Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Thou comest in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; It waves me forth again;- I'll follow it. Horatio. [Ghost beckons. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, [Ghost beckons. And makes each petty artery in this body [Ghost beckons. Still am I called :— unhand me, gentlemen; I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee. [Breaking from them. [Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. Horatio and Marcellus follow slowly. Scene Fourth.—ANOTHER PART OF the Platform. [Enter Ghost and Hamlet. Hamlet. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak; I 'll go no further. My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself. Alas! poor ghost! Hamlet. Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold. Hamlet. Speak; I am bound to hear. Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. What? Hamlet. I am thy father's spirit; Ghost. Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.— List, list, O, list!- Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Hamlet. Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift May sweep to my revenge. I find thee apt; Now, Hamlet, hear: Ghost. 'T is given out that, sleeping in mine orchard, is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, Now wears his crown. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen; No reckoning made, but sent to my account Hamlet. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible! Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; |