CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

FRANCISCO, a Soldier.

to the present King.

POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.

HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet. LAERTES, Son to Polonius.

A CAPTAIN. - An AMBASSADOR.
GHOST of Hamlet's Father.
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.

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,

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.

Ber. Sit down awhile;

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,

Fran. Not a mouse stirring.

Ber. Well, good night.

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

Had made his course to illume that part of Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

When yon same star, that's westward from [heaven

the pole,

and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.

But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,

The source of this our watch; and the chief

head

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.

speak.

Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee,
[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, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?

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 angry parle,t
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
'Tis strange.

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
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

cellus.

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,
[Cock crows.
Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Mar-
Mar. Shalt I strike at it with my partizan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Ber. 'Tis here!
Hor. "Tis here!
Mar. 'Tis gone!

(For so this side of our known world esteem'd
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd com-
Well ratified by law and heraldry, [pact,
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,

[mart,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-
And carriage of the article design'd,**
His fell to Hamlet: Now, Sir, young Fortin-
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,tt [bras,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,

Shark'd‡‡ up a list of resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomachss in't: which is no other

[Exit GHOST.

To offer it the show of violence;
wrong, being so majestical,
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock

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 State 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;
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,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy, -
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in mar-
riage,

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:-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 to be disjoint and out of frame,

Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing our surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bandst of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for

him.

Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.

Thus much business is: We have

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; Giving to you no further personal power

To business with the king, more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow. [duty. Farewell; and let your haste commend your Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we

show our duty.

King. We doubt it nothing; heartily fare[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.

Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laer. My dread lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France; From whence though willingly I came to

Denmark,

To show my duty in your coronation; Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again toward [don. And bow them to your gracious leave and parKing. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

France,

Pol. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave,

By laboursome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:]
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
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

Ham.
Queen. If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee?
Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know
not seems.

"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,
That can denote me truly: These, indeed,
For they are actions that a man might play:
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:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost his; and the survivor bound
In filial obligation, for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: But to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course

of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what, we know, must be, and is as com

mon

As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even,

And, with no less nobility of love,
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde* to our desire :
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet;

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 rouses the heaven shall bruit

again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, and LAERTES.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would Thaw, and resolves itself into a dew! [melt,

Sir.

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so:
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know, you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore ?
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. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral

bak'd meats*

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had met my dearestt foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !-
My father, Methinks, I see my father.
Hor. Where,

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 beteem++ 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!一

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,
Than I to Hercules: Within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:- most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

But break, my heart: for I must hold my tongue!

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.
Hor. Hail to your lordship!
Ham. I am glad to see you well:

Horatio, or I do forget myself.

My lord?

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,

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.

Ham. The king my father?

Hor. Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear; till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham. For God's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentle

men,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,
[father,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he
walk'd,
By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they,
Almost to jelly with the fear, [distill'd
Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them, the third night, kept the
watch:

Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and 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