Of mine own eyes.

Mar.

Is it not like the king?
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armor he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,3
He smote the sledded Polack5 on the ice.
'Tis strange.

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

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
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 this same strict and most observant watch
So 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:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?
That can I;

Hor.

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
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,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd com-
páct.

Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seis'd of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same comart,
And carriage of the article design'd,s

His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,9
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd' up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach2 in't; which is no other,
(As it doth well appear unto our state,)
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage' in the land.

Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so:
Well may it sort,4 that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was, and is, the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
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.

Re-enter Ghost.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.- Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

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

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
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 ?s
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. Hor.

Mar. 'Tis gone.

'Tis here!

'Tis here! [Exit Ghost

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
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his contine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.'

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II-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,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one auspicious, and one drooping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,2-
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:-For all, our thanks.

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 this 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 bands3 of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So much for him.
• Proof.

A sort of pike.

• Grief.

⚫ Wandering.

Borda

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
Out of his subject:-and we here despatch
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 dilated articles allow.

Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we show our duty.

King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? You told us of some suit: What is't, Laertes! You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

And lose your voice: What wouldst thou beg,
Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laer.
My dread lord,
Your leave and favor to return to France;
From whence, though willingly, I came to Den-
mark,

To show my duty in your coronation;
Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France,
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardo.
King. Have you your father's leave? What says
Polonius?

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave,

By laborsome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.—
But now, my e usin Hamlet, and my son.-
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.
[Aside.
King. How is it that the clouds still hang on
you?
Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i' the sun.
Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids3
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse, till he that died to-day,
This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe; and think of us
As of a father; for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And, with no less nobility of love,
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrogrades to our desire:
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers
Hamlet:

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply;
Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come;
This gentle and unfore'd accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell;'
And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruits again
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c., POLONIUS,
and LAERTES.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon' 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem3 the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: And yet, within a month.-
Let me not think on't;-Frailty, thy name is

woman!

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly: These, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within, which passeth show;
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.
King. "Tis sweet and commendable in your
nature, Hamlet,

To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound
In filial obligation, for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: But to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what, we know, must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fye! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:-0 most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

But break, my heart: for I must hold my tongue!
Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.
Hor. Hail to your lordship!
Ham.
I am glad to see you well:
4
Horatio, or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant

sir.

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so:
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know, you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow.

student;

I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

› Lowering eyes.

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

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
With an attent5 ear; till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead waist and middle of the night,

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father, Armed at point, exactly cap-à-pé,

Appears before them, and with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd,
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secresy impart they did;
And I with them, the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father:
These hands are not more like.

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all.
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still:
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.
Our duty to your honor.

All.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HoR., MAR., and BER My father's spirit in arms! all is not well:

I doubt some foul play: 'would the night were come!

Till then sit still my soul: Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. (Exit.

SCENE III-A Room in Polonius's House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell: And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you.

Oph. Do you doubt that? Luer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.

Oph. Luer.

No more but so?

Think it no more:
For nature, crescent,7 does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now,
And now no soil, nor cautel,9 doth besmirch1
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head: Then if he says he loves
you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main force of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain,
If with too credent2 ear you list3 his songs:
Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd' importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then: best safety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.5
O fear me not.

Laer.

SCENE IV. The Platform.

Look thou character.6 Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel:
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, untledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg-

ment.

Costly thy habit, as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all.-To thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season! this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend.2

Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer, Farewell!

Oph.

(Exit LAERTES. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the

lord Hamlet.

Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time on you: and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and boun

teous:

If it be so, (as so 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,
As it behoves my daughter, and your honor:
What is between you? give me up the truth.
Oph. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders
Of his affection to me.

Pol. Affection? Puh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Pol. Marry, I'll teach you; think yourself a baby;

That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool.
Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love

In honorable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat.-extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,-
You must not take for fire. From this time
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments4 at a higher rate,
Than to command a parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, That he is young;
And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you: In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
Not of that die which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all,-

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment's leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you; come your ways.
Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

[Exeunt.

Ham. Ay, marry, is't:
But to my mind, though I am native here,
And to the manner born,-it is a custom
More honor'd in the breach, than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel, east and west,
Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:
They clepe' us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes
From our achievements,though perform'd at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.
So oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin.)

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,2
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or, by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners;-that these men,-
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,-
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may underge)

Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault: The dram of base
Doth all the noble substance often dout,3
To his own scandal.

Hor.

Enter Ghost.

Look, my lord, it comes! Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,
That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me:
Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,
So horridly to shake our disposition.

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do'
Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.

Mar.

Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground: But do not go with it.

Hor.

No, by no means.

Ham. It will not speak; then I will 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;5
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, m
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,

lord,

• Jollity.

• Humor

Value.