Enter Ghost.

40

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's

day:

Who is 't that can inform me? Hor.

That can I;

dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet

84

44

Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar.

For so this side of our known world esteem'd him

Question it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time
of night,

Together with that fair and war-like form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee,

speak!

Mar. It is offended. Ber

48

Seel it stalks away. Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak! [Exit Ghost. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. 52 Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on 't?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this

lieve

be

56

And carriage of the article design'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in 't; which is no other-
As it doth well appear unto our state-
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsative, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost. And this, I take it,

ΙΟΙ

104

108

64

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. 112 In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; 116
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse; 120
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.
But, soft! behold! lo! where it comes again.

Why this same strict and most observant watch to nightly toils the subject of the land; And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war; Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week;

76

125

If there be any good thing to be done, That may to thee do ease and grace to me, Speak to me:

132

If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Which happily foreknowing may avoid,

O! speak;

136

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in
[Cock crows.

death,

Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus. 139

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? Hor. Do, if it will not stand. 'Tis here!

Ber.

Hor.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

SCENE II.-A Room of State in the Castle. Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,

4

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock

20

24

In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along: for all, our thanks. 16
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made 32
Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.

28

156 Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; 160 And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets

strike,

36

Seem to me all the uses of this world.
Fie on 't! O fiel 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in
nature

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Ere I had ever seen that day, Horatio!
My father, methinks I see my father.

184

136 Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:

184

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother 140
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Hor. O! where, my lord? Ham.

In my mind's eye, Horatio Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on; and yet, within a month,

144

Let me not think on't: Frailty, thy name is woman!

A little month; or ere those shoes were old

With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears; why she, even she, - 149 O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer, -married with

188

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham.

The king, my father!

Hor. Season your admiration for a while 192 With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, tlemen. This marvel to you. Ham.

For God's love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

196

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd: a figure like your

father,