That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen. Hor. Well, sit we down, 35 And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, The bell then beating one— Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Mar. Question it, Horatio. Hor. 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! Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [Exit Ghost. Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble, and look pale : Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on't? Hor. Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. I might not this believe Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on When he the ambitious Norway combated; Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 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. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Hor. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. 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 heraldry, 85 Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Was gaged by our king; which had return'd 90 Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 95 Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, 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 100 And terms compulsative, those 'foresaid lands 105 Comes armed through our watch: so like the king That was, and is, the question of these wars. 110 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 115 120 As harbingers preceding still the fates, But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! 125 Re-enter Ghost. I'll cross it, though it blast me.—Stay, illusion! If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life 130 135 For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it:-stay, and speak!-Stop it, Marcellus. 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 Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. 150 155 160 The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe 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. 165 170 SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of State in the same. Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, Voltimand, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants. 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, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, 5 10 10 Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15 |