Four Tragedies

[Dramatis Personae

ghost of Hamlet, the former King of Denmark

Claudius, King of Denmark, the former King's brother

Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, widow of the former King and now wife of Claudius

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, son of the late King and of Gertrude

Polonius, Councillor to the King

Laertes, his son

Ophelia, his daughter

Reynaldo, his servant

Horatio, Hamlet's friend and fellow student

Voltimand,

Cornelius,

Rosencrantz,

Guildenstern,         members of the Danish court

Osric,

a gentleman,

a lord,

Bernardo,

Francisco,                officers and soldiers on watch

Marcellus,

Fortinbras, Prince of Norway

captain in his army

Three or Four players, taking the roles of  prologue, player king, player queen, and Lucianus

Two messengers

first sailor

Two clowns, a gravedigger and his companion

priest

first ambassador from England

Lords, Soldiers, Attendants, Guards, other Players, Followers of Laertes, other Sailors, another Ambassador or Ambassadors from England

scene: Denmark]

[1.1] A Enter Bernardo and Francisco, two sentinels,

[meeting].

Bernardo  Who's there?

Francisco

Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself. 2

Bernardo  Long live the King!

Francisco  Bernardo?

Bernardo  He.

Francisco

You come most carefully upon your hour.

Bernardo

'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.

Francisco

For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Bernardo  Have you had quiet guard?

Francisco  Not a mouse stirring.

Bernardo  Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. 14

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Francisco

I think I hear them.--Stand, ho! Who is there?

Horatio  Friends to this ground. 16

Marcellus  And liegemen to the Dane. 17

Francisco  Give you good night. 18

Marcellus

Oh, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?

Francisco

Bernardo hath my place. Give you good night.

Exit Francisco.

Marcellus  Holla! Bernardo!

Bernardo  Say, what, is Horatio there?

Horatio  A piece of him.

Bernardo

Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.

Horatio

What, has this thing appeared again tonight?

Bernardo  I have seen nothing.

Marcellus

Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, 27

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us.

Therefore I have entreated him along 30

With us to watch the minutes of this night, 31

That if again this apparition come

He may approve our eyes and speak to it. 33

Horatio

Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

Bernardo Sit down awhile

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,

What we have two nights seen.

Horatio Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Bernardo  Last night of all, 39

When yond same star that's westward from the pole 40

Had made his course t'illume that part of heaven 41

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one--

 Enter Ghost.

Marcellus

Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again!

Bernardo

In the same figure like the King that's dead.

Marcellus

Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio. 46

Bernardo

Looks 'a not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. 47

Horatio

Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

Bernardo

It would be spoke to.

Marcellus Speak to it, Horatio. 49

Horatio

What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, 50

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark 52

Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee, speak! 53

Marcellus

It is offended.

Bernardo See, it stalks away.

Horatio

Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak! Exit Ghost.

Marcellus  'Tis gone and will not answer.

Bernardo

How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on't? 59

Horatio

Before my God, I might not this believe

Without the sensible and true avouch 61

Of mine own eyes.

Marcellus Is it not like the King?

Horatio  As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armor he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated. 65

So frowned he once when, in an angry parle, 66

He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. 67

'Tis strange.

Marcellus

Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 69

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 70

Horatio

In what particular thought to work I know not, 71

But in the gross and scope of mine opinion 72

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Marcellus

Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 74

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject of the land, 76

And why such daily cast of brazen cannon 77

And foreign mart for implements of war, 78

Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 79

Does not divide the Sunday from the week.

What might be toward, that this sweaty haste 81

Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day?

Who is't that can inform me?

Horatio That can I;

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,

Whose image even but now appeared to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, 87

Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--

For so this side of our known world esteemed him-- 89

Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a sealed compact 90

Well ratified by law and heraldry 91

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands

Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror; 93

Against the which a moiety competent 94

Was gaged by our king, which had returned 95

To the inheritance of Fortinbras 96

Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same cov'nant 97

And carriage of the article designed, 98

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 100

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there 101

Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes 102

For food and diet to some enterprise 103

That hath a stomach in't, which is no other-- 104

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 110

Of this posthaste and rummage in the land. 111

Hernardo

I think it be no other but e'en so.

Well may it sort that this portentous figure 113

Comes armed through our watch so like the King

That was and is the question of these wars. 115

Horatio

A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. 116

In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 117

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 118

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead 119

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 121

Disasters in the sun; and the moist star 122

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands 123

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. 124

And even the like precurse of feared events, 125

As harbingers preceding still the fates 126

And prologue to the omen coming on, 127

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

Unto our climatures and countrymen. 129

Enter Ghost.

But soft, behold! Lo, where it comes again! 130

I'll cross it, though it blast me. (It spreads his arms.) Stay,

  illusion! 131

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, 137

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, 138

Oh, 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,

Speak of it! (The cock crows.) Stay and speak!--Stop it,

  Marcellus.

Marcellus

Shall I strike at it with my partisan? 144

Horatio  Do, if it will not stand. [They strike at it.]

Bernardo  'Tis here! 146

Horatio  'Tis here! [Exit Ghost.] 147

Marcellus  'Tis gone.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence,

For it is as the air invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Bernardo

It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Horatio

And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 156

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,

Th'extravagant and erring spirit hies 160

To his confine; and of the truth herein

This present object made probation. 162

Marcellus

It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 164

Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,

This bird of dawning singeth all night long,

And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;

The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, 168

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 169

So hallowed and so gracious is that time. 170

Horatio

So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But, look, the morn in russet mantle clad 172

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.

Break we our watch up, and by my advice

Let us impart what we have seen tonight

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?

Marcellus

Let's do't, I pray, and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently.

 Exeunt.

[1.2] A Flourish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmark,

Gertrude the Queen, [the] Council, as Polonius

and his son Laertes, Hamlet, cum aliis [including

Voltimand and Cornelius].

king

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death 1

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, 8

Th'imperial jointress to this warlike state, 9

Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy--

With an auspicious and a dropping eye, 11

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole-- 13

Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Now follows that you know young Fortinbras, 17

Holding a weak supposal of our worth, 18

Or thinking by our late dear brother's death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20

Co-leagued with this dream of his advantage, 21

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing the surrender of those lands 23

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, 24

To our most valiant brother. So much 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 29

Of this his nephew's purpose--to suppress

His further gait herein, in that the levies, 31

The lists, and full proportions are all made 32

Out of his subject; and we here dispatch 33

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,

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. [He gives a paper.]  38

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. 39

Cornelius, Voltimand

In that, and all things, will we show our duty.

king

We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell. 41

 [Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.]

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?

You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?

You cannot speak of reason to the Dane 44

And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

The head is not more native to the heart, 47

The hand more instrumental to the mouth, 48

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laertes My dread lord,

Your leave and favor to return to France, 51

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark

To show my duty in your coronation,

Yet now I must confess, that duty done,

My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. 56

king

Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

Polonius

H'ath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave 58

By laborsome petition, and at last

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. 60

I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

king

Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine, 62

And thy best graces spend it at thy will. 63

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son-- 64

Hamlet

A little more than kin, and less than kind. 65

king

How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Hamlet

Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun. 67

queen

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, 68

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. 69

Do not forever with thy vailed lids 70

Seek for thy noble father in the dust.

Thou know'st 'tis common, all that lives must die, 72

Passing through nature to eternity.

Hamlet

Ay, madam, it is common.

queen If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee? 75

Hamlet

Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not "seems."

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black, 78

Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, 79

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 80

Nor the dejected havior of the visage, 81

Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, 82

That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play.

But I have that within which passes show;

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

king

'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,

To give these mourning duties to your father.

But you must know your father lost a father,

That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever 92

In obstinate condolement is a course 93

Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief.

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,

A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, 96

An understanding simple and unschooled. 97

For what we know must be and is as common

As any the most vulgar thing to sense, 99

Why should we in our peevish opposition

Take it to heart? Fie, 'tis a fault to heaven,