Ber. Sit down awhile;
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.
———— Last night of all,
When yon same star, that’s westward from the pole,
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,———
Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
The ghost enters. Horatio is harrowed with fear and wonder. His companions urge him to address it; and somewhat recovered from astonishment, he urges “the majesty of bury’d Denmark” to speak. It is offended, and stalks away.
Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead hour,
With martial stalk he hath gone by our watch.
Horatio discourses with his companions on the disturbed state of the kingdom, and the appearance they have just witnessed; whereof he says, “a mote it is, to trouble the mind’s eye.” He is interrupted by its re-entry, and invokes it, but the apparition remains speechless; the “cock crows,” and the ghost is about to disappear, when Horatio says,
———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!