HAMLET. William Shakespeare

by our king; which had return’d

       To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

       Had he been vanquisher; as by the same cov’nant,

       And carriage of the article design’d,

       His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

       Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

       Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,

       Shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes,

       For food and diet, to some enterprise

       That hath a stomach 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 e’en so:

       Well may it sort, 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;

       As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

       Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,

       Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands,

       Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:

       And even the like precurse of fierce events,—

       As harbingers preceding still the fates,

       And prologue to the omen coming on,—

       Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

       Unto our climature and countrymen.—

       But, soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

       [Re-enter Ghost.]

       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, race 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,

       [The cock crows.]

       Speak of it:—stay, and speak!—Stop it, Marcellus!

       Mar.

       Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

       Hor.

       Do, if it will not stand.

       Ber.

       ‘Tis here!

       Hor.

       ‘Tis here!

       Mar.

       ‘Tis gone!

       [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 to 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 confine: 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,

       The bird of dawning singeth all night long;

       And then, they say, no spirit dare 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 eastward hill:

       Break we our watch up: and by my advice,

       Let us impart what we have seen tonight

       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 conveniently.

       [Exeunt.]

       SCENE II. Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.

       [Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand,

       Cornelius, Lords, and Attendant.]

       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,

       Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,

       Have we, as ‘twere with a defeated joy,—

       With an auspicious and one dropping eye,

       With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,

       In equal scale weighing delight and dole,—

       Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr’d

       Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

       With this affair along:—or all, our thanks.

       Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,