Courtiers.

CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the present, King.

POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.

HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet.
LAERTES, Son to Polonius.
VOLTIMAND,

CORNELIUS,

ROSENCRANTZ,

GUILDENSTERN,
OSRIC, a Courtier.
Another Courtier.
A Priest.

} Officers.

MARCELLUS,
BERNARDO,
FRANCISCO, a Soldier.
REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius.
A Captain. An Ambassador.
Ghost of Hamlet's Father.
FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway.

GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother to Hamlet.
OPHELIA, Daughter to Polonius.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave-diggers,
Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE. Elsinore.

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Fran. Yourself.

253

SCENE I. Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.

FRANCISCO on his post. Enter to him, BERNARDO.

Bernardo. WHO's there?

Ber. Long live the king!

Fran.

Nay, answer me;1 stand, and unfold

Bernardo?

Ber.

He. Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

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

Francisco.

Fran. For this relief, much thanks; 'tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard?

Fran.

Ber. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

2

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

1 i. e. me, who have a right to demand the watchword; which appears to have been, "Long live the king."

* Shakspeare uses rivals for associates, partners; and competitor has the same sense throughout these plays. It is the original sense of rivalis.

Not a mouse stirring.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

Fran. I think I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is there?

Hor. Friends to this ground.

Mar.

Fran. Give you good
Mar.
Who hath relieved you?
Fran.

Give you good night.
Mar.

Ber.

And liegemen to the Dane. night.

O, farewell, honest soldier;

[ACT 1.

Bernardo hath my place.
[Exit FRANCISCO.

Holla! Bernardo !

Say,

What, is Horatio there?

Hor.

A piece of him.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.
Hor. What, has this thing appeared again to-night?
Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy;
And will not let belief take hold of him,
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 approve1 our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber.

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What 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,

1 To approve is to confirm.

Sit down awhile;

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes

again!

speak.

Mar. It is offended.

Enter Ghost.

Ber. In the same figure like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.1
Ber. Looks it not like the king? Mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like ;-it harrows me with fear and
wonder.

2

Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar.

Hor. What art thou, that
night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

255

Speak to it, Horatio. usurp'st this time of

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? By Heaven, I charge thee,

Ber. See! it stalks away.

Hor. Stay; speak: speak, I charge thee speak.

Exit 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?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
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 armor he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polack 3 on the ice.
'Tis strange.

1 It was a vulgar notion, that a supernatural being could only be spoken to, with effect, by persons of learning; exorcisms being usually practised by the clergy in Latin.

2 The first quarto reads, "it horrors me."

3 i. e. the sledged Polander (Polaque, Fr.). The old copy reads Pollax

256

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

[ACT I.

1

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

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know
not; 2

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 ?

Hor.

At least, the whisper goes so.
Our last king,
Whose image even but now appeared to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteemed him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a sealed compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

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

That can I

;

1 Jump. So the quarto of 1603, and that of 1604. The folio reads just. Jump and just were synonymous. So in Chapman's May Day, 1611:

"Your appointment was jumpe at three with me.”

2 That is, "what particular train of thought to follow," &c. The first quarto reads:

"In what particular to work I know not."