Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? speak; Ile go no further
Gho. Marke me
Ham. I will
Gho. My hower is almost come,
When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames
Must render vp my selfe
Ham. Alas poore Ghost
Gho. Pitty me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall vnfold
Ham. Speake, I am bound to heare
Gho. So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare
Ham. What?
Gho. I am thy Fathers Spirit,
Doom'd for a certaine terme to walke the night;
And for the day confin'd to fast in Fiers,
Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature
Are burnt and purg'd away? But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my Prison-House;
I could a Tale vnfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes like Starres, start from their Spheres,
Thy knotty and combined lockes to part,
And each particular haire to stand an end,
Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine:
But this eternall blason must not be
To eares of flesh and bloud; list Hamlet, oh list,
If thou didst euer thy deare Father loue