The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark

1 Enter Fortinbras and Forces marching.
2 FORTINBRAS.
3 Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king.
4 Tell him that by his license, Fortinbras
5 Craves the conveyance of a promis’d march
6 Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
7 If that his Majesty would aught with us,
8 We shall express our duty in his eye;
9 And let him know so.
10 CAPTAIN.
11 I will do’t, my lord.
12 FORTINBRAS.
13 Go softly on.
14 [_Exeunt all but the Captain._]
15 Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern &c.
16 HAMLET.
17 Good sir, whose powers are these?
18 CAPTAIN.
19 They are of Norway, sir.
20 HAMLET.
21 How purpos’d, sir, I pray you?
22 CAPTAIN.
23 Against some part of Poland.
24 HAMLET.
25 Who commands them, sir?
26 CAPTAIN.
27 The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
28 HAMLET.
29 Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
30 Or for some frontier?
31 CAPTAIN.
32 Truly to speak, and with no addition,
33 We go to gain a little patch of ground
34 That hath in it no profit but the name.
35 To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
36 Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
37 A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
38 HAMLET.
39 Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
40 CAPTAIN.
41 Yes, it is already garrison’d.
42 HAMLET.
43 Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
44 Will not debate the question of this straw!
45 This is th’imposthume of much wealth and peace,
46 That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
47 Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
48 CAPTAIN.
49 God b’ wi’ you, sir.
50 [_Exit._]
51 ROSENCRANTZ.
52 Will’t please you go, my lord?
53 HAMLET.
54 I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.
55 [_Exeunt all but Hamlet._]
56 How all occasions do inform against me,
57 And spur my dull revenge. What is a man
58 If his chief good and market of his time
59 Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
60 Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
61 Looking before and after, gave us not
62 That capability and godlike reason
63 To fust in us unus’d. Now whether it be
64 Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
65 Of thinking too precisely on th’event,—
66 A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
67 And ever three parts coward,—I do not know
68 Why yet I live to say this thing’s to do,
69 Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
70 To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me,
71 Witness this army of such mass and charge,
72 Led by a delicate and tender prince,
73 Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff’d,
74 Makes mouths at the invisible event,
75 Exposing what is mortal and unsure
76 To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
77 Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
78 Is not to stir without great argument,
79 But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
80 When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
81 That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,
82 Excitements of my reason and my blood,
83 And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
84 The imminent death of twenty thousand men
85 That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
86 Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
87 Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
88 Which is not tomb enough and continent
89 To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
90 My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth.
91 [_Exit._]