if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, providedI be so able as now.
Lord.
The King and Queen and all are coming down.
Ham.
In happy time.
Lord.
The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to
Laertes before you fall to play.
Ham.
She well instructs me.
[Exit Lord.]
Hor.
You will lose this wager, my lord.
Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France I have been in continual practice: I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart: but it is no matter.
Hor.
Nay, good my lord,—
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 anything, obey it: I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.
Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘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 has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?
[Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric, and Attendants with foils &c.]
King.
Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
[The King puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s.]
Ham.
Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong:
But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman.
This presence knows, and you must needs have heard,
How I am punish’d with 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.
Sir, 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.
Laer.
Come, one for me.
Ham.
I’ll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star in the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.
Laer.
You mock me, sir.
Ham.
No, by this hand.
King.
Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
You know the wager?
Ham.
Very well, my lord;
Your grace has laid the odds o’ the weaker side.
King.
I do not fear it; I have seen you both;
But since he’s better’d, we have therefore odds.
Laer.
This is too heavy, let me see another.
Ham.
This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
[They prepare to play.]
Osr.
Ay, my good lord.
King.
Set me the stoups of wine upon that table,—
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,
