Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/165

Prince of Denmark, V. i

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 soldiers' music and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him.

 392 stage: platform

396 casual: unpremeditated

397 forc'd: unreal

403 rights of memory: ancient claims

406 draw on more: be seconded by others

411 been put on: been put to the proof, tried

