GERTRUDE: Here, Hamlet, take my napkin; rub thy brows.
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. [She lifts the cup.]
HAMLET: Good madam.
CLAUDIUS: Gertrude, do not drink.
GERTRUDE: I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me. [She drinks.]
CLAUDIUS [aside] It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.
HAMLET: I dare not drink yet, madam – by and by.
GERTRUDE: Come, let me wipe thy face.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. Gertrude drinks the cup of poisoned wine that Claudius has prepared for Hamlet, presumably to save her son from certain death. In a motherly gesture Gertrude also wipes the sweat from her son’s brow. In a terrible irony Claudius’ deceiving nature has killed his wife, after Gertrude’s love and loyalty were tested and torn throughout now her husband, in a botched attempt to kill her son, has killed her.