Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,[41] 65
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.[42]
Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;[43]
But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,[44]
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,[45] 70
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land,[46]
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,[47]
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 75
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;[48]
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:[49]
Who is't that can inform me?
Hor. That can I;
At least the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80
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,[50]
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet—[51]
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him— 85
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,[52]
Well ratified by law and heraldry,[53]
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands[54]
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:[55]
Against the which, a moiety competent 90
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd[56]
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant[57]
And carriage of the article design'd,[58]
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,[59] 95
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,[60]
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,[61][62]
For food and diet, to some enterprise[62]
That hath a stomach in't: which is no other—[63] 100
As it doth well appear unto our state—[64]
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands[65]
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations, 105
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 e'en so:[66][67]
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure[66]
Comes armed through our watch, so like the king[66] 110
That was and is the question of these wars.[66]
Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.[66][68]
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,[66][69]
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,[66]
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead[66][70] 115
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:[66][71]
. . . . . . .
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,[66][72][73]
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,[66][74][73]
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,[66]
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:[66] 120
And even the like precurse of fierce events,[66][75]
As harbingers preceding still the fates[66][76]
And prologue to the omen coming on,[66][77]
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated[66]
Unto our climatures and countrymen.[66][78] 125
Re-enter Ghost.
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion![79]
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:[80]
If there be any good thing to be done,[80] 130
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,[81]
Speak to me:[81]
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,[82][83]
O, speak![82] 135
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,[84]
Speak of it: stay, and speak! [The cock crows.] Stop it, Marcellus.[85]
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?[86] 140