Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: The Original Ending

In the second edition of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, published in 1968, there are a number of small alterations from the first edition published in 1967. The one major change occurs at the end of the play, which, in the second edition, ends with a slow fade in the course of Fortinbras's speech 'Let four captains bear Hamlet . . . ', taken from the final scene of Hamlet. In the first edition, however, the play runs on to encompass a conversation between the two ambassadors freshly arrived from England (there is only one ambassador in subsequent editions), who discuss the royal carnage as follows (from Tom Stoppard: An Assessment by Tim Brassell, Macmillan Press, 1985):

Fortinbras:        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: and for his passage,
                        the soldiers' music and the rite of war
                        speak loudly for him.
                        Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
                        becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
                        Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

                        (The Bodies are picked up: a peal of ordnance is shot off. A
                        dead march begins and continues until the stage is empty
                        except for the two Ambassadors.)

                        (Pause. The move downstage. They stop.)

Ambassador:    Hm . . .

2^nd Amb:        Yes?

1^st Amb:        What?

2^nd Amb:        I thought you ---

1^st Amb:        No.

2^nd Amb:        Ah.

                        (Pause.)

1^st Amb:        Tsk tsk . . .

2^nd Amb:        Quite.

1^st Amb:        Shocking business.

2^nd Amb:        Tragic . . . (he looks in the direction of the departing
                       corpses) . . . four  ---  just like that.

1^st Amb:        Six in all.

2^nd Amb:        Seven.

1^st Amb:        No --- six.

2^nd Amb:        The King, the Queen, Hamlet, Laertes,
                        Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Polonius. Seven.

1^st Amb:        Ophelia. Eight.

2^nd Amb:        King, Queen, Hamlet, Laertes, Rosencrantz,
                        Guildenstern, Polonius, Ophelia. Eight.

                        (They nod and shake their heads.)

                        (Looks about.) Well . . . One hardly knows what
                        to . . .

                        (From outside there is shouting and banging, a Man, say,
                        banging his fist on a wooden door and shouting, obscurely,
                        two names.)

                        (The Ambassadors look at each other.)

1^st Amb:             Better go and see what it's all about . . .

                        (The other nods.)

                        (They walk off together. The Tragedians' tune becomes
                        audible --- far away.)

                        (The house lights come up until they are as bright as the
                        lights on the empty stage.)

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