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Hor.

A piece of him.
Ber. Welcome, Horatio :-welcome, good Marcellus.
Mar. What, has this thing appear'd 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,

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Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.
Mar.
Is it not like the king?

55
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

60 'Tis strange.

Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dread 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 my 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-labourer with the day: 75
Who is't that can inform me?
Hor.

That can I; 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,

80 Dard 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 compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Which he stood seiz'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 cov'nant, 90 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 landless resolutes,

95 For food and diet, to some enterprise

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100

IIO

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 compulsative, 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:

105
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,

115
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 grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,

130
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, 135

[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.

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Ber.

'Tis here! Hor

'Tis here! Mar. 'Tis gone!

[Exit Ghost. We do it wrong, being so majestical,

140
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

145
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,

150 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

155 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm;

160 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,

165
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 ?

170 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 Attendants. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green ; and that it us befitted

D

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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

5
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 dropping eye,
With mirth and 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

15 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 the 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 bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. So much for him.

25 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;

35 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. and Vol. In that and all things will we show our duty. King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.

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[Exeunt Vol. and Cor 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, 45 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

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