[Sc. iv.]
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
Ham. The ayre bites shrewd; it is an eager and
An nipping winde, what houre i'st?
Hor. I think it lacks of twelue. Sound Trumpets.
Mar. No, t'is strucke.
Hor. Indeed I heard it not, what doth this mean my lord? 5
Ham. O the king doth wake to night, & takes his rowse,
Keepe wassel, and the swaggering vp-spring reeles,
And as he dreames, his draughts of renish downe,
The kettle, drumme, and trumpet, thus bray out,
The triumphes of his pledge. 10
Hor. Is it a custome here?
Ham. I mary i'st and though I am
Natiue here, and to the maner borne,
It is a custome, more honourd in the breach,
Then in the obseruance. 15
Enter the Ghost.
Hor. Looke my Lord, it comes.
Ham. Angels and Ministers of grace defend vs,
Be thou a spirite of health, or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee ayres from heauen, or blasts from hell:
Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 20
Thou commest in such questionable shape,
That I will speake to thee,
Ile call thee Hamlet, King, Father, Royall Dane,
O answere mee, let mee not burst in ignorance,
But say why thy canonizd bones hearsed in death 25
Haue burst their ceremonies: why thy Sepulcher,
In which wee saw thee quietly interr'd.
Hath burst his ponderous and marble Iawes,
To cast thee vp againe: what may this meane,
That thou, dead corse, againe in compleate steele, 30
Reuissets thus the glimses of the Moone,
Making night hideous, and we fooles of nature,
So horridely to shake our disposition,
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our soules?
Say, speake, wherefore, what may this meane? 35
Hor. It beckons you, as though it had something
To impart to you alone.
Mar. Looke with what courteous action
It waues you to a more remoued ground,
But do not go with it. 40
Hor. No, by no meanes my Lord.
Ham. It will not speake, then will I follow it.
Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood my Lord.
That beckles ore his bace, into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible shape, 45
Which might depriue your soueraigntie of reason,
And driue you into madnesse: thinke of it.
Ham. Still am I called, go on, ile follow thee.
Hor. My Lord, you shall not go.
Ham. Why what should be the feare? 50
I do not set my life at a pinnes fee,
And for my soule, what can it do to that?
Being a thing immortall, like it selfe,
Go on, ile follow thee.
Mar. My Lord be rulde, you shall not goe. 55
Ham. My fate cries out, and makes each pety Artiue
As hardy as the Nemeon Lyons nerue,
Still am I cald, vnhand me gentlemen;
By heauen ile make a ghost of him that lets me,
Away I say, go on, ile follow thee. 60
Hor. He waxeth desperate with imagination.
Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmarke.
Hor. Haue after; to what issue will this sort?
Mar. Lets follow, tis not fit thus to obey him. exit.
Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
Ham. Ile go no farther, whither wilt thou leade me? 65
Ghost Marke me.
Ham. I will.
Ghost I am thy fathers spirit, doomd for a time
To walke the night, and all the day
Confinde in flaming fire, 70
Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature
Arepurged and burnt away.
Ham. Alas poore Ghost.
Ghost Nay pitty me not, but to my vnfolding
Lend thy listning eare, but that I am forbid 75
To tell the secrets of my prison house
I would a tale vnfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy yong blood,
Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 80
And each particular haire to stand on end
Like quils vpon the fretfull Porpentine,
But this same blazon must not be, to eares of flesh and blood
Hamlet, if euer thou didst thy deere father loue.
Ham. O God. 85
Gho. Reuenge his foule, and most vnnaturall murder:
Ham. Murder.
Ghost Yea, murder in the highest degree,
As in the least tis bad,
But mine most foule, beastly, and vnnaturall. 90
Ham. Haste me to knowe it, that with wings as swift as
meditation, or the thought of it, may sweepe to my reuenge.
Ghost O I finde thee apt, and duller shouldst thou be
Then the fat weede which rootes it selfe in ease
On Lethe wharffe: briefe let me be. 95
Tis giuen out, that sleeping in my orchard,
A Serpent stung me; so the whole eare of Denmarke
Is with a forged Prosses of my death rankely abusde:
But know thou noble Youth: he that did sting
Thy fathers heart, now weares his Crowne. 100
Ham. O my prophetike soule, my vncle! my vncle!
Ghost Yea he, that incestuous wretch, wonne to his will with gifts,
O wicked will, and gifts! that haue the power
So to seduce my most seeming vertuous Queene,
But vertne, as it neuer will be moued, 105
Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of heauen,
So Lust, though to a radiant angle linckt,
Would fate it selfe from a celestiall bedde,
And prey on garbage: but soft, me thinkes
I sent the mornings ayre, briefe let me be, 110
Sleeping within my Orchard, my custome alwayes
In the after noone, vpon my secure houre
Thy vncle came, with iuyce of Hebona
In a viall, and through the porches of my eares
Did powre the leaprous distilment, whose effect 115
Hold such an enmitie with blood of man,
That swift as quickesiluer, it posteth through
The naturall gates and allies of the body,
And turnes the thinne and wholesome blood
Like eager dropings into milke. 120
And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterd ouer.
Thus was I sleeping by a brothers hand
Of Crowne, of Queene, of life, of dignitie
At once depriued, no reckoning made of,
But sent vnto my graue, 125
With all my accompts and sinnes vpon my head,
O horrible, most horrible!
Ham. O God!
Ghost If thou hast nature in thee, beare it not,
But howsoeuer, let not thy heart 130
Conspire against thy mother aught,
Leaue her to heauen,
And to the burthen that her conscience beares.
I must be gone, the Glo-worme shewes the Martin
To be neere, and gin's to pale his vneffectuall fire: 135
Hamlet adue, adue, adue: remember me. [Exit
Ham. O all you hoste of heauen! O earth, what else?
And shall I couple hell; remember thee?
Yes thou poore Ghost; from the tables
Of my memorie, ile wipe away all sawes of Bookes, 140
All triuiall fond conceites
That euer youth, or else obseruance noted,
And thy remembrance, all alone shall sit.
Yes, yes, by heauen, a damnd pernitious villaine,
Murderons, bawdy, smiling damned villaine, 145
(My tables) meet it is I set it downe,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villayne;
At least I am sure, it may be so in Denmarke.
So vncle, there you are, there you are.
Now to the words; it is adue adue: remember me, 150
Soe t'is enough I haue sworne.
Hor. My lord, my lord. Enter. Horatio, and Marcellus.
Mar. Lord Hamlet.
Hor. Ill, lo, lo, ho, ho.
Mar. Ill, lo, lo, so, ho, so, come boy, come. 155
Hor. Heauens secure him.
Mar. How i'st my noble lord?
Hor. What news my lord?
Ham. O wonderfull, wonderful.
Hor. Good my lord tel it. 160
Ham. No not I, you'l reueale it.
Mar. Nor I my Lord.
Ham. How say you then? would hart of man
Once thinke it? but you'l be secret. 165
Both. I by heauen, my lord.
Ham. There's neuer a villaine dwelling in all Denmarke,
But hee's an arrant knaue.
Hor. There need no Ghost come from the graue to tell
you this. 170
Ham. Right, you are in the right, and therefore
I holde it meet without more circumstance at all,
Wee shake hands and part; you as your busines
And desiers shall leade you: for looke you,
Euery man hath busines, and desires, such 175
As it is, and for my owne poore parte, ile go pray.
Hor. These are but wild and wherling words, my Lord.
Ham. I am sory they offend you; hartely, yes faith hartily.
Hor. Ther's no offence my Lord.
Ham. Yes by Saint Patrike but there is Horatio,180
And much offence too, touching this vision,
It is an honest ghost, that let mee tell you,
For your desires to know what is betweene vs,
Or'emaister it as you may:
And now kind frends, as yon are frends, 185
Schollers and gentlmen,
Grant mee one poore request.
Both. What i'st my Lord?
Ham. Neuer make known what you haue seene to night
Both. My Lord, we will not. 190
Ham. Nay but sweare.
Hor. In faith my Lord not I.
Mar. Nor I my Lord in faith.
Ham. Nay vpon my sword, indeed vpon my sword.
Gho. Sweare. 195
The Gost vnder the stage.
Ham. Ha, ha, come you here, this fellow in the sellerige,
Here consent to sweare.
Hor. Propose the oth my Lord.
Ham. Neuer to speake what you haue seene to night,
Sweare by my sword. 200
Gost. Sweare.
Ham. Hic & vbique; nay then weele shift our ground:
Come hither Gentlemen, and lay your handes
Againe vpon this sword, neuer to speake
Of that which you haue seene, sweare by my sword. 205
Ghost Sweare.
Ham. Well said old Mole, can'st worke in the earth?
so fast, a worthy Pioner, once more remoue.
Hor. Day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
Ham. And therefore as a stranger giue it welcome, 210
There are more things in heauen and earth Horatio,
Then are Dream't of, in your philosophie,
But come here, as before you neuer shall
How strange or odde soere I beare my selfe,
As I perchance hereafter shall thinke meet, 215
To put an Anticke disposition on,
That you at such times seeing me, neuer shall
With Armes, incombred thus, or this head shake,
Or by pronouncing some vndoubtfull phrase,
As well well, wee know, or wee could and if we would, 220
Or there be, and if they might, or such ambiguous:
Giuing out to note, that you know aught of mee,
This not to doe, so grace, and mercie
At your most need helpe you, sweare
Ghost. sweare. 225
Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit: so gentlemen,
In all my loue I do commend mee to you,
And what so poore a man as Hamlet may,
To pleasure you, God willing shall not want,
Nay come lett's go together, 230
But stil your fingers on your lippes I pray,
The time is out of ioynt, O cursed spite,
That euer I was borne to set it right,
Nay come lett's go together. Exeunt.