The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkeV

Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

I tell thee she is, and therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian burial.

How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

Why ’tis found so.

3095 It must be se offendendo, it cannot be else: for here lies the point; if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches. It is an act to do and to perform; argal she drowned herself wittingly.

3100 Nay but hear you goodman delver.

Give me leave; here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water and drown himself; it is will he nill he, he goes; mark you that? But if the water come to him & drown him; he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life.

But is this law?

I marry is’t, crowner’s quest law.

Will you ha the truth on’t: if this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

Why there thou say’st. And the more pity tha[…] great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my spade; there is no ancient gentlemen, but gardeners, ditchers and gravemakers; they hold up Adam’s profession.

Was he a gentleman?

He was the first that ever bore arms.

3120 Why he had none.

What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam dig’d; could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself⸺

Go to.

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

The gallows maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

I like thy wit well in good faith, the gallows does well; but how does it well? It does well to those that do ill: now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church: Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.

Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?

I, tell me that, and unyoke.

Marry, now I can tell.

3140 To't.

Mass, I cannot tell.

Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and when you are asked this question next, say a grave-maker: the houses that he makes, lasts till doomsday: go, get thee to Taughan, fetch me a stoup of liquor.

In youth when I did love, did love,

methought it was very sweet:

To contract o the time for a my behoue,

3150 O me thought there was nothing meet.

Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at grave-making?

Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

3155 Tis e'en so; the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

But age with his stealing steps

hath caught me in his clutch:

And hath shipped me intill the land,

3160 as if I had never been such.

That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to th’ ground, as if it were Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder: It might be the pate of a politician which this ass o’er offices: one that could circumvent God, might it not?

It might, my lord.

Or of a courtier, which could say, Good morrow sweet lord: how dost thou, good lord? This might be my Lord such a one, that praised my Lord such a one’s horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

I, my lord.

Why e'en so: and now my Lady Worm’s chapless, and knocked about the mazard with a sexton’s spade; here's fine revolution, if we had the trick to see’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggets with ’em? Mine ache to think on’t.

A pickaxe and a spade, a spade.

for and a shrouding‐sheet:

3180 O a pit of clay for to be made,

for such a guest is meet.

There’s another: why might not that be the skull of of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now? His quillets? His cases? His tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum. This fellow might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more? Ha?

Not a jot more, my lord.

Is not parchment made of Sheep-skins?

I my lord, and of calves’ skins too.

3200 They are sheep and calves that seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow; whose grave’s this sir?

Mine sir:

O a pit of clay for to be made,

3205 for such a guest is meet.

I think it be thine indeed: for thou liest in’t.

You lie out on’t sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in’t; and yet it is mine.

Thou dost lie in’t, to be in’t and say ’tis thine: ’tis for the dead, not for the quick, therefore thou liest.

’Tis a quick lie sir, ’twill away again from me to you.

What man dost thou dig it for?

3215 For no man sir.

What woman then?

For none neither.

Who is to be buried in’t?

One that was a woman sir; but rest her soul, she's dead.

How absolute the knave is? We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us: by the Lord Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it, the age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heels of our courtier, he galls his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

Of all the days i’th’ year, I came to't that day that our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.

How long is that since?

3230 Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that: It was the very day, that young Hamlet was born, he that was mad, and sent into England.

I marry, why was he sent into England?

Why, because he was mad; he shall recover his wits there; or if he do not, it’s no great matter there.

Why?

’Twill not be seen in him, there the men are as mad as he.

How came he mad?

3240 Very strangely they say.

How strangely?

Faith e'en with losing his wits.

Upon what ground?

Why here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and boy thirty years.

How long will a man lie i’th’earth ere he rot?

I’faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as we have many pocky Corpses nowadays, that will scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some eight year, or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year.

Why he, more than another?

Why sir, his hide is so tan’d with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while. And your water, is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull now: this skull, has lain in the earth three & twenty years.

Whose was it?

A whoreson mad fellow’s it was;

Whose do you think it was?

Nay, I know not.

3260 A pestilence on him for a mad rogue, a pour’d a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull sir, this same skull sir, was Yorick’s skull, the King’s jester.

This?

E'en that.

3265 Let me see. Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest; of most excellent fancy, he hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And how abhorred my imagination is, my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? No one now to mock your own jeering? Quite chopfallen? Now get you to my ladies chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that: prithee Horatio tell me one thing.

What’s that my lord?

Dost thou think Alexander looked o’this fashion i’th’earth?

3280 E'en so.

And smelt so? Puh.

E'en so, my lord.

To what base uses we may return Horatio. Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bunghole.

’Twere to consider: too curiously to consider so.

No faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with modesty enough, & likelihood to lead it; as thus. Alexander died: Alexander was buried: Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam, and why of that loam (whereto he was converted) might they not stop a beer-barrel?

Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

3295 Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,

Should patch a wall, t’expel the winter’s flaw.

But soft, but soft, aside; here comes the King.

The Queen, the courtiers. Who is that they follow,

And with such maimèd rites? This doth betoken,

3300 The corpse they follow, did with desperate hand,

Fore do it own life; ’twas some estate.

Couch we awhile, and mark.

What ceremony else?

That is Laertes, a very noble youth: Mark.

3305 What ceremony else?

Her obsequies have been as far enlarged.

As we have warrantise, her death was doubtful,

And but that great command, o’ersways the order,

She should in ground unsanctified have lodged,

3310 Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayer,

Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her:

Yet here she is allowed her virgin rites,

Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home

Of bell and burial.

3315 Must there no more be done?

No more be done:

We should profane the service of the dead,

To sing sage requiem, and such rest to her

As to peace-parted souls.

3320 Lay her i’th’earth,

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh,

May violets spring. I tell thee (churlish priest)

A ministring angel shall my sister be,

When thou liest howling?

3325 What, the fair Ophelia?

Sweets, to the sweet farewell.

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife:

I thought thy bride-bed to have decked (sweet maid)

And not t’have strewed thy grave.

3330 Oh terrible woe,

Fall ten times treble, on that cursèd head

Whose wicked deed, thy most ingenious sense

Deprived thee of. Hold off the earth awhile,

Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:

3335 Now pile your dust, upon the quick, and dead,

Till of this flat a mountain you have made,

To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head

Of blue Olympus.

What is he, whose griefs

3340 Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow

Conjure the wandering stars, and makes them stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

The devil take thy soul.

3345 Thou pray’st not well,

I prithee take thy fingers from my throat;

Sir though I am not splenative, and rash,

Yet have I something in me dangerous,

Which let thy wiseness fear. Away thy hand.

3350 Pluck them asunder.

Hamlet, Hamlet.

Good my lord be quiet.

Why I will fight with him upon this theme,

Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

3355 Oh my son, what theme?

I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers

Could not (with all their quantity of love)

Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

Oh he is mad Laertes,

3360 For love of God forbear him.

Come show me what thou’lt do.

Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t tear thyself?

Woo’t drink up esile, eat a crocodile?

I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine;

3365 To outface me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick with her, and so will I.

And if thou prate of mountains; let them throw

Millions of acres on us; till our ground

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

3370 Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, and thou'lt mouth,

I'll rant as well as thou.

This is mere madness;

And thus awhile the fit will work on him:

Anon as patient as the female dove,

3375 When that her golden couplet are disclosed;

His silence will sit drooping.

Hear you sir:

What is the reason that you use me thus?

I loved you ever; but it is no matter:

3380 Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

I pray you good Horatio wait upon him,

Strengthen you patience in our last night’s speech,

We'll put the matter to the present push:

3385 Good Gertrude set some watch over your son,

This grave shall have a living monument:

An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

So much for this sir; now let me see the other,

3390 You do remember all the circumstance.

Remember it my lord?

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,

That would not let me sleep; methought I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes, rashly,

3395 (And praise be rashness for it) let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our dear plots do pall, and that should teach us,

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

3400 That is most certain.

Up from my cabin

My sea-gown scarfed about me in the dark,

Groped I to find out them; had my desire,

fingered their packet, and in fine, withdrew

3405 To mine own room again, making so bold,

(My fears forgetting manners) to unseal

Their grand commission, where I found Horatio,

Oh royal knavery: an exact command,

Larded with many several sorts of reason;

3410 Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s too,

With hoo, such bugs and goblins in my life,

that on the supervise no leisure bated,

No not to stay the grinding of the axe,

My head should be struck off.

3415 Is’t possible?

Here’s the commission, read it at more leisure:

But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?

I beseech you.

Being thus benetted round with villains,

3420 Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play. I sate me down,

Devised a new commission, wrote it fair,

I once did hold it as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair; and laboured much

3425 How to forget that learning: but sir now,

It did me yeoman’s service: wilt thou know

The effects of what I wrote?

I, good my lord.

An earnest conjuration from the King,

3430 As England was his faithful tributary,

As love between them, as the palm should flourish,

As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

And stand a comma ’tween their amities,

And many such like Assis of great charge,

3435 That on the view and know of these contents,

Without debatement further, more or less,

He should the bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving time allow[…]d.

How was this sealed?

3440 Why, even in that was heaven ordinate;

I had my father’s signet in my purse,

Which was the model of that Danish seal:

Folded the writ up in form of the other,

Subscribed it, gave’t th’impression, plac’t it safely,

3445 The changeling never known: Now, the next day

Was our sea fight, and what to this was sequent,

Thou know’st already.

So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, go to't.

Why man, they did make love to this employment

3450 They are not near my conscience; their debate

Doth by their own insinuation grow:

’Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes

Between the pass, and fell incensèd points

Of mighty opposites.

3455 Why, what a King is this?

Does it not, think’st thee, stand me now upon

He that hath killed my King, and whored my mother,

Popped in between th’election and my hopes,

Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

3460 And with such cozenage; is’t not perfect conscience,

To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil.

It must be shortly known to him from England

3465 What is the issue of the business there.

It will be short,

The interim’s mine, and a man’s life’s no more

Than to say one: but I am very sorry good Horatio,

That to Laertes I forgot myself;

3470 For by the image of my cause, I see

The portraiture of his; I'll count his favours:

But sure the bravery of his grief did put me

Into a towering passion.

Peace, who comes here?

3475 Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

I humbly thank you sir, dost know this water-fly?

No my good lord.

Thy state is the more gracious; for ’tis a vice to know him: he hath much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the King’s mess; ’tis a chowgh; but as I saw spacious in the possession of dirt.

Sweet lord, if your friendship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

3485 I will receive it with all diligence of spirit; put your bonnet to his right use, ’tis for the head.

I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot.

No, believe me ’tis very cold, the wind is northerly.

3490 It is indifferent cold my lord indeed.

Methinks it is very sultry, and hot for my complexion.

Exceedingly, my lord, it is very soutry, as ’twere I cannot tell how: but my lord, his majesty bad me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter.

I beseech you remember.

Nay, in good faith, for mine ease in good faith: Sir, you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon.

What’s his weapon?

Rapier and dagger.

That’s two of his weapons; but well.

The sir King has wag’d with him six Barbary horses, against the which he impon’d as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers or so; three of the carriages in faith are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

3510 What call you the carriages?

The carriages sir, are the hangers.

The phrase would be more germane to the matter: if we could carry cannon by our sides; I would it might be hangers till then; but on six Barbary horses against six French swords: their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages, that’s the French but against the Danish; why is this impon’d as you call it?

The King sir, hath laid that in a dozen passes between you and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; He hath one twelve for mine, and that would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

How if I answer no?

I mean my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

3525 Sir, I will walk here in the hall; if it please his majesty, ’tis the breathing time of day with me; let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the King hold his purpose; I will win for him if I can: if not, I'll gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

3530 Shall I redeliver you e'en so?

To this effect sir, after what flourish your nature will.

I commend my duty to your lordship.

Yours, yours; he does well to commend it himself, there are no tongues else for’s tongue.

This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

He did comply with his dug before he sucked it: thus had he and mine more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on; only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty collection, which carries them through & through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trials: the bubbles are out.

3545 You will lose this wager, my lord.

I do not think so, since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds: but thou wouldest not think how all here about my heart: but it is no matter.

3550 Nay, good my lord.

It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving as would perhaps trouble a woman.

If your mind dislike anything, obey. I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

3555 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 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?

Come Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

Give me your pardon sir, I've done you wrong,

But pardon’t as you are a gentleman.

This presence knows,

3565 And you must needs have heard how I am punished

With sore distraction? What I have done

That might your nature honour, and exception

Roughly awake, I hear proclaim was madness:

Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.

3570 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 wronged,

3575 His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.

Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil,

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,

That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house,

3580 And hurt my mother.

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive in this case should stir me most

To my revenge. But in my terms of honor

I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement,

3585 Till by some elder masters of known honor,

I have a voice, and precedent of peace

To keep my name ungorged. But till that time,

I do receive your offered love like love,

And will not wrong it.

3590 I do embrace it freely,

And will this brother’s wager frankly play.

Give us the foils: Come on.

Come one for me.

I'll be your foil Laertes, in mine ignorance,

3595 Your skill shall like a star i’th’darkest night,

Stick fiery off indeed.

You mock me sir.

No by this hand.

Give them the foils young Osric,

3600 Cousin Hamlet, you know the wager.

Very well my lord,

Your grace hath laid the odds o’th’ weaker side.

I do not fear it,

I have seen you both:

3605 But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds.

This is too heavy,

Let me see another.

This likes me well,

These foils have all a length.

3610 I my good lord.

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,

3615 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,

3620 And let the kettle to the trumpets speak,

The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,

Now the King drinks to Hamlet. Come, begin,

And you the judges bear a wary eye.

3625 Come on sir.

Come on sir.

One.

No.

Judgment.

3630 A hit, a very palpable hit.

Well: again.

Stay, give me drink.

Hamlet, this pearl is thine,

Here’s to thy health. Give him the cup.

3635 I'll play this bout first, set by awhile.

Come: Another hit; what say you?

A touch, a touch, I do confess.

Our son shall win.

He’s fat, and scant of breath.

3640 Here's a napkin, rub thy brows,

The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

Good madam.

Gertrude, do not drink.

I will my lord;

3645 I pray you pardon me.

It is the poisoned cup, it is too late.

I dare not drink yet madam,

By and by.

Come, let me wipe thy face.

3650 My lord, I'll hit him now.

I do not think’t.

And yet ’tis almost ’gainst my conscience.

Come, for the third.

Laertes, you but dally,

3655 I pray you pass with your best violence,

I am affear’d you make a wanton of me.

Say you so? Come on.

Nothing neither way.

Have at you now.

3660 Part them, they are incensed.

Nay come, again.

Look to the Queen there ho.

They bleed on both sides. How is’t my lord?

How is’t Laertes?

3665 Why as a woodcock

To mine springe, Osric,

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

How does the Queen?

She sounds to see them bleed.

3670 No, no, the drink, the drink.

Oh my dear Hamlet, the drink, the drink,

I am poisoned.

Oh villainy! How? Let the door be locked.

Treachery, seek it out.

3675 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,

3680 Unbated and envenomed: 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.

The point envenomed too,

3685 Then venom to thy work.

Treason, treason.

O yet defend me friends, I am but hurt.

Here thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,

Drink off this potion: Is thy union here?

3690 Follow my mother.

He is justly served.

It is a poison tempered by himself:

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet;

Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,

3695 Nor thine on me.

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:

3700 Had I but time (as this fell sergeant death

Is strict in his arrest) oh I could tell you.

But let it be: Horatio, I am dead,

Thou liv’st, report me and my causes right

To the unsatisfied.

3705 Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:

Here's yet some liquor left.

As th’art a man, give me the cup.

Let go, by heaven I'll have’t.

3710 Oh 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,

3715 To tell my story.

What warlike noise is this?

Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland

To th’Ambassadors of England gives this warlike volley.

O I die Horatio:

3720 The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit,

I cannot live to hear the news from England,’

But I do prophesy th’election lights

On Fortinbras, he has my dying voice,

So tell him with the occurrents more and less,

3725 Which have solicited. The rest is silence, O, o, o, o.

Now crack a noble heart:

Good night sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,

Why does the drum come hither?

3730 Where is this sight?

What is it ye would see;

If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search.

His quarry cries on havoc. Oh proud death,

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell.

3735 That thou so many princes, at a shoot,

So bloodily hast struck.

The sight is dismal,

And our affairs from England come too late,

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,

3740 To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:

Where should we have our thanks?

Not from his mouth,

Had it th’ability of life to thank you:

3745 He never gave commandment for their death.

But since so jump upon this bloody question,

You from the Polack wars, and you from England

Are here arrived. Give order that these bodies

High on a stage be placèd to the view,

3750 And let me speak to th’yet unknowing world,

How these things came about. So shall you hear

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters

Of death’s put on by cunning, and forced cause,

3755 And in this upshot, purposes mistook,

Fallen on the inventors heads. All this can I

Truly deliver.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

3760 For me, with sorrow, I embrace my fortune,

I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,

Which are to claim, my vantage doth

Invite me,

Of that I shall have always cause to speak,

3765 And from his mouth

Whose voice will draw on more:

But let this same be presently performed,

Even whiles men’s minds are wild,

Lest more mischance

3770 On plots, and errors happen.

Let four captains

Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,

For he was likely, had he been put on

To have proved most royally:

3775 And for his passage,

The soldiers music, and the rites of war

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the body; Such a sight as this

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

3780 Go, bid the soldiers shoot.