Act V, Scene 2
[Line 396]
[HAMLET dies]
HORATIO
Now cracks a noble heart.
Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels
Sing thee to thy rest.
[Trumpets and sounds of an army. More shots fired, closer to the stage.]
Why does the drum come hither?
[Enter FORTINBRAS, with the ENGLISH AMBASSADORS with Drums, Colors, and ATTENDANTS.]
FORTINBRAS
Where is this sight?
HORATIO
What is it you would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
FORTINBRAS
This quarry cries on havoc. O, proud Death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck?
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 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Where should we have our thanks?
HORATIO
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 wards, and you from England,
Are here arrived. 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 forced cause.
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fallen on the inventors’ heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.
FORTINBRAS
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.
HORATIO
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.
FORTINBRAS
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage.
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royal; And for his passage,
The soldier’s music and the rite 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.
[ALL exeunt, marching. After they all leave, sounds of gunfire, cannonfire, or other ordnance.]