The duel; the end

A hall in the castle. Hamlet, alone with Horatio, tells him the story of the sea voyage. Unable to sleep, he had crept into Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's cabin and found Claudius's sealed letter. He opened it, read the death warrant, and forged a replacement — same seal, same hand — with the names altered to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He returned the letter to its place. The pirate attack came shortly after; he is back. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, oblivious, are en route to their own execution. Horatio asks how he could do it. Hamlet shrugs — they made love to this employment.

Osric, a foppish courtier, arrives with the king's wager: Laertes will fence Hamlet, six bouts, the king has bet six Barbary horses on the prince. Hamlet, after some satirical play with Osric's manners, accepts. Horatio quietly suggests he refuse — Hamlet has a premonition of disaster — but Hamlet, with one of the play's most quoted lines, refuses to refuse. "There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come — the readiness is all."

The court enters. The blades are presented; Laertes selects, secretly, the unbated and poisoned one. The bouts begin. Hamlet wins the first two. Claudius offers him the poisoned cup; Hamlet refuses, says he will drink later. Gertrude takes it and toasts her son. Claudius hisses "Gertrude, do not drink." She replies: "I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me." She drinks. The third bout begins. Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned blade. In the scuffle their blades are exchanged; Hamlet, with Laertes's blade, wounds Laertes. Both have now been poisoned. Gertrude collapses — "the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet — the drink! I am poisoned." She dies. Laertes, dying, confesses. The blade. The cup. The plot. "The king, the king's to blame."

Hamlet runs Claudius through with the poisoned blade and forces him to drink the rest of the cup. Claudius dies. Hamlet, dying himself, asks Horatio to live and tell his story. Horatio reaches for the cup to die with him; Hamlet stops him. "Absent thee from felicity awhile, and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell my story." A drum announces Fortinbras's arrival from Poland. Hamlet, with his last breath, gives Fortinbras his vote for the throne. "The rest is silence." Fortinbras enters. He sees the bodies, claims the kingdom, orders Hamlet's body carried out "like a soldier" with full military honors. The play ends with the cannon firing in salute.