HAMLET,

PRINCE OF DENMARK.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.
HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the present King.
HORATIO, Friend to HAMLET.
POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.
LAERTES, his Son.
VOLTIMAND,
CORNELIUS,
ROSENCRANTZ,

Courtiers.
GUILDENSTERN,
OSRICK,
A Gentleman,
A Priest.

MARCELLUS

, } Officers.

BERNARDO,
FRANCISCO, a Soldier.
REYNALDO, Servant to POLONIUS.
A Captain. Embassadors.
Ghost of HAMLET's Father.
FORTINBRAS, Prince oj Norway.
Two Clowns, Grave-diggers.
GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Moiher to HAMLET.
OPHELIA, Daughter to POLONIUS.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Sailors, Messengers, and Attendants

SCENE,-ELSINORE

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

And I am sick at heart.

ACT I.
SCENE 1.—ELSINORE. A Platform before the Castle.

FRANCISCO on his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.
Ber. Who's there?

Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold
Ber. Long live the king !

Bernardo?

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,

Fran. Yourself.

Fran.
Ber.

If

Ber. Have you had quiet guard ?
Fran.

Not a mouse stirring.
Ber. Well, good night.
you

Mar.

Holla! Bernardo !
Ber.

Say.
What, is Horatio there?
Hor.

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

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

Sit down a while;
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,
The bell then beating one, -

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

Enter Ghost.
Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like :-—it harrows me with fear and wonder.
Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar.

Question it, Horatio.
Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form,
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!

Mar. It is offended.
Ber.

See, it stalks away.
Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

(Exit Ghost. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Of mine own eyes.

Mar.

'Tis strange.

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 :
Who is't that can inform me?
At least, the whisper goes so.
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,

Dard to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet

Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble, and look pale : Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on’t ?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the sensible and true avouch

Is it not like the king?
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on,
When he th' ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.

Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead 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

That can I ;

Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear’d to us,

(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

as gagèd by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same co-

mart, And carriage of the article design'd,

Hor.