Hamlet Page #25

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.

Never believe it.

l am more an antique Roman

than a Dane.

Here's yet some liquor left.

As thou'rt a man,

give me the cup. Let go!

By heaven!

Ill ha 't.

HAMLET:

O God, Horatio...

[CUP CLATTERS]

...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.

HAMLET:

And in this harsh world...

...draw thy breath in pain

to tell my story.

[CANNONS FIRING]

What warlike noise is this?

Young Fortinbras, with conquest

come from Poland...

...to th' ambassadors of England

gives this warlike volley.

I die, Horatio.

The potent poison

quite o'ercrows my spirit.

I cannot live

to hear the news from England...

...but I do prophesy...

...th' election lights on Fortinbras.

[GRUNTING]

He hath my dying voice.

So tell him...

...with th' occurents, more and less...

...which have solicited.

The rest...

...is...

...silence.

Now cracks a noble heart.

Good night...

...sweet prince...

...and flights of angels

sing thee to thy rest.

[DRUMS BEATING]

HORATIO:

Why does the drum come hither?

FORTIMBRAS:

Where is this sight?

HORATIO:

What is it you would see?

If aught of woe or wonder...

...cease your search.

This quarry cries on havoc.

FORTINBRAS:

O proud death...

...what feast is toward

in thine eternal cell...

...that thou so many princes at a shot

so bloodily hast struck?

[DOOR OPENS]

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 fulfilled...

...that Rozencrantz and Guildenstern...

...are dead.

Where should we have our thanks?

Not from his mouth...

...had it th' 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.

HORATIO:

And let me speak...

...to th' yet unknowing world

how these things came about.

HORATIO:

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 th' inventors' heads.

All this...

...can I truly deliver.

Let us haste to hear it...

...and call the noblest to the audience.

FORTINBRAS:

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.

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 performed...

...even while men's minds are wild...

...lest more mischance

on plots and errors happen.

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.

FORTINBRAS:
And for his passage,

the soldiers' music and the rites of war...

...speak loudly for him.

Take up the body.

Such a sight as this becomes the field...

...but here shows much amiss.

Go.

Bid the soldiers shoot.

Rate this script:3.5 / 4 votes