HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark. PERSONS REPRESENTED. FRANCISCO, a Soldier. HAMLET, Son to the former King, and Nephew REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius. to the present King. LAERTES, Son to Polonius. POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain. HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet. VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Courtiers. ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, OSRIC, a Courtier. Another COURTIER. A PRIEST. MARCELLUS,Officers. BERNARDO, A CAPTAIN. AD AMBASSADOR. FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway. GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother of Hamlet. OPHELIA, Daughter of Polonius. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave-diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE, Elsinore. 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. Not a mouse stirring. Ber. Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus. The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS. Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again 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, That, if again this apparition come, With us to watch the minutes of this night; He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear. And let us once again assail your ears, Ber. Sit down awhile; 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. 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, Fran. I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who The bell then beating one, Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, (As it doth well appear unto our state,) and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form 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. Ber. How, now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: s not this something more than fantasy? What think you of it? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Mar. Is it not like the king? Such was the very armour he had on, 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; 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 task Does not divide the Sunday from the week: Hor. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, | But to recover of us, by strong hand, Of this post-haste and romage* in the land. That was, and is, the question of these wars. As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. Re-enter GHOST. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illu sion! If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life death, cellus. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets | And lose your voice: What wouldst thou beg, strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. Hor. So I have heard, and do in part believe But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, [it. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill: Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, 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? Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of Stute in the same. 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 To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe; In equal scale weighing delight and dole,*- bras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth; him. Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting: Of these dilated articles allow. well. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. 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, + Bonds. Way, * Grief. Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? Your leave and favour to return to France; To show my duty in your coronation; Pol. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave, By laboursome petition; and, at last, King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.* [Aside. King. How is it, that the clouds still hang on you? Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun. Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, [mark. And let thine eye look like a friend on DenDo not, for ever, with thy veiled lidst Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die, Passing through nature to eternity. not seems. Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, Nor customary suits of solemn black, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, [seem, For they are actions that a man might play: That can denote me truly: These, indeed, But I have that within, which passeth show; These, but the trappings and the suits of woe. King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father: To do obsequious sorrow: But to perséver mon As any the most vulgar thing to sense, Nature: a little more than a kinsman, and less than natural one. + Lowering eyes. A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, Than that which dearest father bears his son, I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply; Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's rouset the heaven shall bruit; again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, and LAERTES. [melt, [God! Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would Thaw, and resolves itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd "His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, [this! Possess it merely. That it should come to But two months dead !-nay, not so much, not So excellent a king; that was, to this, [two: Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother, That he might not beteemtt the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on As if increase of appetite had grown [him, By what it fed on: And yet, within a month,Let me not think on't;-Frailty, thy name is woman! A little month; or ere those shoes were old, With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears;-why she, even she,O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer,-married with my uncle, My father's brother; but no more like my father, Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellowstudent; I think, it was to see my mother's wedding. Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. My lord? I Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, shall not look upon his like again. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Hor. My lord, the king your father. Hor. Season your admiration for a while Ham. For God's love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentle- By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes, Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, good, The apparition comes: I knew your father; These hands are not more like. Ham. But where was this? Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd. Ham. Did you not speak to it? Hor. My lord, I did; But answer made it none: yet once, methought, It was anciently the custom to give a cold entertain ment at a funeral. |