Hamlet | Page 2

well appear unto our state,--
But to recover of us, by strong
hand,
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his
father lost: and this, I take it,
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.
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;
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 climature and
countrymen.--
But, soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
[Re-enter Ghost.]
I'll cross it, though it blast me.--Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound,
or use of voice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do ease, and, race to me,
Speak to me:
If thou
art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may
avoid,
O, speak!
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
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!
Mar.
Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
Hor.
Do, if it will not stand.
Ber.
'Tis here!
Hor.
'Tis here!
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.

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
dare stir 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.
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 eastward 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:
Do you consent we shall
acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
Mar.
Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall
find him most conveniently.
[Exeunt.]
Scene II. Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.
[Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand,
Cornelius, Lords, and Attendant.]
King.
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory
be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our

whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far
hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think
on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our
sometime sister, now our queen,
Th' imperial jointress to this warlike
state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
With an auspicious
and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in
marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
Taken to wife;
nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely
gone
With this affair along:--or all, our thanks.
Now follows, that
you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,

Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint
and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He
hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of
those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most
valiant brother. So much for him,--
Now for ourself and for this time
of meeting:
Thus much the business is:--we have here writ
To
Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
Who, impotent and bed-rid,
scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
His
further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions
are all made
Out of his subject:--and we here dispatch
You, good
Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old
Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with
the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.

Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. and Volt.
In that and all things will