Hamlet 1.1

	Bernardo	Who's there?
4	Francisco	Nay, answer me; stand, and unfold yourself.
	Bernardo	Long live the king!
	Francisco	Bernardo?
	Bernardo	He.
8	Francisco	You come most carefully upon your hour.
	Bernardo	'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
	Francisco	For this relief much thanks; 'tis bitter cold,
		And I am sick at heart.
12	Bernardo	Have you had quiet guard?
	Francisco	Not a mouse stirring.
	Bernardo	Well, good-night.
		If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
16		The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
	Francisco	I think I hear them.
		Stand, ho! Who's there?
		Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
20	Horatio	Friends to this ground.
	Marcellus	And liegemen to the Dane.
	Francisco	Give you goodnight
	Marcellus	O! farewell, honest soldier:
24		Who hath reliev'd you?
	Francisco	Bernardo has my place.
back to top		Give you goodnight [Exit.]
	Marcellus	Holla! Bernardo!
28	Bernardo	Say, What! is Horatio there?
	Horatio	A piece of him.
	Bernardo	Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.
	Marcellus	What! has this thing appear'd again to-night?
32	Bernardo	I have seen nothing.
	Marcellus	Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
		And will not let belief take hold of him
		Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us:
36		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.
40	Horatio	Tush, tush! 'twill not appear.
	Bernardo	Sit down a while,
		And let us once again assail your ears,
		That are so fortified against our story,
44		What we two nights have seen.
	Horatio	Well, sit we down,
		And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
	Bernardo	Last night of all,
48		When yond same star that's westward from the pole
		Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
back to top		Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
		The bell then beating one,--
52	Marcellus	Peace! break thee off; look, where it comes again!
		Enter Ghost.
	Bernardo	In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
	Marcellus	Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
56	Bernardo	Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
	Horatio	Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
	Bernardo	It would be spoke to.
	Marcellus	Question it, Horatio.
60	Horatio	What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
		Together with that fair and war-like form
		In which the majesty of buried Denmark
		Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
64	Marcellus	It is offended.
	Bernardo	See! it stalks away.
	Horatio	Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
		[Exit Ghost.]
	Marcellus	'Tis gone, and will not answer.
68	Bernardo	How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
		Is not this something more than fantasy?
		What think you on 't?
	Horatio	Before my God, I might not this believe
72		Without the sensible and true avouch
		Of mine own eyes.
	Marcellus	Is it not like the king?
	Horatio	As thou art to thyself:
76		Such was the very armour he had on
back to top		When he the ambitious Norway combated;
		So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
		He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
80		'Tis strange.
	Marcellus	Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
		With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
	Horatio	In what particular thought to work I know not;
84		But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
		This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
	Marcellus	Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
		Why this same strict and most observant watch
88		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
92		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?
96	Horatio	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,
100		Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
back to top		Dar'd 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,
104		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
108		Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
		To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
		Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
		And carriage of the article design'd,
112		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 lawless resolutes,
116		For food and diet, to some enterprise
		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
120		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
124		Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
	Bernardo	I think it be no other but e'en so;
back to top		Well may it sort that this portentous figure
		Comes armed through our watch, so like the king
128		That was and is the question of these wars.
	Horatio	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,
132		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
136		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
140		And prologue to the omen coming on,
		Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
		Unto our climatures and countrymen.
		But, soft! behold! lo! where it comes again.
144		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:
148		If there be any good thing to be done,
back to top		That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
		Speak to me:
		If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
152		Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
		O! speak;
		Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
		Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
156		For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows].
		Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
	Marcellus	Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
	Horatio	Do, if it will not stand.
160	Bernardo	'Tis here!
	Horatio	'Tis here!
		[Exit Ghost.]
	Marcellus	'Tis gone! We do it wrong, being so majestical,
164		To offer it the show of violence;
		For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
		And our vain blows malicious mockery.
	Bernardo	It was about to speak when the cock crew.
168	Horatio	And then it started like a guilty thing
		Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
		The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
		Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
172		Awake the god of day; and at his warning,
		Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
back to top		The extravagant and erring spirit hies
		To his confine; and of the truth herein
176		This present object made probation.
	Marcellus	It faded on the crowing of the cock.
		Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
		Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
180		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,
184		So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
	Horatio	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;
188		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.
192		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
back to top		Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt.]
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Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.
FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

William Shakespeare (1564 -1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.
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