William Shakespeare — The Arden Shakespeare Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1

Elsinore. A platform before the castle. (Barnardo; Francisco; Horatio; Marcellus; Ghost) Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels, meeting. BARNARDO Who’s there? FRANCISCO Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself. BARNARDO Long live the King! FRANCISCO Barnardo. BARNARDO He. FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour. BARNARDO ’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. BARNARDO Have you had quiet guard? FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring. BARNARDO Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Enter Horatio and Marcellus. FRANCISCO I think I hear them. Stand ho! Who is there? HORATIO Friends to this ground. MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane. FRANCISCO Give you good night. MARCELLUS O, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath reliev’d you? FRANCISCO Barnardo hath my place. Give you good night. Exit Francisco. MARCELLUS Holla, Barnardo! BARNARDO Say— What, is Horatio there? HORATIO A piece of him. BARNARDO Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellus. HORATIO What, has this thing appear’d again tonight? BARNARDO I have seen nothing. MARCELLUS 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, He may approve our eyes and speak to it. HORATIO Tush, tush, ’twill not appear. BARNARDO Sit down a while, And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we have two nights seen. HORATIO Well, sit we down, And let us hear Barnardo speak of this. BARNARDO 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— Enter Ghost. MARCELLUS Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again! BARNARDO In the same figure like the King that’s dead. MARCELLUS Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. BARNARDO Looks ’a not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. HORATIO Most like; it harrows me with fear and wonder. BARNARDO It would be spoke to. MARCELLUS Speak to it, Horatio. HORATIO 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! MARCELLUS It is offended. BARNARDO See, it stalks away! HORATIO Stay! Speak, speak, I charge thee speak! Exit Ghost. MARCELLUS ’Tis gone, and will not answer. BARNARDO How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on’t? HORATIO Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. MARCELLUS Is it not like the King? HORATIO As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armor he had on 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. MARCELLUS Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. HORATIO 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. MARCELLUS 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-laborer with the day: Who is’t that can inform me? HORATIO That can I, At least the whisper goes so: our last king, 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 (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 heraldy, Did forfeit (with his life) all those his lands Which he stood seiz’d of, to the conqueror; Against the which a moi’ty competent Was gaged by our king, which had return’d To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; as by the same comart And carriage of the article design’d, His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 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 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. BARNARDO 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. HORATIO 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 fear’d 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. Enter Ghost. But soft, behold! Lo where it comes again! It spreads his arms. 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 grace 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, your spirits oft walk in death, Speak of it, stay and speak! The cock crows. Stop it, Marcellus. MARCELLUS Shall I strike it with my partisan? HORATIO Do, if it will not stand. BARNARDO ’Tis here! HORATIO ’Tis here! MARCELLUS ’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. BARNARDO It was about to speak when the cock crew. HORATIO 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, Th’ extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation. MARCELLUS It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, This 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 hallowed, and so gracious, is that time. HORATIO 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 tonight 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? MARCELLUS Let’s do’t, I pray, and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. Exeunt.