Hamlet (8 page)

HORATIO
    It beckons you to go away with it,

As if it some
impartment
⁴⁰
did desire

To you alone.

MARCELLUS
    Look, with what courteous action

It
wafts
⁴³
you to a more removèd 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
⁴⁹
;

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
⁵³
, my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff

That
beetles o’er
⁵⁵
his base into the sea,

And there assumes some other horrible form

Which might
deprive your sovereignty of reason
⁵⁷

And draw you into madness? Think of it.

HAMLET
    It wafts me still.— Go on, I’ll follow thee.

MARCELLUS
    You shall not go, my lord.

Holds him back

HAMLET
    Hold off your hand.

HORATIO
    Be ruled: you shall not go.

HAMLET
    My fate cries out,

And makes each petty
artery
⁶⁴
in this body

As hardy as the
Nemean lion
’s
nerve
⁶⁵
.—

Still am I called?— Unhand me, gentlemen.

By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that
lets
⁶⁷
me!

I say, away!— Go on, I’ll follow thee.

HORATIO
    He
waxes
⁶⁹
desperate with imagination.

MARCELLUS
    Let’s follow; ’tis not fit thus to obey him.

HORATIO
    
Have after.
To what
issue
⁷¹
will this come?

MARCELLUS
    Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

HORATIO
    Heaven will direct
it
⁷³
.

MARCELLUS
    Nay, let’s follow him.

HAMLET
    Where wilt thou lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further.

GHOST
    
Mark
²
me.

HAMLET
    I will.

GHOST
    My hour is almost come,

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

HAMLET
    Alas, poor ghost!

GHOST
    Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

To what I shall
unfold
⁹
.

HAMLET
    Speak: I am
bound
¹⁰
to hear.

GHOST
    So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

HAMLET
    What?

GHOST
    I am thy father’s spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purged away.
But
¹⁷
that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would
harrow up
²⁰
thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes
like stars start from their spheres
²¹
,

Thy
knotty and combinèd locks
²²
to part

And each particular hair to stand on end

Like quills upon the fretful
porpentine
²⁴
.

But this
eternal blazon
²⁵
must not be

To ears of flesh and blood.
List
²⁶
, Hamlet, O, list!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love—

HAMLET
    O heaven!

GHOST
    Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET
    Murder?

GHOST
    Murder most foul, as
in the best
³¹
it is,

But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET
    Haste, haste me to know it, that I with wings as swift

As
meditation
³⁴
or the thoughts of love

May
sweep
³⁵
to my revenge.

GHOST
    I find thee
apt
³⁶
,

And
duller shouldst thou be
³⁷
than the fat weed

That roots itself in ease on
Lethe wharf
³⁸
,

Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:

It’s given out that, sleeping in mine
orchard
⁴⁰
,

A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a
forgèd process
⁴²
of my death

Rankly
⁴³
abused. But know thou, noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown.

HAMLET
    O, my prophetic soul! Mine uncle!

GHOST
    Ay, that incestuous, that
adulterate
⁴⁷
beast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous
gifts
⁴⁸
—

O, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce! — won to his shameful lust

The
will
⁵¹
of my most seeming-virtuous queen.

O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!

From me, whose love was of that
dignity
⁵³

That it went hand in hand even with the vow

I made to her in marriage, and to
decline
⁵⁵

Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

To those of mine!

But
virtue, as it
⁵⁸
never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

Will
sate itself
⁶¹
in a celestial bed,

And prey on
garbage
⁶²
.

But, soft, methinks I scent the morning’s air;

Brief let me be. Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always in the afternoon,

Upon my
secure
⁶⁶
hour thy uncle stole,

With juice of cursèd
hebenon
⁶⁷
in a vial,

And in the porches of mine ears did pour

The
leperous distilment
⁶⁹
, whose effect

Holds such an enmity with blood of man

That swift as
quicksilver
⁷¹
it courses through

The natural gates and alleys of the body,

And with a sudden vigour it doth
posset
⁷³

And curd
, like
eager
⁷⁴
droppings into milk,

The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine,

And a most instant
tetter
barked about
⁷⁶
,

Most
lazar-like
⁷⁷
, with vile and loathsome crust,

All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand

Of life, of crown and queen, at once
dispatched
⁸⁰
:

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled
⁸²
,

No
reckoning
made, but sent to my
account
⁸³

With all my imperfections on my head.

O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!

If thou hast
nature
⁸⁶
in thee, bear it not;

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for
luxury
⁸⁸
and damnèd incest.

But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,

Taint
⁹⁰
not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive

Against thy mother
aught
⁹¹
; 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
⁹⁴
to be near,

And
’gins
to pale his
uneffectual
⁹⁵
fire.

Adieu, adieu, Hamlet: remember me.

HAMLET
    O all you
host
⁹⁷
of heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I
couple
⁹⁸
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 seat

In this
distracted
globe
¹⁰²
. Remember thee?

Yea, from the
table
¹⁰³
of my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial
fond
records
¹⁰⁴
,

All
saws
of books, all forms, all
pressures
¹⁰⁵
past

That youth and observation copied there;

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

Unmixed with baser matter: yes, yes, by heaven!

O most
pernicious
¹¹⁰
woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!

My tables,

My tables:
meet
¹¹³
it is I set it down

That one may smile and smile and be a villain;

At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my
word
¹¹⁶
:

It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me.’

I have sworn’t.

Within

HORATIO
AND
MARCELLUS
    My lord, my lord!

MARCELLUS
    Lord Hamlet!

HORATIO
    Heaven secure him.

HAMLET
    So be it.

HORATIO
    Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!

HAMLET
    
Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come
¹²⁴
.

MARCELLUS
    
How is’t
¹²⁵
, my noble lord?

HORATIO
    What news, my lord?

HAMLET
    O,
wonderful
¹²⁷
!

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
¹³²
think it?

But you’ll be secret?

BOTH
    Ay, by heaven, my lord.

HAMLET
    There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark

But he’s an
arrant
¹³⁶
knave.

HORATIO
    There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave

To tell us this.

HAMLET
    Why, right, you are i’th’right;

And so, without more
circumstance
¹⁴⁰
at all,

I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:

You,
as
¹⁴²
your business and desires shall point you,

For every man has business and desire,

Such as it is: and for mine 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
¹⁵⁰
, but there is, Horatio,

And much offence too. Touching this vision here,

It is an
honest
¹⁵²
ghost, that let me tell you:

For your desire to know what is between us,

O’ermaster’t
¹⁵⁴
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.

BOTH
    My lord, we will not.

HAMLET
    Nay, but swear’t.

HORATIO
    In faith, my lord,
not I
¹⁶¹
.

MARCELLUS
    Nor I, my lord, in faith.

HAMLET
    Upon my
sword
¹⁶³
.

Holds out his sword

MARCELLUS
    We have sworn, my lord, already.

HAMLET
    Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.

GHOST
    Swear.