Hamlet (5 page)

HAMLET
, Prince of Denmark

KING
of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle

GHOST
of old Hamlet, former King of Denmark, Hamlet’s father

GERTRUDE
, queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother

POLONIUS
, councillor to the state of Denmark

LAERTES
, Polonius’ son

OPHELIA
, Polonius’ daughter

REYNALDO
, Polonius’ servant

HORATIO
, Hamlet’s friend and fellow student

ROSENCRANTZ
and
GUILDENSTERN

VOLTEMAND
and
CORNELIUS

MARCELLUS

BARNARDO

FRANCISCO
, another sentinel of the king’s guard

OSRIC
, a courtier

PLAYERS
, who take the roles of
PROLOGUE, PLAYER KING, BAPTISTA
and
LUCIANUS

FORTINBRAS
, Prince of Norway

A
CAPTAIN
in his army

Two
CLOWNS
, a gravedigger and his companion

Two
MESSENGERS

A
SAILOR

A
PRIEST

AMBASSADOR
from England

Lords, Soldiers, Attendants,

Servants, Followers of Laertes

BARNARDO
    Who’s there?

FRANCISCO
    Nay, answer
me
: stand and
unfold
²
yourself.

BARNARDO
    Long live the king!

FRANCISCO
    Barnardo?

BARNARDO
    He.

FRANCISCO
    You come most
carefully upon your hour
⁶
.

BARNARDO
    ’Tis now struck twelve: get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRANCISCO
    For this relief much thanks: ’tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

BARNARDO
    Have you had quiet guard?

FRANCISCO
    Not a mouse stirring.

BARNARDO
    Well, goodnight.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The
rivals
¹⁴
of my watch, bid them make haste.

FRANCISCO
    I think I hear them.— Stand! Who’s there?

HORATIO
    Friends to this
ground
¹⁶
.

MARCELLUS
    And
liegemen to the Dane
¹⁷
.

FRANCISCO
    
Give
¹⁸
you goodnight.

MARCELLUS
    O, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?

FRANCISCO
    Barnardo has my place. Give you goodnight.

MARCELLUS
    Holla! Barnardo!

BARNARDO
    Say, what, is Horatio there?

HORATIO
    A piece of him.

BARNARDO
    Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.

MARCELLUS
    What, has this thing appeared again tonight?

BARNARDO
    I have seen nothing.

MARCELLUS
    Horatio says ’tis but our
fantasy
²⁷
,

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touching
this dreaded sight twice seen
of
²⁹
us:

Therefore I have entreated him
along
³⁰

With us to
watch
³¹
the minutes of this night,

That if again this apparition come,

He may
approve
³³
our eyes and speak to it.

HORATIO
    Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.

BARNARDO
    Sit down awhile,

And let us once again
assail
³⁶
your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,

What we two nights have seen.

HORATIO
    Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.

BARNARDO
    
Last night of all
⁴¹
,

When
yond
same star that’s westward from the
pole
⁴²

Had made his course
t’illume
⁴³
that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one—

MARCELLUS
    Peace, break thee off.

                      Look where it comes again.

BARNARDO
    In the same
figure
⁴⁷
like the king that’s dead.

MARCELLUS
    Thou art a
scholar
⁴⁸
; speak to it, Horatio.

BARNARDO
    Looks it not like the king?
Mark it
⁴⁹
, Horatio.

HORATIO
    Most like: it
harrows
⁵⁰
me with fear and wonder.

BARNARDO
    It
would
⁵¹
be spoke to.

MARCELLUS
    Question it, Horatio.

HORATIO
    What art thou that
usurp’st
⁵³
this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried
Denmark
⁵⁵

Did
sometimes
march? By heaven I
charge
⁵⁶
thee speak!

MARCELLUS
    It is offended.

BARNARDO
    See, it stalks away.

HORATIO
    Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Exit the Ghost

MARCELLUS
    ’Tis gone and will not answer.

BARNARDO
    How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you
on’t
⁶³
?

HORATIO
    Before my God, I might not this believe

Without the
sensible
and true
avouch
⁶⁵

Of mine own eyes.

MARCELLUS
    Is it not like the king?

HORATIO
    As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armour he had on

When he th’ambitious
Norway
⁷⁰
combated:

So frowned he once when, in an angry
parle
⁷¹
,

He smote the
steelèd pole-axe
⁷²
on the ice.

’Tis strange.

MARCELLUS
    Thus twice before, and just at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

HORATIO
    
In what particular thought to
work
I know not
⁷⁶
,

But in the
gross and scope
⁷⁷
of my opinion,

This bodes some strange
eruption
⁷⁸
to our state.

MARCELLUS
    
Good now
⁷⁹
, sit down and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly
toils
the
subject
⁸¹
of the land,

And why such daily
cast
of
brazen
⁸²
cannon

And foreign
mart
⁸³
for implements of war:

Why such
impress
⁸⁴
of shipwrights, whose sore task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week
⁸⁵

What might be
toward
⁸⁶
, that this sweaty haste

Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:

Who is’t that can inform me?

HORATIO
    That can I,

At least, the
whisper
⁹⁰
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
⁹³
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
⁹⁶
,

Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands

Which he stood
seized on
⁹⁹
to the conqueror:

Against the which, a
moiety competent
¹⁰⁰

Was
gagèd
by our king, which
had returned
¹⁰¹

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same
cov’nant
¹⁰³
,

And
carriage of the article designed
¹⁰⁴
,

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

Of
unimprovèd
mettle
¹⁰⁶
hot and full,

Hath in the
skirts
¹⁰⁷
of Norway here and there

Sharked up
a
list
of landless
resolutes
¹⁰⁸

For food and diet to some enterprise
¹⁰⁹

That hath
a stomach
¹¹⁰
in’t, which is no other —

And it doth well appear unto our
state
¹¹¹
—

But to recover of us, by strong hand

And terms
compulsative
¹¹³
, 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
¹¹⁶

Of this
post-haste
and
rummage
¹¹⁷
in the land.

But
soft
, behold!
Lo
¹¹⁸
, where it comes again!

I’ll
cross it
, though it
blast
¹¹⁹
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 —

Which,
haply
¹²⁶
, foreknowing may avoid — O, speak!

Or if thou hast
uphoarded
¹²⁷
in thy life

Extorted
¹²⁸
treasure in the womb of earth —

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death —

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

MARCELLUS
    Shall I strike at it with my
partisan
¹³¹
?

HORATIO
    Do, if it will not
stand
¹³²
.

They attempt to strike it

BARNARDO
    ’Tis here!

HORATIO
    ’Tis here!

MARCELLUS
    ’Tis gone!

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.

BARNARDO
    It was about to speak when the cock crew.

HORATIO
    And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet to the day,

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,

Th’extravagant and erring
spirit
hies
¹⁴⁷

To his
confine
¹⁴⁸
: and of the truth herein

This present object made
probation
¹⁴⁹
.

MARCELLUS
    It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever
gainst
¹⁵¹
that season comes

Wherein
our Saviour’s
¹⁵²
birth is celebrated,

The
bird of dawning
¹⁵³
singeth all night long,

And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad:

The nights are
wholesome
, then no planets
strike
¹⁵⁵
,

No fairy
talks
, nor witch hath power to
charm
¹⁵⁶
,

So
hallowed
and so
gracious
¹⁵⁷
is the time.

HORATIO
    So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But, look, the morn in
russet
¹⁵⁹
mantle clad,

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 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?

MARCELLUS
    Let’s do’t, I pray, and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently.