MAR.

No, by no means.

HOR.
HAM. It will not speak; then will I follow it.
HOR. Do not, my lord.

HAM.

Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?

It waves me forth again;—I'll follow it.
HOR. What if it tempt you toward the flood,
my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,
That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form,
Which might deprive your sovereignty of

Go on; I'll follow thee.
MAR. You shall not go, my lord.
HAM.

:

Hold off your hands !‡ HOR. Be rul'd; you shall not go. HAM. My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Némean lion's nerve.—

[Ghost beckons. Still am I call'd ;-unhand me, gentlemen ;By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me![Breaking from them. I say, away!—-Go on, I'll follow thee. [Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET. HOR. He waxes desperate with imagination. MAR. Let's follow; 't is not fit thus to obey him.

HOR. Have after.-To what issue will this come?

MAR. Something is rotten in the state of
Denmark.

HOR. Heaven will direct it.
MAR.

Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt.

Platform.

Enter Ghost and HAMLET.

GHOST. I am thy father's spirit ; Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night. And for the day confin'd to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am for To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy you blood; [spher Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from th Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine ;‡ But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.-List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love,HAM. O, God!||

[mur

GHOST. Revenge his foul and most unnat
HAM. Murder!

GHOST. Murder most foul, as in the best it But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. HAM. Haste me to know 't, that I,¶ with w as swift

As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.

GHOST.
I find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,

a Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,-] Gifford was mistaken in assuming that "your sovereignty" was here merely a title of respect like "your lordship," applied to Hamlet. To deprive your sovereignty of reason, means to dethrone or displace your powers of reason. Warburton cites a passage from Eikov Bartλkin, where the precise expression occurs: "At once to betray the soveraignty of reason in my own soul."

b And hears it roar beneath.] This and the three preceding lines are not found in the folio.

(*) First folio, Where. (t) First folio, knotty. (1) Old text, Porpentine. (§) First folio, list Hamlet, e () First folio, Heaven.

d

(T) First folio, Hast, hast me to know it,
That with wings.

that lets me !-] That hinders, or obstructs me. confin'd to fast in fires,-] The reading of all the e except the 1603 quarto, which has, "Confinde in flaming &c. Heath proposed, "- to lasting fires," &c.; and the lection is suggested by Mr. Collier's annotator.

e That rots itself- The quartos all read, "roots itself." a is difficult to determine which expression deserves the prefen

That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.

a

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning* air;
Brief let me be.-Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always in the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,

The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd† about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand

Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd;a
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd:
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head:
O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible !
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:(9)
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me !

[Exit.

Remember thee!

In this distracted globe.
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

串

Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven !—
O, most pernicious woman!-

O, villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!-
My tables,+-meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark;

[Writing.
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is, Adieu, adieu ! remember me.
I have sworn 't.

HOR. [Without.] My lord, my lord,—
MAR. Without.] Lord Hamlet,-

But he's an arrant knave.

HOR. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave

To tell us this.

HAM. Why, right; you are i' the right; And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part; You, as your business and desire shall point you,— For every man has business and desire,

(*) First folio, yes, yes. (†) First folio repeats, My tables. without having received the eucharist; "disappointed" = unappointed, means unprepared; and "unanel'd" is without extreme

unction.

f O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!] Notwithstanding the unanimity of the old copies in assigning this line to the Ghost, there can be little doubt it was intended to be spoken by Hamlet, as in acting, indeed, it usually is.

g Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.] These were expression of encouragement which the falconer of old was wont to address to his hawks.

Such as it is, and, for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray.

*

HOR. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

HAM. I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;
Yes, 'faith, heartily.

HOR.
There's no offence, my lord.
HAM. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is,
Horatio,†

And much offence too. Touching this vision here,—
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
For your desire to know what is between us,
O'ermaster 't as you may.
And now,
good friends,
As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.

HOR.
What is 't, my lord? we will.
HAM. Never make known what you have seen

to-night.

come;

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,-
As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on,-

That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As, Well, well, we know;-or, We could, an it
we would;-

Or, If we list to speak;-or, There be, an if they might;

Or such ambiguous giving out, to note

So

That you know aught of me,-this not to do, grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear!

GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear!

HAM. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!-So, gen

tlemen,