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Where now it barns, Marcellus and myself, Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror; The bell then beating one,

Against the which, a moiety competent Mar. Peace ! break thee off ; look, where it Was gaged by our king ; which had return'd comes again !

40 To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same Enter Ghost.

covenant Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's And carriage of the article design’d, dead.

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Horatio,

Shark'd up a list of lawless resolates, Hor. Most like ; it harrows me with fear and For food and diet, to some enterprise wonder.

That hath a stomach in't; which is no other, Ber. It would be spoke to.

As it doth well appear unto our state, Mar.

Question it, Horatio. But to recover of us, by strong hand Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time And terms compulsative, those foresaid lands of night,

So by his father lost. And this, I take it, Together with that fair and war-like form Is the main motive of our preparations, In which the majesty of buried Denmark The source of this our watch and the chief head Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, Of this post-haste and romage in the land. speak!

Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so; Mar. It is offended.

Well may it sort that this portentous figure Ber.

See! it stalks away. 50 Comes armed through our watch, so like the king Hor. Stay! speak: speak, I charge thee, speak! That was and is the question of these wars.

Erit Ghost. Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

In the most high and palmy state of Rome, Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble and a little ere the mighty Julius fell, look pale ;

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Is not this something more than fantasy ? Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets ; What think you on 't ?

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe Disasters in the sun; and the moist star Without the sensible and true avouch

Upon whose inflnence Neptune's empire stands Of mine own eyes.

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse; 120 Mar.

Is it not like the king ? And even the like precurse of fierce events, Hor. As thou art to thyself :

As harbingers preceding still the fates Such was the very armour he had on 60 And prologue to the omen coming on, When he the ambitious Norway combated; Have heaven and earth together demonstrated So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, Unto our climatures and countrymen. He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. But, soft! behold! lo! where comes again. 'Tis strange.

Re-enter Ghost. Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion ! With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Hor. In what particular thought to work I Speak to me: know not;

If there be any good thing to be done, But in the gross and scope of my opinion, That may to thee do ease and grace to me, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Speak to me: Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he If thou art privy to thy country's fate, that knows,

70 Which happily foreknowing may avoid, Why this same strict and most observant watch O! speak; So nightly toils the subject of the land ; Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, And foreign mart for implements of war; For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose soretask

Cock crows. Does not divide the Sunday from the week; Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus. What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan ? 140 Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day; Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Who is 't that can inform me?

Ber.

'Tis here! Hor.

That can I ;
Hor.

'Tis here! At least the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 Mar. 'Tis gone!

Edit Ghost. Whose image even but now appear'd to us, We do it wrong, being so majestical, Was, as yon know, by Fortinbras of Norway, To offer it the show of violence; Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, For it is, as the air, invulnerable, Dard to the combat ; in which our valiant And our vain blows malicious mockery. Hamlet,

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew. For so this side of our known world esteem'd him, Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a seal'd com- Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, pact,

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Did forfeit with his life all those his lands Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,

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Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

To business with the king more than the scope The extravagant and erring spirit bies

Of these delated articles allow. To his confine; and of the truth herein

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. This present object made probation.

Cor., Vol. In that and all things will we show Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

our duty. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

E.ceunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELICS. The bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 160 And now, Laertes, what's the news with you! And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad ; | You told us of some suit ; what is 't, Laertes ! The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, And lose your voice ; what would'st thou beg, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Laertes, Hlor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. That shall not be my offer, not thy asking! But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, The head is not more native to the heart, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill; The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Break we our watch up; and by my advice Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. Let us impart what we have seen to-night What would'st thou have, Laertes ? Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life,

Laer.

Dread my lord, 50 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Your leave and favour to return to France ; Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, From whence though willingly I came to Den. As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ?

mark, Mar. Let's do 't, I pray; and I this morning To show my duty in your coronation, know

Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, Where we shall find him most conveniently. My thoughts and wishes bend again toward

Eccunt. France

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon, SCENE II.--A Room of State in the Castle. King. Have you your father's leave? What

says Polonius? Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS,

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my LAERTES, VOLTIMANI), CORNELIUS, Lords,

slow leave anil Attendants.

By laboursome petition, and at last King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent : death

I do beseech you, give him leave to go. The memory be green, and that it us befitted King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes ; time be To bear our hearts in grief and our whole thine, kingdom

And thy best graces spend it at thy will. To be contracted in one brow of woe,

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature Ham. Aside. A little more than kin, and less That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

than kind. Together with remembrance of ourselves,

King. How is it that the clouds still hang Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, on you ! The imperial jointress of this war-like state, Ham. Not so, my lord ; I am too much i' the Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,

sun. With one auspicious and one dropping eye, Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour With mirth in funeral and with dirge in off, marriage,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd Seek for thy noble father in the dust : Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must With this affair along : for all, our thanks.

die, Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Passing through nature to eternity. Holding a weak supposal of our worth,

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Or thinking by our late dear brother's death Queen.

If it be, Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20 | Why seems it so particular with thee? Colleagued with the dream of his advantage, Ham. Seems, madam ! nay, it is; I know not He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,

'seems.' Importing the surrender of those lands

"Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, Nor customary suits of solemn black, To our most valiant brother. So much for bim. Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, Now for ourself and for this time of meeting. No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Thus much the business is : we have here writ Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,

Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, Who. impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears That can denote me truly; these indeed seem, Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress 30 For they are actions that a man might play; His further gait herein ; in that the levies, But I have that within which passeth show; The lists and full proportions, are all made These but the trappings and the suits of woe. Out of his subject; and we here dispatch

King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,

nature, Hamlet, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway, To give these mourning duties to your father: Giving to you no further personal power But, you must know, your father lost a father;

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That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound | My father's brother, but no more like my father In filial obligation for some term

91 Than I to Hercules : within a month, To do obsequious sorrow; but to persever Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears In obstinate condolement is a course

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief; She married. O! most wicked speed, to post It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, With such dexterity to incestuous sheets. A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,

It is not nor it cannot come to good; An understanding simple and unschoold: But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue! For what we know must be and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense,

Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO. Why should we in our peevish opposition

Hor. Hail to your lordship! Take it to heart? Fiel 'tis a fault to heaven, Ham.

I am glad to see you well : 160 A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, Horatio, or I do forget myself. To reason most absurd, whose common theme Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor serIs death of fathers, and who still hath cried,

vant ever. From the first corse till he that died to-day, Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I'll change that • This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth name with you. This unprevailing woe, and think of us

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? As of a father; for let the world take note, Marcellus ? You are the most immediate to our throne; Mar. My good lord, And with no less nobility of love

Ham. I am very glad to see you. To BERTban that which dearest father bears his son

NARDO. Good even, sir. Do I impart toward you. For your intent But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? In going back to school in Wittenberg,

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. It is most retrograde to our desire;

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, 170 And we beseech you, bend you to remain Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, To make it truster of your own report Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. Against yourself; I know you are no truant. Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, But what is your affair in Elsinore ? Hamlet :

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg. Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's Ilam, I shall in all my best obey you, madam. funeral.

King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply: 121 Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow. Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come ;

student ; This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Sits smiling to my heart ; in grace whereof, Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, bak'd meats And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. again,

Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! Flourish. Exeunt King, QUEEN, Lords, etc. My father, methinks I see my father.

POLONIUS, and LAERTES. Hor. O! where, my lord ? Ham. O! that this too too solid flesh would Ham.

In my mind's eye, Horatio. melt,

Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly king. Thaw and resolve itself into a dew;

Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

I shall not look upon his like again. His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God ! God ! Hor. My lord, i think I saw him yesternight. How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

llam. Saw who? Seem to me all the uses of this world.

Hor. My lord, the king your father. Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

Ham.

The king my father! That grows to seed; things rank and gross in Hor. Season your admiration for a while nature

With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this! | Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: This marvel to you.
So excellent a king ; that was, to this,

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear. Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother 140 Hor. Two nights together had these gentle. That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

men,
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, In the dead vast and middle of the night,
As if increase of appetite had grown

Been thus encounter'd : a figure like your father,
By what it fed on; and yet, within a month, Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Let me not think on 't: Frailty, thy name is Appears before them, and with solemn march
woman!

Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walk'd A little month; or ere those shoes were old By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes, With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, Like Niobe, all tears; why she, even she

distill'd O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Would have mourn'd longer,--married with my Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me uncle,

In dreadful secrecy impart they did,

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loves you,

And I with them the third night kept the watch ;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

SCENE III.

A Room in POLONIUS's House, Form of the thing, each word made true and

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. good, The apparition comes. I knew your father ; Laer. My necessaries are embark'd : farewell: These hands are not more like.

And, sister, as the winds give benefit Ham.

But where was this? And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we But let me hear from you. watch'd.

Oph.

Do you doubt that! Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the triling of his Hor.

My lord, I did; favour,
But answer made it pone ; yet once methought Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
It lifted up its head and did address

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Itself to motion, like as it would speak; Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
But even then the morning cock crew loud, The perfume and suppliance of a minute ;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, No more.
And vanish'd from our sight.

Oph. No more but so? Ham. 'Tis very strange. 9:20 Laer.

Think it no m Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true ; For nature crescent does not grow alone And we did think it writ down in our duty In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes. To let you know of it.

The inward service of the mind and soul llam. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, Hold you the watch to-night?

And now no soil nor cantel doth besmirch Mar., Ber.

We do, my lord. The virtue of his will ; but you must fear, Ham. Arm’d, say you?

His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own, Mar., Ber. Arm'd, my lord.

For he himself is subject to his birth; Ham.

From top to toe? He may not, as unvalu'd persons do, Mar., Ber. My lord, from head to foot. Carve for himself, for on his choice depends Ham. Then saw you not his face ?

The safety and the health of the whole state ; Hor. O, yes ! my lord ; he wore his beaver up. And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd Ham. What! look'd he frowningly? 230 Unto the voice and yielding of that body l/or. A countenance more in sorrow than in Whereof he is the head. Then if he says be

anger. Ham. Pale or red ?

If fits your wisdom so far to believe it Hor. Nay, very pale.

As he in his particular act and place Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you? May give his saying deed ; which is no further Hor. Most constantly.

Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Ham.

I would I had been there. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.

If with too credent ear you list his songs, Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long? Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open Hor. While one with moderate haste might To his un master'd importunity. tell a hundred.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, Mar., Ber. Longer, longer.

And keep you in the rear of your affection, Hor. Not when I saw 't.

Out of the shot and danger of desire. Ham.

His beard was grizzled ! no? The chariest maid is prodigal enough Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, If she unmask her beauty to the moon ; A sable silver'd.

Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes ; Ham.

I will watch to-night; The canker galls the infants of the spring Perchance 'twill walk again.

Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd, Hor.

I warrant it will. And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, Contagious blastments are most imminent. I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape Be wary then ; best safety lies in fear: And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson Let it be tenable in your silence still ;

keep, And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,

As watchman to my heart. But, good my Give it an understanding, but no tongue :

brother, I will requite your loves. So, fare you well. 250 Do not, as some ungracions pastors do, Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, I'll visit you.

Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, All.

Our duty to your honour. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, » Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell. And recks not his own rede. Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and Laer.

O! fear me pot. BERNARDO. I stay too long ; but here my father comes. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well ;

Enter POLONIUS. I doubt some foul play : would the night were come!

A double blessing is a double grace ; Till then sit still, my sonl. Fonl deeds will rise, Occasion smiles upon a second leave. Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for eyes.

Erit. shame!

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The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

Oph. And hath given countenance to his And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing speech, my lord, with thee!

With almost all the holy vows of heaven. And these few precepts in thy memory

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do See thou character. Give thy thoughts no know, tongue,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 60 Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter, Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar ; Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Even in their promise, as it is a-making, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; You must not take for fire. From this time But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware Set your entreatments at a higher rate Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. Believe so much in him, that he is young, Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice ; And with a larger tether may he walk Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg. Than may be given you : in few, Ophelia, ment.

Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70 Not of that dye which their investments show, But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy; But mere implorators of unholy suits, For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, And they in France of the best rank and station The better to beguile. This is for all : Are most select and generous, chief in that. I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

Have you so slander any moment leisure, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Look to 't, I charge you ; come your ways. This above all: to thine own self be true,

Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

Esceunt. 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 !

SCENE IV.---The Platform. Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. Pol. The time invites you ; go, your servants tend.

Ham. The air bites shrewdly ; it is very cold. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia ; and remember well Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air, What I have said to you.

Ham. What hour now? Oph, 'Tis in my memory lock'd, Hor.

I think it lacks of twelve. And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Mar. No, it is struck. Luer. Farewell.

Exit. Hor. Indeed ? I heard it not : it then draws Pol. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

near the season Oph. So please you, something touching the Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. Lord Hamlet.

A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance Pol. Marry, well bethought :

shot of, within. 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

What does this mean, my lord ? Given private time to you ; and you yourself Ham. The king doth wake to.night and takes Have of your audience been most free and

his rouse, bounteous.

Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring If it be so, as so 'tis put on me, And that in way of caution, I must tell you, And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, You do not understand yourself so clearly The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out As it behoves my daughter and your honour. The triumph of his pledge. What is between you ? give me up the truth. Hor.

Is it a custom ? Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many Ham. Ay, marry, is 't ; tenders

But to my mind, though I am native here Of his affection to me.

100 And to the manner born, it is a custom Pol. Affection! pooh! you speak like a green More honour'd in the breach than the observance. girl,

This heavy-headed revel east and west Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations ; Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should Soil our addition ; and indeed it takes think.

From our achievements, though perform’d at Pol. Marry, I'll teach you : think yourself a height, baby,

The pith and marrow of our attribute. That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, So, oft it chances in particular men, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more That for some vicious mole of nature in them, dearly ;

As, in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Or, not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Since nature cannot choose his origin, Running it thus, you 'll tender me a fool. By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, love

Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens In honourable fashion.

The form of plausive manners ; that these men, Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to. I Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

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