Hamlet (6 page)

KING
    Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death

The memory be
green
²
, and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom

To be
contracted
⁴
in one brow of woe,

Yet so far hath
discretion
⁵
fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think on him

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Therefore our
sometime
⁸
sister, now our queen,

Th’imperial
jointress
⁹
of this warlike state,

Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy,

With
one auspicious and one 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
¹⁴

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Now follows
that you know
¹⁷
young Fortinbras,

Holding a weak
supposal
¹⁸
of our worth,

Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Colleaguèd
with the
dream of his advantage
²¹
,

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing
²³
the surrender of those lands

Lost 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 writ

To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras —

Who,
impotent
and
bedrid
²⁹
, scarcely hears

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

Out of his subject. And we here dispatch

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,

For bearing of this greeting to old Norway,

Giving to you no further personal power

To
³⁷
business with the king, more than the scope

Of these
dilated articles
³⁸
allow.

Gives a paper

Farewell, and let your
haste commend your duty
³⁹
.

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

KING
    We doubt it
nothing
⁴¹
: heartily farewell.—

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

You told us of some
suit
⁴³
: what is’t, Laertes?

You cannot speak of reason to the
Dane
⁴⁴

And
lose your voice
⁴⁵
: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking
⁴⁶
?

The head is not more
native
⁴⁷
to the heart,

The hand more
instrumental
⁴⁸
to the mouth,

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

LAERTES
    
Dread my lord
⁵¹
,

Your
leave and favour
⁵²
to return to France,

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 towards France

And
bow them
to your gracious
leave and pardon
⁵⁷
.

KING
    Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?

POLONIUS
    He hath, my lord:

I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

KING
    Take thy fair hour, Laertes: time be thine,

And thy best
graces
⁶²
spend it at thy will.—

But now, my
cousin
⁶³
Hamlet, and my son—

HAMLET
    
A little more than kin and less than
kind
⁶⁴
.

KING
    How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Aside?

HAMLET
    Not so, my lord:— I am too much i’th’sun.

GERTRUDE
    Good Hamlet, cast thy
nightly colour
⁶⁷
off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

Do not forever with thy
veilèd lids
⁶⁹

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

Thou know’st ’tis
common
⁷¹
, all that lives must die,

Passing through nature to eternity.

HAMLET
    Ay, madam, it is common.

GERTRUDE
    If it be,

Why seems it so
particular
⁷⁵
with thee?

HAMLET
    ‘Seems’, madam? Nay it is: I know not ‘seems’.

’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor
customary
⁷⁸
suits of solemn black,

Nor windy
suspiration
⁷⁹
of forced breath,

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,

Nor the dejected
’haviour of the visage
⁸¹
,

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

That can
denote
⁸³
me truly: these indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play,

But I have that within which
passeth
⁸⁵
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
⁹³
is a course

Of impious stubbornness: ’tis unmanly grief:

It shows a will most
incorrect
⁹⁵
to heaven,

A heart unfortified, a mind
impatient
⁹⁶
,

An understanding simple and unschooled.

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
¹⁰⁰
opposition

Take it to heart?
Fie
¹⁰¹
, ’tis a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

To reason most absurd, whose common theme

Is death of fathers, and who
still
¹⁰⁴
hath cried,

From the first corpse till he that died today,

‘This must be so.’ We pray you throw to earth

This
unprevailing
¹⁰⁷
woe, and think of us

As of a father; for let the world take note,

You are the
most immediate
¹⁰⁹
to our throne,

And with no less nobility of love

Than that which dearest father bears his son,

Do I impart towards you.
For
¹¹²
your intent

In going back to school in
Wittenberg
¹¹³
,

It is most
retrograde
¹¹⁴
to our desire,

And we beseech you
bend you
¹¹⁵
to remain

Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,

Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

GERTRUDE
    Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:

I prithee 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 unforced
accord
¹²³
of Hamlet

Sits smiling to my heart, in
grace whereof
¹²⁴
,

No
jocund health
that
Denmark
¹²⁵
drinks today

But the great cannon to the clouds shall
tell
¹²⁶
,

And the king’s
rouse
the heavens shall
bruit
¹²⁷
again,

Re-speaking
¹²⁸
earthly thunder. Come away.

HAMLET
    O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and
resolve
¹³⁰
itself into a dew!

Or that the
Everlasting
¹³¹
had not fixed

His
canon
¹³²
gainst self-slaughter! O God, O God!

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable

Seem to me all the
uses
¹³⁴
of this world!

Fie on’t! O, fie, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed: things
rank and gross
¹³⁶
in nature

Possess it
merely
¹³⁷
. That it should come to this!

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.

So excellent a king, that was
to
¹³⁹
this

Hyperion
to a
satyr
¹⁴⁰
, so loving to my mother

That he might not
beteem
¹⁴¹
the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,

Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By 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
¹⁴⁷
those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body,

Like
Niobe
¹⁴⁹
, all tears: why she, even she —

O, heaven! A beast that
wants discourse of reason
¹⁵⁰

Would have mourned longer — married with mine uncle,

My father’s brother but no more like my father

Than I to
Hercules
¹⁵³
. Within a month?

Ere yet the salt of most
unrighteous
¹⁵⁴
tears

Had left the
flushing
of her
gallèd
¹⁵⁵
eyes,

She married. O, most wicked speed, to
post
¹⁵⁶

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

HORATIO
    Hail to your lordship!

HAMLET
    I am glad to see you well:

Recognizes him

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
¹⁶⁴
.

And what
make you from
¹⁶⁵
Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus.

MARCELLUS
    My good lord.

To Barnardo

HAMLET
    I am very glad to see you.— Good
even
¹⁶⁷
, sir.—

To Horatio

But what in faith make you from Wittenberg?

HORATIO
    A
truant
¹⁶⁹
disposition, good my lord.

HAMLET
    I would not have your enemy say so,

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,

To make it truster of your own report

Against yourself: I know you are no truant.

But what is your affair in Elsinore?

We’ll teach you to drink deep
ere
¹⁷⁵
you depart.

HORATIO
    My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.

HAMLET
    I pray thee do not mock me, fellow student:

I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.

HORATIO
    Indeed, my lord, it followed
hard
¹⁷⁹
upon.

HAMLET
    
Thrift
, thrift, Horatio! The funeral
baked meats
¹⁸⁰

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my
dearest
¹⁸²
foe in heaven

Ere I had ever seen that day, Horatio.

My father, methinks I see my father.

HORATIO
    O, 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
¹⁹⁰
.

HAMLET
    Saw who?

HORATIO
    My lord, the king your father.

HAMLET
    The king my father?

HORATIO
    
Season your admiration
¹⁹⁴
for a while

With an
attent
ear till I may
deliver
¹⁹⁵
,

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

This marvel to you.

HAMLET
    For heaven’s love, let me hear.

HORATIO
    Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch,

In the dead
waste
²⁰¹
and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered. A figure like your father,

Armed
at all points
exactly,
cap-à-pie
²⁰³
,

Appears before them, and with solemn march

Goes
²⁰⁵
slow and stately: by them thrice he walked,

By their
oppressed and fear-surprisèd
²⁰⁶
eyes

Within his
truncheon
’s length, whilst they,
distilled
²⁰⁷

Almost to jelly with the
act
²⁰⁸
of fear

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me

In
dreadful
²¹⁰
secrecy impart they did,

And I with them the third night kept the watch,

Where, as they had delivered, 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
²¹⁵
.

HAMLET
    But where was this?

MARCELLUS
    My lord, upon the
platform
²¹⁷
where we watched.

HAMLET
    Did you not speak to it?

HORATIO
    My lord, I did;

But answer made it none. Yet once methought

It lifted up its head and did
address
²²¹

Itself 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 vanished from our sight.

HAMLET
    ’Tis very strange.

HORATIO
    As I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true;

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

HAMLET
    Indeed, indeed, sirs; but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch tonight?

MARCELLUS
AND
BARNARDO
    We do, my lord.

HAMLET
    Armed, say you?

MARCELLUS
AND
BARNARDO
    Armed, my lord.

HAMLET
    From top to toe?

MARCELLUS
AND
BARNARDO
    My lord, from head to foot.

HAMLET
    Then saw you not his face?

HORATIO
    O, yes, my lord, he wore his
beaver
²³⁸
up.

HAMLET
    What, looked he frowningly?

HORATIO
    A
countenance
²⁴⁰
more in sorrow than in anger.

HAMLET
    Pale or red?

HORATIO
    Nay, very pale.

HAMLET
    And fixed his eyes upon you?

HORATIO
    Most constantly.

HAMLET
    I would I had been there.

HORATIO
    It would have much amazed you.

HAMLET
    Very like, very like. Stayed it long?

HORATIO
    While one with moderate haste might
tell
²⁴⁸
a hundred.

MARCELLUS
AND
BARNARDO
    Longer, longer.

HORATIO
    Not when I saw’t.

HAMLET
    His beard was
grizzly
²⁵¹
, no?

HORATIO
    It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A
sable silvered
²⁵³
.

HAMLET
    I’ll watch tonight; perchance ’twill walk again.

HORATIO
    I
warrant
²⁵⁵
you it will.

HAMLET
    If it assume my noble father’s person,

I’ll speak to it though hell itself should gape

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,

If you have hitherto concealed this sight,

Let it be
tenable
in your silence
still
²⁶⁰
,

And whatsoever else shall hap tonight,

Give it an understanding but no tongue.

I will
requite
²⁶³
your loves. So, fare ye well:

Upon the platform ’twixt eleven and twelve

I’ll visit you.

ALL
    Our duty to your honour.