The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark

1 Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
2 HAMLET.
3 Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.
4 GHOST.
5 Mark me.
6 HAMLET.
7 I will.
8 GHOST.
9 My hour is almost come,
10 When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames
11 Must render up myself.
12 HAMLET.
13 Alas, poor ghost!
14 GHOST.
15 Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
16 To what I shall unfold.
17 HAMLET.
18 Speak, I am bound to hear.
19 GHOST.
20 So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
21 HAMLET.
22 What?
23 GHOST.
24 I am thy father’s spirit,
25 Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
26 And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
27 Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
28 Are burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbid
29 To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
30 I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
31 Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood,
32 Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
33 Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
34 And each particular hair to stand on end
35 Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
36 But this eternal blazon must not be
37 To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
38 If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
39 HAMLET.
40 O God!
41 GHOST.
42 Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
43 HAMLET.
44 Murder!
45 GHOST.
46 Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
47 But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
48 HAMLET.
49 Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift
50 As meditation or the thoughts of love
51 May sweep to my revenge.
52 GHOST.
53 I find thee apt;
54 And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
55 That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
56 Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
57 ’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
58 A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
59 Is by a forged process of my death
60 Rankly abus’d; but know, thou noble youth,
61 The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
62 Now wears his crown.
63 HAMLET.
64 O my prophetic soul!
65 Mine uncle!
66 GHOST.
67 Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
68 With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,—
69 O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
70 So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
71 The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
72 O Hamlet, what a falling off was there,
73 From me, whose love was of that dignity
74 That it went hand in hand even with the vow
75 I made to her in marriage; and to decline
76 Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
77 To those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be mov’d,
78 Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
79 So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d,
80 Will sate itself in a celestial bed
81 And prey on garbage.
82 But soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
83 Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
84 My custom always of the afternoon,
85 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
86 With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
87 And in the porches of my ears did pour
88 The leperous distilment, whose effect
89 Holds such an enmity with blood of man
90 That swift as quicksilver it courses through
91 The natural gates and alleys of the body;
92 And with a sudden vigour it doth posset
93 And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
94 The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;
95 And a most instant tetter bark’d about,
96 Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
97 All my smooth body.
98 Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand,
99 Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatch’d:
100 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
101 Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d;
102 No reckoning made, but sent to my account
103 With all my imperfections on my head.
104 O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!
105 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
106 Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
107 A couch for luxury and damned incest.
108 But howsoever thou pursu’st this act,
109 Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
110 Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven,
111 And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
112 To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
113 The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
114 And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
115 Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me.
116 [_Exit._]
117 HAMLET.
118 O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
119 And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, my heart;
120 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
121 But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
122 Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
123 In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
124 Yea, from the table of my memory
125 I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
126 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
127 That youth and observation copied there;
128 And thy commandment all alone shall live
129 Within the book and volume of my brain,
130 Unmix’d with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
131 O most pernicious woman!
132 O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!
133 My tables. Meet it is I set it down,
134 That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!
135 At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
136 [_Writing._]
137 So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
138 It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me.’
139 I have sworn’t.
140 HORATIO and MARCELLUS.
141 [_Within._] My lord, my lord.
142 MARCELLUS.
143 [_Within._] Lord Hamlet.
144 HORATIO.
145 [_Within._] Heaven secure him.
146 HAMLET.
147 So be it!
148 MARCELLUS.
149 [_Within._] Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
150 HAMLET.
151 Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.
152 Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
153 MARCELLUS.
154 How is’t, my noble lord?
155 HORATIO.
156 What news, my lord?
157 HAMLET.
158 O, wonderful!
159 HORATIO.
160 Good my lord, tell it.
161 HAMLET.
162 No, you’ll reveal it.
163 HORATIO.
164 Not I, my lord, by heaven.
165 MARCELLUS.
166 Nor I, my lord.
167 HAMLET.
168 How say you then, would heart of man once think it?—
169 But you’ll be secret?
170 HORATIO and MARCELLUS.
171 Ay, by heaven, my lord.
172 HAMLET.
173 There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
174 But he’s an arrant knave.
175 HORATIO.
176 There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
177 To tell us this.
178 HAMLET.
179 Why, right; you are i’ the right;
180 And so, without more circumstance at all,
181 I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
182 You, as your business and desire shall point you,—
183 For every man hath business and desire,
184 Such as it is;—and for my own poor part,
185 Look you, I’ll go pray.
186 HORATIO.
187 These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
188 HAMLET.
189 I’m sorry they offend you, heartily;
190 Yes faith, heartily.
191 HORATIO.
192 There’s no offence, my lord.
193 HAMLET.
194 Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
195 And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
196 It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
197 For your desire to know what is between us,
198 O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,
199 As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
200 Give me one poor request.
201 HORATIO.
202 What is’t, my lord? We will.
203 HAMLET.
204 Never make known what you have seen tonight.
205 HORATIO and MARCELLUS.
206 My lord, we will not.
207 HAMLET.
208 Nay, but swear’t.
209 HORATIO.
210 In faith, my lord, not I.
211 MARCELLUS.
212 Nor I, my lord, in faith.
213 HAMLET.
214 Upon my sword.
215 MARCELLUS.
216 We have sworn, my lord, already.
217 HAMLET.
218 Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
219 GHOST.
220 [_Cries under the stage._] Swear.
221 HAMLET.
222 Ha, ha boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?
223 Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage.
224 Consent to swear.
225 HORATIO.
226 Propose the oath, my lord.
227 HAMLET.
228 Never to speak of this that you have seen.
229 Swear by my sword.
230 GHOST.
231 [_Beneath._] Swear.
232 HAMLET.
233 _Hic et ubique?_ Then we’ll shift our ground.
234 Come hither, gentlemen,
235 And lay your hands again upon my sword.
236 Never to speak of this that you have heard.
237 Swear by my sword.
238 GHOST.
239 [_Beneath._] Swear.
240 HAMLET.
241 Well said, old mole! Canst work i’ th’earth so fast?
242 A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
243 HORATIO.
244 O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
245 HAMLET.
246 And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
247 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
248 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come,
249 Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
250 How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself,—
251 As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
252 To put an antic disposition on—
253 That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
254 With arms encumber’d thus, or this head-shake,
255 Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
256 As ‘Well, we know’, or ‘We could and if we would’,
257 Or ‘If we list to speak’; or ‘There be and if they might’,
258 Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
259 That you know aught of me:—this not to do.
260 So grace and mercy at your most need help you,
261 Swear.
262 GHOST.
263 [_Beneath._] Swear.
264 HAMLET.
265 Rest, rest, perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen,
266 With all my love I do commend me to you;
267 And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
268 May do t’express his love and friending to you,
269 God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
270 And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
271 The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
272 That ever I was born to set it right.
273 Nay, come, let’s go together.
274 [_Exeunt._]