CREC - Hamlet Script

The Tragical History of HAMLET Prince of Denmark.  First Quarto 1603.

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Enter Two Sentinels [First Sentinel and Barnardo].

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FIRST SENTINEL

Stand! Who is that?

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BARNARDO

'Tis I.

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FIRST SENTINEL

Oh, you come most carefully upon your watch.

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BARNARDO

An if you meet Marcellus and Horatio,

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The partners of my watch, bid them make haste.

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FIRST SENTINEL

I will. See, who goes there?

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Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

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HORATIO

Friends to this ground.

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MARCELLUS

And liegemen to the Dane.

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[To the First Sentinel]Oh, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?

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FIRST SENTINEL

Barnardo hath my place. Give you good night.

[Exit.]

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MARCELLUS

Holla, Barnardo!

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BARNARDO

Say, is Horatio there?

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HORATIO

A piece of him.

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BARNARDO

Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellus.

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MARCELLUS

What, hath this thing appeared again tonight?

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BARNARDO

I have seen nothing.

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MARCELLUS

Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,

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And will not let belief take hold of him,

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Touching this dreaded sight twice seen by us.

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Therefore I have entreated him along with us

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To watch the minutes of this night,

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That if again this apparition come,

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He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.

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HORATIO

Tut, 'twill not appear.

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BARNARDO

Sit down I pray, and let us once again

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Assail your ears, that are so fortified,

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What we have two nights seen.

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HORATIO

Well, sit we down, and let us hear Barnardo speak

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of this.

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BARNARDO

Last night of all, when yonder star that's west-

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ward from the pole had made his course to

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Illumine that part of heaven where now it burns,

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The bell then tolling one--

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Enter Ghost.

MARCELLUS

Break off your talk. See where it comes again!

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BARNARDO

In the same figure like the King that's dead.

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MARCELLUS

Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.

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BARNARDO

Looks it not like the King?

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HORATIO

Most like. It horrors me with fear and wonder.

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BARNARDO

It would be spoke to.

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MARCELLUS

Question it, Horatio.

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HORATIO

What art thou that thus usurps the state in

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Which the majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes

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Walk? By heaven, I charge thee speak.

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MARCELLUS

It is offended. Exit Ghost.

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BARNARDO

See, it stalks away.

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HORATIO

Stay, speak, speak! By heaven, I charge thee

speak!

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MARCELLUS

'Tis gone and makes no answer.

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BARNARDO

How now Horatio, you tremble and look pale.

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Is not this something more than fantasy?

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What think you on't?

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HORATIO

Afore my God, I might not this believe without

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the sensible and true avouch of my own eyes.

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MARCELLUS

Is it not like the King?

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HORATIO

As thou art to thyself.

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Such was the very armor he had on

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When he the ambitious Norway combated.

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So frownd he once, when in an angry parle

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He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

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'Tis strange.

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MARCELLUS

Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

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With martial stalk he passèd through our watch.

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HORATIO

In what particular to work, I know not,

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But in the thought and scope of my opinion

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This bodes some strange eruption to the state.

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MARCELLUS

Good, now sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

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Why this same strict and most observant watch

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So nightly toils the subject of the land,

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And why such daily cost of brazen cannon

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And foreign mart for implements of war,

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Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task

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Does not divide the Sunday from the week:

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What might be toward, that this sweaty march

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Doth make the night joint laborer with the day?

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Who is't that can inform me?

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HORATIO

Marry, that can I, at least the whisper goes so:

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Our late King, who as you know was by

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Fortenbrasse of Norway,

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Thereto pricked on by a most emulous cause, dared to

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The combat, in which our valiant Hamlet,

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For so this side of our known world esteemed him,

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Did slay this Fortenbrasse,

Who by a sealed compact, well ratified by law

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And heraldry, did forfeit with his life all those

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His lands which he stood seized of by the conqueror,

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Against the which a moiety competent

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Was gagèd by our King.

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Now, sir, young Fortenbrasse,

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Of inapprovèd mettle hot and full,

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Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there

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Sharked up a sight of lawless resolutes

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For food and diet to some enterprise,

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That hath a stomach in't. And this (I take it) is the

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Chief head and ground of this our watch.

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Enter Ghost.

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But lo, behold, see where it comes again!

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I'll cross it, though it blast me.--Stay, illusion!

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If there be any good thing to be done,

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That may do ease to thee and grace to me,

Speak to me!

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If thou are privy to thy country's fate,

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Which happ'ly foreknowing may prevent, oh, speak to me!

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Or if thou hast extorted in thy life,

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Or hoarded treasure in the womb of earth,

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For which they say you spirits oft walk in death, speak

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to me! Stay and speak, speak!--Stop it, Marcellus.

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BARNARDO

'Tis here. Exit Ghost.

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HORATIO

'Tis here.

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MARCELLUS

'Tis gone. Oh, we do it wrong, being so majestical,

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to offer it the show of violence,

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For it is as the air invulnerable,

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And our vain blows malicious mockery.

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BARNARDO

It was about to speak when the cock crew.

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HORATIO

And then it faded like a guilty thing

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Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

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The cock, that is the trumpet to the morning,

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Doth with his early and shrill-crowing throat

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Awake the god of day, and at his sound,

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Whether in earth or air, in sea or fire,

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The stravagant and erring spirit hies

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To his confines; and of the truth hereof

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This present object made probation.

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MARCELLUS

It faded on the crowing of the cock,

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Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes

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Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,

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The bird of dawning singeth all night long,

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And then, they say, no spirit dare walk abroad,

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The nights are wholesome, then no planet strikes,

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No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

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So gracious and so hallowed is that time.

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HORATIO

So have I heard, and do in part believe it.

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But see, the sun, in russet mantle clad,

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Walks o'er the dew of yon high mountain top.

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Break we our watch up, and, by my advice,

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Let us impart what we have seen tonight

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Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life

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This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:

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Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,

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As needful in our love, fitting our duty?

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MARCELLUS

Lets do't, I pray, and I this morning know

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Where we shall find him most conveniently.

[Exeunt.]

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Enter King, Queen, Hamlet, Laertes, Corambis,

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and the two Ambassadors, with Attendants.

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CLAUDIUS

Lords, we here have writ to Fortenbrasse,

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Nephew to old Norway, who, impudent

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And bed-rid, scarcely hears of this his

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nephew's purpose; and we here dispatch

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Young good Cornelia, and you, Voltemar,

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For bearers of these greetings to old

Norway, giving to you no further personal power

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To business with the King

Than those related articles do show.

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Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

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GENTLEMEN

In this and all things will we show our duty.

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CLAUDIUS

We doubt nothing. Heartily farewell. [Exeunt Cornelia and Voltemar.]

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And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?

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You said you had a suit. What is't, Laertes?

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LAERTES

My gracious lord, your favorable license,

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Now that the funeral rites are all performed,

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I may have leave to go again to France;

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For though the favor of your grace might stay me,

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Yet something is there whispers in my heart

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Which makes my mind and spirits bend all for France.

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CLAUDIUS

Have you your father's leave, Laertes?

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LAERTES

He hath, my lord, wrung from me a forced grant,

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And I beseech you grant your highness' leave.

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CLAUDIUS

With all our heart, Laertes, fare thee well.

LAERTES

I in all love and duty take my leave. Exit.

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CLAUDIUS

And now princely son Hamlet,

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What means these sad and melancholy moods?

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For your intent going to Wittenberg,

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We hold it most unmeet and unconvenient,

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Being the joy and half heart of your mother.

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Therefore let me entreat you stay in court,

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All Denmark's hope, our cousin, and dearest son.

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HAMLET

My lord, 'tis not the sable suit I wear,

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No, nor the tears that still stand in my eyes,

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Nor the distracted havior in the visage,

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Nor all together mixed with outward semblance,

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Is equal to the sorrow of my heart.

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Him have I lost I must of force forgo;

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These but the ornaments and suits of woe.

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CLAUDIUS

This shows a loving care in you, son Hamlet,

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But you must think your father lost a father,

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That father dead, lost his, and so shall be until the

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General ending. Therefore cease laments.

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It is a fault 'gainst heaven, fault 'gainst the dead,

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A fault 'gainst nature, and in reason's

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Common course most certain,

None lives on earth but he is born to die.

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GERTRUDE

Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.

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Stay here with us, go not to Wittenberg.

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HAMLET

I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

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CLAUDIUS

Spoke like a kind and a most loving son;

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And there's no health the King shall drink today

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But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell

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The rouse the King shall drink unto Prince Hamlet.

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Exeunt all but Hamlet.

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HAMLET

Oh, that this too much grieved and sallied flesh

Would melt to nothing, or that the universal

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Globe of heaven would turn all to a chaos!

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O God, within two months; no not two: married

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Mine uncle! Oh, let me not think of it,

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My father's brother, but no more like

My father than I to Hercules.

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Within two months, ere yet the salt of most

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Unrighteous tears had left their flushing

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In her gallèd eyes, she married. O God, a beast

Devoid of reason would not have made

Such speed! Frailty, thy name is Woman.

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Why, she would hang on him as if increase

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Of appetite had grown by what it looked on.

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Oh, wicked, wicked speed, to make such

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Dexterity to incestuous sheets,

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Ere yet the shoes were old,

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The which she followed my dead father's corse

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Like Niobe, all tears: married. Well, it is not,

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Nor it cannot come to good;

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But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

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Enter Horatio and Marcellus [and Barnardo].

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HORATIO

Health to your lordship!

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HAMLET

I am very glad to see you, (Horatio) or I much

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forget myself.

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HORATIO

The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

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HAMLET

O my good friend, I change that name with you.

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But what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?

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[To Marcellus.]Marcellus.

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MARCELLUS

My good lord.

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HAMLET

I am very glad to see you. Good even, sirs.

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[To Horatio]But what is your affair in Elsinor?

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We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

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HORATIO

A truant disposition, my good lord.

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HAMLET

Nor shall you make me truster

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Of your own report against yourself.

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Sir, I know you are no truant.

But what is your affair in Elsinor?

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HORATIO

My good lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

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HAMLET

Oh, I prithee do not mock me, fellow student,

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I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

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HORATIO

Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

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HAMLET

Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats

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Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

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Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

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Ere ever I had seen that day, Horatio.

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O my father, my father! Methinks I see my father.

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HORATIO

Where, my lord?

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HAMLET

Why, in my mind's eye Horatio.

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HORATIO

I saw him once, he was a gallant king.

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HAMLET

He was a man, take him for all in all,

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I shall not look upon his like again.

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HORATIO

My lord, I think I saw him yesternight,

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HAMLET

Saw, who?

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HORATIO

My lord, the King your father.

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HAMLET

Ha, ha, the King my father, kee you?

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HORATIO

Ceasen your admiration for a while

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With an attentive ear, till I may deliver,

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Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

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This wonder to you.

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HAMLET

For God's love, let me hear it.

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HORATIO

Two nights together had these gentlemen,

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Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch,

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In the dead vast and middle of the night.

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Been thus encountered by a figure like your father,

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Armed to point, exactly cap-à-pie,

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Appears before them thrice, he walks

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Before their weak and fear-oppressèd eyes

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Within his truncheon's length,

While they, distilled almost to jelly

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With the act of fear, stands dumb

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And speak not to him. This to me

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In dreadful secrecy impart they did.

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And I with them the third night kept the watch,

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Where as they had delivered form of the thing.

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Each part made true and good,

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The apparition comes. I knew your father,

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These hands are not more like.

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HAMLET

'Tis very strange.

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HORATIO

As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true,

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And we did think it right done

In our duty to let you know it.

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HAMLET

Where was this?

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MARCELLUS

My lord, upon the platform where we watched.

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HAMLET

Did you not speak to it?

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HORATIO

My lord, we did, but answer made it none.

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Yet once methought it was about to speak,

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And lifted up his head to motion,

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Like as he would speak, but even then

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The morning cock crew loud, and in all haste

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It shrunk in haste away, and vanished

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Our sight.

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HAMLET

Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.

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Hold you the watch to night?

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ALL

We do, my lord.

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HAMLET

Armed, say ye?

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ALL

Armed, my good lord.

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HAMLET

From top to toe?

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ALL

My good lord, from head to foot.

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HAMLET

Why then saw you not his face?

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HORATIO

Oh, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.

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HAMLET

How looked he, frowningly?

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HORATIO

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

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HAMLET

Pale, or red?

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HORATIO

Nay, very pale.

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HAMLET

And fixed his eyes upon you?

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HORATIO

Most constantly.

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HAMLET

I would I had been there.

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HORATIO

It would ha' much amazed you.

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HAMLET

Yea, very like, very like. Stayed it long?

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HORATIO

While one with moderate pace

Might tell a hundred.

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MARCELLUS

Oh, longer, longer.

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HAMLET

His beard was grizzled, no?

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HORATIO

It was as I have seen it in his life,

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A sable silver.

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HAMLET

I will watch to night. Perchance 'twill walk again.

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HORATIO

I warrant it will.

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HAMLET

If it assume my noble father's person,

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I'll speak to it, if hell itself should gape

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And bid me hold my peace. Gentlemen,

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If you have hither concealed this sight,

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Let it be tenable in your silence still,

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And whatsoever else shall chance tonight,

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Give it an understanding but no tongue.

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I will requite your loves. So fare you well.

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Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve,

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I'll visit you.

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ALL

Our duties to your honor. Excunt [all but Hamlet].

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HAMLET

Oh, your loves, your loves, as mine to you.

Farewell.--My father's spirit in arms!

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Well, all's not well. I doubt some foul play.

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Would the night were come!

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Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,

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Though all the world o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

Exit.

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Enter Laertes and Ophelia.

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LAERTES

My necessaries are inbarked. I must aboard,

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But, ere I part, mark what I say to thee:

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I see Prince Hamlet makes a show of love.

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Beware, Ophelia, do not trust his vows.

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Perhaps he loves you now, and now his tongue

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Speaks from his heart, but yet take heed, my sister.

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The chariest maid is prodigal enough

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If she unmask her beauty to the moon.

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Virtue itself scapes not calumnious thoughts.

Believe't, Ophelia. Therefore keep aloof

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Lest that he trip thy honor and thy fame.

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OPHELIA

Brother, to this I have lent attentive ear,

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And doubt not but to keep my honor firm.

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But, my dear brother, do not you,

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Like to a cunning sophister,

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Teach me the path and ready way to heaven

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While you, forgetting what is said to me,

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Yourself like to a careless libertine

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Doth give his heart his appetite at full,

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And little recks how that his honor dies.

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LAERTES

No, fear it not, my dear Ophelia.

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Here comes my father. Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

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Enter Corambis.

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CORAMBIS

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!

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The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

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And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee,

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And these few precepts in thy memory.

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Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;

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Those friends thou hast, and their adoptions tried,

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Grapple them to thee with a hoop of steel,

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But do not dull the palm with entertain

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Of every new unfledged courage.

Beware of entrance into a quarrel, but, being in,

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Bear it that the opposèd may beware of thee.

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Costly thy apparel as thy purse can buy,

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But not expressed in fashion,

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For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

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And they of France of the chief rank and station

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Are of a most select and general chief in that.

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This above all, to thy own self be true,

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And it must follow as the night the day

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Thou canst not then be false to any one.

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Farewell. My blessing with thee!

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LAERTES

I humbly take my leave.--Farewell, Ophelia,

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And remember well what I have said to you. Exit.

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OPHELIA

It is already locked within my heart,

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And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

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CORAMBIS

What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

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OPHELIA

Something touching the prince Hamlet.

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CORAMBIS

Marry, well thought on. 'Ts given me to understand

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That you have been too prodigal of your maiden presence

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Unto Prince Hamlet. If it be so--

As so 'tis given to me, and that in way of caution--

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I must tell you, you do not understand yourself

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So well as befits my honor and your credit.

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OPHELIA

My lord, he hath made many tenders of his love

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to me.

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CORAMBIS

Tenders? Ay, ay, tenders you may call them.

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OPHELIA

And withal such earnest vows--

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CORAMBIS

Springes to catch woodcocks.

What, do not I know when the blood doth burn

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How prodigal the tongue lends the heart vows?

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In brief, be more scanter of your maiden presence,

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Or, tend'ring thus, you'll tender me a fool.

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OPHELIA

I shall obey, my lord, in all I may.

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CORAMBIS

Ophelia, receive none of his letters,

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For lovers' lines are snares to entrap the heart.

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"Refuse his tokens. Both of them are keys

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To unlock chastity unto desire.

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Come in, Ophelia. Such men often prove

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"Great in their words, but little in their love.

OPHELIA

I will, my lord. Exeunt.

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Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

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HAMLET

The air bites shrewd; it is an eager and

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A nipping wind. What hour is't?

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HORATIO

I think it lacks of twelve. Sound Trumpets.

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MARCELLUS

No, 'tis struck.

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HORATIO

Indeed, I heard it not. [As they hear the kettledrum, trumpet, and cannon]What doth this mean, my lord?

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HAMLET

Oh, the King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,

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Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels,

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And as he dreams, his draughts of Rhenish down,

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The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out

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The triumphs of his pledge.

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HORATIO

Is it a custom here?

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HAMLET

Ay, marry is't, and, though I am

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Native here and to the manner borne,

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It is a custom more honored in the breach

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Than in the observance.

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Enter the Ghost.

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HORATIO

Look, my lord, it comes!

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HAMLET

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

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Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,

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Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

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Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

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Thou comest in such questionable shape

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That I will speak to thee.

I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane.

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Oh, answer me! Let me not burst in ignorance,

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But say why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,

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Have burst their ceremonies, why thy sepulcher,

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In which we saw thee quietly interred,

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Hath burst his ponderous and marble jaws

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To cast thee up again. What may this mean

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That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,

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Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,

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Making night hideous, and we fools of nature,

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So horridly to shake our disposition

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With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?

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Say, speak, wherefore? What may this mean?

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HORATIO

It beckons you, as though it had something

645

To impart to you alone.

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MARCELLUS

Look with what courteous action

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It waves you to a more removèd ground.

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But do not go with it.

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HORATIO

No, by no means, my lord.

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HAMLET

It will not speak. Then will I follow it.

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HORATIO

What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,

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That beckles o'er his base into the sea,

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And there assume some other horrible shape

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Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason

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And drive you into madness? Think of it.

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HAMLET

Still am I called.--Go on, I'll follow thee.

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HORATIO

My lord, you shall not go.

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HAMLET

Why, what should be the fear?

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I do not set my life at a pin's fee,

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And, for my soul, what can it do to that,

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Being a thing immortal like itself?--

Go on, I'll follow thee.

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MARCELLUS

My lord, be ruled, you shall not go.

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HAMLET

My fate cries out, and makes each petty artery

670

As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.

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Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen!

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By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.

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Away, I say!--Go on, I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.]

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HORATIO

He waxeth desperate with imagination.

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MARCELLUS

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

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HORATIO

Have after. To what issue will this sort?

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MARCELLUS

Lets follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.

Exit [with Horatio].

¶

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

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HAMLET

I'll go no farther. Whither wilt thou lead me?

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GHOST

Mark me.

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HAMLET

I will.

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GHOST

I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a time

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To walk the night, and all the day

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Confined in flaming fire,

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Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

¶

Are purged and burnt away.

¶

HAMLET

Alas, poor ghost!

¶

GHOST

Nay, pity me not, but to my unfolding

Lend thy lis'tning ear. But that I am forbid

¶

To tell the secrets of my prison house

700

I would 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 combinèd locks to part,

¶

And each particular hair to stand on end

705

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.

¶

But this same blazon must not be, to ears of flesh and blood.

¶

Hamlet, if ever thou didst thy dear father love--

¶

HAMLET

O God!

710

GHOST

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

¶

HAMLET

Murder!

¶

GHOST

Yea, murder in the highest degree,

As in the least 'tis bad,

¶

But mine most foul, beastly, and unnatural.

¶

HAMLET

Haste me to know it, that with wings as swift as

¶

meditation, or the thought of it, may sweep to my revenge.

¶

GHOST

Oh, I find thee apt, and duller shouldst thou be

¶

Than the fat weed which roots itself in ease

720

On Lethe wharf. Brief let me be.

¶

'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,

¶

A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark

¶

Is with a forgèd process of my death rankly abused.

725

But know, thou noble youth: he that did sting

¶

Thy father's heart now wears his crown.

¶

HAMLET

Oh, my prophetic soul, my uncle! My uncle!

¶

GHOST

Yea, he, that incestuous wretch, won to his will with gifts--

¶

Oh, wicked will and gifts that have the power

¶

So to seduce--my most seeming virtuous Queen!

¶

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

740

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

¶

So lust, thought to a radiant angel linked,

¶

Would sate itself from a celestial bed

And prey on garbage. But soft, methinks

¶

I scent the mornings air. Brief let me be.

¶

Sleeping within my orchard, my custom always

745

In the afternoon, upon my secure hour

¶

Thy uncle came, with juice of hebona

¶

In a vial, and through the porches of my ears

¶

Did pour the lep'rous distillment, whose effect

750

Hold such an enmity with blood of man

¶

That swift as quicksilver it posteth through

¶

The natural gates and alleys of the body,

¶

And turns the thin and wholesome blood

¶

Like eager droppings into milk,

¶

And all my smooth body, barked and tettered over.

¶

Thus was I sleeping by a brother's hand

760

Of crown, of queen, of life, of dignity

At once deprived, no reckoning made of,

¶

But sent unto my grave,

¶

With all my accompts and sins upon my head.

765

Oh, horrible, most horrible!

¶

HAMLET

O God!

¶

GHOST

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not,

¶

But howsoever, let not thy heart

770

Conspire against thy mother aught;

¶

Leave her to heaven,

¶

And to the burden that her conscience bears.

¶

I must be gone. The glowworm shows the matin

To be near, and 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

¶

Hamlet, adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.

Exit

¶

HAMLET

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?

¶

And shall I couple hell? Remember thee?

¶

Yes, thou poor ghost. From the tables

¶

Of my memory I'll wipe away all saws of books,

¶

All trivial fond conceits

¶

That ever youth or else observance noted,

¶

And thy remembrance all alone shall sit.

¶

Yes, yes, by heaven, a damned pernicious villain,

¶

Murderous, bawdy, smiling, damnèd 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.

795

So uncle, there you are, there you are.

Now to the words: it is "Adieu, adieu! Remember me."

¶

So 'tis enough. I have sworn.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

¶

HORATIO

My lord, my lord!

¶

MARCELLUS

Lord Hamlet!

¶

HORATIO

Ill, lo, lo, ho, ho!

¶

MARCELLUS

Ill, lo, lo, so, ho, so, come boy, come!

800

HORATIO

Heavens secure him!

¶

MARCELLUS

How is't, my noble lord?

805

HORATIO

What news, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

¶

HORATIO

Good my lord, tell it.

¶

HAMLET

No not I, you'll reveal it.

¶

HORATIO

Not I, my lord, by heaven.

810

MARCELLUS

Nor I, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

How say you then? Would heart of man

Once think it? But you'll be secret.

¶

BOTH

Ay, by heaven, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark

815

But he's an arrant knave.

¶

HORATIO

There need no ghost come from the grave to tell

¶

you this.

¶

HAMLET

Right, you are in the right, and therefore

¶

I hold it meet without more circumstance at all,

820

We shake hands and part; you as your business

¶

And desires shall lead you--for look you,

¶

Every man hath business and desires, such

¶

As it is--and for my own poor part, I'll go pray.

825

HORATIO

These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

I am sorry they offend you; heartily, yes, faith, heartily.

¶

HORATIO

There's no offense, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,

830

And much offense too. Touching this vision,

¶

It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.

¶

For your desires to know what is between us,

¶

O'ermaster it as you may.

And now, kind friends, as yon are friends,

¶

Scholars and gentlemen,

835

Grant me one poor request.

¶

BOTH

What is't, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Never make known what you have seen tonight

¶

BOTH

My lord, we will not.

¶

HAMLET

Nay but swear.

840

HORATIO

In faith, my lord, not I.

¶

MARCELLUS

Nor I, my lord, in faith.

¶

HAMLET

Nay, upon my sword, indeed upon my sword.

845

GHOST

Swear.

The Ghost under the stage.

¶

HAMLET

Ha, ha, come you here, this fellow in the cellerage,

¶

Here consent to swear.

¶

HORATIO

Propose the oath, my lord.

850

HAMLET

Never to speak what you have seen tonight,

¶

Swear by my sword.

¶

GHOST

Swear.

¶

HAMLET

Hic et ubique? Nay then, we'll shift our ground.

¶

Come hither, gentlemen, and lay your hands

855

Again upon this sword, never to speak

¶

Of that which you have seen, swear by my sword.

¶

GHOST

Swear.

¶

HAMLET

Well said, old mole. Canst work in the earth?

so fast, a worthy pioneer. Once more remove.

¶

HORATIO

Day and night, but this is wondrous strange.

¶

HAMLET

And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

¶

There are more things in the heaven and earth, Horatio,

¶

Then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

But come here, as before, you never shall--

¶

How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,

¶

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet

¶

To put an antic disposition on--

¶

That you at such times seeing me never shall

870

With arms encumb'red thus, or this headshake,

¶

Or by pronouncing some undoubtful phrase,

¶

As "Well, well, we know," or We could an if we would,"

¶

Or "There be, an if they might," or such ambiguous

¶

Giving out, to note that you know aught of me:

875

This not to do, so grace and mercy

¶

At your most need help you, swear.

¶

GHOST

Swear.

¶

HAMLET

Rest, rest, perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen,

880

In all my love I do commend me to you,

¶

And what so poor a man as Hamlet may

¶

To pleasure you, God willing shall not want.

¶

Nay, come, let's go together.

¶

But still your fingers on your lips, I pray.

885

The time is out of joint. Oh, cursed spite,

¶

That ever I was born to set it right!

¶

Nay come, let's go together.

Exeunt.

¶

Enter Corambis and Montano.

890

CORAMBIS

Montano, here, these letters to my son,

And this same money with my blessing to him,

¶

And bid him ply his learning, good Montano.

¶

MONTANO

I will, my lord.

¶

CORAMBIS

You shall do very well Montano, to say thus:

905

"I knew the gentleman," or "know his father,"

¶

To inquire the manner of his life,

¶

As thus; being amongst his acquaintance,

¶

You may say, you saw him at such a time, mark you me,

¶

At game, or drinking, swearing, or drabbing,

¶

You may go so far.

¶

MONTANO

My lord, that will impeach his reputation.

920

CORAMBIS

I faith, not a whit, no not a whit.

¶

Now happily he closeth with you in the consequence, As you may bridle it, not disparage him a jot.

¶

What was I about to say?

945

MONTANO

He closeth with him in the consequence.

¶

CORAMBIS

Ay, you say right, he closeth with him thus,

¶

This will he say--let me see what he will say-- Marry, this: "I saw him yesterday," or "t'other day,"

950

Or "then," or "at such time," "a-dicing,"

¶

Or "at tennis," ay, or "drinking drunk," or "ent'ring

¶

Of a house of lightness," viz. brothel.

¶

Thus, sir, do we that know the world, being men of reach,

¶

By indirections find directions forth,

¶

And so shall you my son. You ha' me, ha' you not?

¶

MONTANO

I have, my lord.

¶

CORAMBIS

Well, fare you well. Commend me to him.

965

MONTANO

I will, my lord.

CORAMBIS

And bid him ply his music.

¶

MONTANO

My lord I will. Exit.

¶

Enter Ophelia.

¶

CORAMBIS

Farewell.--How now, Ophelia, what's the news with you?

¶

OPHELIA

O my dear father, such a change in nature,

¶

So great an alteration in a prince,

¶

So pitiful to him, fearful to me,

¶

A maiden's eye ne'er looked on!

970

CORAMBIS

Why, what's the matter, my Ophelia?

¶

OPHELIA

Oh, young Prince Hamlet, the only flower of Denmark,

¶

He is bereft of all the wealth he had!

¶

The jewel that adorned his feature most

¶

Is filched and stol'n away: his wit's bereft him.

¶

He found me walking in the gallery all alone.

There comes he to me, with a distracted look,

¶

His garters lagging down, his shoes untied,

¶

And fixed his eyes so steadfast on my face

¶

As if they had vowed this is their latest object.

¶

Small while he stood, but grips me by the wrist,

¶

And there he holds my pulse till, with a sigh,

¶

He doth unclasp his hold and parts away

¶

Silent as is the mid time of the night.

¶

And as he went, his eye was still on me,

¶

For thus his head over his shoulder looked.

995

He seemed to find the way without his eyes,

¶

For out of doors he went without their help,

¶

And so did leave me.

¶

CORAMBIS

Mad for thy love.

¶

What, have you given him any cross words of late?

¶

OPHELIA

I did repel his letters, deny his gifts,

1005

As you did charge me.

¶

CORAMBIS

Why, that hath made him mad.

¶

By heav'n, 'tis as proper for our age to cast

¶

Beyond ourselves as 'tis for the younger sort

¶

To leave their wantonness. Well, I am sorry

That I was so rash. But what remedy?

1015

Let's to the King. This madness may prove,

¶

Though wild awhile, yet more true to thy love.

Exeunt.

¶

Enter King and Queen, Rossencraft and Gilderstone.

¶

CLAUDIUS

Right noble friends, that our dear cousin Hamlet

¶

Hath lost the very heart of all his sense,

¶

It is most right, and we most sorry for him.

1030

Therefore we do desire, even as you tender

¶

Our care to him and our great love to you,

1035

That you will labor but to wring from him

¶

The cause and ground of his distemperancy.

¶

Do this, the King of Denmark shall be thankful.

¶

ROSSENCRAFT

My lord, whatsoever lies within our power

¶

Your majesty may more command in words

¶

Than use persuasions to your liege men, bound

¶

By love, by duty, and obedience.

GILDERSTONE

What we may do for both your majesties

¶

To know the grief troubles the prince your son,

¶

We will endeavor all the best we may,

¶

So in all duty do we take our leave.

¶

CLAUDIUS

Thanks, Gilderstone, and gentle Rossencraft.

1055

GERTRUDE

Thanks, Rossencraft, and gentle Gilderstone.

¶

Enter Corambis and Ophelia.

¶

CORAMBIS

My lord, the ambassadors are joyfully

Returned from Norway.

¶

CLAUDIUS

Thou still hast been the father of good news.

¶

CORAMBIS

Have I, my lord? I assure your grace,

¶

I hold my duty as I hold my life,

¶

Both to my God and to my sovereign King;

1070

And I believe, or else this brain of mine

¶

Hunts not the train of policy so well

¶

As it had wont to do, but I have found

¶

The very depth of Hamlet's lunacy.

¶

GERTRUDE

[To the King]: God grant he hath!

¶

Enter the Ambassadors [Voltemar and Cornelia, with a diplomatic dispatch].

¶

CLAUDIUS

Now, Voltemar, what from our brother Norway?

1085

VOLTEMAR

Most fair returns of greetings and desires.

¶

Upon our first he sent forth to suppress

¶

His nephew's levies, which to him appeared

¶

To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack.

¶

But, better looked into, he truly found

1090

It was against your highness, whereat grieved

¶

That so his sickness, age, and impotence

¶

Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests

¶

On Fortenbrasse, which he in brief obeys,

¶

Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,

1095

Makes vow before his uncle never more

¶

To give the assay of arms against your majesty;

¶

Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

¶

Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee

¶

And his commission to employ those soldiers,

1100

So levied as before, against the Polack,

¶

With an entreaty herein further shown

¶

That it would please you to give quiet pass

¶

Through your dominions for that enterprise

¶

On such regards of safety and allowances

1105

As therein are set down.

[The King is handed a document.]

¶

CLAUDIUS

It likes us well, and at fit time and leisure

¶

We'll read and answer these his articles.

¶

Meantime, we thank you for your well

Took labor. Go to your rest. At night we'll feast together.

¶

Right welcome home.

Exeunt Ambassadors.

¶

CORAMBIS

This business is very well dispatched.

Now, my lord, touching the young Prince Hamlet,

¶

Certain it is that he is mad. Mad let us grant him, then.

¶

Now to know the cause of this effect,

1130

Or else to say the cause of this defect,

¶

For this effect defective comes by cause--

¶

GERTRUDE

Good my lord, be brief.

¶

CORAMBIS

Madam I will. My lord, I have a daughter,

¶

Have while she's mine; for that we think

¶

Is surest we often lose. Now to the Prince.

¶

My lord, but note this letter,

¶

The which my daughter in obedience

1135

Delivered to my hands.

¶

CLAUDIUS

Read it, my lord.

CORAMBIS

Mark, my lord. [He reads the letter.]

¶

Doubt that in earth is fire,

1145

Doubt that the stars do move,

¶

Doubt truth to be a liar,

¶

But doe not doubt I love.

¶

To the beautiful Ophelia.

¶

Thine ever, the most unhappy Prince Hamlet.

¶

My lord, what do you think of me?

1160

Ay, or what might you think when I saw this?

¶

CLAUDIUS

As of a true friend and a most loving subject.

CORAMBIS

I would be glad to prove so.

¶

Now when I saw this letter, thus I bespake my maiden:

1170

Lord Hamlet is a prince out of your star,

¶

And one that is unequal for your love.

¶

Therefore I did command her refuse his letters,

¶

Deny his tokens, and to absent herself.

¶

She as my child obediently obeyed me.

¶

Now, since which time, seeing his love thus crossed,

¶

Which I took to be idle and but sport,

¶

He straightway grew into a melancholy,

From that unto a fast, then unto distraction,

Then into a sadness, from that unto a madness,

¶

And so, by continuance and weakness of the brain,

¶

Into this frenzy which now possesseth him.

¶

And if this be not true, take this from this.

¶

CLAUDIUS

[To the Queen]: Think you 'tis so?

¶

CORAMBIS

How? So, my lord, I would very fain know

¶

That thing that I have said 'tis so, positively,

1185

And it hath fallen out otherwise.

¶

Nay, if circumstances lead me on,

I'll find it out if it were hid

1190

As deep as the centre of the earth.

¶

CLAUDIUS

How should we try this same?

¶

CORAMBIS

Marry, my good lord, thus:

¶

The Prince's walk is here in the gallery;

¶

There let Ophelia walk until he comes.

¶

Yourself and I will stand close in the study.

¶

There shall you hear the effect of all his heart,

¶

And if it prove any otherwise than love,

¶

Then let my censure fail another time.

¶

CLAUDIUS

See where he comes, poring upon a book.

¶

Enter Hamlet.

¶

CORAMBIS

Madam, will it please your grace

To leave us here?

[Scene break deleted]

¶

GERTRUDE

With all my heart. Exit.

1695

CORAMBIS

And here Ophelia, read you on this book,

¶

And walk aloof, the King shall be unseen.

[The King and Corambis conceal themselves.]

1710

HAMLET

To be, or not to be, ay, there's the point,

¶

To die, to sleep, is that all? Ay, all.

¶

No, to sleep, to dream, ay, marry, there it goes,

1720

For in that dream of death, when we awake,

¶

And borne before an everlasting judge,

¶

From whence no passenger ever returned,

The undiscovered country, at whose sight

¶

The happy smile, and the accursèd damned.

¶

But for this, the joyful hope of this,

¶

Who'd bear the scorns and flattery of the world,

1725

Scorned by the right rich, the rich cursed of the poor,

¶

The widow being oppressed, the orphan wronged,

¶

The taste of hunger, or a tyrant's reign,

¶

And thousand more calamities besides,

¶

To grunt and sweat under this weary life,

¶

When that he may his full quietus make

1730

With a bare bodkin? Who would this endure,

¶

But for a hope of something after death?

Which puzzles the brain, and doth confound the sense,

1735

Which makes us rather bear those evils we have

¶

Than fly to others that we know not of.

¶

Ay, that. Oh, this conscience makes cowards of us all.--

¶

Lady, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.

1745

OPHELIA

My lord, I have sought opportunity, which now

¶

I have, to redeliver to your worthy hands a small remembrance, such tokens which I have received of you.

1760

HAMLET

Are you fair?

¶

OPHELIA

My lord?

¶

HAMLET

Are you honest?

¶

OPHELIA

What means my lord?

¶

HAMLET

That if you be fair and honest, your beauty should admit no discourse to your honesty.

¶

OPHELIA

My lord, can beauty have better privilege than

1765

with honesty?

¶

HAMLET

Yea, marry, may it; for beauty may [sooner] transform

¶

honesty from what she was into a bawd than honesty can transform beauty.

¶

This was sometimes a paradox, but now the time gives it scope.

¶

I never gave you nothing.

¶

OPHELIA

My lord, you know right will you did,

¶

And with them such earnest vows of love

¶

as would have moved the stoniest breast alive

¶

But now too true I find:

¶

Rich gifts wax poor when givers grow unkind.

¶

HAMLET

I never loved you.

¶

OPHELIA

You made me believe you did.

¶

HAMLET

Oh, thou shouldst not ha' believed me!

¶

Go to a nunnery, go. Why shouldst thou

¶

be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest,

¶

but I could accuse myself of such crimes it had been better my mother had ne'er borne me.

¶

Oh, I am very proud, ambitious, disdainful,

1780

with more sins at my beck than I have thoughts

¶

to put them in. What should such fellows as I

¶

do, crawling between heaven and earth?

¶

To a nunnery, go. We are arrant knaves all.Believe none of us. To a nunnery, go.

¶

OPHELIA

Oh, heavens secure him!

1785

HAMLET

Where's thy father?

¶

OPHELIA

At home, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

For God's sake, let the doors be shut on him, he may play the fool nowhere but in his

¶

own house. To a nunnery, go.

OPHELIA

Help him, good God!

1790

HAMLET

If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague to thy dowry:

¶

be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,

¶

Thou shalt not scape calumny. To a nunnery, go.

¶

OPHELIA

Alas, what change is this?

¶

HAMLET

But if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool,

¶

for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go.

¶

OPHELIA

Pray God restore him!

¶

HAMLET

Nay, I have heard of your paintings, too.

¶

God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another.

1800

You fig, and you amble, and you nickname God's creatures,

¶

making your wantonness your ignorance.

¶

A pox, 'tis scurvy. I'll no more of it It hath made me mad. I'll no more marriages.

¶

All that are married, but one, shall live,

¶

The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

1805

To a nunnery, go! Exit.

¶

OPHELIA

Great God of heaven, what a quick change is this?

¶

The courtier, scholar, soldier, all in him,

¶

All dashed and splintered thence. Oh, woe is me,

¶

To ha' seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Exit.

Enter King and Corambis [coming forward from concealment]

¶

CLAUDIUS

Love? No, no, that's not the cause.

¶

Some deeper thing it is that troubles him.

¶

CORAMBIS

Well, something it is. My lord, content you awhile.

[Scene break deleted]

CORAMBIS

I will myself go feel him. Let me work.

I'll try him every way. See where he comes.

¶

Send you those gentlemen. Let me alone To find the depth of this. Away, be gone! Exit King.

Enter Hamlet.

Now, my good lord, do you know me?

¶

HAMLET

Yea, very well, y'are a fishmonger.

¶

CORAMBIS

Not I, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

Then, sir, I would you were so honest a man.

1215

For to be honest, as this age goes, is one man to be picked out of ten thousand.

¶

CORAMBIS

What doe you read, my lord?

1230

HAMLET

Words, words.

¶

CORAMBIS

What's the matter, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Between who?

¶

CORAMBIS

I mean the matter you read, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

Marry, most vile heresy:

¶

For here the satyrical satyre writes

1235

that old men have hollow eyes, weak backs, grey beards, pitiful weak hams, gouty legs,

¶

all which, sir, I most potently believe not.

1240

For, sir, yourself shall be old as I am,

¶

if, like a crab, you could go backward.

¶

CORAMBIS

[Aside]: How pregnant his replies are, and full of wit!

¶

Yet at first he took me for a fishmonger.

¶

All this comes by love, the vehemency of love;

¶

and when I was young, I was very idle,

¶

and suffered much ecstasy in love, very near this.--

¶

Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Into my grave.

¶

CORAMBIS

By the mass, that's out of the air, indeed. Very shrewd answers.--

¶

My lord I will take my leave of you.

1265

Enter Gilderstone and Rossencraft.

¶

HAMLET

You can take nothing from me, sir, I will more willingly part withal.--

¶

Old doating fool!

¶

CORAMBIS

[To Gilderstone and Rossencraft]: You seek Prince Hamlet. See, there he is. Exit.

¶

GILDERSTONE

Health to your lordship!

1270

HAMLET

What, Gilderstone, and Rossencraft!

¶

Welcome, kind schoolfellows, to Elsinore.

¶

GILDERSTONE

We thank your grace, and would be very glad

¶

You were as when we were at Wittenberg.

1320

HAMLET

I thank you, but is this vistitation free of

¶

yourselves, or were you not sent for?

¶

Tell me true, come, I know the good King and Queen

¶

sent for you. There is a kind of confession in your eye.

¶

Come, I know you were sent for.

¶

GILDERSTONE

[Aside to Rossencraft.]: What say you?

¶

HAMLET

[Aside] Nay, then, I see how the wind sits. [To them]Come, you were sent for.

¶

ROSSENCRAFT

My lord, we were, and willingly, if we might, know the cause and ground of your discontent.

2210

HAMLET

Why, I want preferment.

¶

ROSSENCRAFT

I think not so, my lord.

1345

HAMLET

Yes faith, this great world you see contents me not,

¶

no, nor the spangled heavens, nor earth nor sea;

1355

no, nor man, that is so glorious a creature, contents not me—no, nor woman too, though you laugh.

¶

GILDERSTONE

My lord, we laugh not at that.

1360

HAMLET

Why did you laugh, then, when I said, man did not content me?

¶

GILDERSTONE

My lord, we laughed, when you said man did not content you.

¶

what entertainment the players shall have?

¶

We boarded them o'the way. They are coming to you.

¶

HAMLET

Players? What players be they?

1375

ROSSENCRAFT

My lord, the tragedians of the city,

¶

those that you took delight to see so often.

¶

HAMLET

How comes it that they travel? Do they grow resty?

1385

GILDERSTONE

No, my lord, their reputation holds as it was wont.

¶

HAMLET

How then?

¶

GILDERSTONE

I'faith, my lord, novelty carries it away. For the principal public audience that came to them are turned to private plays, and to the humor of children.

¶

HAMLET

I do not greatly wonder of it,

1410

for those that would make mops and mows at my uncle when my father lived

¶

now give a hundred, two hundred pounds

¶

for his picture. But they shall be welcome. He that plays the King shall have tribute of me,

¶

the venturous Knight shall use his foil and target,

¶

the Lover shall sigh gratis,

1370

the Clown shall make them laugh that are tickled in the lungs or the blank verse shall halt for't,

¶

and the Lady shall have leave to speak her mind freely.

1415

The Trumpets sound. Enter Corambis.

1430

Do you see yonder great baby? He is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts.

¶

GILDERSTONE

That may be, for they say an old man

¶

is twice a child.

¶

HAMLET

I'll prophesy to you he comes to tell me o'the players.--

1435

You say true, o'Monday last, 'twas so indeed.

¶

CORAMBIS

My lord, I have news to tell you.

¶

HAMLET

My lord, I have news to tell you:

¶

when Roscius was an Actor in Rome--

1440

CORAMBIS

The actors are come hither, my lord.

¶

HAMLET

Buzz, buzz.

¶

CORAMBIS

The best actors in Christendom, either for comedy, tragedy, history, pastoral,

1445

pastoral-historical, historical-comical,

¶

comical-historical-pastoral, tragedy-historical:

¶

Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plato too light;

¶

for the law hath writ those are the only men.

¶

HAMLET

O Jephthah, judge of Israel! What a treasure hadst thou?

¶

CORAMBIS

Why, what a treasure had he, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Why one fair daughter, and no more,

1455

The which he lovèd passing well.

¶

CORAMBIS

[Aside]: Ah, still harping o'my daughter!—Well, my lord, If you call me Iephthah, I have a daughter that

¶

I love passing well.

1460

HAMLET

Nay that follows not.

¶

CORAMBIS

What follows, then, my lord?

¶

HAMLET

Why, By lot, Or God wot, Or as it came to pass,

¶

And so it was,

the first verse of the godly ballad

¶

will tell you all. For look you where my abridgement comes. Enter Players.

¶

Welcome masters! Welcome all.--

¶

What, my old friend, thy face is valanced

¶

since I saw thee last. Com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?--

1470

My young lady and mistress! By'r Lady, but your

¶

ladyship is grown by the altitude of a chopine higher than you were.

¶

Pray God, sir, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent

¶

gold, be not cracked in the ring.-- Come on, masters,

¶

we'll even to't, like French falconers,

1475

fly at any thing we see. Come, a taste of your

¶

quality, a speech, a passionate speech.

¶

PLAYERS

What speech, my good lord?

¶

HAMLET

I heard thee speak a speech once, but it was never acted, or, if it were,

1480

never above twice, for, as I remember,

¶

it pleased not the vulgar; it was caviary to the million. But to me

¶

and others that received it in the like kind,

¶

cried in the top of their judgments, an excellent play,

¶

set down with as great modesty as cunning.

1485

One said there was no sallets in the lines to make them savory,

¶

but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet.

¶

Come, a speech in it I chiefly remember was Aeneas' tale to Dido,

1490

and then especially where he talks of princes' slaughter.

¶

If it live in thy memory, begin at this line--

¶