HORATIO       They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

OSRIC How is’t, Laertes?

LAERTES        Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric:

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

HAMLET         How does the Queen?

CLAUDIUS      She swoons to see them bleed.

QUEEN           No, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet,

The drink, the drink – I am poisoned. [Dies.]          (5.2.289-295)

Then, suddenly, just as all eyes are on Gertrude, as people rush to help, Hamlet pauses, Horatio announces that they bleed on both sides. The confusion and the control of the audience’s gaze allows, perhaps, some blood to be applied? but it’s not essential, because rapiers have tiny killing points, and it’s the poison not the wound that matters. How is it, my lord? Horatio continues; perhaps he’s the only one who hasn’t been distracted, hasn’t taken his eyes off his friend. But Hamlet now realises something’s up, perhaps even that he’s been wounded—and Laertes too, because Osric (what does he know?) asks, anxiously, how is’t, Laertes? Laertes is the only one who knows everything at this point, and perhaps Claudius. And Laertes’s reply initially seems oblique—why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric, I’m caught in the very trap I set, and he’s echoing his father, heartbreakingly suggesting that this has been a Polonius-family catchphrase, watch out, don’t try to be too clever, or it’ll all blow up in your own face. Indeed. Then Laertes is more unequivocal, in terms of the facts and morally: I am justly killed with mine own treachery. This serves me right.

It’s as if Hamlet’s not listening, hasn’t even registered that he’s been hurt, perhaps, or is shrugging off Horatio’s concern, after all, the wound doesn’t seem much: how does the Queen? what’s going on with my MUM? Claudius makes a vain attempt: she swoons to see them bleed, you know, WOMEN, faint at the sight of blood! But Gertrude’s not going quietly, she’s got to get the words out: no, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet, the drink, the drink—I am poisoned! She’s not warning him off not drinking so much as to say, this is all a set-up, you’re in terrible, terrible danger! But she dies before she knows that he too is already as good as dead…