Osric. How is't, Laertes?
Laertes. I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
Hamlet. How does the Queen?
King.

She swounds' to see them bleed Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink, - O my dear Hamlet, The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.

[Dies.) Hamlet. O villainy! Ho! let the door be locked. Treachery! Seek it out.

(Laertes falls.]
Laertes. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.

No medicine in the world can do thee good;
In thee there is not half an hour of life.
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand;
The foul practice
Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again. Thy mother's poisoned !

I can no more. The King, the King's to blame.
Hamlet. The point envenomed too!
Then, poison, to thy work.

He stabs the King.
King. O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.3
Hamlet. Here, thou murderous beast
Drink off this poison!

[King dies.) Laertes.

He is justly served; It is a poison mixed by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me! [Dies.] 1 swounds (swoonz): faints. 2 practice: trick.

Hamlet. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.

I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
Horatio,
Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absént thee from felicity' a while,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story.
0, I die, Horatio;
The potent? poison quite o'er-crows my spirit.
I cannot live to hear the news from England,
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras4; he has my dying voice.
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited.?

(Dies.]
Horatio. Good-night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.8

[March within.) Why does the drum come hither?

Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway, enters with his soldiers, returning from a victory in Poland. Fortinbras. Where is this sight? O proud Death,

What feast is on in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck? - Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the church,
For he was likely, had he been made King,
To have proved most royal; and, for his death,
1 felicity: joys.

potent (põ'těnt): powerful.
3 o'er-crows: crows over, as in triumph.
4 election lights on Fortinbras; i.e. the choice for king of Denmark.
occurrents: events, incidents.
more and less: great and small.
7 solicited: prompted me.

8 For stage presentation the playet may end here, unless there are enough in the cast to represent Fortinbras and his army.

2

5

6

The soldiers' music and the rites 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.

(Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies.)
A peal of cannons shakes the air.

ADDITIONAL READINGS
From the complete play of Hamlet.
Fortinbras.

I, i, 60–111;ii, 17-41.
II, ii, 58–85.
IV, iv.

V, ii, from 366.
Ophelia (and her brother Laertes).

1, ii, 42-63; iii.
II, i, from 74; ii, 86–221.
III, i, 28–168; ii, 110–146, 236–241.
IV, v, vii.

V, i, ii, 230–335.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

II, ii, 1–38, 222-387.
III, i, 1–28; ii, 285–362; iii, 1–27.
IV, i, 1-4, 32–37; ii, iii, 11-16, 55-end.

V, ii, 12–62; 372–375.
The Players.

II, ii, 430-546.

III, ii, 1–46, 130–269. Osric.

V, ii, 81–198.

1 The line numbers refer to The Macmillan Pocket Classics edition of Hamlet.

CALIBAN

A Forty-minute Play in Five Acts from

THE TEMPEST

THE PRESENTATIONS
ALONSO (å-lon'zo), King of Naples.
PROSPERO (pros'pēr-o), the right Duke of Milan.
ANTONIO (an-to'ny-7), his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan.
CALIBAN (kaloi-băn), 8 age and deformed slave.
TRINCULO (trừng'kx-lõ), a jester.
STEPHANO (stěf'à-no), a drunken butler.
MIRANDA (mi-răn'da), daughter to Prospero.
ARIEL (ā'r¥-ěl), an airy spirit.
8 reading parts.*

SETTING: An uninhabited island

SYNOPSIS

Act I. Before Prospero's cell, a cave on a desert island. Prospero and Miranda, Ariel, Caliban.

Act II. Another part of the island. Caliban, Trinculo, Stephano.
Act III. Another part of the island.
Act IV. Before Prospero's cell.

Act V. Prospero and Ariel; the King of Naples; Prospero's brother, the usurping Duke.

PROLOG-INTRODUCTION 1 It may seem strange to see an uncouth, wicked man assume the title rôle, but in this playlet from The Tempest, Caliban must lead.

* The King of Naples may be accompanied by two or three (or more) supernumerary lords. 1 Prolog-Introduction. Ariel may assume Prolog's lines.

Not only does the interest gravitate toward him, but he is the principal comedian.

Caliban is a hideous slave. His mother was a witch, and when she died, he was left a deformed child, on this barren island alone. This rocky isle, therefore, belongs to him. It is his inheritance. But the enchanter Prospero has taken it away from him.

Prospero, however, is not a magician of the meaner sort. He is

The Bermudas are on the other side of the globe, a thousand miles east of Cape Hatteras, i.e. off the coast of the United States.

the Duke of Milan, banished by his wicked brother, who placed him and his infant daughter in an open boat, so that they drifted to this shore. Though Caliban is subject to him, he is treated as he deserves.

Caliban is of the earth, earthy. His name is made up of the transposed letters of the word cannibal. He has the appetites and