Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,
It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.
Kent. O my good master!
Lear. Pr'ythee, away.
Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.
Off. Edmund is dead, my lord.
Alb. That's but a trifle here.
You lords, and noble friends, know our intent.
What confort to this great decay may come,
[Kneeling. Shall be applied for us, we will resign,
During the life of this old majesty,
To him our absolute power:-You, to your rights;
[To Edgar and Kent.
With boot+, and such addition as your honours
Have more than merited.-All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings.-O, see, see!
Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever!
Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!
What is't thou say'st?-Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman:-
I kill'd the slave that was a hanging thee.
Of. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
I have seen the day, with my good biting faulchion
I would have made them skip: I am old now,
And these same crosses spoil me.-Who are you?
Mine eyes are none o' the best:-I'll tell you
straight.
Kent. If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.
Lear. This is a dull sight: Are you not Kent?
Kent. The same;
Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius ?
Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that;
He'll strike, and quickly too :-He's dead and
Lear. And my poor foolŷ is hang'd! No, no, no
life:
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you, undo this button: thank you, Sir.-
Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-her lips,-
Look there, look there!-
(He dies.
Edg. He faints!-My lord, my lord,—
Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break!
Edg. Look up, my lord.
Kent. Vex not his ghost:-0, let him pass! he
hates him,
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
Edg. O, he is gone, indeed.
Kent. The wonder is, he hath endured so long: He but usurp'd his life.
Alb. Bear them from hence.-Our present busi
Is general woe. Friends of my soul, you twain
[To Kent and Edgar.
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
Kent. I have a journey, Sir, shortly to go;
My master calls, and I must not say, no.
Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we, that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
[Exeunt, with a dead March.
HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.
CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.
HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius.
POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.
HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet.
LAERTES, Son to Polonius,
GUILDENSTERN,.
OSRIC, a Courtier.
Another Courtier.
A Priest.
MARCELLUS, Officers. BERNARDO,
A Captain.-An Ambassador.
GHOST of Hamlet's Father.
FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway.
GERYRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother of
OPHELIA, Daughter of Polonius.
Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Gratediggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Atendants.
Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.
Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
Fran. I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Mar. And liegemen to the Dane.
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.
Hor. Friends to this ground.
Fran. Give you good night.
Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier:
Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again tonight?
Ber. I have seen nothing.
Mar. 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.
Hor. Tush tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down awhile;
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know | We do it wrong, being so majestical,
not;
But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. 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-labourer with the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?
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,
Dared 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,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
Against the, which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart,
And carriage of the article design'd t,
His fell to Hamlet: now, Sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full 1,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
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.
[Ber. I think, it be no other, but even 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.
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
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 dooms-day with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together démonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-]
But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
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, you spirits oft walk in death,
[Cock crows.
Speak of it :-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Ber. Tis here!
Hor. 'Tis here!
Mar. 'Tis gone!
• Joint bargain.
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
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
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his contine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation †.
Mar. 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 dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Hor. 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 eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
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?
Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of State in the
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,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,—
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:-For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,--
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands,
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So n.uch for him
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject:-And we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltin and,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.
Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we shew
our duty.
King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell.
[Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.
[Exit Ghost. And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of sonie suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And lose your voice: what wouldst thou beg,
Laertes,
The covenant to confirm that bargain.
1 Full of spirit without experience.
Pol. He hath my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave,
By laboursome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:]
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.--
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind *.
[Aside.
King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i' the sun.
Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids +
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's rouse⚫ the heaven shall brait again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
[Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. Polenius, and Laertes.
Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or, that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in na ture, Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months" dead !-Nay, not so much, not
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,
Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die, O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Passing through nature to eternity.
Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.
Why seems it so particular with thee?
Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not
Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly: these, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within, which passeth show;
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.
King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your na
ture, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost his; and the survivor bound
In filial obligation, for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shews a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what, we know, must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
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.
Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
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,
Would have mourn'd longer,-married with my
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 :-0 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, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.
Hor. Hail to your lordship.
Ham. I am glad to see you well:
Horatio, or I do forget myself.
Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.hk/books/content?id=GSIkAAAAMAAJ&hl=zh-TW&output=html_text&pg=PA590&img=1&zoom=3&q=editions:UOM39015091109937&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0PmRtX95zLFerU51UwrDr9Wy9j0g&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=525,900,442,120)
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg!
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so:
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 fe
neral.
Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-st dent;
I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.
Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had net my dearest‡‡ foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!-
My father, Methinks, I see my father.
Hor. Where,
1 Dissolve. Entirely. Apollo. .. Suffer. It was anciently the custom to give a cold en tertainment at a funeral. 11 Chiefest.
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 waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-a-pé,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd,
By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes,
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 secrecy, impart they did;
And I with them, the third night, kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
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?
Hor. 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.
Hor. As I do live, my honour'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?
All. We do, my lord.
Ham. Arm'd, say you?
All. Arm'd, my lord.
Ham. From top to toe?
All. My lord, from head to foot.
Ham. Then saw you not
A sable silver'd.
Ham. I will watch to-night; Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor. I warrant, it will.
Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
Pll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your loves: so, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
Til visit you.
All. Our duty to your honour.
Ham. Your loves, as mine to yon: farewell. [Exeunt Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. My father's spirit in arms! All is not well; I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were
Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit.
SCENE III-A Room in Polonius's House.
Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell: • Attentive.
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no soil, nor cautelt, doth besmirch §
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: then if he says he loves
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent || ear you list ¶ his songs;
Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest ++ maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then: best safety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart: but, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless it libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read § §.
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are staid for: There,-my_blessing with
you; [Laying his Hand on Laertes' Head.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm ¶¶ with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure***, but reserve thy judg
|