Yet most suspected, as the time and place

Unto the rigour of severest law. Doth make against me, of this direful murder; Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man.And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this ? Myself condemned and myself excus'd.

Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death ; Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know And then in post he came from Mantua, in this.

To this same place, to this same monument. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath This letter he early bid me give his father ; Is not so long as is a tedious tale.

And threaten'd me with death, going in the vault,
Romeo there dead, was husband to that Juliet, If I departed not, and left him there.
And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it.
I married them; and their stolen marriage-day Where is the county's page, that rais'd the watch?-
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death Sirrah, what made your master iu this place ?
Janish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's
Tor whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.-

grave;
Yu-to remove that siege of grief from her,- And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:
Beti oth’d, and would have married her perforce, Anon, comes one with light to ope the tomb;
To county Paris :—Then comes she to me;

And, by and hy, my master drew on him;
And with wild looks, bid me devise some means And then I ran away to call the watch.
To nii her from this second marriage,

Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's Or. in my cell there would she kill herself.

words, Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,

Their course of love, the tidings of her death : A sleeping potion; which so took' effect

And here he writes—that he did buy a poison As I in ep'ted, for it wrought on her

Of a poor 'pothecary, and there witbal The forni oi feath, meantime I writ to Romeo, Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet. That he shout hither come as this dire night, Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague! To help to take her from her borrow'd grave, See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, Being the time he potion's force should cease. That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! But he which bore my letter, friar John,

And I, for winking at your discords too, Was staid by accident; and yesternight

Have lost a brace of kinsmen :-all are punish'). Return'd my letter back: Then all alone,

Cap. O, brother Montague, give me thy hand: At the prefixed hour of her waking,

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault; Can I demand.
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,

Mon.

But I can give thee more: Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:

For I will raise her statue in pure gold; But when I came, (some minute ere the time That, while Verona by that name is known, Of her awakening,) bere untimely lay,

There shall no figure at such rate be set, The noble Paris, and true Romeo, dead.

As that of true and faithful Juliet. She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,

Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; And bear this work of heaven with patience: Poor sacrifices of our enmity ! But then a noise did scare me from the tomb; Prince. A glooming peace this moruing with it And she, too desperate, would not go with me,

brings; But (as it seems,) did violence on herself.

The sun for sorrow will not show ais head: All this I know; and to the marriage

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things, Her nurse is privy : And, if aught in this

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished: Miscarried by my fault, let my old life

For never was a story of more woe Re sacrific'd, some hour before his time.

Than this of fuliet and her Romeo. (Erouni

PERSONS REPRESENTED,

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve ; get thee to bed,

Francisco. CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

Fran. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, Hamlet, sun to the former, and nephew to the present and I am sick at heart. King.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard ? POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.

Fran.

Not a mouse stirring. HURATIO, friend to Hamlet.

Ber. Well, good night. LAERTES, son to Polonius.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, VOLTIMAND,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. CORNELIUS,

courtiers. ROSENCRANTZ,

Enter Horatio and MARCELLUS.
GUILDENSTERN,
Osric, a courtier.

Fran. I think, I hear them.—Stand, ho! Who

is there? Another Courtier.

Hor. Friends to this ground. A Priest.

Mar. MARCELLUS, an officer.

And liegemen to the Dars. BERNARVO, an officer.

Frun. Give you good night.
Mar.

O, farewell, honest soldier: Francisco, a soldier.

Who hath reliev'd you ? REYNALDO, servant to Polonius.“

Fran.

Bernardo hath my place. A Captain.

Give you good night.

(Erit FranCISCO An Ambassador.

Mar.

Holla! Bernardo! Ghost of Hamlet's father.

Ber.

Say. FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway

What, is Horatio there?

Hor.
GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and mother of

A piece of him.
Hamlet.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Mar.

cellus. OPHELIA, daughter of Polonius.

Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Gravediggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;

And will not let belief take hold of him,
SCENE,-ELSINORE.

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us :
Therefore I have entreated him, along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That, if again this apparition come,

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
ACT I.

Hor.' Tush! tush ! 'twill not appear.
Ber.

Sit down awhile; SCENE I.-Elsinore. A Platform before the

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,
Castle.

What we two nights have seen.
FRANCISCO on his post. Enter to him BERNARDO. Hor.

Well, sit we down, Ber. Who's there?

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, anu unfold Ber. Last night of all,
Yourself.

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Ber. Long live the king !

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Fran,

Bernardo ?

Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,
Ber.
He. The bell then beating one,

| again: Frın. You come most carefully upon your hour. Mor: Peace, break thee off: look where it comes

Enter Ghost.

| But to recover of us, by strong band, Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. And terms compulsatory, thuse 'foresaid lands Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.

So by his father lost : And this, I take it, Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. Is the main motive of our preparations ; Hor. Most like :—it harrows me with fear, and The source of this our watch; and the chief head wonder.

Of this post-haste and romage in the land. Ber. It would be spoke to.

Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: Mar.

Speak to it, Horatio. Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Hor. What art thou, that usurp’st this time of Comes armed through our watch; so like the king night,

That was, and is, the question of these wars. Together with that fair and warlike form

Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. In which the majesty of buried Denmark [speak. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, Did sometimes march ? by heaven, I charge thee, A little ere the mightiest Július fell, Mar. It is offended.

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Ber. See! it stalks away.

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman strects. Kor. Stay; speak: speak, I charge thee, speak.

Erit Ghost. As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star, Ber. How now, Horatio ? you tremble, and look Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, pale :

Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse. Is not this something more than fantasy?

And even the like precurse of fierce events, What think you of it ?

As harbingers preceding still the fates, Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,

And prologue to the omen coming on,Without the sensible and true avouch

Have heaven and earth together démonstrated Of mine own eyes.

Unto our climatures and countrymen, Mar.

Is it not like the king ? Hor. As thou art to thyself:

Re-enter Ghost. Such was the very armour he had on,

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again ! When he the ambitious Norway combated ; I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion ! So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.

Speak to me : 'Tis strange.

hour, If there be any good thing to be done,
Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. Speak to me:
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
not;

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, O, speak!
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
knows,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Why this same strict and most observant watch

(Cock crows. So nightly toils the subject of the land ?

Speak of it:-stay, and speak.–Stop it, Marcellus. And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? And foreign mart for implements of war:

Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Ber.

'Tis iere! Does not divide the Sunday from the week:

Hor.

Tis here! What might be toward, that this sweaty haste

Mar. 'Tis gone!

(Ecit Ghosta Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day; We do it wrong, being so majestical, Who is't, that can inform me?

To offer it the show of violence :
Hor.

That can I; For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Whose image even but now appear’d to us,

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
Dar'd to the combat ; in which our valiant Hamlet The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,) Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a seal'd compact, Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Well ratified by law, and heraldry,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, The extravagant and erring spirit hies Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror:

To his confine: and of the truth herein Against the which, a moiety competent

This present object made probation. Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comos
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
And carriage of the article design'd,

This bird of dawning singeth all night long
His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras, And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, No fairy takes, nor witch bath power to charm, Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,

So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. For food and diet, to some enterprize

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. That hath a stomach in't: which is no other

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Kids it doth well appear unto our state,)

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill :

Yet now,

Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, | From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, Let us impart what we have seen to-night

To show my duty in your coronation; Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,

I'must confess, that duty dene, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him : My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ?

King. Have you your father's leave ? What says Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know

Polonius ?

(leava, Where we shall find him most convenient.

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow [Exeunt. By laboursome petition ; and, at last,

Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent : SCENE II.- The same. A Room of State in the I do beseech you, give him leave to go. the same.

King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,

And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.Enter the King, Queen, HAMLET, POLONIUS, But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,

LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Ham. A little more than kin, and less than sind. Attendants.

| Aside. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ? death

Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun. The memory be green; and that it us befitted Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom And let thine eye look like a friend ou Denmark. To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, Seek for thy noble father in the dust : That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die, Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Passing through vature to eternity. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. The imperial jointress of this warlike state,

Queen.

If it be, Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,

Why seems it so particular with thee ?

(seems. With one auspicious, and one drooping eye;

Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not With mirth and funeral, and with dirge in marriage, 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, In equal scale, weighing delight and dole,

Nor customary suits of solemn black, Taken to wife : nor have we herein barr'd

Nor windy suspiration of fore'd breath, Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, With this affair along :-For all, our thanks. Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,

Now follows, that you know young Fortinbras,- Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, Holding a weak supposal of our worth;

That can denote me truly : These, indeed, seem, Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death, For they are actions that a man might play: Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

But I have that within, which passeth show; Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, These, but the trappings and the suits of woe. He hath not fails to pester us with message, King 'Tis sweet and commendable in your Importing the surrender of those lands

nature, Hamlet, Lost' by his father, with all bands of law,

To give these mourning duties to your father : To our most valiant brother.-So much for him. But, you must know, your father lost a father ; Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting. That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound Thus much the business is: We have here writ In filial obligation, for some term To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,- To do obsequious sorrow; but to perséver Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears In obstinate condolement, is a course of this his nephew's purpose, -to suppress Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief: His further gait herein ; in that the levies,

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven; The lists, and full proportions, are all made A heart unfortified, or mind impatient: Out of his subject :-and we here despatch An understanding simple and unschoolid; You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,

For what, we know, must be, and is as common For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; As any of the most vulgar thing to sense, Giving to you no further personal power

Why should we, in our peevish opposition, To business with the king, more than the scope

Take it to heart ? Fye! 'tis a fault to heaven, Of these dilated articles allow.

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. To reason most absurd; whose common theme Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we show Is death of fathers, and who still bath cried, our duty.

From the first corse, till he that died to-day, King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell. This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth

(Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. This unprevailing woe; and think of us
And now, Laertes, what's the news with you ? As of a father : for let the world take note,
You told us of some suit? What is't, Laertes ? You are the most immediate to our throne;
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

And, with no less nobility of love,
And lose your voice : What would'st thou beg, Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Laertes,

Do I impart toward you. For your intent
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ? In going back to school in Wittenberg,
The head is not more native to the heart,

It is most retrograde to our desire : The kand more instrumental to the mouth,

And we beseech you, bend you to remain Than is the throne of Denmark to thy futher. Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, What would'st thou have, Laertes ?

Our chiefest courtier, cousin, an our son. Laer.

My dread lord, Queen. Let not thy mother lose her pra Your leave and favour to return to France;

Hamlet;

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply; Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !
Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come ; My father,-Methiuks, I see my father.
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet

Hor.

Where,
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, My lord ?
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day, Ham. In my mind s eye, Horatio.
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.
And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit again, Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. I shall not look upon his like again.
(Ereunt KING, Queen, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, Hor. My lord, I think I saw hiin yesternig bt.
and LAERTES.

Ham. Saw! who?
Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Ham.

The king my father! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

Hor. Season your admiration for a while
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! With an attent ear; till I may deliver,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
Seem to me all the uses of this world !

This marvel to you. Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear. That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, nature,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! In the dead waist and middle of the night, But two months dead !-nay, not so much, not two; Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your futher, So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé, Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother, Appears before them, and, with solemn march, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk’d, Visit hor face too roughly. Heaven and earth! By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes, Must I remember? Why she would hang on him, Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distillid As if increase of appetite had grown

Almost to jelly with the act of fear, By wbat it fed on: And yet, within a month,- Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me Let me not think on’i ;-Frailty thy name is In dreadful secrecy impart they did; woman!

And I with them, the third night kept the watch: A little month; or ere those shoes were old, Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, Like Niobe, all tears ;-why she, even she, The apparition comes : I knew your father; O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, These hands are aut more like. Would have mourn'd longer,-married with my Ham,

But where was this? uncle,

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd My father's brother; but no more like my father, Ham. Did you not speak to it? Than I to Hercules: Within a month;

Hor.

My lord, I did: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

But answer made it none: yet once, inethought, Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,

It lifted up its head, and did address She married :-0 most wicked speed, to post Itself to motion, like as it would speak : With such dexterity to incestuous sheets !

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud; It is not, nor it cannot come to, good ;

And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue! And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange. Enter Horatio, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; Hor. Hail to your lordship!

And we did think it writ down in our duty, Ham.

I am glad to see you well: To let you know of it. Horatio,or I do forget myself.

[ever. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant Hold you the watch to-night? Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that AU.

We do, my lord. Dame with you.

Ham. Arm’d, say you ? And what make you froin Wittenberg, Horatio ?- All.

Arm'd, my lord. Marcellus ?

Ham.

From top to toe? Mar. My good lord.

AU. My lord, from head to foot. Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir,- Ham.

Then saw you not But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? His face. Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. Ham, I would not hear your enemy say so;

Ham. What, look'd he frowningly ? Nor shall you do inine ear that violence,

Hor.

A countenauce more To make it truster of your own report

In sorrow than in anger. Against yourself: I know you are no truant.

Ham.

Pale, or red ? But what is your affair in Elsinore ?

Hor. Nay, very pale. We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart. Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you ? Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Hor. Most constantly. Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student; Ham.

I would, I had been there I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. It would have much amaz’d you. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. Ham

Very like Han. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral bak'd Very like: Stay’d it long?

[hur dred meats

Hor. While one with inoderate haste migh: tall a