The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (856 page)

It is offended.

BERNARDO

See, it’s going away!

See, it stalks away!

HORATIO

Wait, stay. Speak! I command you to speak!

Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Exit Ghost

MARCELLUS

It’s gone and would not say anything.

'Tis gone, and will not answer.

BERNARDO

What do you think now, Horatio? You look a little pale and scared. You think it’s more than some fantasy?

How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:Is not this something more than fantasy?What think you on't?

HORATIO

I swear, I never would have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

Before my God, I might not this believeWithout the sensible and true avouchOf mine own eyes.

MARCELLUS

Doesn’t it look like the king?

Is it not like the king?

HORATIO

I know that armor as well as I know myself. He wore it during the battle with Norway when he killed the Polacks on their sleds. So strange.

As thou art to thyself:Such was the very armour he had onWhen he the ambitious Norway combated;So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.'Tis strange.

MARCELLUS

This is the second time at this very hour that it has walked around like a soldier.

Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

HORATIO

I don’t know what this means, but I have a funny feeling something is going to happen in our country.

In what particular thought to work I know not;But in the gross and scope of my opinion,This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

MARCELLUS

Okay, let’s sit down and talk about what is going on. Why do we stand guard every night, and why are cannons being made? Why are we buying foreign weapons and ships are being built every day of the week. Do you think something is about to happen?

Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,Why this same strict and most observant watchSo 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 taskDoes not divide the Sunday from the week;What might be toward, that this sweaty hasteDoth make the night joint-labourer with the day:Who is't that can inform me?

HORATIO

I think I know. As you know, the king, we just saw in his ghostly form, was the enemy of Fortinbras, the king of Norway. Fortinbras dared the king to fight and was killed by the seemingly valiant Hamlet. According to a signed contract, Fortinbras forfeited his land, as well as his life, to his conqueror. Our king had signed a similar contract. Now, his son, the young Fortinbras, seeks revenge and the return of his father’s land. He has commissioned the help of some lawless men. I think that is the reason for the frenzy of activity, including our watch and the procurement of weapons.

That can I;At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,Whose image even but now appear'd to us,Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,Well ratified by law and heraldry,Did forfeit, with his life, all those his landsWhich he stood seized of, to the conqueror:Against the which, a moiety competentWas gaged by our king; which had return'dTo the inheritance of Fortinbras,Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,And carriage of the article design'd,His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,Of unimproved mettle hot and full,Hath in the skirts of Norway here and thereShark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,For food and diet, to some enterpriseThat hath a stomach in't; which is no other--As it doth well appear unto our state--But to recover of us, by strong handAnd terms compulsatory, those foresaid landsSo 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 headOf this post-haste and romage in the land.

BERNARDO

I think you’re right. That explains why the king, responsible for these wars, comes walking around in his armor on our watch.

I think it be no other but e'en so:Well may it sort that this portentous figureComes armed through our watch; so like the kingThat was and is the question of these wars.

HORATIO

There is definitely trouble brewing. Even in the great city of Rome, before the murder of Julius Caesar, the dead arose from their graves and walked the streets, speaking gibberish. There were other signs and omens, too, like shooting stars and solar eclipses. The fates are warning us. But wait! Here comes the ghost again! (Enter Ghost.) I’ll go to it, even though I don’t want to. Stay, ghost. If you can, speak to me. If there is anything I can do to ease your pain, tell me. Or, if you know something that would help our country, please speak. If you have some hidden treasure here on earth, which makes you uneasy, let us help you. (The cock crows.) Stay and speak! Stop the ghost, Marcellus.

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 deadDid squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,Disasters in the sun; and the moist starUpon whose influence Neptune's empire standsWas sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:And even the like precurse of fierce events,As harbingers preceding still the fatesAnd prologue to the omen coming on,Have heaven and earth together demonstratedUnto our climatures and countrymen.--But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

Re-enter Ghost

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:

Cock crows

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

Should I hit it with my sword?

Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

HORATIO

Yes, if it doesn’t stop.

Do, if it will not stand.

BERNARDO

It’s here!

'Tis here!

HORATIO

It’s here!

'Tis here!

MARCELLUS

It’s gone! (Exit Ghost.) We shouldn’t have used force on the ghost of the king. Anyway, it is an apparition and can’t be touched. We were stupid to think otherwise.

'Tis gone!

Exit Ghost

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.

BERNARDO

It was about to speak when the cock crowed.

It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

HORATIO

And then it started to act scared like someone guilty of a crime. I have heard when the cock crows, a sign that day is approaching, ghosts must return to where their spirits are confined. We just saw that for ourselves.

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,
The extravagant and erring spirit his
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

MARCELLUS

It also started to fade when the cock crowed. Some say, at Christmas, the rooster crows all night long, and ghosts, fairies, and witches are too fearful to work, because the time is so sacred.

It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

HORATIO

I have heard that, too, and partially believe it. But, the morning is near, and I think we should tell Hamlet what we have seen. The spirit does not know us, but I bet my life, he will speak to him. Do you agree we should tell Hamlet about the ghost?

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 to-night
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 it, and I know where he is this morning, a most convenient place.

Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most conveniently.

Exeunt

A room of state in the castle

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants

KING CLAUDIUS

Although we are still mourning our dear brother Hamlet’s death, and the country is joined by grief, we must remember to continue on in life. It is with both sadness and joy, that I have married my sister-in-law, as you all advised. For your wisdom, I thank you. Now, as you all know, the young Fortinbras thinks since the king has died, we are in vulnerable state. He has sent letters stating his desire to regain the land his father lost in battle to Hamlet. So, I have written a letter to his uncle, the poor bed-ridden fellow, to let him know what Fortinbras is planning. The letter asks his uncle, who in the head of Norway, to stop his nephew. I ask of you, Cornelius and Votimand, to deliver this letter and nothing else. Please be quick in fulfilling your duty.

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,The imperial jointress to this warlike state,Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--With an auspicious and a 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 the 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, Voltimand,For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;Giving to you no further personal powerTo business with the king, more than the scopeOf these delated articles allow.Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.