SCENE I.—Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle. FRANCISCO on his post.-Enter to him BERNARDO. Ber. Who's there? ver mo: stond, and unfold Fran. Nay, answer mo Yourself. Ber. Longve the king Fran. Berardo? Ber. He. Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. And I am sick at heart. Ber. Have you had quiet guard? mouse stirring. Fran. Not ood night. Ber. Well, If you do mee The rivals* of Horatio and Marcel us, my watch, bid them rake haste. Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS. Fran. I think, I hear then-Stard, ho! Who is there? * Partners Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. Fran. Bernardo hath my place. Give you good night. Mar. Holla! Bernardo! Ber. Say. What, is Horatio there? Hor. A piece of him. [Exit FRANCISCO. Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; With us to watch the minutes of this night; He may approve* our eyes, and speak to it. And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, That we two nights have seen. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter GHOST. Ber. In the same figure like the king that's dead. Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear and wonder. Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak. Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. [Erit GHOST. Mar. "Tis gone, and will not answer. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this something more than fantasy ? What think you of it? * Establish the evidence of. not this believe, Hor. Before my God, I might Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on, Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump‡ at this dead hour, Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Hor. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Was gaged by our king; which had return'd Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same comart,§ His fell to Hamlet: Now, Sir, young Fortinbras Of unimproved mettle hot and full,¶ Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach‡‡ in't: which is no other And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands Just. So by his father lost: And this, I take it, Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Re-enter GHOST. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, O, speak! Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it: stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Ber. 'Tis here! Hor. 'Tis here! Mar. 'Tis gone! 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 crew. Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn, [Exit GHOST. Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Hor. So I have heard, and do in part believe it. Mar. Let's do't, I pray, and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. A Room of State in the same. 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, * Wandering. + Proof. ↑ Strikes. Grief. |