The Plays of William Shakspeare, Accurately Printed from the Text of the Corrected Copies, Left by the Late George Steevens, and Edmond Malone, with a Sketch of His Life, and a Glossary. New Ed. Rev

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not

fit.

now,

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be '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, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come. and take this hand from me.

[The KING puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, and you must needs have heard,

How I am punish'd with a 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.
in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

Laer. 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 ungor'd: But till that time, I do receive your offer'd love like love, And will not wrong it.

Ham. I embrace it freely; And will this brother's wager frankly play. · Give us the foils; come on.

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 heaven to earth,
Come, begin;-
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir,

Laer.

Come, my lord.

Ham.

Laer.

One.

No.

Ham.

Judgment.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laer.

Well, again. King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Give him the cup. Here's to thy health.

[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come.. Another hit; What say you? [They play. Laer. 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. Ham. Good madam,

[They play.

King.

Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord;- I pray you, pardon me. King. It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.

[Aside. by and by.

Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam;
Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
I do not think it.
King.
Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience.
[Aside.
Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but
dally;

I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard, you make a wanton of me.
Laer. Say you so? come on.

Osr. Nothing neither way.
Laer. Have at you now.

[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling,
they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds
LAERTES.

[They play.

King.
Part them, they are incens'd.
Ham. Nay, come again. [The QUEEN falls.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
Hor. They bleed on both sides:
How is it, my
lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe,
Osric;

I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?

King.
She swoons to see them bleed.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink, O my
dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink; - I am poison'd! [Dies.
Ham. O villainy! Ho! let the door belock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.
[LAERTES falls.
Laer. 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's life;

The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice
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.
Ham. The point
Envenom'd too!

Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the KING.

Osr.& Lords. Treason! treason!
King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned
Dane,

Drink off this potion: Is the union here?
Follow my mother.
[KING dies.
Laer.
He is justly serv'd;
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. Ham. 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 liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor.

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

Ham. As thou'rt a man, Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it. O God! 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 of, and shot within.

What warlike noise is this? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.

Ham.
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 or less, Which have solicited, The rest is silence. [Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;

Good night,

sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Why does the drum come hither?

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and.

others. Fort. Where is this sight? Hor.

What is it, you would see? If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havock! - O proud death! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes, at a shot, So bloodily hast struck?

1 Amb.

[March within

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?

Hor. 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 arriv'd; 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 forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.
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.

Hor. 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.

Fort.
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldier's musick, 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.

DUKE OF VENICE.
BRABANTIO, a senator.
Two other Senators.
GRATIANO, brother to Brabantio.

LODOVICO, kinsman to Brabantio.

OTHELLO, the Moor:

CASSIO, his lieutenant;
IAGO, his ancient.

THE MOOR OF VENICE.

OTHELLO,

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

RODERIGO, a Venetian gentleman.

MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the government of

Cyprus.

SCENE, -for the First Act, in VENICE; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-Port in CYPRUS.

Venice. A Street.

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

Clown, servant to Othello.
Herald.

DESDEMONA, daughter to Brabantio, and wife te
Othello.

EMILIA, wife to Iago.

BIANCA, a courtezan, mistress to Cassio.

SCENE I..
Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

Rod. Tush, never tell me, I take it much un

kindly,

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse,

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose

As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of this.
Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me : -

As masterly as he mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. But, he, sir, had the election:
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof

If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

At Rhodes, at Cyprus; and on other grounds

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy Christian and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and calm'd

hate.

Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones
of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capp'd to him: - and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place :
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits
My mediators; for, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was he?

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors,
Attendants, &c.

ACT I.

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster ;
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I,

Rod.

By heaven, I rather would have beer his hangman.

Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of
service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself.
Whether I in any just term am affin'd

To love the Moor.

Rod.

I would not follow him then.

(God bless the mark!) his Moor-ship's ancient.

Iago. O, sir, content you; I follow him to serve my turn upon him : We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave, That, doting on his own obsequious bondage, Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are,
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them, and, when they have lin'd
their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;
And such a one do 1 profess myself.
For, sir,

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end :
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my skeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, If he can carry't thus!

Iago.

Call up her father, Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen, And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy, Yet throw such changes of vexation on't, As it may lose some colour.

Rod. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell,

As when, by night and negligence, the fire
Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What, ho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, ho!

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

you,

If't be your pleasure, and most wise consent,
(As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o'the night,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence :
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I

say again, hath made a gross revolt; Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, In an extravagant and wheeling stranger,

Of here and every where: Straight satisfy yourself: If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state For thus deluding you.

To lead their business in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a flag and sign of love,

――――

Bra.
Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper ;·
- call up all my people:
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppresses me already : —
Light, I say! light!
[Exit, from above.
Iago.
Farewell; for I must leave you :
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall,)

Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state, —
However this may gall him with some check,
Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,
(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have not,

Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely | Put into circumscription and confine
find him,
For the sea's worth.
yonder?

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Erit.
Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches.
Bra. It is too true an evil: gone she is ;
And what's to come of my despised time,
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,
Where didst thou see her? O, unhappy girl! —
With the Moor, say'st thou? -- Who would be a
father?

How didst thou know 'twas she?-O, thou deceiv'st

What said she to you? Get more

Past thought! tapers;

Cas.

Raise all my kindred.

The duke does greet you, general; Are they married think you? And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance, Rod. Truly, I think, they are. Bra. O heaven! How got she out!· · O treason of the blood!

Even on the instant.

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act.— Are there not charms,
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

Rod.

Yes, sir; I have indeed.
Bra. Call up my brother. — O, that you had had❘
her!
Some one way, some another. Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod. I think, I can discover him; if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.

At every house I'll call;
Get weapons, ho!

Bra. Pray you, lead on. may command at most ;And raise some special officers of night. On, good Roderigo; I'll deserve your pains. [Exeunt.

Oth. 'Tis better as it is.
Iago.

SCENE II. The same.
Another Street.
Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants.
Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o'the conscience,
To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes, to do me service: Nine or ten times
I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the

ribs.

Nay, but he prated, And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms Against your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray, sir,
Are you fast married? for, be sure of this,
That the magnifico is much beloved;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
As double as the duke's; he will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might, to enforce it on,)
Will give him cable.

Oth.
Let him do his spite :
My services, which I have done the signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege; and my demerits
May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition

But, look! what lights come

Enter CASSIO, at a distance, and certain Officers with torches.

Iago. These are the raised father, and his friends: You were best go in.

Oth.

Not I: I must be found;
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul,
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

Iago. By Janus, I think no.

Oth. The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant.
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?

Good signior, you shall more command with years,
Than with your weapons.

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd
my daughter?

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her :
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magick were not bound,
Whether a maid · —so tender, fair, and happy;
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou: to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense,

« Previous Continue »

Books

The Plays of William Shakspeare, Accurately Printed from the Text of the ...