Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.

1st Scene

BARNARDO ; Who's there?

FRANCISCO ; Nay, answer me. Stand

and unfold yourself.

BARNARDO ; Long live the King!

FRANCISCO ; Barnardo?

BARNARDO ; He.

FRANCISCO ; You come most carefully

upon your hour.

BARNARDO ; 'Tis now struck twelve.

Get thee to bed,

Franciscoo.

FRANCISCO ; For this relief much

thanks. 'Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

BARNARDO ; Have you had quiet

guard?

FRANCISCO ; Not a mouse stirring.

BARNARDO ; Well, good night.

FRANCISCO ; If you do meet Horatio

and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch,

bid them make haste.

FRANCISCO ; I think I hear them.—

Stand ho! Who is there?

HERATIO ; Friends to this ground.

MARCELLUS ; And liegemen to the

Danee.

FRANCISCO ; Give you good night.

MARCELLUS ; O farewell, honest

(soldier). Who hath

relieved you?

FRANCISCO ; Barnardo hath my place.

Give you good night.

MARCELLUS ; Holla, Barnardo.

BARNARDO ; Say, what, is Horatio

there?

HORATIO ; A piece of him.

BARNARDO ; Welcome, Horatio.—

Welcome, good Marcellus.

HORATIO ; What, has this thing

appeared again tonight?

BARNARDO ; I have seen nothing.

MARCELLUS ; Horatio says 'tis but our

fantasy And will not let

belief take hold of him

Touching this dreaded

sight twice seen of us.

Therefore I have

entreated him along

With us to watch the

minutes of this night,

Thatt, if again this

apparition come, He may

approve our eyes and

speak to it.

HORATIO ; Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

BARNARDO ; 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 Barnardo speak of this.

BARNARDO ; Last night of all, When

yond same star that's

westward from the pole

Had made his course t'

illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns,

Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one.

MARCELLUS ; Peace, break thee off!

Look where it comes

again.

BARNARDO ; In the same figure like the

King that's dead.

( To Horatio)

MARCELLUS ; Thou art a scholar.

Speak to it, Horatio.

BARNARDO ; Looks he not like the

King? Mark it, Horatio.

HORATIO ; Most like. It harrows me

with fear and wonder.

BARNARDO ; It would be spoke to.

MARCELLUS ; Speak to it, Horatio.

HORATIO ; What art thou that usurp'st

this time of night, Together

with that fair and warlike

form In which the majesty of

buried Denmark Did

sometimes march? By

heaven, I charge thee, speak.

MARCELLUS ; It is offended.

BARNARDO ; See, it stalks away.

HORATIO ; Stay! speak! speak! I charge

theee, speak!

MARCELLUS ; 'Tis gone and will not

answer.

BARNARDO ; How now, Horatio, you

tremble and look pale.

Is not this something

more than fantasy?

What think you on 't?

HORATIO ; Before my God, I might not

this believe Without the

sensible and true avouch Of

minee 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. So

frowned he once when, in an

angryy parle, He smote the

sleddedd Polacks on the ice.

'Tis strange.

MARCELLUS ; Thus twice before, and

jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he

gonee by our watch.

HORATIO ; In what particular thought to

work I know not, But in the

gross and scope of mine

opinion This bodes some

strange eruption to our

state.

MARCELLUS ; Good now, sit down, and

tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and

most observant watch

So nightly toils the

subject of the land,

And why such daily cast

of brazen cannon And

foreign mart for

implements of war, Why

such impress of

shipwrights, whose sore

task Does not divide the

Sunday from the week.

What might be toward

that this sweaty haste

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, Dared

to the combat; in which our

valiant Hamlet (For so this

side of our known world

esteemed him) Did slay this

Fortinbras, who by a sealed

compact, Well ratified by

law and heraldry, Did forfeit,

with his life, all those his

lands Which he stood

seized of, to the conqueror.

Against the which a moiety

competent Was gagèd by

our king, which had returned

To the inheritance of

Fortinbras Had he been

vanquisher, as, by the same

comart

And carriage of the article

designed,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir,

young Fortinbras, Of

unimprovèd mettle hot and

full, Hath in the skirts of

Norway here and there

Sharked up a list of lawless

resolutes For food and diet

to some enterprise That

hath a stomach in 't; which

is no other (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 Of this posthaste

and rummage in the land.

BARNARDO ; I think it be no other but

e'en so. Well may it sort

that this portentous figure

Comes armèd through

our watch so like the king

That was and is the

question of these wars.

HORATIO ; A mote it is to trouble the

mind's eye. In the most high

and palmy state of Rome, A

little ere the mightiest Julius

fell, The graves stood

tenantless, and the sheeted

dead Did squeak and gibber

in the Roman streets; As

stars with trains of fire and

dews of blood, Disasters in

the sun; and the moist star,

Upon whose influence

Neptune's empire stands,

Wass sick almost to

doomsday with eclipse. And

even the like precurse of

feared events,

As harbingers preceding still

the fates

And prologue to the omen

coming on, Have heaven and

Earth together demonstrated

Unto our climatures and

countrymen.

But soft, behold! Lo, where it

comes again! I'll cross it

though it blast me.—Stay,

illusion! 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, Which happily foreknowing

may avoid, O, 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. Stay and speak!—Stop it,

Marcellus.

MARCELLUS ; Shall I strike it with my

partisan?

HORATIO ; Do, if it will not stand.

BARNARDO ; 'Tis here.

HORATIO ; 'Tis here.

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.

BARNARDO ; 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, 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 To his

confine, and of the truth

herein This present object

made probation.

MARCELLUS ; It faded on the crowing

of the cock. Some say

that ever 'gainst that

season comes 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, No fairy

takes, nor witch hath

power to charm, So

hallowed and so gracious

is that time.

HORATIO ; So have I heard and do in

part believe it. But look, the

morn in russet mantle clad

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 convenient.