HAMLET,

PRINCE OF DENMARK.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

BERNARDO, an officer. Hamlet, son to the former, and nephew to the present Francisco, a soldier. King.

REYNALDO, servant to Polonius. POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.

A Captain. Horatio, friend to Hamlet,

An Ambassador. LAERTES, son to Polonius.

Ghost of Hamlet's father.
VOLTIMAND,

FOBTINBRAS, Prince of Norway.
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, Game A Priest.

diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and atker Attendente MARCELLUS, an officer.

SCENE, —ELSINORE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. - Elsinore." A Platform before the

Hor. Friends to this ground.
Castle.

Mar.

And liegemen to the Dane.

Fran. Give you good night. FRANCISCO on his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

Mar.

O, farewell, honest saldist : Ber, Who's there?

Who hath reliev'd

you u ? Fran. Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold Fran.

Bernardo hath my place Yourself.

Give you good night.

(En Francesa Ber. Long live the king!

Mar.

Holla! Bernardo !
Fran.

Bernardo?
Ber.

Sor. Ber.

He.

What, is Horatio there? Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. Hor.

A piece of him. Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Ber. Welcome, Horatio ; welcome, good Ne Francisco.

cellus. Fran. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again And I am sick at heart.

night? Ber. Have you had quiet guard?

Ber. I have seen nothing. Fran.

Not a mouse stirring. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy i Ber. Well, good night. ?

And will not let belief take hold of him, If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Therefore I have entreated him, along

With us to watch the minutes of this night;
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

That, if again this apparition come,
Fran. I think, I hear them. — Stand, ho! Who He may approve our eyes, and speak to it
is there!

Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.

Ber.

Sit down awhile ; | Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet And let us once again assail your ears,

(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,) That are so fortified against our story,

Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact, What we two nights have seen.

Well ratified by law, and heraldry, Hor.

Well, sit we down, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror : Ber. Last night of all,

Against the which, a moiety competent When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Was gaged by our king; which had return'd Had made his course to illume that part of heaven To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same co-mart, The bell then beating one,

And carriage of the article design'd, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes His fell to Hamlet : Now, sir, young Fortinbras, again!

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Enter Ghost.

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,

Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. For food and diet, to some enterprize
Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. That hath a stomach in't: which is no other
Ber. Looks it not like the king ? mark it, Horatio. (As it doth well appear unto our state,)
Hor. Most like : - it harrows me with fear, and But to recover of us, by strong hand,
wonder.

And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands Ber. It would be spoke to.

So by his father lost : And this, I take it, Mar.

Speak to it, Horatio. Is the main motive of our preparations ; Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of The source of this our watch ; and the chief head night,

Of this post-haste and romage in the land. Together with that fair and warlike form

Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, Comes armed through our watch; so like the king speak.

That was, and is, the question of these wars. Mar. It is offended.

Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. Ber.

See ! it stalks away. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, Hor. Stay; speak : speak I charge thee, speak. A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

[Exit Ghost.

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. Ber. How now, Horatio ? you tremble, and look pale :

As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Is not this something more than fantasy?

Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star, What think you of it ?

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse. Without the sensible and true avouch

And even the like precurse of fierce events, Of mine own eyes.

As harbingers preceding still the fates, Mar.

Is it not like the king ? And prologue to the omen coming on, Hor. As thou art to thyself :

Have heaven and earth together démonstrated Such was the very armour he had on,

Unto our climatures and countrymen.
When he the ambitious Norway combated ;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,

Re-enter Ghost.
He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! *Tis strange.

I'll cross it, though it blast me. - Stay, illusion ! Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead | If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, hour,

Speak to me :
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. If there be any good thing to be done,
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,

Speak to me :
But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that 0, speak!
knows,

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Why this same strict and most observant watch Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
So nightly toils the subject of the land ?

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,

[Cock crows. And foreign mart for implements of war :

Speak of it:-stay, and speak. - Stop it, Marcellus. Vhy such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? Does not divide the Sunday from the week :

Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Vhat might be toward, that this sweaty haste

Ber.

'Tis here! Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day; Hor.

'Tis here. Vbo is't, that can inform me?

Mar. 'Tis gone!

[Exit Ghost Hor.

That can I; We do it wrong, being so majestical, At least, the whisper goes so.

Our last king,

To offer it the show of violence; Vhose image even but now appear'd to us,

For it is, as the air, invulnerable, Vas, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, And our vain blows malicious mockery. hereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock

not ;

SM

the same.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, Upon a fearful summons. I have

heard,

For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,

Giving to you no further personal power Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat

To business with the king, more than the scope Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Of these dilated articles allow. Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. The extravagant and erring spirit hies

Cor. Vol. In that, and all things will we show To his confine: and of the truth herein

our duty. This present object made probation.

King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

You told us of some suit ? What is't, Laertes ?
This bird of dawning singeth all night long : You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; And loose your voice: What would'st thou beg,
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

Laertes,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ?
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

The head is not more native to the heart,
Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill : What would'st thou have, Laertes ? Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,

Laer.

My dread lords Let us impart what we have seen to-night

Your leave and favour to return to France ; Unto young Hamlet : for, upon my life,

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him : To show my duty in your coronation ; Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ?

My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know And bow them to your gracious leave and pardor. Where we shall find him most convenient.

King. Have you your father's leave? What says [Exeunt.

Polonius?

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slov SCENE II. - The same. 4 Room of State in

leave,
By laboursome petition; and, at last,

Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent :
Enter the King, QueeN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine, Attendants.

And thy best graces : spend it at thy will. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, death

Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kiel The memory be green ; and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? To be contracted in one brow of woe ;

Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun. Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted coloured, That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Dennant Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Seek for thy noble father in the dust: The imperial jointress of this warlike state, Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, bus dic Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,

Passing through nature to eternity. With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. With mirth and funeral, and with dirge in marriage, Queen.

If it be, In equal scale, weighing delight and dole, - Why seems it so particular with thee? Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd

Ham. Seems, madamn! nay, it is; I knor pot Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along : -For all, our thanks. 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Holding a weak supposal of our worth ;

Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, Together with all forms, modes, slows of grief, He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, That can denote me truly : These, indeed, s, Importing the surrender of those lands

For they are actions that a man might play: Lost by bis father, with all bands of law,

But I have that within, which passeth show; To our most valiant brother. So much for him. These, but the trappings and the suits of wo. Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting, King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in you Thus much the business is : We have here writ

nature, Hamlet, To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,

To give these mourning duties to your father a Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears

But, you must know, your father lost a father Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress

That father lost, lost his; and the survive bar His further gait herein ; in that the levies,

In filial obligation, for some term
The lists, and full proportions, are all made To do obsequious sorrow : But to perserer
Out of his subject :- and we here despatch In obstinate condolement, is a course

seems.

with you.

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief : It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue!
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient :
An understanding simple and unschool'd :

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. For what, we know, must be, and is as common Hor. Hail to your lordship! As any of the most vulgar thing to sense,

Ham.

I am glad to see you well : Why should we, in our peevish opposition,

Horatio, - or I do forget myself, Take it to heart? Fye! 'tis a fault to heaven,

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I'll change that name To reason most absurd ; whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? From the first corse, till he that died to-day, Marcellus ? This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth Mar. My good lord, This unprevailing woe; and think of us

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir,As of a father : for let the world take note,

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? You are the most immediate to our throne;

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. And, with no less nobility of love,

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so; Than that which dearest father bears his son,

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,

T Do I impart toward you. For your intent

To make it truster of your own report In going back to school in Wittenberg,

Against yourself: I know, you are no truant. It is most retrograde to our desire:

But what is your affair in Elsinore ? And, we beseech you, bend you to remain

We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart. Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student; Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, I think, it was to see my mother's wedding. Hamlet;

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral bak'd
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam,

meats
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply ; Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Be as ourself in Denmark. - Madam, come; 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, My father, - Methinks, I see my father.
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day, Hor.

Where, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell ;

My lord ?
And the king's rouse the beaven shall bruit again, Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio."
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king. .(Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c. Polonius, Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, and LAEBTES.

I shall not look upon his like again. Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Ham. Saw! who? Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

Hor. My lord, the king your father. His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! Ham.

The king my father! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Hor. Season your admiration for a while
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

With an attent ear; till I may deliver,
Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden, Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in This marvel to you.
nature,

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear. Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, But two months dead !--nay, not so much, not two; Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, So excellent a king ; that was, to this,

In the dead waist and middle of the night, Hyperion to a satyr : so loving to my mother, Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé, Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Appears before them, and, with solemn march, Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd, As if increase of appetite had grown

By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes, By what it fed on : And yet, within a month, Within his troncheon's length ; whilst they, distillid Let me not think on't ; Frailty, thy name is Almost to jelly with the act of fear, woman!

Stand dumb, and speak not to him.

This to me A little month; or ere those shoes were old, In dreadful secrecy impart they did's With which she follow'd my poor father's body, And I with them, the third night kept the watch: Like Niobe, all tears ; — why she, even she, Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, Would have mourn'd longer, -married with my The apparition comes : I knew your father ; uncle,

These hands are not more like. My father's brother ; but no more like my father, Ham.

But where was this? Than I to Hercules: Within a month;

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

watch'de Har left the flushing in her galled eyes,

Ham. Did you not speak to it? She Diarried :-O most wicked speed, to post Hor.

My lord, I did With such dexterity to incestuous sheets !

But answer made it none : yet once, methought,

It lifted up its head, and did address

Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
Itself to motion, like as it would speak :

The pérfume and suppliance of a minute;
But, even then, the morning cock crew, loud; No more.
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,

Oph. No more but so?
And vanish'd from our sight.

Laer.

Think it no more: Нат. .

'Tis very strange.

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple wares,
And we did think it writ down in our duty, The inward service of the mind and soul
To let you know of it.

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch,
Hold you the watch to-night?

The virtue of his will : but, you must fear,
AU.

We do, my lord. His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own;
Ham. Arm'd say you ?

For he himself is subject to his birth :
AU.
Arm’d, my lord.

He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Ham.

From top to toe ? | Carve for himself; for on his choice depends All. My lord, from head to foot.

The safety and the health of the whole state ; Har...

Then saw you not And therefore must his choice be circumscribd
His face.

Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he loves you,
Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
Hor.

A countenance more As he in his particular act and place
In sorrow than in anger.

May give his saying deed; which is no further,
Ham.
Pale, or red ?

Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Hor. Nay, very pale.

Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you? If with too credent ear you list his songs; Hor. Most constantly.

Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open Ham.

I would, I had been there. To his unmaster'd importunity. Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister ; Нат. .

Very like, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Very like: Stay'd it long?

Out of the shot and danger of desire. Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a The chariest maid is prodigal enough, hundred.

If she unmask her beauty to the moon : Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes : Hor. Not when I saw it.

The canker galls the infants of the spring, Ham.

His beard was grizzl'd ? no? Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
A sable silver'd.

Contagious blastments are most imminent
Ham.
I will watch to-night;

Be wary then : best safety lies in fear;
Perchance, 'twill walk again.

Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Hor.

I warrant, it will. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, As watchmen to my heart: But, good my brother,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,

Whilst, like a puft'd and reckless libertine,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,

And recks not his own read. Give it an understanding, but no tongue;

Laer.

O fear me not
I will requite your loves : So, fare you well : I stay too long ; - But here my father comes.
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

Enter POLONIUS
AU. Our duty to your honour.

A double blessing is a double grace; Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

(Exeunt HoratiO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO. Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

shame;
I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
Till then sit still, my soul : Foul deeds will rise, And you arc staid for : There, my blessing with you!
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

(Laying his hand on LAERTES
(Erit. And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongos
SCENE III. A Room in Polonius' House. Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption trieda
Laer. My necessaries are embark’d; farewell : Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel
And, sister, as the winds give benefit,

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Berat But let me hear from you.

Of entrance to a quarrel : but, being in, Oph.

Do you doubt that ? Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee. Lner. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice : Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judge A violet in the youth of primy nature,

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,