Scene summary
Hamlet tells Horatio what happened on the voyage to England: unable to sleep, he got up in the cabin at night, stole the royal dispatches that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were carrying and, on opening the seal, found the order from Claudius that his head be cut off as soon as the English king read the letter. He wrote another, asking that the two bearers be put to death without confession, and sealed it with his father's ring, which served as seal. The next day came the battle with the pirates, and the exchange was never discovered. Horatio hesitates over the fate of the two, but Hamlet says they meddled in a quarrel with more powerful adversaries. He asks Horatio whether it is not just to kill the man who killed his father, dishonored his mother, and wants to kill him. Horatio warns that the king will soon hear from England, and Hamlet replies that the interval is his, for a man's life is no more than to say "one." He says he regrets having gone too far with Laertes.
Osric, a courtier full of bows, comes to say that the king has wagered on Hamlet against Laertes, in twelve bouts of fencing, that Laertes will not win three more bouts than the prince. Hamlet accepts the duel. He confesses a bad foreboding to Horatio, and Horatio offers to call it off, but Hamlet refuses: there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow, and readiness is all. The king, the queen, Laertes and the lords enter. Hamlet asks Laertes's pardon, saying that his madness wronged him, and Laertes accepts only in part. Laertes swaps swords, on the pretext that his is heavy, and Claudius orders the wine jugs prepared. After the first bout, he drops a pearl into the cup and offers it to Hamlet. Hamlet wins the first two bouts, and Gertrude, who drinks to her son's luck, takes the poisoned cup, despite Claudius's warning.
In the third bout, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, and in the close fighting the two swap swords: Hamlet wounds Laertes with the poisoned blade. The queen falls and says the wine poisoned her. Laertes, fallen, confesses that the tip was poisoned, that Hamlet has less than half an hour to live, and that the guilt is the king's. Hamlet drives his sword into Claudius and forces him to drink the wine, and Laertes asks Hamlet's pardon in exchange for his own. Horatio wants to drink the rest of the poison to die alongside him, but Hamlet prevents him and asks him to live and tell his story. Cannons are heard: it is young Fortinbras, back from Poland. Hamlet names him as successor, says "The rest is silence," and dies. Fortinbras arrives with English ambassadors, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Horatio offers to explain everything, Fortinbras agrees to hear him, claims the kingdom, and orders that Hamlet be carried like a soldier to the stage.
Analysis
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