DRAMATIS PERSONÆ'.

CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the present

GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother to Hamlet.
OPHELIA, Daughter to Polonius.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Sailors, Messen-
gers, and Attendants.

SCENE, Elsinore.

1 No copy of the tragedy, before the time of Rowe, has a list of the cha

racters.

HAMLET,

PRINCE OF DENMARK.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.

FRANCISCO on his Post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.
Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve: get thee to bed, Fran-

cisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks. "Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.

If

Ber. Have you had quiet guard?

Fran.

Ber. Well, good night.

you

Not a mouse stirring.

do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

1 Long live the king!] This sentence appears to have been the watch-word given in answer to the demand of Francisco, "Nay, answer me," he being already on the watch.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

Fran. I think I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is

Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again 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,

Sit down awhile;

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush, tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber.
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

2 I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is there?] In all the quartos, that of 1603 excepted, this is a complete line: the folio of 1623 gives the latter part of it," Stand: who's there?"

3

honest SOLDIER :] The quarto, 1604, has soldiers; but only one was departing. It is followed by the later quartos, but the error is corrected in the folio, 1623.

-to-night?] In all the quartos, that of 1603 excepted, this line is assigned to Horatio, who had come purposely to inquire about the ghost. The folio, 1623, gives it to Marcellus.

Hor.

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all,

When yond' same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace! break thee off: look, where it comes again!

Enter Ghost.

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, and

wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar.

Question it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time 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.

Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

[Exit GHOST.

Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble, and look

pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on't?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

5- it HARROWS me-] One of the senses of "to harrow" is to overthrow or subdue, and some lexicographers have contended that it is more properly spelt harry. The verb occurs with a different meaning afterwards. The quarto, 1603, reads, "it horrors me," &c.

Mar.

Is it not like the king?

Hor. As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armour he had on,
When he th' ambitious Norway combated:
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
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?

8

And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
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?

Hor.

That can I;
Our last king,

At least, the whisper goes so.
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet

6

the SLEDDED POLACKS ] i. e. the sledged Polanders; "Polacks" (spelt Pollax) was the name by which they were known in Shakespeare's time.

7 and JUMP at this dead hour,] So every quarto: the folio explains the meaning of "jump " by substituting just. See also Act v. sc. 2. "Jump" was frequently used for just, as in Chapman's "May Day," 1611:

"Your appointment was jump at three."

8- such daily CAST] Every quarto prints "cast," cost: the folio, 1623, corrects the probable error.