Mar. O farewell, honest foldier! Who hath reliev'd you?

Fran. Bernardo hath my place.

Give you good night.

Mar. Holla! Bernardo!

Ber. Say,

[Exit FRANCISCO.

What, is Horatio there?

Hor. A piece of him.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again toBer. I have feen nothing.

[night? Mar. Horatio fays, 'tis but our phantafy;

And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreadful fight, twice feen of us :
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.
Hor. Tufh! tufh! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down awhile;

And let us once again affail your ears,
That are fo fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

Hor. Well, fit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Last night of all,

When yon fame ftar, that weftward from the pole
Had made his courfe to 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

Enter Ghoft.

Ber. In the fame 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 Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.

[wonder.

Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'ft this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of bury'd Denmark

Did fometime march? by heaven I charge thee, Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it stalks away.

[fpeak.

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

[Exit Ghoft. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look Is not this fomething more than phantafy? [pale: What think you of it?

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

Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?

Hor. As thou art to thyself;

Such was the very armour he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when in an angry parle,
He fmote the fledded Polack on the ice.-

'Tis ftrange.

Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead hour,

With martial stalk he hath gone by our watch.

A 3

Hor.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know But, in the grofs and scope of mine opinion, [not; This bodes fome strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this fame ftrict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land?
And why fuch daily caft of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why fuch imprefs of fhip-wrights, whofe fore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week?
What might be toward, that this fweaty hafte
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is't that can inform me ?

Hor. That can I:

At least, the whisper goes fo. Our last king,
Whofe image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a moft emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which, our valiant Hamlet
(For fo this fide of our known world esteem'd him)
Did flay this Fortinbras; who,by a feal'd compact,
Well ratified by law, and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood feiz'd of, to the conqueror :
Against the which a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king: which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by that covenant,
And carriage of the articles defign'd,

His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved metal hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a lift of landless refolutes,

For

For food and diet, to fome enterprize
That hath a ftomach in't; which is no other
(As it doth well appear unto our state)
But to recover of us, by ftrong hand,
And terms compulfatory, thofe forefaid lands
So by his father loft: And this, I take it,
Is the mean motive of our preparations;
The fource of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-hafte and rumage in the land.
Ber. [I think, it be no other, but even so:
Well may it fort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; fo like the king
That was, and is the question of these wars.
Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mighty Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantlefs, and the sheeted dead
Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars fhone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell;
Difafters veil'd the fun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire ftands,
Was fick almoft to dooms-day with eclipfe.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on-
Have heaven and earth together demonftrated,
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-]

Re-enter Ghoft.

But, foft; behold, lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion! If thou haft any found, or ufe of voice,

Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,

The

That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, fpeak;

Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
[Cock crows.
Speak ofit:-ftay, and fpeak.-Stop it, Marcellus.-
Mar. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan ?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'Tis here!

Hor. 'Tis here!

Mar. "Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the fhew of violence;
For it is as the air, invulnerable,

[Exit Ghoft.

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful fummons.
I have heard,

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning
Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring fpirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some fay, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning fingeth all night long :
nd then, they fay, no fpirit dares stir abroad;

The