The poisoner wooes the queen with gifts, fhe feems unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. Exeunt dumb fhew. Prologue to the play. Play begins. Enter player king and queen. King hath been 30 years married to the queen. Queen's protestation of inviolable love to him. King is infirm, and expects to die foon: mentions her marrying another husband, which fhe protefts againft, with oaths and imprecations. King fleeps. Queen leaves him. Enter Lucianus, nephew to the king. Pours poifon in the king's ears.

Here the play is broke off by the king's rifing and discovering marks of terror. Exeunt.

Sc. VIII. Manent Ham. and Hor. From the king's beha

viour at the play, they conclude him guilty, and the ghoft's words true. Enter Rof. and Guil. who brings news that the king is out of order; and that the queen defires to fpeak with Ham, in her chamber before bed-time. They found Ham. about his diftemper, but meet with a fharp rebuff. Enter Pol. to tell Ham. the queen waits for him. Exeunt all but Ham. His foliloquy before going to his mother. Exit.

Sc. IX. Enter king, Ref. and Guil. The king determines to fend Ham. to England with all speed, and orders Rof. and Guil. to attend him. Exeunt Rof. and Guil. Enter Pol. with advice that Ham. is going to his mother's closet, and that he (Pol.) will hide himself behind the arras to hear their conference. Exit. King's foliloquy on his crimes of ambition, murther and inceft; addreffes himself to prayer and repentance, but ineffectually.

6

Sc. X.

Sc. X. The king kneeling, Ham. enters.

Ham. is inclined

to make use of this opportunity, to kill him; but deliberates that this is not a proper time while he is praying, for then fhould he fend his foul to heaven; but fince he kill'd his father unprepared, he will wait a more proper time for his revenge, when the king shall be engaged in fome debauchery that may unfit him for heaven. Exeunt.

Sc. XI. Enter

and Pol. Pol. tells her Ham. is com

queen
ing, and hides himself.
roughly with the queen.
for help behind the arras.
knowing it to be Pol.

Enter Ham. He begins
She cries out.

Pol. calls

Ham. kills him; not
Ham. proceeds to call the

queen to account, for marrying his uncle and the
murderer of his father. Produces two pictures, one
of his uncle, the other of his father, and makes a
comparison between them, which affects the queen.
While he is inveighing against his uncle, enter
ghoft. He asks the ghoft the cause of its fecond
appearance, which anfwers that it is come to put
him in mind of his promised revenge. Exit ghost.
The queen, to whom the ghost was invisible, im-
putes Ham.'s holding discourse with vacancy (as fhe
thought) to his madness. Ham. convinces her that
Is forry
he is not mad in reality, but in craft.
that he has killed Pol. Exeunt Ham. in tugging
out Pol.

ACT IV.

Sc. I. A royal apartment. Enter king and queen. Queen acquaints the king with Ham.'s having killed Pol.

King calls Rof. and Guil. whom he sends to fearch for Ham. and the dead body. Exeunt.

Sc. II. Enter Ham. and after him Rof. and Guil. They afk him what he has done with the dead body, but he does not fatisfy them. Exeunt.

Sc. III. Enter king. Refolves that Ham. fhall be sent away fuddenly, but that it muft not appear fo to the people. Enter Rof. Tells the king that Ham. is without, guarded. Enter Ham. and Guil. King gets from Ham. where he has laid the body. Tells him he muft ftrait for England. Ham. takes his leave. King directs Rof. and Guil. to follow him. Exeunt. Manet king, who in a foliloquy discovers that Ham. is fent to England to be murthered, Exit.

Sc. IV. A camp on the frontiers of Denmark. Enter Fortinbras with an army. Bids a captain go and claim a march through the kingdom. Exeunt Fort. and army. Manet captain. Enter Ham. Rof. Ham. enquires of the captain, whose was the army and whither purposed. Captain tells him 'tis Fortinbras's army, and defigned for Poland. Exeunt. Manet Ham. His foliloquy. Blames himself for not having yet executed his revenge; and refolves to fix his mind more ftrongly on it.

Sc. V. A palace. Enter queen and a gentleman, who acquaints her that Oph. is diftracted, and wants admiffion to her. The queen at first refuses to see her, but afterwards admits her. Enter Oph. finging diftractedly, during which enter king. After further wild behaviour, exit Oph. followed and watched. 3

King orders her to be Reflects on the death of

Pel.

Pol. and his private interment, the madness of Oph.
Laertes's coming from France, and the animofities

that may arise among the people on these accounts.
A noife within.

Sc. VI. Enter meffenger, who acquaints the king, that Laer. is come with a riotous rabble, who proclaim him king. The doors are broke open.

Enter Laer. demands fatisfaction, and vows to revenge his fa

ther's death.

Sc. VII. Enter Oph. fantaftically dreft with straws and flowers, finging and talking wildly. Laer. is further moved by this scene to his revenge; and the king promifes him fatisfaction from the offender. Ex

eunt.

Sc. VIII. Enter Hor. and failors, who bring him a letter from Ham. with news that Ham. in his paffage to England, was taken prisoner by pirates, who use him kindly, and defiring Hor. to repair speedily to him. Exeunt.

Sc. IX. Enter king and Laer. Further talk of Pol.'s death and Oph.'s madnefs, and Laert.'s refolution to revenge. Enter meffenger with letters from Hamlet, importing his being fet on shore in Denmark, and that he will see the king on the morrow. [Exit meffenger.] Who proposes a scheme for Laert.'s revenge on Ham. by engaging Ham. in a trial of fkill at foils with Laer.; and Laer. is to make choice of an unbated fword, fo that in the action Laer. may kill Ham. Laer. further improves upon this murderous scheme, by telling the king he will poison the point of his fword, fo that if he but flightly wounded Ham. he would die.

Sc. X. Enter queen, with the news that Oph. while climbing to hang a garland of flowers, fhe had made, on a willow that hung over a brook, fell into the brook and was drowned. Exeunt.

ACT V.

Sc. I. A church. Enter two clowns, with fpades and mattocks to dig Ophelia's grave. Humorous talk of felf-murder, &c. Exit 2d clown. Enter Ham. and Hor. Firft clown fings.

on death-talk with the clown.

Ham.'s reflections

Sc. II. Enter king, queen, Laer. and a coffin, with lords and priests attendant, to the burial of Oph. Laer.

leaps into the grave.

ples with him. The

eunt.

Ham. follows. Laer. grapattendants part them. Ex

Sc. III. A hall in the palace. Enter Ham. and Hor.

Ham. tells Hor. of the king's villainy in fending

him to England to be murdered, and of the way he escaped.

Sc. IV. Enter Ofrick-tells, that the king hath laid a wager on Ham.'s head againft Laer. of their fkill in the rapier. Ham. accepts the challenge.

Sc. V. Enter king, queen, Laer. lords, with other attendants, with foils and gantlets. A table, and flagons of wine on it. King gives Ham. Laer.'s hand in token of friendship. Ham. begs him pardon for the wrongs he had done. They play. Ham. gives the first hit. King drinks to him, and offers him a poifoned cup. Ham. refufes to drink.

Gets