TEXT:
HAMLET
Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time - as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest - O, I could tell you…
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead.
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
HORATIO
Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.
HAMLET
As thou'rt a man,
Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.
March afar off, and shot within
What warlike noise is this?
NOTES:
Titinius
At the end of Julius Caesar, both Cassius and Brutus die by suicide. The Roman glorification of honourable death by suicide has long been associated with Brutus in particular, and certainly Horatio’s nod to being more an antique Roman than a Dane echoes the on-stage deaths of these two lead characters. But as mentioned, there is another significant suicide at the end of Julius Caesar. Cassius’ friend and associate Titinius is the first to find him after his death, and Shakespeare gives him a very moving speech before he too ends his life in grief at the death of his friend:
Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius?
Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they
Put on my brows this wreath of victory,
And bid me give it thee? Didst thou not hear their shouts?
Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing!
But, hold thee, take this garland on thy brow;
Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I
Will do his bidding. Brutus, come apace,
And see how I regarded Caius Cassius.
By your leave, gods:--this is a Roman's part
Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart.
Felicity Awhile
In his lovely account of the various times he played Polonius (in the first volume of the great series “Players of Shakespeare”) Tony Church mentions a very funny game that actors play, attempting to find proper names within the text of the play. His favourite (and mine) is Felicity Awhile, which could also serve as a most erudite Shakespearean name for a budding drag queen!