                               Is’t possible?

Hamlet

28 - 29
  1. Here’s the commission, read it at more leisure.
  2. But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Horatio

30
  1. I beseech you.

Hamlet

31 - 39
  1. Being thus benetted round with villainies,
  2. Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
  3. They had begun the play. I sat me down,
  4. Devis’d a new commission, wrote it fair.
  5. I once did hold it, as our statists do,
  6. A baseness to write fair, and labor’d much
  7. How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
  8. It did me yeman’s service. Wilt thou know
  9. Th’ effect of what I wrote?

Horatio

40
  1.                             Ay, good my lord.

Hamlet

41 - 50
  1. An earnest conjuration from the King,
  2. As England was his faithful tributary,
  3. As love between them like the palm might flourish,
  4. As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
  5. And stand a comma ’tween their amities,
  6. And many such-like as’s of great charge,
  7. That on the view and knowing of these contents,
  8. Without debatement further, more or less,
  9. He should those bearers put to sudden death,
  10. Not shriving time allow’d.

Horatio

51
  1.                            How was this seal’d?

Hamlet

52 - 59
  1. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
  2. I had my father’s signet in my purse,
  3. Which was the model of that Danish seal;
  4. Folded the writ up in the form of th’ other,
  5. Subscrib’d it, gave’t th’ impression, plac’d it safely,
  6. The changeling never known. Now the next day
  7. Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent
  8. Thou knowest already.

Horatio

60
  1. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.

Hamlet

61 - 66
  1. Why, man, they did make love to this employment,
  2. They are not near my conscience. Their defeat
  3. Does by their own insinuation grow.
  4. ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
  5. Between the pass and fell incensed points
  6. Of mighty opposites.

Horatio

67
  1.                      Why, what a king is this!

Hamlet

68 - 75
  1. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon—
  2. He that hath kill’d my king and whor’d my mother,
  3. Popp’d in between th’ election and my hopes,
  4. Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
  5. And with such coz’nage—is’t not perfect conscience
  6. To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damn’d,
  7. To let this canker of our nature come
  8. In further evil?

Horatio

76 - 77
  1. It must be shortly known to him from England
  2. What is the issue of the business there.

Hamlet

78 - 85
  1. It will be short; the interim’s mine,
  2. And a man’s life’s no more than to say “one.”
  3. But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
  4. That to Laertes I forgot myself,
  5. For by the image of my cause I see
  6. The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favors.
  7. But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
  8. Into a tow’ring passion.

Horatio

86
  1.                          Peace, who comes here?
  1. Enter young Osric, a courtier.

Osric

87
  1. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Hamlet

88
  1. I humbly thank you, sir.—Dost know this water-fly?

Horatio

89
  1. No, my good lord.

Hamlet

90 - 93
  1. Thy state is the more gracious, for ’tis a vice to know him.
  2. He hath much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of
  3. beasts, and his crib shall stand at the King’s mess. ’Tis a
  4. chough, but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Osric

94 - 95
  1. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should
  2. impart a thing to you from his Majesty.

Hamlet

96 - 97
  1. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put
  2. your bonnet to his right use, ’tis for the head.

Osric

98
  1. I thank your lordship, it is very hot.

Hamlet

99
  1. No, believe me, ’tis very cold, the wind is northerly.

Osric

100
  1. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

Hamlet

101 - 102
  1. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
  2. complexion.

Osric

103 - 106
  1. Exceedingly, my lord, it is very sultry—as ’twere—I cannot
  2. tell how. My lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that
  3. ’a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the
  4. matter—

Hamlet

107
  1. I beseech you remember.
  1. Hamlet moves him to put on his hat.

Osric

108 - 114
  1. Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith. Sir, here is
  2. newly come to court Laertes, believe me, an absolute
  3. gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft
  4. society, and great showing; indeed, to speak sellingly of
  5. him, he is the card or calendar of gentry; for you shall
  6. find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would
  7. see.

Hamlet

115 - 122
  1. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I
  2. know to divide him inventorially would dozy th’ arithmetic
  3. of memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick
  4. sail; but in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a
  5. soul of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and
  6. rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is
  7. his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage,
  8. nothing more.

Osric

123
  1. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

Hamlet

124 - 125
  1. The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our
  2. more rawer breath?

Osric

126
  1. Sir?

Horatio

127 - 128
  1. Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will
  2. to’t, sir, really.

Hamlet

129
  1. What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

Osric

130
  1. Of Laertes?

Horatio

131
  1. His purse is empty already: all ’s golden words are spent.

Hamlet

132
  1. Of him, sir.

Osric

133
  1. I know you are not ignorant—

Hamlet

134 - 135
  1. I would you did, sir, yet, in faith, if you did, it would
  2. not much approve me. Well, sir?

Osric

136
  1. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is—

Hamlet

137 - 138
  1. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in
  2. excellence, but to know a man well were to know himself.

Osric

139 - 140
  1. I mean, sir, for his weapon, but in the imputation laid on
  2. him by them, in his meed he’s unfellow’d.

Hamlet

141
  1. What’s his weapon?

Osric

142
  1. Rapier and dagger.

Hamlet

143
  1. That’s two of his weapons—but well.

Osric

144 - 149
  1. The King, sir, hath wager’d with him six Barbary horses,
  2. against the which he has impawn’d, as I take it, six French
  3. rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle,
  4. hangers, and so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very
  5. dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate
  6. carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

Hamlet

150
  1. What call you the carriages?

Horatio

151
  1. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

Osric

152
  1. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

Hamlet

153 - 158
  1. The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could
  2. carry a cannon by our sides; I would it might be hangers
  3. till then. But on: six Barb’ry horses against six French
  4. swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited
  5. carriages; that’s the French bet against the Danish. Why is
  6. this all impawn’d, as you call it?

Osric

159 - 163
  1. The King, sir, hath laid, sir, that in a dozen passes
  2. between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three
  3. hits; he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to
  4. immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the
  5. answer.

Hamlet

164
  1. How if I answer no?

Osric

165
  1. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Hamlet

166 - 170
  1. Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty,
  2. it is the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be
  3. brought, the gentleman willing, and the King hold his
  4. purpose, I will win for him and I can; if not, I will gain
  5. nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

Osric

171
  1. Shall I deliver you so?

Hamlet

172
  1. To this effect, sir—after what flourish your nature will.

Osric

173
  1. I commend my duty to your lordship.

Hamlet

174 - 176
  1. Yours.
  2. Exit Osric.
  3. ’A does well to commend it himself, there are no tongues
  4. else for ’s turn.

Horatio

177
  1. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

Hamlet

178 - 184
  1. ’A did comply, sir, with his dug before ’a suck’d it. Thus
  2. has he, and many more of the same breed that I know the
  3. drossy age dotes on, only got the tune of the time, and out
  4. of an habit of encounter, a kind of yesty collection, which
  5. carries them through and through the most profound and
  6. winnow’d opinions, and do but blow them to their trial, the
  7. bubbles are out.
  1. Enter a Lord.

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

Salvador Sánchez Barbudo, 1884

Lord

185 - 188
  1. My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric,
  2. who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall. He
  3. sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or
  4. that you will take longer time.

Hamlet

189 - 191
  1. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the King’s
  2. pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or
  3. whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord

192
  1. The King and Queen and all are coming down.

Hamlet

193
  1. In happy time.

Lord

194 - 195
  1. The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to
  2. Laertes before you fall to play.

Hamlet

196
  1. She well instructs me.
  1. Exit Lord.

Horatio

197
  1. You will lose, my lord.

Hamlet

198 - 201
  1. I do not think so; since he went into France I have been in
  2. continual practice. I shall win at the odds. Thou wouldst
  3. not think how ill all’s here about my heart—but it is no
  4. matter.

Horatio

202
  1. Nay, good my lord—

Hamlet

203 - 204
  1. It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as
  2. would perhaps trouble a woman.

Horatio

205 - 206
  1. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it. I will forestall
  2. their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

Hamlet

207 - 211
  1. Not a whit, we defy augury. There is special providence in
  2. the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it
  3. be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it
  4. will come—the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he
  5. leaves, knows what is’t to leave betimes, let be.
  1. A table prepar’d, and flagons of wine on it.
  1. Enter Trumpets, Drums, and Officers with cushions, foils,
  2. daggers; King, Queen, Laertes, Osric, and all the State.

Claudius

212
  1. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
  1. The King puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s.

Hamlet

213 - 231
  1. Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong,
  2. But pardon’t as you are a gentleman.
  3. This presence knows,
  4. And you must needs have heard, how I am punish’d
  5. With a sore distraction. What I have done
  6. That might your nature, honor, and exception
  7. Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
  8. Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet!
  9. If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,
  10. And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,
  11. Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
  12. Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so,
  13. Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged,
  14. His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.
  15. Sir, in this audience,
  16. Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil
  17. Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
  18. That I have shot my arrow o’er the house
  19. And hurt my brother.

Laertes

232 - 240
  1.                      I am satisfied in nature,
  2. Whose motive in this case should stir me most
  3. To my revenge, but in my terms of honor
  4. I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement
  5. Till by some elder masters of known honor
  6. I have a voice and president of peace
  7. To keep my name ungor’d. But till that time
  8. I do receive your offer’d love like love,
  9. And will not wrong it.

Hamlet

241 - 243
  1.                        I embrace it freely,
  2. And will this brothers’ wager frankly play.
  3. Give us the foils. Come on.

Laertes

244
  1.                             Come, one for me.

Hamlet

245 - 247
  1. I’ll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance
  2. Your skill shall like a star i’ th’ darkest night
  3. Stick fiery off indeed.

Laertes

248
  1.                         You mock me, sir.

Hamlet

249
  1. No, by this hand.

Claudius

250 - 251
  1. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
  2. You know the wager?

Hamlet

252 - 253
  1.                     Very well, my lord.
  2. Your Grace has laid the odds a’ th’ weaker side.

Claudius

254 - 255
  1. I do not fear it, I have seen you both;
  2. But since he is better’d, we have therefore odds.

Laertes

256
  1. This is too heavy; let me see another.

Hamlet

257
  1. This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
  1. Prepare to play.

Osric

258
  1. Ay, my good lord.

Claudius

259 - 271
  1. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.
  2. If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
  3. Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
  4. Let all the battlements their ord’nance fire.
  5. The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath,
  6. And in the cup an union shall he throw,
  7. Richer than that which four successive kings
  8. In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups,
  9. And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
  10. The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
  11. The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
  12. “Now the King drinks to Hamlet.” Come begin;
  13. Trumpets the while.
  14. And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Osric

Osric

John Seymour Lucas

Hamlet

272
  1. Come on, sir.

Laertes

273
  1.               Come, my lord.
  2. They play and Hamlet scores a hit.

Hamlet

274
  1.                One.

Laertes

275
  1.      No.

Hamlet

276
  1.     Judgment.

Osric

277
  1. A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laertes

278
  1.                             Well, again.

Claudius

279 - 280
  1. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine,
  2. Here’s to thy health! Give him the cup.
  1. Drum, trumpets sound flourish. A piece goes off within.

Hamlet

281 - 283
  1. I’ll play this bout first, set it by a while.
  2. Come.
  3. They play again.
  4. Another hit; what say you?

Laertes

284
  1. A touch, a touch, I do confess’t.

Claudius

285
  1. Our son shall win.

Gertrude

286 - 288
  1.                    He’s fat, and scant of breath.
  2. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
  3. The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

Hamlet

289
  1. Good madam!

Claudius

290
  1.             Gertrude, do not drink.

Gertrude

291
  1. I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me.

Claudius

292
  1. Aside.
  2. It is the pois’ned cup, it is too late.

Hamlet

293
  1. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

Gertrude

294
  1. Come, let me wipe thy face.

Laertes

295
  1. My lord, I’ll hit him now.

Claudius

296
  1.                            I do not think’t.

Laertes

297
  1. Aside.
  2. And yet it is almost against my conscience.

Hamlet

298 - 300
  1. Come, for the third, Laertes, you do but dally.
  2. I pray you pass with your best violence;
  3. I am sure you make a wanton of me.

Laertes

301
  1. Say you so? Come on.
  1. They play.

Osric

302
  1. Nothing, neither way.

Laertes

303
  1. Have at you now!
  1. Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change
  2. rapiers.

Claudius

304
  1.                  Part them, they are incens’d.

Hamlet

305
  1. Nay, come again.
  1. Hamlet wounds Laertes.
  1. The Queen falls.

Osric

306
  1. Look to the Queen there ho!

Horatio

307
  1. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

Osric

308
  1. How is’t, Laertes?

Laertes

309 - 310
  1. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric:
  2. I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.

Hamlet

311
  1. How does the Queen?

Claudius

312
  1.                     She swoons to see them bleed.

Gertrude

313 - 314
  1. No, no, the drink, the drink—O my dear Hamlet—
  2. The drink, the drink! I am pois’ned.
  3. Dies.

Hamlet

315 - 316
  1. O villainy! Ho, let the door be lock’d!
  2. Treachery! Seek it out.

Laertes

317 - 324
  1. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.
  2. No med’cine in the world can do thee good;
  3. In thee there is not half an hour’s life.
  4. The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
  5. Unbated and envenom’d. The foul practice
  6. Hath turn’d itself on me. Lo here I lie,
  7. Never to rise again. Thy mother’s pois’ned.
  8. I can no more—the King, the King’s to blame.

Hamlet

325 - 326
  1. The point envenom’d too!
  2. Then, venom, to thy work.
  3. Hurts the King.

All

327
  1. Treason! Treason!

Claudius

328
  1. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

Hamlet

329 - 331
  1. Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane,
  2. Drink off this potion! Is thy union here?
  3. Follow my mother!
  1. King dies.

Laertes

332 - 336
  1.                   He is justly served,
  2. It is a poison temper’d by himself.
  3. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
  4. Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
  5. Nor thine on me!
  6. Dies.

Hamlet

337 - 345
  1. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
  2. I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
  3. You that look pale, and tremble at this chance,
  4. That are but mutes or audience to this act,
  5. Had I but time—as this fell sergeant, Death,
  6. Is strict in his arrest—O, I could tell you—
  7. But let it be. Horatio, I am dead,
  8. Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright
  9. To the unsatisfied.

Horatio

346 - 348
  1.                     Never believe it;
  2. I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
  3. Here’s yet some liquor left.

Hamlet

349 - 357
  1.                              As th’ art a man,
  2. Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I’ll ha’t!
  3. O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,
  4. Things standing thus unknown, shall I leave behind me!
  5. If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
  6. Absent thee from felicity a while,
  7. And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
  8. To tell my story.
  9. A march afar off and a shot within.
  10. What warlike noise is this?
  1. Osric goes to the door and returns.

Osric

358 - 360
  1. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
  2. To th’ ambassadors of England gives
  3. This warlike volley.

Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion!

John Masey Wright, Robert Smirke, circa 1800

Hamlet

361 - 367
  1.                      O, I die, Horatio,
  2. The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit.
  3. I cannot live to hear the news from England,
  4. But I do prophesy th’ election lights
  5. On Fortinbras, he has my dying voice.
  6. So tell him, with th’ occurrents more and less
  7. Which have solicited—the rest is silence.
  1. Dies.

Horatio

368 - 370
  1. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
  2. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
  3. March within.
  4. Why does the drum come hither?
  1. Enter Fortinbras with the English Ambassadors, with Drum,
  2. Colors, and Attendants.

Fortinbras

371
  1. Where is this sight?

Horatio

372 - 373
  1.                      What is it you would see?
  2. If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fortinbras

374 - 377
  1. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
  2. What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
  3. That thou so many princes at a shot
  4. So bloodily hast struck?

First Ambassador

378 - 383
  1.                          The sight is dismal,
  2. And our affairs from England come too late.
  3. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
  4. To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d,
  5. That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
  6. Where should we have our thanks?

Horatio

384 - 398
  1.                                  Not from his mouth,
  2. Had it th’ ability of life to thank you.
  3. He never gave commandment for their death.
  4. But since so jump upon this bloody question,
  5. You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
  6. Are here arrived, give order that these bodies
  7. High on a stage be placed to the view,
  8. And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world
  9. How these things came about. So shall you hear
  10. Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
  11. Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
  12. Of deaths put on by cunning and forc’d cause,
  13. And in this upshot, purposes mistook
  14. Fall’n on th’ inventors’ heads: all this can I
  15. Truly deliver.

Fortinbras

399 - 403
  1.                Let us haste to hear it,
  2. And call the noblest to the audience.
  3. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.
  4. I have some rights, of memory in this kingdom,
  5. Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Horatio

404 - 408
  1. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
  2. And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more.
  3. But let this same be presently perform’d
  4. Even while men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance
  5. On plots and errors happen.

Fortinbras

409 - 417
  1.                             Let four captains
  2. Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,
  3. For he was likely, had he been put on,
  4. To have prov’d most royal; and for his passage,
  5. The soldiers’ music and the rite of war
  6. Speak loudly for him.
  7. Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this
  8. Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
  9. Go bid the soldiers shoot.
  1. Exeunt marching; after the which a peal of ordinance are
  2. shot off.

John Austen, circa 1922

finis
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