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.

44

Question it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and war-like form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

48

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!

Exit the Ghost.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

52

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.

Mar.

Hor. As thou art to thyself:

56

Is it not like the king?

Such was the very armour he had on

60

When he the ambitious Norway combated;

So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

'Tis strange.

42 scholar; cf. n.

45 It

to; cf. n.

64

43 mark: observe closely 49 sometimes: formerly

57 sensible: involving the use of one of the senses avouch: assurance 62 parle: parley

63 sledded Polacks: Poles on sledges (?); cf. n.

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 my opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

68

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;
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,

72

76

80

Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet— 84
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him—
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit with his life all those his lands
Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror;

65 jump: just

68 gross and scope: general drift

88

67 thought: train of thinking 70 Good now; cf. n.

72 toils: causes to toil subject: people, subjects 73 cast: founding

75 impress: enforced service

74 mart: traffic, buying and selling 77 toward: in preparation

83 prick'd on: incited emulate: ambitious 87 law and heraldry; cf. n.

89 seiz'd of: possessed of

Against the which, a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

92

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant, And carriage of the article design'd,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

96

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,

For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in 't; which is no other-
As it doth well appear unto our state—
But to recover of us, by strong hand

101

And terms compulsative, those foresaid lands

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

104

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source of this our watch and the chief head

Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

108

[Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so;
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch, so 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 mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;

90 moiety competent: equal amount
94 carriage: import

96 unimproved: unproved (?); cf. n.

ardent

97 skirts: outskirts

112

116

91 gaged: staked

design'd: drawn up

hot and full: exceedingly

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse;
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 demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.]

120

125

Enter Ghost again.

But, soft! behold! lo! where it comes again.
I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me:

128

It spreads his arms.

to me,

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace
Speak to me:

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

132

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

136

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

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

The cock crows.

Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus. 139 Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

Exit Ghost.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

144

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew. Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

149

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill; Break we our watch up; and by my advice Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.

150 cock; cf. n.

hies: hastens

152

156

160

164

168

156 probation: proof 162 planets strike; cf. n.

154 extravagant: vagrant erring: wandering
155 confine: place of confinement
158 'gainst that: by the time that
163 takes: bewitches

164 gracious: instinct with goodness