DRAMATIS PERSONA. , King of Denmark.

, Hamlet,

son 1. i'ne former king, and Nephew to the Bernardo," } Officers. present King

Fraucisco, a Soldier. Polonius, Lord Chamberlain.

Reynaldo, Servant to Polonius. Horatio, Friend to Hamlet.

A Captain. An Ambassador. Laertes, Son to Polonius.

Ghost of Hamlet's rather.
Voltimand,

Fortinbras, Prince of Nortoay.
Cornelius,
Rosencrantz
Courtiers.

Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and Mother of Hamlet. Guildenstern,

Ophelia, Daughter of Polonius.
Osric, a Courtier.
Another Courtier.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave-dig4 Priest.

gers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE, Elsinore.

ACT I.

Ber.

See! it stalks away.

Hor. Stay ; speak : speak, I charge thee, speak. SCENEJ. Elsinore. A Platform before the

(Exit Ghost. Castle.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [pale : Francisco on his Post. Enter to him Bernardo. Ber. How now, Horatio l you tremble, and look

Is not this something more than fantasy? Ber. Who's there?

What think you of it! Fran,

Nay, answer me : stand aud unfold Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Yourself.

Without the sensible and true avouch Ber. Long live the king !

of mine own eyes. Fran.

Bernardo 1

Mar.

Is it not like the king?
Ber.

He. Hor. As thon art to thyself:
Fran. Yon come most carefully upon your hoor. Such was the very armour he had on,
Ber. "Tis now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, When he the ambitious Norway combated :
Francisco.

So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
Fran. For tbis relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.
And I am sick at heart.

"Tis strange.

[hoar, Ber. Have you had quiet guard ?

Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead Fran.

Not a mouse stirring. With martial stalk bath he gone by our watch. Ber. Well, good night.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, (not; The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that Fran. I think, 1 hear them.-Stand, bo! Who is why this same strict and most observant watch Hor. Friends to this ground,

(there?

So nightly toils the subject of the land ; Mar.

And liegemen to the Dane. And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, Fran. Give you good night.

And foreign mart for implements of war; Mar.

0° farewell, hovest soldier : Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Who hath relier'd you !

Does not divide the Sunday from the week :
Fran.
Bernardo hath my place.

What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Give you good night.

(Exit Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day : Mar. Holla! Bernardo ?

Who is't, that can inform me!
Ber.

Say,
Hor.

That can I ;
What, is Horatio there?

At least, the whisper goes so.

Our last king, Hor.

A piece of him. Ber: Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellas, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Hor. What, has this thing appear'd agaiu to-night! Thereto prick'd on by a most emalate pride, Ber. I bave seen nothing.

Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;

(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him), And will not let belief take hold of him,

Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seon of us;

Well ratified by law and beraldry, Therefore I have entreated him, along

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, With us to watch the minutes of this night; Whicb be stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror : That, if again this apparition come,

Against the which, a moiety competent He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.

Was gaged by our king ; which had return'd Hor. Tush! tush! 'iwill not appear.

To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Ber.

Sit down awhile ; Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, And let us once again assail your ears,

And carriage of the article design'd, That are so fortified against our story,

His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, yoang Fortinbras, What we two nights have seen.

of animproved mettle, hot and fall, Hor.

Well, sit we down, Hath, in the skirts of Norway, here and there, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Shark'd up a list of land less resolutes,
Ber. Last night of all,

For food and diet, to some enterprise
When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, That hath a stomach in't : which is no other
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

(As it doth well appear unto our state), Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

But to recover of us, by strong hand, The bell then beating one,

(again! Mar. Peace, break thee off ; look, where it comes So by his father lost : And this, I take it,

And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands Enter Ghost.

Is the main motive of our preparations ; Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. The source of this our watch and the chief head Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. of this post-haste and romage in the land. Ber. Looks it not like the king I mark it, Horatio, [Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: Hor. Most like :-it harrows me with fear, and Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Ber. It would be spoke to.

[wonder. Comes armed through our watch; so like the king Mar.

Speak to it, Horatio. That was, and is, the question of these wars. Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. Together with tbat fair and warlike form

In the most high and palmy state of Rome, In which the majesty of buried Denmark

A little ere the migbtiest Julius fell, Did sometimes march? by heaven, I charge thee, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead, Mar. It is offended.

(speak. Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

*

*

He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Importing the surrender of those lands, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,

Lost by his father, with all bands of law, Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, To our most valiant brother.- So much for him. Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.

Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting. And even the like precurse of fierce events,-- Thus much the business is : We have here writ As harbingers preceding still the fates,

To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,And prologue to the omen coming on,

Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-)

His further gait herein; and that the levies,
Re-enter Ghost.

The lists, and full proportions, are all made

Out of his subject :--and we here despatch But, soft; bebold ! lo, where it comes again!

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion !

For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Giving to you no further personal power Speak to me :

To business with the king, more than the scope If there be any good thing to be done,

of these dilated articles allow. That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,

Farewell: and let your haste commend your duty. Speak to me :

Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we show If thou art privy to thy country's fate,

our duty. Which, bappily, foreknowing may avoid,

King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell. 0, speak !

(Eseunt Volt imand and Cornelius. Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you ! Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

You told us of some suit; What is't, Laertes ! For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, (Cock crows.

And lose your voice: Wbat wouldst tbou beg, Laertes, Speak of it :-stay, and speak.--Stop it, Marcellus.

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking! Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan! The head is not more native to the heart, Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Ber.

'Tis here!

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy fatber. Hor.

"Tis here!

What wouldst thou have, Laertes ?
Mar. 'Tis gone!

(Exit Ghost.
Laer.

My dread lord, We do it wrong, being so majestical,

Your leave and favour to return to France ; To offer it the show of violence ;

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

To show my duty in your coronation ; And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. Upou a fearful summons. I bave heard,

King. Have you your father's leave? What says The cock, that is the trampet of the morn,

Polonias?

[leave, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat

Pol. He bath, my lord, (wrong from me my slow Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,

By laboursome petition; and, at last, Whether in sea or tire, in earth or air,

Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent :] The extravagant and erring spirit hies

I do beseech you, give him leave to go. To his confine: and of the truth berein

King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thipe, This present object made probation.

And thy best graces: spend it at thy will. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes

Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind. Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

(Aside. This bird of dawning siogeth all night long :

King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you! And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;

Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun. The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denunark. So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Do not, for ever with thy vailed lids Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.

Seed for thy noble father in the dust : But look, the mern, in russet mantle clad,

Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill :

Passing through nature to eternity. Break we our watch op; and, by my advice,

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Let us impart what we have seen to-night

Queen.

If it be, Unto young Hamlet : for, upon my life,

Why seems it so particular with thee? This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:

Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, As needful in our loves, fitting our daty! Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Nor windy suspiration of forc'a breath,

Nor customary suits of solemn black, Where we sball find him inost convenient. [ Exeunt. No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the

Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage, same.

Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,

That can denote me truly: These, indeed, seem, Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, For they are actions that a man might play : Voltimand, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants.

But I have that within, which passeth show; King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's These, but the trappings and the suits of woe. The memory be green; and that it us befitted [death King. "ris sweet and commendable in your nature, To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

Hamlet, To be contracted in one brow of woe;

To give these mourning duties to your father : Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, Bul, you must know, your father lost a father; That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

That father lost, lost his; and the survivor boand Together with remembrance of ourselves.

In filial obligation, for some term Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, To do obsequious sorrow : But to persever The imperial jointress of this warlike stale,

la obstinate condolement, is a course Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief; With one auspicious and one dropping

eye ;

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven; With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, A heart on fortified, or mind impatient; In equal scale weighing delight and dole,

An understanding simple and unschoold : Taken to wife : nor have we herein barr'd

For what, we know, must be, and is as common Your better wisdons, which have freely gone As any the most vulgar thing to sense, With this affair along :-Por all, our thanks. Why should we, in our peevish opposition,

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death, To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
Colleagned with this dream of his advantage, From the first corse, till he that died to-day,

This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
This unprevailing woe; and think of us

I shall not look upon his like again.
As of a fatber: for let the world take note,

Hor. My lord, i think I saw him yesternight, You are the most immediate to our throne;

Ham. Saw ! who? And, with no less nobility of love,

Hor. My lord, the king your father. Than that which dearest father bears his son,

Ham.

The king, my father! Do I impart toward you. For your intent

Hor. Season your admiration for awhile In going back to school in Wittenberg,

With an attent'ear: till I may deliver, It is most retrograde to onr desire :

Upon the witness of these gentlemen, And, we beseech you, bend you to remain

This marvel to you. Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,

Ham.

For God's love, let me bear. Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

[let;

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Ham-Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. In the dead waist and middle of the night, Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,

King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply ; Arm'd at point, exactly, cap-a-pie, Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come;

Appears before them, and, with solemn march, This gentle and unfore'd accord of Hamlet Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'a, Sits smiling to my heart : in grace whereof,

By their oppressid and fear-surprised eyes, No jocupd health, that Denmark drinks to-day, Within his truncheon's length ; while they, distillid But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; Almost to jelly with the act of fear, And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit again, Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. In dreadful secrecy, impart they did ; [Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. Polonius, And I with them, the third night, kept the watch: and Laertes.

Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

The apparition comes : I knew your father ; Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

These hands are not more like. His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God ! O God! Ham.

But where was this? How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd. Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Ham. Did you not speak to it? Fie on't ! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

Hor.

My lord, I did;
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, But answer made it none : yet once, inethought,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! It lifted up its head, and did address
But two months dead !--nay, not so much, not two: Itself to motion, like as it would speak :
So excellent a king; that was, to this,

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother, And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven And vanish'd from our sight.
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Ham.

'Tis very strange. Must I remember? why, she would hang on bim, Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; As if increase of appetite had grown

And we did think it writ down in our duty, By wbat it fed on: And yet, within a month, To let yon know of it. Let me not think on't;-Frailty, thy name is wo- Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. man!

Hold you the watch to-night? A little month; or ere those shoes were old,

All.

We do, my lord. With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Ham. Arm'd, say you? Like Niobe, all tears ;-- why she, even she,

All.

Arm'd, my lord. O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Ham.

From top to toe! Would have mourn'd longer,-married with my uncle, AN. My lord, from head to foot. My father's brother ; but no more like my father, Ham.

Then saw you not Than I to Hercules : Within a month;

His face! Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Hor. O yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,

Ham. What, look'd he frowningly? She married :-O most wicked speed, to post

Hor.

A countenance more With such dexterity to incestuous sheets

In sorrow than in anger. It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

Pale, or red ? But break, my heart : For I must hold my tongue! Hor. Nay, very pale,

Ham.

And tix'd his eyes upon you? Enter Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus. Hor. Most constantly. Hor. Hail to your lordship.

Ham.

I would, I had been there. Ham.

I am glad to see you well : Hor. It would have much amaz'd you. Horatio, -or I do forget myself. [ever. Ham.

Very like, Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant Very like : Stay'd it long? Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I'll change that name Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a

bundred. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio 1 - Mar. Ber. Longer, longer. Marcellus ?

Hor. Not when I saw it.

Ham. Mar. My good lord,

His beard was grizzled ? no! Ham. I am very glad to see you ; good even, sir.- Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, Bat what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg! A sable silver's. Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

Нат.

I will watch to-night; Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so:

Perchance, 'twill walk again. Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,

Hor.

I warrant, it will. To make it traster of your own report

Ham. If it assame my noble father's person, Against yourself: I know you are no truant. I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, But what is your affair in Elsinore ?

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart. If you have bitherto conceal'a this sight,

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Let it be tenable in your silence still';
Нап. І

pray thee do not mock me, fellow-student; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

Give it an anderstanding, but no tongue ;
Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. I will requite your loves : So, fare you well:
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral-bak'd Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
meats

I'll visit you.
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

AU.

Our duty to your honour. 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !

(Exeunt Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. My father,--Methinks, I see my father.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; Hor.

Where, I doubt some fonl play: 'would, the night were come! My lord ?

Till then sit still, my soul : Foul deeds will rise, Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes, Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.

(Exit

Ham.

with you.

SCENE III. A Room in Polonius's House. Pol. The time invites you ; go, your servants tend. Enter Laertes and Ophelia.

Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well

What I have said to you. Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell :

Oph.

"Tis in my memory lock'd, And, sister, as the winds give benefit,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it. And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

Laer. Farewell.

[Exit. But let me hear from you. Oph. Do you donbt that

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you ! Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,

Oph. So please yon, something touching the lord
Pol. Marry, well bethought :

Hamlet. Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late A violet in the youth of primy nature,

Given private time to you: and you yonrself Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,

Have of your audience been most free and bounteous : The perfume and suppliance of a minute ;

If it be so (as so 'tis put on me, No more.

And that in way of caution), I must tell you, Oph. No more but so?

You do not understand yourself so clearly, Laer.

Think it no more:

As it behoves my daughter, and your honour :
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk ; but as this temple waxes,

What is between you give me up the truth.

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders The inward service of the mind and soul

of his affection to me. Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now: Pol. Affection ! puh! you speak like a green girl, And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch

Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. The virtue of bis will: but, you must fear,

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them! His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. For he himself is subject to his birth :

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you : think yourself a baby; He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself; for on his choice depends

That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,

Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; The safety and the health of the whole state;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,

Wronging it thus), you'll tender me a fool.
Whereof he is the head; Then if he says he loves you, In honourable fashion.

Oph. My lord, be hath importun'd me with love, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it, As he in his particular act and place

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to.

Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my May give his saying deed; which is no further,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven. [lord, Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, If with too credent ear you list his songs;

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul

Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter, Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open To his unmaster'd importunity.

Giving more light than heat,- extinct in both,

Even in their promise, as it is a making Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;

You must not take for fire. From this time, And keep you in the rear of your affection,

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; Out of the shot and danger of desire. The cbariest maid is prodigal enough,

Set your entreatments at a higher rate, If she unmask her beanty to the moon:

Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,

Believe so much in hin, That he is young i Virtue itself scapes not ealumnious strokes ;

And with a larger tether may he walk,
The canker galls the infants of the spring,

Than may be given you : In few, Ophelia,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd
And in the morn and liquid dew of youthi

Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers,

Not of that die which their investments show, Contagious blastments are most imminent.

But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Be wary then : best safety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though pone else near.

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,

The better to begaile. This is for all, Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, As watchman to my heart : But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Have you so slander any moment's leisare, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;

As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.

Look to't, I charge you; come your ways. Whilst, like a pufid and reckless libertine,

Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

(Exeunt. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read.

SCENE IV. The Platform. Laer. 0, fear me not.

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. I stay too long ;-But here my father comes.

Ham. The air bites shrewdly! it is very cold. Enter Polonias.

Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air, A double blessing is a double grace;

Ham. What hour now! Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Hor.

I think, it lacks of twelve. Pol. Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for sbame; Mar. No, it is struck. The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

Hor. Indeed! I heard it not; it then draws near the And you are staid for: There,-my blessing with you; Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. (season,

(Laying his Hand on Laertes Head (A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot off And these few precepts in thy memory

cithin. Look thoa character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, What does this mean, my lord !

(rouse, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes bis Be thon familiar, bat by no means vulgar.

Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels; The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel; The kettle-drum and trampet thus bray out But do not dull thy palm with entertainment The triumph of his pledge. Of each new-hatel'd, undledg'd comrade. Beware Hor.

Is it a custom ! of entrance to a quarrel : but, being in,

Ham. Ay, marry, is't: Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. But to my mind, -though I am native here, Give every man thine ear, bnt few thy voice : And to the manner born,-it és a custom Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. More honour'd in the breach, than the observance. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

This heavy-headed revel, east and west, But not express'd in fancy; ricb, not gaudy: Makes us tradue'd, and tax'd of other nations : For the apparel oft proclaims the man ;

They clepe us, drunkards, and with swinish phrase And they in France, of the best rank and station, Soil our addition ; and, indeed, it takes Are most select and generous, chief in that.

From our achievements, though perform'd at height, Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:

The pith and marrow of our attribute.
Por loan oft loses both itself and friend;

So, oft it changes in partioular men,
And horrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
This above all,- To thine ownself be true

As, in their birth (wberein they are not gailty, And it must follow, as the night the day,

Since nature cannot choose his origin), Thou canst not then be false to any man.

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Farewell; my blessing season this in thee !

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason ; Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners ;--that these men,-- Ghost. I am thy father's spirit;
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night;
Being natare's livery, or fortune's star,-

And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires, 'Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, As infinite as man may undergo),

Are burnt and parg'd away. But that I am forbid Shall, in the general censure, take corruption To tell the secrets of my prison-house, From that particular fault: The dram of base I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word, Doth all the noble substance often dout,

Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; To his own scandal.

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres; Enter Ghost.

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand an-end,
Hor.

Look, my lord, it comes ! Like quills upon the fretful porcupine ;
Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend as !- But this eternal bluzon must not be
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, To ears of flesh and blood :-List, list, o list!
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, if thou didst ever thy dear father love,
Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Ham. O heaven!
Thou coms't in such a questionable shape,

Ghost. Revenge bis foal and most unnatural murder. That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, Ham. Murder ? King, father, royal Dane : 0, answer me :

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; Let me not burst in ignorance ! but tell,

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,

Ham. Haste me to know it; that I, with wings as Have burst their cerements ! why the sepulchre, As meditation, or the thoughts of love, [swift Wherein we saw thee quietly in-ern’d,

May sweep to my revenge. Hatb op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,

Ghost.

I find thee apt;
To cast thee up again! What may this mean, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That

thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,

Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear : Making night hideous; and we fools of nature, "Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine orchard, So horridly to shake our disposition,

A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ! Is, by a forged process of my death, Say, why is this 1 wherefore? what should we do? Rankly abus'a : but know, thou noble yoath, Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,

The serpent that did sting thy father's life, As if it some impartment did desire

Now wears his crown. To you alone.

Ham. O, my prophetic soul! my uncle ! Mar. Look, with what courteous action Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, It waves you to a more removed gronnd :

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, But do not go with it.

(0 wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
Hor.
No, by no means.

So to seduce !) won to his shameful lust
Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. The will of my most seeming-virtaoas queen :-
Hor. Do not, my lord.

0, Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! Ham.

Why, what should be the fear? From me, whose love was of that dignity, I do not set my life at a pin's fee ;

That it went hand in hand even with the vow And, for my soul, what can it do to that,

I made to her in marriage; and to decline Being a thing immortal as itself!

Upon a wretch, whose patural gifts were poor It waves me forth again ;-I'll follow it.

To those of mine! Hor. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, my Bat virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, [lord, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven; That beetles o'er his base into the sea ?

So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
And there assume some other horrible form,

Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And prey on garbage.
And draw you into madoess I think of it:

But, soft ! methinks I scent the morning air ;
The very place puts toys of desperation,

Brief let me be :--Sleeping within mine orchard, Without more motive, into every brain,

My custom always of the afternoon, That looks so many fathoms to the sea,

Upon my secure bour thy uncle stole, And bears it roar beneath.

With juice of carsed hebenon in a vial, Ham.

It waves me still: And in the porches of mine ears did pour Go on, I'll follow thee.

The leperous distilment: whose effeet Mar. You shall not go, my lord.

Holds such an enmity with blood of man, Ham.

Hold off your hands. That swift as quicksilver it courses through Hor. Be ral'd, you shall not go.

The natural gates and alleys of the body ; Ham.

My fate cries out, And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset And makes each petty artery in this body

And curd, like eager droppings into milk, As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.

The thin and wholesome blood : so did it mine;

(Ghost beckons. And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Still am I call's ;-unhand me, gentlemen ;

Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,

(Breaking from them. All my smooth body. By heaven, I'll

make a ghost of him that lets me :- Thas was 1, sleeping, by a brother's hand, I say, away :-Go on, I'll follow thee.

of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd. (Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Unhousel'd, disappointed, ubanel'd; Mar. Let's follow ; 'tis not tit thus to obey him. No reckoning, made, but sent to my account Hor. Have after :-To what issue will this come? With all my imperfections on my head : Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. O, horrible ! o, horrible! most horrible ! Hor. Heaven will direct it.

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Mar.

Nay, let's follow him. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
(Exeunt. A couch for luxury and damned incest.

But, howsoever thou pursa'st this act,
SCENE V. A more remote Part of the Platform.

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Re-enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me I speak; I'll go And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,

1 Ghost. Mark me.

(no further. To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! Ham. I will

The glow-worm shows the matin to be pear, Ghost.

My hour is almost come, And 'gins to pale his aneffectual fire : When I to salphurous and tormenting flames Adieu, adieu, adieu ! remember me.

[Exit Must render ap myself.

Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What Ham. Alas, poor ghost! else 1

[heart, Ghost, Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing And shall I couple hell 1-0 fie !-Hold, hold, my To what I shall unfold.

And you, my sinews, grow not instapt old, Speak, I am bound to bear. But bear me stifly up ;-Remember thee? Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou sbalt hear. Ay, thou poor ghost, while

memory holds a seat Ham. What?

In this distracted globe. Remember thee?

Ham.