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Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
"This must be so." We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us

As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:

And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

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Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Ham

let:

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 120
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

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Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

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That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead; nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-
Let me not think on't-Frailty, thy name is wo-
man!-

A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:-why she, even she-

O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 150
Would have mourn'd longer-married with my

uncle,

My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO.

Hor. Hail to your lordship!

Ham.

I am glad to see you well: 160

Horatio, -or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant

ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name

with you:

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord

Ham. I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, 170 Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, To make it truster of your own report Against yourself: I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;

I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 181 Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!

My father!-methinks I see my father.

Hor. Where, my lord?

Ham.

In

my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I saw him once: he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw? who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham.

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The king my father! Hor. Season your admiration for awhile With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night,

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pie,

Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,

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Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me

In dreadful secresy impart they did;

And I with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

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Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

Ham.

But where was this?

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we

watch'd.

Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

My lord, I did;

But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham.

"Tis very strange. 220 Hor. As I do live, my honor'd lord 'tis true;

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

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Ham. Then saw you not his face?

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. 230
Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
Ham. Pale or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you?

Hor. Most constantly.

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