The Tragicall Historie of
HAMLET
Prince of Denmarke.
[Sc. i.]
Enter two Centinels.
The partners of my watch, bid them make haste. 5
Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
O farewell honest souldier, who hath releeued you?
And wil not let beliefe take hold of him,
Touching this dreaded sight twice seene by vs,
Therefore I haue intreated him a long with vs 20
To watch the minutes of this night,
That if againe this apparition come,
He may approoue our eyes, and speake to it.
Assaile your eares that are so fortified,
What we haue two nights seene.
of this.
from the pole, had made his course to
Illumine that part of heauen. Where now it burnes,
The bell then towling one.
Enter Ghost.
Which the Maiestie of buried Denmarke did sometimes
Walke? By heauen I charge thee speake.
speake.
Is not this something more than fantasie? 50
What thinke you on't?
the sensible and true auouch of my owne eyes.
Such was the very armor he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated.
So frownd he once, when in an angry parle
He smot the sleaded pollax on the yce,
Tis strange. 60
With Marshall stalke he passed through our watch.
But in the thought and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to the state. 65
Why this same strikt and most obseruant watch,
So nightly toyles the subiect of the land,
And why such dayly cost of brazen Cannon
And forraine marte, for implements of warre, 70
Why such impresse of ship-writes, whose sore taske
Does not diuide the sunday from the weeke:
What might be toward that this sweaty march
Doth make the night ioynt labourer with the day,
Who is't that can informe me? 75
Our late King, who as you know was by Forten-Brasse
of Norway,
Thereto prickt on by a most emulous cause, dared to
The combate, in which our valiant Hamlet, 80
For so this side of our knowne world esteemed him,
Did slay this Fortenbrasse,
Who by a seale compact well ratified, by law
And heraldrie, did forfeit with his life all those
His lands which he stoode seazed of by the conqueror, 85
Against the which a moity competent,
Was gaged by our King:
Now sir, yong Fortenbrasse,
Of inapproued mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there, 90
Sharkt vp a sight of lawlesse Resolutes
For food and diet to some enterprise,
That hath a stomacke in't: and this (I take it) is the
Chiefe head and ground of this our watch.
Enter the Ghost.
Ile crosse it, though it blast me: stay illusion,
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may doe ease to thee, and grace to mee,
Speake to mee.
If thou art priuy to thy countries fate, 100
Which happly foreknowing may preuent, O speake to me,
Or if thou hast extorted in thy life,
Or hoorded treasure in the wombe of earth,
For which they say you Spirites oft walke in death, speake
to me, stay and speake, speake, stoppe it Marcellus. 105
to offer it the shew of violence,
For it is as the ayre invelmorable, 110
And our vaine blowes malitious mockery.
Vpon a fearefull summons: I haue heard
The Cocke, that is the trumpet to the morning, 115
Doth with his earely and shrill crowing throate,
Awake the god of day, and at his sound,
Whether in earth or ayre, in sea or fire,
The strauagant and erring spirite hies
To his confines, and of the trueth heereof 120
This present obiect made probation.
Some say, that euer gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Sauiours birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long, 125
And then they say, no spirite dare walke abroade,
The nights are wholesome, then no planet frikes,
No Fairie takes, nor Witch hath powre to charme,
So gratious, and so hallowed is that time.
But see the Sunne in russet mantle clad,
Walkes ore the deaw of yon his mountaine top,
Breake we our watch vp, and by my aduise,
Let vs impart what wee haue seene to night
Vnto yong Hamlet: for vpon my life 135
This Spirite dumbe to vs will speake to him:
Do you consent, wee shall acquaint him with it,
As needefull in our loue, fitting our duetie?
Where we shall finde him most conueniently. 140
Enter King, Queene, Hamlet, Leartes, Corambis, and the two Ambassadors, with Attendants.
[Sc. ii.]
Nephew to olde Norway, who impudent
And bed-rid, scarcely heares of this his
Nephews purpose: and Wee heere dispatch
Yong good Cornelia, and you Voltemar 5
For bearers of these greetings to olde
Norway, giuing to you no further personall power
To businesse with the King,
Then those related articles do shew:
Farewell, and let your haste commend your dutie. 10
And now Leartes what's the newes with you?[2422]
You said you had a sute what i'st Leartes?
Now that the funerall rites are all performed,
I may haue leaue to go againe to France,
For though the fauour of your grace might stay mee,
Yet something is there whispers in my hart,
Which makes my minde and spirits bend all for France. 20
And I beseech you grant your Highnesse leaue.
What meanes these sad and melancholy moodes?
For your intent going to Wittenberg,
Wee hold it most vnmeet and vnconuenient,
Being the Ioy and halfe heart of your mother. 30
Therefore let mee intreat you stay in Court,
All Denmarkes hope our coosin and dearest Sonne.
No nor the teares that still stand in my eyes,
Nor the distracted hauiour in the visage, 35
Nor all together mixt with outward semblance,
Is equall to the sorrow of my heart,
Him haue I lost I must of force forgoe,
These but the ornaments and sutes of woe.
But you must thinke your father lost a father,
That father dead, lost his, and so shalbe vntill the
Generall ending. Therefore cease laments,
It is a fault gainst heauen, fault gainst the dead,
A fault gainst nature, and in reasons 45
Common course most certaine,
None liues on earth, but hee is borne to die.
Stay here with vs, go not to Wittenberg.
And there's no health the King shall drinke to day,
But the great Canon to the clowdes shall tell
The rowse the King shall drinke vnto Prince Hamlet.
Exeunt all but Hamlet.
Would melt to nothing, or that the vniuersall
Globe of heauen would turne al to a Chaos!
O God within two moneths; no not two: maried,[2423]
Mine vncle: O let me not thinke of it,
My fathers brother: but no more like
My father, then I to Hercules.
Within two months, ere yet the salt of most
Vnrighteous teates had left their flushing
In her galled eyes: she married, O God, a beast
Deuoyd of reason would not haue made 65
Such speede: Frailtie, thy name is Woman,
Why she would hang on him, as if increase
Of appetite had growne by what it looked on.
O wicked wicked speede, to make such
Dexteritie to incestuous sheetes, 70
Ere yet the shooes were olde,
The which she followed my dead fathers corse
Like Nyobe, all teares: married, well it is not,
Nor it cannot come to good:
But breake my heart, for I must holde my tongue. 75
Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
forget my selfe.
but what make you from Wittenberg Horatio?
Marcellus.
But what is your affaire in Elsenoure? 85
Weele teach you to drinke deepe ere you depart.
Of your owne report against your selfe:
Sir, I know you are no trowant: 90
But what is your affaire in Elsenoure?
I thinke it was to see my mothers wedding.
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables,
Would I had met my deerest foe in heauen
Ere euer I had seene that day Horatio;
O my father, my father, me thinks I see my father, 100
With an attentiue eare, till I may deliuer,
Vpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen
This wonder to you.
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night.
Beene thus incountered by a figure like your father,
Armed to poynt, exactly Capapea
Appeeres before them thrise, he walkes 120
Before their weake and feare oppressed eies.
Within his tronchions length,
While they distilled almost to gelly.
With the act of feare stands dumbe,
And speake not to him: this to mee 125
In dreadfull secresie impart they did.
And I with them the third night kept the watch,
Where as they had deliuered forme of the thing.
Each part made true and good,
The Apparition comes: I knew your father, 130
These handes are not more like.
And wee did thinke it right done,
In our dutie to let you know it. 135
Yet once me thought it was about to speake, 140
And lifted vp his head to motion,
Like as he would speake, but euen then
The morning cocke crew lowd, and in all haste,
It shruncke in haste away, and vanished
Our sight. 145
Hold you the watch to night?
Might tell a hundred. 165
A sable siluer.
Ile speake to it, if hell it selfe should gape,
And bid me hold my peace, Gentlemen,
If you haue hither consealed this sight, 175
Let it be tenible in your silence still,
And whatsoeuer else shall chance to night,
Giue it an vnderstanding, but no tongue,
I will requit your loues, so fare you well,
Vpon the platforme, twixt eleuen and twelue, 180
Ile visit you.
Farewell, my fathers spirit in Armes,
Well, all's not well. I doubt some foule play, 185
Would the night were come,
Till then, sit still my soule, foule deeds will rise
Though all the world orewhelme them to mens eies. Exit.
[Sc. iii.]
Enter Leartes and Ofelia.
But ere I part, marke what I say to thee:
I see Prince Hamlet makes a shew of loue
Beware Ofelia, do not trust his vowes,
Perhaps he loues you now, and now his tongue, 5
Speakes from his heart, but yet take heed my sister,
The Chariest maide is prodigall enough,
If she vnmaske hir beautie to the Moone.
Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious thoughts,
Belieu't Ofelia, therefore keepe a loofe 10
Lest that he trip thy honor and thy fame.
And doubt not but to keepe my honour firme,
But my deere brother, do not you
Like to a cunning Sophister, 15
Teach me the path and ready way to heauen,
While you forgetting what is said to me,
Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine
Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful,
And little recks how that his honour dies. 20
Here comes my father, occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.
Enter Corambis.
The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile,
And you are staid for, there my blessing with thee 25
And these few precepts in thy memory.
"Be thou familiar, but by no meanes vulgare;
"Those friends thou hast, and their adoptions tried,
"Graple them to thee with a hoope of steele,
"But do not dull the palme with entertaine, 30
"Of euery new vnfleg'd courage,
"Beware of entrance into a quarrell; but being in,
"Beare it that the opposed may beware of thee,
"Costly thy apparrell, as thy purse can buy.
"But not exprest in fashion, 35
"For the apparell oft proclaimes the man."
And they of France of the chiefe rancke and station
Are of a most select and generall chiefe in that:
"This aboue all, to thy owne selfe be true,
And it must follow as the night the day, 40
Thou canst not then be false to any one,
Farewel, my blessing with thee.
And remember well what I haue said to you. exit.
And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it.
That you haue bin too prodigall of your maiden presence 50
Vnto Prince Hamlet, if it be so,
As so tis giuen to mee, and that in waie of caution
I must tell you; you do not vnderstand your selfe
So well as befits my honor, and your credite.
to me.
What, do not I know when the blood doth burne, 60
How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes,
In briefe, be more scanter of your maiden presence,
Or tendring thus you'l tender mee a foole.
"For louers lines are snares to intrap the heart;
"Refuse his tokens, both of them are keyes
To vnlocke Chastitie vnto Desire;
Come in Ofelia, such men often proue,
"Great in their wordes, but little in their loue." 70
[Sc. iv.]
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
An nipping winde, what houre i'st?
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
Natiue here, and to the maner borne,
It is a custome, more honourd in the breach,
Then in the obseruance. 15
Enter the Ghost.
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
To impart to you alone.
It waues you to a more remoued ground,
But do not go with it. 40
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.
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.
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
Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
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.
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.
As in the least tis bad,
But mine most foule, beastly, and vnnaturall. 90
meditation, or the thought of it, may sweepe to my reuenge.
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
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!
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
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.
Once thinke it? but you'l be secret. 165
But hee's an arrant knaue.
you this. 170
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.
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.
The Gost vnder the stage.