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- Herausgeber: Books on Demand
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK THE SONNETS THE TEMPEST. ROMEO AND JULIET A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM TWELFTH NIGHT "Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which but their children's end naught could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. "
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ISBN: 9783748111283
Table of contents
THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
Dramatis Personæ
SCENE. Elsinore.
ACT I
SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the Castle.
SCENE II. Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.
SCENE III. A room in Polonius’s house.
SCENE IV. The platform.
SCENE V. A more remote part of the Castle.
ACT II
SCENE I. A room in Polonius’s house.
SCENE II. A room in the Castle.
ACT III
SCENE I. A room in the Castle.
SCENE II. A hall in the Castle.
SCENE III. A room in the Castle.
SCENE IV. Another room in the Castle.
ACT IV
SCENE I. A room in the Castle.
SCENE II. Another room in the Castle.
SCENE III. Another room in the Castle.
SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.
SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
SCENE VI. Another room in the Castle.
SCENE VII. Another room in the Castle.
ACT V
SCENE I. A churchyard.
SCENE II. A hall in the Castle.
THE SONNETS
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THE TEMPEST.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.1
ACT I.
I. 1 Scene I. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard.
I. 2 Scene II. The island. Before Prospero’s cell.
ACT II.
II. 1 Scene I. Another part of the island.
II. 2 Scene II. Another part of the island.
ACT III.
III. 1 Scene I. Before Prospero’s cell.
III. 2 Scene II. Another part of the island.
III. 3 Scene III. Another part of the island.
ACT IV.
IV. 1 Scene I. Before Prospero’s cell.
ACT V.
V. 1 Scene I. Before the cell of Prospero.
EPILOGUE.
NOTES.
CRITICAL APPARATUS
ROMEO AND JULIET
ACT I.
ACT II.
ACT III.
ACT IV.
Act V.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
TWELFTH NIGHT
ACT I.
ACT II.
ACT III.
ACT IV.
ACT V.
THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
Dramatis Personæ
SCENE. Elsinore.
ACT I
SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the Castle.
SCENE II. Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.
Enter Claudius King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltemand,Cornelius, Lords and Attendant.
KING.Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s deathThe memory be green, and that it us befittedTo bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdomTo be contracted in one brow of woe;Yet so far hath discretion fought with natureThat we with wisest sorrow think on him,Together with remembrance of ourselves.Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state,Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy,With one auspicious and one dropping eye,With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,In equal scale weighing delight and dole,Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr’dYour better wisdoms, which have freely goneWith this affair along. For all, our thanks.Now follows, that you know young Fortinbras,Holding a weak supposal of our worth,Or thinking by our late dear brother’s deathOur state to be disjoint and out of frame,Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,He hath not fail’d to pester us with message,Importing the surrender of those landsLost by his father, with all bonds of law,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 writTo Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hearsOf this his nephew’s purpose, to suppressHis further gait herein; in that the levies,The lists, and full proportions are all madeOut of his subject: and we here dispatchYou, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,Giving to you no further personal powerTo business with the King, more than the scopeOf these dilated articles allow.Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
CORNELIUS and VOLTEMAND.In that, and all things, will we show our duty.
KING.We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
[Exeunt Voltemand 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,And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?The head is not more native to the heart,The hand more instrumental to the mouth,Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES.Dread my lord,Your leave and favour to return to France,From whence though willingly I came to DenmarkTo 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.
KING.Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?
POLONIUS.He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leaveBy laboursome petition; and at lastUpon his will I seal’d my hard consent.I do beseech you give him leave to go.
KING.Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,And thy best graces spend it at thy will!But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—
HAMLET.[Aside.] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
KING.How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET.Not so, my lord, I am too much i’ the sun.
QUEEN.Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.Do not for ever with thy vailed lidsSeek for thy noble father in the dust.Thou know’st ’tis common, all that lives must die,Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET.Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN.If it be,Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET.Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not seems.’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,Nor customary suits of solemn black,Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath,No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief,That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,For they are actions that a man might play;But I have that within which passeth 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 boundIn filial obligation, for some termTo do obsequious sorrow. But to persevereIn obstinate condolement is a courseOf impious stubbornness. ’Tis unmanly grief,It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,An understanding simple and unschool’d;For what we know must be, and is as commonAs any the most vulgar thing to sense,Why should we in our peevish oppositionTake it to heart? Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,To reason most absurd, whose common themeIs death of fathers, and who still hath cried,From the first corse till he that died today,‘This must be so.’ We pray you throw to earthThis unprevailing woe, and think of usAs of a father; for let the world take noteYou are the most immediate to our throne,And with no less nobility of loveThan that which dearest father bears his sonDo I impart toward you. For your intentIn going back to school in Wittenberg,It is most retrograde to our desire:And we beseech you bend you to remainHere in the cheer and comfort of our eye,Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
QUEEN.Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.I pray thee stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET.I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING.Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;This gentle and unforc’d accord of HamletSits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,No jocund health that Denmark drinks todayBut the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again,Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
HAMLET.O that this too too solid flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!Or that the Everlasting had not fix’dHis canon ’gainst self-slaughter. O God! O God!How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitableSeem to me all the uses of this world!Fie on’t! Oh fie! ’tis an unweeded gardenThat grows to seed; things rank and gross in naturePossess it merely. That it should come to this!But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two:So excellent a king; that was to thisHyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,That he might not beteem the winds of heavenVisit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!Must I remember? Why, she would hang on himAs if increase of appetite had grownBy what it fed on; and yet, within a month—Let me not think on’t—Frailty, thy name is woman!A little month, or ere those shoes were oldWith which she followed my poor father’s bodyLike Niobe, all tears.—Why she, even she—O God! A beast that wants discourse of reasonWould have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle,My father’s brother; but no more like my fatherThan I to Hercules. Within a month?Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tearsHad left the flushing in her galled eyes,She married. O most wicked speed, to postWith such dexterity to incestuous sheets!It is not, nor it cannot come to good.But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
Enter Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo.
HORATIO.Hail to your lordship!
HAMLET.I am glad to see you well:Horatio, or I do forget myself.
HORATIO.The same, my lord,And your poor servant ever.
HAMLET.Sir, my good friend;I’ll change that name with you:And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?—Marcellus?
MARCELLUS.My good lord.
HAMLET.I am very glad to see you.—Good even, sir.—But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO.A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET.I would not hear your enemy say so;Nor shall you do my ear that violence,To make it truster of your own reportAgainst yourself. I know you are no truant.But what is your affair in Elsinore?We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
HORATIO.My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
HAMLET.I prithee do not mock me, fellow-student.I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.
HORATIO.Indeed, my lord, it follow’d hard upon.
HAMLET.Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak’d meatsDid coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.Would I had met my dearest foe in heavenOr ever I had seen that day, Horatio.My father,—methinks I see my father.
HORATIO.Where, my lord?
HAMLET.In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
HORATIO.I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
HAMLET.He was a man, take him for all in all,I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO.My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET.Saw? Who?
HORATIO.My lord, the King your father.
HAMLET.The King my father!
HORATIO.Season your admiration for a whileWith an attent ear, till I may deliverUpon the witness of these gentlemenThis marvel to you.
HAMLET.For God’s love let me hear.
HORATIO.Two nights together had these gentlemen,Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watchIn the dead waste and middle of the night,Been thus encounter’d. A figure like your father,Armed at point exactly, cap-à-pie,Appears before them, and with solemn marchGoes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk’dBy their oppress’d and fear-surprised eyes,Within his truncheon’s length; whilst they, distill’dAlmost to jelly with the act of fear,Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to meIn dreadful secrecy impart they did,And I with them the third night kept the watch,Where, as they had deliver’d, both in time,Form of the thing, each word made true and good,The apparition comes. I knew your father;These hands are not more like.
HAMLET.But where was this?
MARCELLUS.My lord, upon the platform where we watch.
HAMLET.Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO.My lord, I did;But answer made it none: yet once methoughtIt lifted up it head, and did addressItself to motion, like as it would speak.But even then the morning cock crew loud,And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,And vanish’d from our sight.
HAMLET.’Tis very strange.
HORATIO.As I do live, my honour’d lord, ’tis true;And we did think it writ down in our dutyTo let you know of it.
HAMLET.Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.Hold you the watch tonight?
Mar. and BARNARDO.We do, my lord.
HAMLET.Arm’d, say you?
Both.Arm’d, my lord.
HAMLET.From top to toe?
BOTH.My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET.Then saw you not his face?
HORATIO.O yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET.What, look’d he frowningly?
HORATIO.A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
HAMLET.Pale, or red?
HORATIO.Nay, very pale.
HAMLET.And fix’d his eyes upon you?
HORATIO.Most constantly.
HAMLET.I would I had been there.
HORATIO.It would have much amaz’d you.
HAMLET.Very like, very like. Stay’d it long?
HORATIO.While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
MARCELLUS and BARNARDO.Longer, longer.
HORATIO.Not when I saw’t.
HAMLET.His beard was grizzled, no?
HORATIO.It was, as I have seen it in his life,A sable silver’d.
HAMLET.I will watch tonight;Perchance ’twill walk again.
HORATIO.I warrant you it will.
HAMLET.If it assume my noble father’s person,I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gapeAnd bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight,Let it be tenable in your silence still;And whatsoever else shall hap tonight,Give it an understanding, but no tongue.I will requite your loves. So, fare ye well.Upon the platform ’twixt eleven and twelve,I’ll visit you.
ALL.Our duty to your honour.
HAMLET.Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
[Exeunt Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo.]
My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well;I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
[Exit.]
SCENE III. A room in Polonius’s house.
Enter Laertes and Ophelia.
LAERTES.My necessaries are embark’d. Farewell.And, sister, as the winds give benefitAnd convoy is assistant, do not sleep,But let me hear from you.
OPHELIA.Do you doubt that?
LAERTES.For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood;A violet in the youth of primy nature,Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting;The perfume and suppliance of a minute;No more.
OPHELIA.No more but so?
LAERTES.Think it no more.For nature crescent does not grow aloneIn thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,The inward service of the mind and soulGrows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirchThe virtue of his will; but you must fear,His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own;For he himself is subject to his birth:He may not, as unvalu’d persons do,Carve for himself; for on his choice dependsThe sanctity and health of this whole state;And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’dUnto the voice and yielding of that bodyWhereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,It fits your wisdom so far to believe itAs he in his particular act and placeMay give his saying deed; which is no furtherThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal.Then weigh what loss your honour may sustainIf with too credent ear you list his songs,Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure openTo his unmaster’d importunity.Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;And keep you in the rear of your affection,Out of the shot and danger of desire.The chariest maid is prodigal enoughIf she unmask her beauty to the moon.Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes:The canker galls the infants of the springToo oft before their buttons be disclos’d,And in the morn and liquid dew of youthContagious blastments are most imminent.Be wary then, best safety lies in fear.Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
OPHELIA.I shall th’effect of this good lesson keepAs watchman to my heart. But good my brother,Do not as some ungracious pastors do,Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;Whilst like a puff’d and reckless libertineHimself the primrose path of dalliance treads,And recks not his own rede.
LAERTES.O, fear me not.I stay too long. But here my father comes.
Enter Polonius.
A double blessing is a double grace;Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
POLONIUS.Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame.The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,And you are stay’d for. There, my blessing with you.
[Laying his hand on Laertes’s head.]
And these few precepts in thy memoryLook thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;But do not dull thy palm with entertainmentOf each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. BewareOf entrance to a quarrel; but being in,Bear’t that th’opposed may beware of thee.Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy:For the apparel oft proclaims the man;And they in France of the best rank and stationAre of a most select and generous chief in that.Neither a borrower nor a lender be:For loan oft loses both itself and friend;And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.This above all: to thine own self be true;And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell: my blessing season this in thee.
LAERTES.Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS.The time invites you; go, your servants tend.
LAERTES.Farewell, Ophelia, and remember wellWhat I have said to you.
OPHELIA.’Tis in my memory lock’d,And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES.Farewell.
[Exit.]
POLONIUS.What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
OPHELIA.So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
POLONIUS.Marry, well bethought:’Tis told me he hath very oft of lateGiven private time to you; and you yourselfHave of your audience been most free and bounteous.If it be so,—as so ’tis put on me,And that in way of caution,—I must tell youYou do not understand yourself so clearlyAs it behoves my daughter and your honour.What is between you? Give me up the truth.
OPHELIA.He hath, my lord, of late made many tendersOf his affection to me.
POLONIUS.Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl,Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
OPHELIA.I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS.Marry, I’ll teach you; think yourself a baby;That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay,Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;Or,—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,Roaming it thus,—you’ll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA.My lord, he hath importun’d me with loveIn honourable fashion.
POLONIUS.Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
OPHELIA.And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
POLONIUS.Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,When the blood burns, how prodigal the soulLends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,Even in their promise, as it is a-making,You must not take for fire. From this timeBe something scanter of your maiden presence;Set your entreatments at a higher rateThan a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,Believe so much in him that he is young;And with a larger tether may he walkThan may be given you. In few, Ophelia,Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,Not of that dye which their investments show,But mere implorators of unholy suits,Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,The better to beguile. This is for all.I would not, in plain terms, from this time forthHave you so slander any moment leisureAs to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.Look to’t, I charge you; come your ways.
OPHELIA.I shall obey, my lord.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. The platform.
Enter Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus.
HAMLET.The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
HORATIO.It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET.What hour now?
HORATIO.I think it lacks of twelve.
MARCELLUS.No, it is struck.
HORATIO.Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the seasonWherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off within.]
What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET.The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels;And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray outThe triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO.Is it a custom?
HAMLET.Ay marry is’t;And to my mind, though I am native here,And to the manner born, it is a customMore honour’d in the breach than the observance.This heavy-headed revel east and westMakes us traduc’d and tax’d of other nations:They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phraseSoil our addition; and indeed it takesFrom our achievements, though perform’d at height,The pith and marrow of our attribute.So oft it chances in particular menThat for some vicious mole of nature in them,As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,Since nature cannot choose his origin,By their o’ergrowth of some complexion,Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;Or by some habit, that too much o’erleavensThe form of plausive manners;—that these men,Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,Being Nature’s livery or Fortune’s star,—His virtues else,—be they as pure as grace,As infinite as man may undergo,Shall in the general censure take corruptionFrom that particular fault. The dram of evilDoth all the noble substance often doubtTo his own scandal.
HORATIO.Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter Ghost.
HAMLET.Angels and ministers of grace defend us!Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d,Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,Be thy intents wicked or charitable,Thou com’st in such a questionable shapeThat I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me!Let me not burst in ignorance; but tellWhy thy canoniz’d bones, hearsed in death,Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn’d,Hath op’d his ponderous and marble jawsTo cast thee up again! What may this mean,That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon,Making night hideous, and we fools of natureSo horridly to shake our dispositionWith thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
[Ghost beckons Hamlet.]
HORATIO.It beckons you to go away with it,As if it some impartment did desireTo you alone.
MARCELLUS.Look with what courteous actionIt waves you to a more removed ground.But do not go with it.
HORATIO.No, by no means.
HAMLET.It will not speak; then will I follow it.
HORATIO.Do not, my lord.
HAMLET.Why, what should be the fear?I do not set my life at a pin’s fee;And for my soul, what can it do to that,Being a thing immortal as itself?It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.
HORATIO.What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,Or to the dreadful summit of the cliffThat beetles o’er his base into the sea,And there assume some other horrible formWhich might deprive your sovereignty of reason,And draw you into madness? Think of it.The very place puts toys of desperation,Without more motive, into every brainThat looks so many fadoms to the seaAnd hears it roar beneath.
HAMLET.It waves me still.Go on, I’ll follow thee.
MARCELLUS.You shall not go, my lord.
HAMLET.Hold off your hands.
HORATIO.Be rul’d; you shall not go.
HAMLET.My fate cries out,And makes each petty artery in this bodyAs hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
[Ghost beckons.]
Still am I call’d. Unhand me, gentlemen.
[Breaking free from them.]
By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.I say, away!—Go on, I’ll follow thee.
[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.]
HORATIO.He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS.Let’s follow; ’tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO.Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS.Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO.Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS.Nay, let’s follow him.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. A more remote part of the Castle.
Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
HAMLET.Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.
GHOST.Mark me.
HAMLET.I will.
GHOST.My hour is almost come,When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flamesMust render up myself.
HAMLET.Alas, poor ghost!
GHOST.Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearingTo what I shall unfold.
HAMLET.Speak, I am bound to hear.
GHOST.So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
HAMLET.What?
GHOST.I am thy father’s spirit,Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,Till the foul crimes done in my days of natureAre burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbidTo tell the secrets of my prison-house,I could a tale unfold whose lightest wordWould harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood,Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,Thy knotted and combined locks to part,And each particular hair to stand on endLike quills upon the fretful porcupine.But this eternal blazon must not beTo ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
HAMLET.O God!
GHOST.Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET.Murder!
GHOST.Murder most foul, as in the best it is;But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
HAMLET.Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swiftAs meditation or the thoughts of loveMay sweep to my revenge.
GHOST.I find thee apt;And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weedThat rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of DenmarkIs by a forged process of my deathRankly abus’d; but know, thou noble youth,The serpent that did sting thy father’s lifeNow wears his crown.
HAMLET.O my prophetic soul!Mine uncle!
GHOST.Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,—O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the powerSo to seduce!—won to his shameful lustThe will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.O Hamlet, what a falling off was there,From me, whose love was of that dignityThat it went hand in hand even with the vowI made to her in marriage; and to declineUpon a wretch whose natural gifts were poorTo those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be mov’d,Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d,Will sate itself in a celestial bedAnd prey on garbage.But soft! methinks I scent the morning air;Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,My custom always of the afternoon,Upon my secure hour thy uncle stoleWith juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,And in the porches of my ears did pourThe leperous distilment, whose effectHolds such an enmity with blood of manThat swift as quicksilver it courses throughThe natural gates and alleys of the body;And with a sudden vigour it doth possetAnd curd, like eager droppings into milk,The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;And a most instant tetter bark’d about,Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crustAll my smooth body.Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand,Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatch’d:Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d;No reckoning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head.O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;Let not the royal bed of Denmark beA couch for luxury and damned incest.But howsoever thou pursu’st this act,Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contriveAgainst thy mother aught; leave her to heaven,And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.Adieu, adieu, adieu. Hamlet, remember me.
[Exit.]
HAMLET.O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, my heart;And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seatIn this distracted globe. Remember thee?Yea, from the table of my memoryI’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,That youth and observation copied there;And thy commandment all alone shall liveWithin the book and volume of my brain,Unmix’d with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!O most pernicious woman!O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!My tables. Meet it is I set it down,That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
[Writing.]
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me.’I have sworn’t.
HORATIO and MARCELLUS.[Within.] My lord, my lord.
MARCELLUS.[Within.] Lord Hamlet.
HORATIO.[Within.] Heaven secure him.
HAMLET.So be it!
MARCELLUS.[Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
HAMLET.Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.
Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
MARCELLUS.How is’t, my noble lord?
HORATIO.What news, my lord?
HAMLET.O, wonderful!
HORATIO.Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET.No, you’ll reveal it.
HORATIO.Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS.Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET.How say you then, would heart of man once think it?—But you’ll be secret?
HORATIO and MARCELLUS.Ay, by heaven, my lord.
HAMLET.There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all DenmarkBut he’s an arrant knave.
HORATIO.There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the graveTo tell us this.
HAMLET.Why, right; you are i’ the right;And so, without more circumstance at all,I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:You, as your business and desires shall point you,—For every man hath business and desire,Such as it is;—and for my own poor part,Look you, I’ll go pray.
HORATIO.These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET.I’m sorry they offend you, heartily;Yes faith, heartily.
HORATIO.There’s no offence, my lord.
HAMLET.Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,And much offence too. Touching this vision here,It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.For your desire to know what is between us,O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,Give me one poor request.
HORATIO.What is’t, my lord? We will.
HAMLET.Never make known what you have seen tonight.
HORATIO and MARCELLUS.My lord, we will not.
HAMLET.Nay, but swear’t.
HORATIO.In faith, my lord, not I.
MARCELLUS.Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET.Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS.We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET.Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
GHOST.[Cries under the stage.] Swear.
HAMLET.Ha, ha boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage.Consent to swear.
HORATIO.Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET.Never to speak of this that you have seen.Swear by my sword.
GHOST.[Beneath.] Swear.
HAMLET.Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.Come hither, gentlemen,And lay your hands again upon my sword.Never to speak of this that you have heard.Swear by my sword.
GHOST.[Beneath.] Swear.
HAMLET.Well said, old mole! Canst work i’ th’earth so fast?A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO.O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
HAMLET.And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come,Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself,—As I perchance hereafter shall think meetTo put an antic disposition on—That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,With arms encumber’d thus, or this head-shake,Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,As ‘Well, we know’, or ‘We could and if we would’,Or ‘If we list to speak’; or ‘There be and if they might’,Or such ambiguous giving out, to noteThat you know aught of me:—this not to do.So grace and mercy at your most need help you,Swear.
GHOST.[Beneath.] Swear.
HAMLET.Rest, rest, perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen,With all my love I do commend me to you;And what so poor a man as Hamlet isMay do t’express his love and friending to you,God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,That ever I was born to set it right.Nay, come, let’s go together.
[Exeunt.]
ACT II
SCENE I. A room in Polonius’s house.
SCENE II. A room in the Castle.
Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Attendants.
KING.Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Moreover that we much did long to see you,The need we have to use you did provokeOur hasty sending. Something have you heardOf Hamlet’s transformation; so I call it,Since nor th’exterior nor the inward manResembles that it was. What it should be,More than his father’s death, that thus hath put himSo much from th’understanding of himself,I cannot dream of. I entreat you bothThat, being of so young days brought up with him,And since so neighbour’d to his youth and humour,That you vouchsafe your rest here in our courtSome little time, so by your companiesTo draw him on to pleasures and to gather,So much as from occasion you may glean,Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thusThat, open’d, lies within our remedy.
QUEEN.Good gentlemen, he hath much talk’d of you,And sure I am, two men there are not livingTo whom he more adheres. If it will please youTo show us so much gentry and good willAs to expend your time with us awhile,For the supply and profit of our hope,Your visitation shall receive such thanksAs fits a king’s remembrance.
ROSENCRANTZ.Both your majestiesMight, by the sovereign power you have of us,Put your dread pleasures more into commandThan to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN.We both obey,And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,To lay our service freely at your feetTo be commanded.
KING.Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN.Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.And I beseech you instantly to visitMy too much changed son. Go, some of you,And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN.Heavens make our presence and our practicesPleasant and helpful to him.
QUEEN.Ay, amen.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and some Attendants.]
Enter Polonius.
POLONIUS.Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,Are joyfully return’d.
KING.Thou still hast been the father of good news.
POLONIUS.Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,Both to my God and to my gracious King:And I do think,—or else this brain of mineHunts not the trail of policy so sureAs it hath us’d to do—that I have foundThe very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
KING.O speak of that, that do I long to hear.
POLONIUS.Give first admittance to th’ambassadors;My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
KING.Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
[Exit Polonius.]
He tells me, my sweet queen, that he hath foundThe head and source of all your son’s distemper.
QUEEN.I doubt it is no other but the main,His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.
KING.Well, we shall sift him.
Enter Polonius with Voltemand and Cornelius.
Welcome, my good friends!Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLTEMAND.Most fair return of greetings and desires.Upon our first, he sent out to suppressHis nephew’s levies, which to him appear’dTo be a preparation ’gainst the Polack;But better look’d into, he truly foundIt was against your Highness; whereat griev’d,That so his sickness, age, and impotenceWas falsely borne in hand, sends out arrestsOn Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,Receives rebuke from Norway; and in fine,Makes vow before his uncle never moreTo give th’assay of arms against your Majesty.Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,And his commission to employ those soldiersSo levied as before, against the Polack:With an entreaty, herein further shown,[Gives a paper.]That it might please you to give quiet passThrough your dominions for this enterprise,On such regards of safety and allowanceAs therein are set down.
KING.It likes us well;And at our more consider’d time we’ll read,Answer, and think upon this business.Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour.Go to your rest, at night we’ll feast together:.Most welcome home.
[Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.]
POLONIUS.This business is well ended.My liege and madam, to expostulateWhat majesty should be, what duty is,Why day is day, night night, and time is time.Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.Mad call I it; for to define true madness,What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?But let that go.
QUEEN.More matter, with less art.
POLONIUS.Madam, I swear I use no art at all.That he is mad, ’tis true: ’tis true ’tis pity;And pity ’tis ’tis true. A foolish figure,But farewell it, for I will use no art.Mad let us grant him then. And now remainsThat we find out the cause of this effect,Or rather say, the cause of this defect,For this effect defective comes by cause.Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend,I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine—Who in her duty and obedience, mark,Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.[Reads.]To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia—That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; ‘beautified’ is a vilephrase: but you shall hear.[Reads.]these; in her excellent white bosom, these, &c.
QUEEN.Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS.Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.[Reads.]Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET.This in obedience hath my daughter show’d me;And more above, hath his solicitings,As they fell out by time, by means, and place,All given to mine ear.
KING.But how hath she receiv’d his love?
POLONIUS.What do you think of me?
KING.As of a man faithful and honourable.
POLONIUS.I would fain prove so. But what might you think,When I had seen this hot love on the wing,As I perceiv’d it, I must tell you that,Before my daughter told me, what might you,Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,If I had play’d the desk or table-book,Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,Or look’d upon this love with idle sight,What might you think? No, I went round to work,And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:‘Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.This must not be.’ And then I precepts gave her,That she should lock herself from his resort,Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,And he, repulsed,—a short tale to make—Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,Into the madness wherein now he raves,And all we wail for.
KING.Do you think ’tis this?
QUEEN.It may be, very likely.
POLONIUS.Hath there been such a time, I’d fain know that,That I have positively said ‘’Tis so,’When it prov’d otherwise?
KING.Not that I know.
POLONIUS.Take this from this, if this be otherwise.[Points to his head and shoulder.]If circumstances lead me, I will findWhere truth is hid, though it were hid indeedWithin the centre.
KING.How may we try it further?
POLONIUS.You know sometimes he walks four hours togetherHere in the lobby.
QUEEN.So he does indeed.
POLONIUS.At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.Be you and I behind an arras then,Mark the encounter. If he love her not,And be not from his reason fall’n thereon,Let me be no assistant for a state,But keep a farm and carters.
KING.We will try it.
Enter Hamlet, reading.
QUEEN.But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS.Away, I do beseech you, both awayI’ll board him presently. O, give me leave.
[Exeunt King, Queen and Attendants.]
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET.Well, God-a-mercy.
POLONIUS.Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET.Excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.
POLONIUS.Not I, my lord.
HAMLET.Then I would you were so honest a man.
POLONIUS.Honest, my lord?
HAMLET.Ay sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
POLONIUS.That’s very true, my lord.
HAMLET.For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion,—Have you a daughter?
POLONIUS.I have, my lord.
HAMLET.Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to’t.
POLONIUS.How say you by that? [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone. And truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET.Words, words, words.
POLONIUS.What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET.Between who?
POLONIUS.I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET.Slanders, sir. For the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down. For you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
POLONIUS.[Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET.Into my grave?
POLONIUS.Indeed, that is out o’ the air. [Aside.] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET.You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal, except my life, except my life, except my life.
POLONIUS.Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET.These tedious old fools.
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
POLONIUS.You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
ROSENCRANTZ.[To Polonius.] God save you, sir.
[Exit Polonius.]
GUILDENSTERN.My honoured lord!
ROSENCRANTZ.My most dear lord!
HAMLET.My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz. Good lads, how do ye both?
ROSENCRANTZ.As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN.Happy in that we are not over-happy;On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET.Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ.Neither, my lord.
HAMLET.Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?
GUILDENSTERN.Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET.In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet. What’s the news?
ROSENCRANTZ.None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest.
HAMLET.Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN.Prison, my lord?
HAMLET.Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ.Then is the world one.
HAMLET.A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst.
ROSENCRANTZ.We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET.Why, then ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ.Why, then your ambition makes it one; ’tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET.O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN.Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET.A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ.Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
HAMLET.Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch’d heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to th’ court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.We’ll wait upon you.
HAMLET.No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ.To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
HAMLET.Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you. And sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come; nay, speak.
GUILDENSTERN.What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET.Why, anything. But to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ.To what end, my lord?
HAMLET.That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no.
ROSENCRANTZ.[To Guildenstern.] What say you?
HAMLET.[Aside.] Nay, then I have an eye of you. If you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN.My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET.I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason? How infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable? In action how like an angel? In apprehension, how like a god? The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ.My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET.Why did you laugh then, when I said ‘Man delights not me’?
ROSENCRANTZ.
