1

The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain,
That looks so many fathoms to the sea,
And hears it roar beneath.

Ham.

Go on, I'll follow thee.

It waves me still.

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
Ham.

Hold off your hands.

Hor. Be ruled; you shall not go.
Ham.

My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.-

[Ghost beckons.

Still am I called ;-unhand me, gentlemen ;

[Breaking from them. By Heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me:

I say, away;—go on, I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET. Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after.-To what issue will this come? Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hor. Heaven will direct it.

Mar.

Nay, let's follow him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. A more remote Part of the Platform.

Enter Ghost and HAMLET.

Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go no further.

My hour is almost come,

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.

1 i. e. whims.

2 To let, in old language, is to hinder, to stay, to obstruct.

Ham.

Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

To what I shall unfold.

Ham.

Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Ham. What?

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit;

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night;
And, for the day, confined to fast in fires,'

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burned and purged away.

But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood;
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ;
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.2
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood.-List, list, O, list!—
If thou didst ever thy dear father love,

Ham. O Heaven!

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Ham. Murder?

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is;

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ham. Haste me to know it; that I, with wings as swift

As meditation, or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.
Ghost.

And duller shouldst thou be

That roots itself in ease on

1 The first quarto reads :—

I find thee apt;

than the fat weed
Lethe wharf,3

"Confined in flaming fire."

2 Vide note on The Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 2. It is porpentine in the old editions in every instance. Fretful is the reading of the folio; the quartos read fearful.

3 The folio reads rots itself, &c. Beaumont and Fletcher, we have :—

In the Humorous Lieutenant, by

"This dull root plucked from Lethe's flood."

Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
'Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life,'
Now wears his crown.

Ham. O my prophetic soul! my uncle!

Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, (O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!) won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming virtuous queen. O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! From me, whose love was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage; and to decline Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,

And prey on garbage.

But soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
Brief let me be.-Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,

3

Upon my secure 2 hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
And with a sudden vigor, it doth posset

1 Quarto, 1603-heart.

2 This is also a Latinism; securus, quiet, or unguarded.

3 Hebenon may probably be derived from henbane, the oil of which, according to Pliny, dropped into the ears, disturbs the brain; and there is sufficient evidence that it was held poisonous by our ancestors.

And curd, like eager1 droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine,
And a most instant tetter barked about,

Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatched; 2
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled ; 5
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to Heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glowworm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire; 6

Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.

[Exit.

Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What

else?

And shall I couple hell?-O fie!-Hold, hold, my

heart;

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
'But bear me stiffly up!-Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the tables of my memory

1 In Sc. iv. we have eager air for sharp, biting air. "Eger (says Baret), sower, sharp; acidus, aigre."

2 Quarto 1603, deprived. To despatch and to rid were synonymous. 3 Unhouseled is without having received the sacrament.

4 Disappointed is the same as unappointed, and may be explained unprepared.

Únaneled is without extreme unction.

6 Uneffectual, i. e. shining without heat. The use of to pale, as a verb, is rather unusual, but not peculiar to Shakspeare.

7 i. e. in this head confused with thought.

I'll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by Heaven!
O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,-meet it is, I set it down,

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least, I am sure it may be so in Denmark.

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is, Adieu, adieu! remember me.

I have sworn't.

[Writing.

Heaven secure him!

So be it!

Mar. [Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.2

1 The quarto 1603 has-" Now to the words." By "Now to my word," Hamlet means now to my motto, my word of remembrance. Steevens asserted that the allusion is to the military watchword. A word, mot, or motto, was any short sentence, such as is inscribed on a token, or under a device or coat of arms. It was a common phrase. See Ben Jonson's Works, by Mr. Gifford, vol. ii. p. 102.

2 This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them.