{"id":202,"date":"2019-06-03T12:06:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T12:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/hamlet-act-1\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T19:22:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T19:22:27","slug":"hamlet-act-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/hamlet-act-1\/","title":{"raw":"Hamlet: Act 1","rendered":"Hamlet: Act 1"},"content":{"raw":"Hamlet<\/em> (Modern, Editor\u2019s Version). Internet Shakespeare Editions<\/a>. University of Victoria. Editor: David Bevington. Adapted by James Sexton.\n

Scene 1<\/h1>\nEnter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.<\/em>\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nWho's there?\n\n5<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>\nNay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.[footnote]Identify who you are.[\/footnote]\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nLong live the King!\n\nFrancisco<\/strong>\nBarnardo?\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nHe.\n\n10<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>\nYou come most carefully upon your hour.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\n'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.\n\nFrancisco<\/strong>\nFor this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold,\nAnd I am sick at heart.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nHave you had quiet guard?\n\n15<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>\nNot a mouse stirring.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nWell, good night.\nIf you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,\nThe rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.\nEnter Horatio and Marcellus.<\/em>\n\nFrancisco<\/strong>\nI think I hear them.--Stand, ho! Who is there?\n\n20<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nFriends to this ground.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nAnd liegemen to the Dane.[footnote]Subjects of the Danish king.[\/footnote]\n\nFrancisco<\/strong>\nGive you good night.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nOh, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?\n\nFrancisco<\/strong>\nBarnardo hath my place. Give you good night.\n25<\/sub>Exit Francisco.<\/em>\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nHolla, Barnardo!\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nSay, what, is Horatio there?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nA piece of him.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nWelcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.\n\n30<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nWhat, has this thing appeared again tonight?\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nI have seen nothing.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nHoratio says 'tis but our fantasy,[footnote]Fantastic imaginings.[\/footnote]\nAnd will not let belief take hold of him,\nTouching[footnote]Regarding, concerning.[\/footnote] this dreaded sight twice seen of us.\n35<\/sub>Therefore I have entreated him along\nWith us[footnote]To come along with us.[\/footnote] to watch the minutes of this night,[footnote]To keep watch with us tonight.[\/footnote]\nThat if again this apparition come\nHe may approve[footnote]Confirm, corroborate.[\/footnote] our eyes and speak to it.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nTush, tush, 'twill not appear.\n\n40<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>\nSit down awhile,\nAnd let us once again assail your ears,\nThat are so fortified against our story,\nWhat we two nights have seen.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nWell, sit we down,\n45<\/sub>And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nLast night of all,[footnote]In the night just before the present one.[\/footnote]\nWhen yond same star that's westward from the pole[footnote]Probably Arcturus, a bright star just to the west of the Big Dipper and the pole star or Polaris that is directly north in the night sky.[\/footnote]\nHad made his course t'illume[footnote]To illuminate.[\/footnote] that part of heaven\nWhere now it burns, Marcellus and myself,\n50<\/sub>The bell then beating one--\nEnter the Ghost.<\/em>\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nPeace, break thee off! Look where it comes again!\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nIn the same figure like the King that's dead.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nThou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.\n\n55<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>\nLooks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMost like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nIt would be spoke to.[footnote]According to a widely held belief, ghosts could not speak until spoken to.[\/footnote]\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nQuestion it, Horatio.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nWhat art thou that usurp'st[footnote]You who wrongfully assert your authority over.[\/footnote] this time of night,\n60<\/sub>Together with that fair and warlike form\nIn which the majesty of buried Denmark[footnote]The buried former King of Denmark, Hamlet's dead father.[\/footnote]\nDid sometimes[footnote]Formerly.[\/footnote] march? By heaven, I charge thee speak!\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nIt is offended.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nSee, it stalks away.\n\n65<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nStay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak!\nExit the Ghost.<\/em>\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\n'Tis gone, and will not answer.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nHow now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale.\nIs not this something more than fantasy?\n70<\/sub>What think you on't?[footnote]Of it.[\/footnote]\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nBefore my God, I might not this believe\nWithout the sensible[footnote]Evident to the senses (especially sight).[\/footnote] and true avouch[footnote]Authority, confirmation.[\/footnote]\nOf mine own eyes.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nIs it not like the King?\n\n75<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nAs thou art to thyself.\nSuch was the very armor he had on\nWhen he the ambitious Norway[footnote]King of Norway.[\/footnote] combated.\nSo frowned he once, when in an angry parle[footnote]Parley, conference with the enemy.[\/footnote]\nHe smote the sledded Polacks[footnote]Poles traveling on sleds.[\/footnote] on the ice.\n80<\/sub>'Tis strange.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nThus twice before, and jump[footnote]Precisely.[\/footnote] at this dead hour,\nWith martial stalk[footnote]Stride.[\/footnote] hath he gone by our watch.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIn what particular thought to work[footnote]To organize my thoughts.[\/footnote] I know not,\nBut in the gross and scope of mine opinion[footnote]In my opinion, as I consider the whole topic.[\/footnote]\n85<\/sub>This bodes[footnote]Foretells.[\/footnote] some strange eruption to our state.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nGood now,[footnote]i.e., I implore you all.[\/footnote] sit down, and tell me, he that knows,\nWhy this same strict and most observant watch\nSo nightly toils the subject[footnote]Imposes toil on the subjects, the citizens.[\/footnote] of the land,\nAnd why such daily cast[footnote]Casting.[\/footnote] of brazen[footnote]Brass.[\/footnote] cannon\n90<\/sub>And foreign mart[footnote]Shopping abroad.[\/footnote] for implements of war,\nWhy such impress[footnote]Impressment, conscription.[\/footnote] of shipwrights, whose sore task\nDoes not divide the Sunday from the week:[footnote]i.e., Requires them to work on Sunday just like every other day of the week.[\/footnote]\nWhat might be toward,[footnote]About to happen.[\/footnote] that this sweaty haste\nDoth make the night joint-laborer with the day?[footnote]i.e., Demands that work continue all twenty-four hours.[\/footnote]\n95<\/sub>Who is't that can inform me?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nThat can I.\nAt least the whisper goes so: our last King,\nWhose image even but now appeared to us,\nWas as you know by Fortinbras of Norway,[footnote]Old Fortinbras, King of Norway (with whom old Hamlet fought as described in lines 64-5 TLN 76-7) above; not young Fortinbras, nephew of this present king.[\/footnote] by a most emulate[footnote]Competitive, rivalrous.[\/footnote] pride,\nDared to the combat;[footnote]Challenged to fight, one on one.[\/footnote] in which our valiant Hamlet--\nFor so this side of our known world[footnote]i.e., all of Western Europe.[\/footnote] esteemed him--\nDid slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed[footnote]Confirmed by an official seal.[\/footnote] compact\nWell ratified by law and heraldry[footnote]The laws and pageant customs of chivalry.[\/footnote]\n105<\/sub>Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands\nWhich he stood seized of,[footnote]Possessed of.[\/footnote] to the conqueror;\nAgainst the which a moiety competent\nWas gag\u00e8d by our King,[footnote]In return for which a comparable portion of land was pledged by our King of Denmark.[\/footnote] which had returned[footnote]Which was to have been assigned.[\/footnote]\nTo the inheritance of Fortinbras\n110<\/sub>Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same cov'nant[footnote]Contractual agreement.[\/footnote]\nAnd carriage of the article design[ed][footnote]And intent of the contact in question.[\/footnote]\nHis fell to Hamlet.[footnote]Old Fortinbras's lands would have been transferred to old Hamlet.[\/footnote] Now, sir, young Fortinbras,\nOf unimprov\u00e8d mettle hot and full,[footnote]Full of untested fiery spirits.[\/footnote]\nHath in the skirts[footnote]Outskirts.[\/footnote] of Norway here and there\n115<\/sub>Sharked up a list of landless resolutes[footnote]Rounded up a troop of restlessly ambitious younger sons and other gentry without landed title.[\/footnote]\nFor food and diet to some enterprise\nThat hath a stomach in't,[footnote]To feed and supply a bold enterprise demanding appetite and raw courage for such a venture.[\/footnote] which is no other,\nAs it doth well appear unto our state,\nBut to recover of us[footnote]From us.[\/footnote] by strong hand\n120<\/sub>And terms compulsative those foresaid lands\nSo by his father[footnote]The old King of Norway, now dead, brother of the present Fortinbras of Norway.[\/footnote] lost. And this, I take it,\nIs the main motive of our preparations,\nThe source[footnote]Motivation.[\/footnote] of this our watch, and the chief head\nOf this post-haste and rummage[footnote]Frenetic activity and bustle.[\/footnote] in the land.\n\n124.1<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>\nI think it be no other but e'en so.\nWell may it sort that[footnote]That could well explain why.[\/footnote] this portentous figure\nComes arm\u00e8d through our watch so like the King\nThat was and is the question of these wars.\n\n124.5<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nA mote[footnote]Speck of dust.[\/footnote] it is to trouble the mind's eye.\nIn the most high and palmy[footnote]Flourishing, prosperous.[\/footnote] state of Rome,\nA little ere[footnote]Before.[\/footnote] the mightiest Julius[footnote]Julius Caesar. Caesar's assassination in Rome on March 15, 44 BC, is dramatized in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar<\/em>, where the event is heralded by many of the same prodigious omens cited in these lines.[\/footnote] fell,\nThe graves stood tenantless,[footnote]Unoccupied.[\/footnote] and the sheeted[footnote]Shrouded in grave-clothes.[\/footnote] dead\nDid squeak and gibber in the Roman streets,\n124.10<\/sub>As[footnote]Just as, like.[\/footnote] stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,[footnote]Comets and their trails drizzling blood.[\/footnote]\nDisasters[footnote]Unfavorable astrological signs or aspects.[\/footnote] in the sun; and the moist star,[footnote]i.e., the moon, governess of tides.[\/footnote]\nUpon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,[footnote]The sea depends. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.[\/footnote]\nWas sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.[footnote]The moon in eclipse was a foreboding sign of the day of Judgment and second coming of Christ predicted in Matthew 24.29 and Revelation 6.12.[\/footnote]\nAnd even the like precurse of feared events,\n124.15<\/sub>As harbingers preceding still the fates\nAnd prologue to the omen coming on,\nHave heaven and earth together demonstrated\nUnto our climatures and countrymen.[footnote]And no less fearful predictions of frightening happenings, serving as prognosticators and prologues incessantly preceding the calamitous events that are fated to come, are the means by which heaven and earth together make manifest to our regions and peoples what they can expect.[\/footnote]\n125<\/sub>Enter Ghost again.<\/em>\nBut soft,[footnote]i.e., gently, wait, hold on.[\/footnote] behold, lo, where it comes again!\nI'll cross it[footnote]Stand in its way, confront it; also, hold up a Christian cross in front of it (as Horatio may do here).[\/footnote] though it blast me.[footnote]Strike or wither me with a curse.[\/footnote]--Stay, illusion!\nIt spreads his arms.<\/em>\nIf thou hast any sound or use of voice,\nSpeak to me!\n130<\/sub>If there be any good thing to be done\nThat may to thee do ease and grace to me,\nSpeak to me!\nIf thou art privy to[footnote]Are possessed with secret knowledge of.[\/footnote] thy country's fate,\nWhich happily[footnote]Haply, perchance.[\/footnote] foreknowing may avoid,\nOh, speak!\nOr if thou hast uphoarded in thy life\nExtorted treasure in the womb of earth,\n135<\/sub>For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,\nSpeak of it. Stay and speak!\nThe cock crows.<\/em>\nStop it, Marcellus!\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nShall I strike at it with my partisan[footnote]Long-handled, broad-bladed spear.[\/footnote]?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nDo, if it will not stand.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\n'Tis here.\n\n140<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\n'Tis here.\nExit Ghost.<\/em>\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\n'Tis gone.\nWe do it wrong, being so majestical,\nTo offer it the show of violence,\nFor it is as the air, invulnerable,\n145<\/sub>And our vain blows malicious mockery.\n\nBarnardo<\/strong>\nIt was about to speak when the cock crew.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nAnd then it started[footnote]Moved suddenly and violently.[\/footnote] like a guilty thing\nUpon a fearful summons. I have heard\nThe cock, that is the trumpet[footnote]Trumpeter, herald.[\/footnote] to the morn,\n150<\/sub>Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat\nAwake the god of day, and, at his warning,\nWhether in sea or fire, in earth or air,\nTh'extravagant and erring[footnote]Wandering, unrestrained.[\/footnote] spirit hies[footnote]Hastens.[\/footnote]\nTo his confine; and of the truth herein\n155<\/sub>This present object made probation.[footnote]Proof.[\/footnote]\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nIt faded on the crowing of the cock.\nSome say that ever 'gainst[footnote]Just before.[\/footnote] that season comes\nWherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,\nThe bird of dawning[footnote]The rooster.[\/footnote] singeth all night long,\n160<\/sub>And then they say no spirit can walk abroad;\nThe nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,[footnote]No planets exert their baleful influence.[\/footnote]\nNo fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,[footnote]Cast a spell, enchant.[\/footnote]\nSo hallowed and so gracious[footnote]Suffused with divine grace.[\/footnote] is that time.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nSo have I heard and do in part believe it.\n165<\/sub>But look, the morn in russet[footnote]Reddish brown.[\/footnote] mantle clad\nWalks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.\nBreak we our watch up, and by my advice\nLet us impart what we have seen tonight\nUnto young Hamlet, for, upon my life,\n170<\/sub>This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.\nDo you consent we shall acquaint him with it\nAs needful in our loves, fitting our duty?\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nLet's do 't, I pray, and I this morning know\nWhere we shall find him most conveniently.\nExeunt.<\/em>\n

Scene 2<\/h1>\nFlourish.<\/em>[footnote]A trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of royalty, etc.[\/footnote] Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his sister Ophelia, Lords attendant [including Voltemand and Cornelius].<\/em>\n\nKing<\/strong>\nThough yet of Hamlet our[footnote]The royal \"we,\" seen also in lines 2, 3, 6, 7 (ourselves).[\/footnote] dear brother's death\n180<\/sub>The memory be green, and that it us befitted\nTo bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom\nTo be contracted in one brow of woe,\nYet so far hath discretion fought with nature\nThat we with wisest sorrow think on him\n185<\/sub>Together with remembrance of ourselves.\nTherefore our sometime[footnote]Former[\/footnote] sister, now our queen,\nTh'imperial jointress[footnote]Joint possessor of the throne.[\/footnote] of this warlike state,\nHave we as 'twere with a defeated joy,\nWith one auspicious and one dropping eye,[footnote]With one eye smiling and the other tear-stained and lowered in grief.[\/footnote]\n190<\/sub>With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,\nIn equal scale weighing delight and dole,[footnote]Sorrow.[\/footnote]\nTaken to wife. Nor have we herein barred\nYour better wisdoms,[footnote]The sage advice of you elders and statesmen (like Polonius).[\/footnote] which have freely gone\nWith this affair along.[footnote]Have freely given consent to this marriage.[\/footnote] For all, our thanks.\n195<\/sub>Now follows that you know: young Fortinbras,\nHolding a weak supposal of our worth,\nOr thinking by our late[footnote]Recent.[\/footnote] dear brother's death\nOur state to be disjoint and out of frame,[footnote]Totally disordered.[\/footnote]\nCo-leagu\u00e8d with this dream of his advantage,[footnote]Combined with this illusory dream of his having us at a disadvantage.[\/footnote]\n200<\/sub>He hath not failed to pester us with message\nImporting[footnote]Concerning, signifying.[\/footnote] the surrender of those lands\nLost by his father, with all bonds of law,\nTo our most valiant brother. So much for him.\n205<\/sub>Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting,\nThus much the business is: we have here writ\nTo Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,\nWho, impotent and bed-rid,[footnote]Wasted by disease and confined to bed.[\/footnote] scarcely hears\nOf this his nephew's purpose, to suppress\n210<\/sub>His further gait herein, in that the levies,\nThe lists, and full proportions are all made\nOut of his subject;[footnote]i.e., insisting that the Norwegian king put an end to Fortinbras's proceeding any further in this business, since the raising of troops and supplies is all made up out of the King of Norway's subjects (and are therefore at his disposal for military purposes, not young Fortinbras's). (\"The lists\" means \"The roster of the troops levied.\")[\/footnote] and we here dispatch\nYou, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,\nFor bearers[footnote]To serve as bearers.[\/footnote] of this greeting to old Norway,\n215<\/sub>Giving to you no further personal power\nTo business with the King more than the scope\nOf these dilated[footnote]Expanded, set out at length.[\/footnote] articles allow.\nFarewell, and let your haste commend your duty.[footnote]Let your swift carrying out of my command give testimony of your dutiful obedience.[\/footnote]\n\nCornelius and Voltemand<\/strong>\nIn that and all things will we show our duty.\n\n220<\/sub>King<\/strong>\nWe doubt it nothing.[footnote]Not in the slightest.[\/footnote] Heartily farewell.\nExeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.<\/em>\nAnd now, Laertes, what's the news with you?\nYou told us of some suit. What is't, Laertes?\nYou cannot speak of reason to the Dane[footnote]The Danish king.[\/footnote]\n225<\/sub>And lose your voice.[footnote]Waste your speech.[\/footnote] What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,\nThat shall not be my offer, not thy asking?[footnote]i.e., That I will offer almost before you ask.[\/footnote]\nThe head is not more native[footnote]Closely related.[\/footnote] to the heart,\nThe hand more instrumental to the mouth,[footnote]Useful in carrying out what is verbally commanded.[\/footnote]\nThan is the throne of Denmark to thy father.\n230<\/sub>What wouldst thou have, Laertes?\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nDread my lord,[footnote]My awe-inspiring lord and master.[\/footnote]\nYour leave and favor[footnote]Gracious permission.[\/footnote] to return to France,\nFrom whence though willingly I came to Denmark\nTo show my duty in your coronation,\n235<\/sub>Yet now I must confess, that duty done,\nMy thoughts and wishes bend again toward France\nAnd bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.[footnote]And submissively ask your gracious permission and forgiveness for my having asked such a favor.[\/footnote]\n\nKing<\/strong>\nHave you your father's leave? What says Polonius?\n\n240<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nH'ath,[footnote]He has.[\/footnote] my lord, wrung from me my slow leave\n240.1<\/sub>By laborsome petition, and at last\nUpon his will I sealed my hard consent.[footnote]I gave my reluctant consent, as though affixing a seal to a document of approval.[\/footnote]\nI do beseech you, give him leave to go.\n\nKing<\/strong>\nTake thy fair hour,[footnote]Seize your opportunity while there is still time, while you are young.[\/footnote] Laertes. Time be thine,\nAnd thy best graces spend it at thy will.[footnote]And may you spend your time guided by your best qualities and inclinations.[\/footnote]\nBut now, my cousin[footnote]Anyone related by blood or kinship but not of the immediate family.[\/footnote] Hamlet, and my son--\n\n245<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nA little more than kin, and less than kind.[footnote]i.e., Involved in a family relationship that is at once too close and yet lacking in loving affection. \"Kind\" puns on the ideas of (1) blood relationship and (2) kindly feeling.[\/footnote]\n\nKing<\/strong>\nHow is it that the clouds still hang on you?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nNot so, my lord, I am too much i'th' sun.[footnote]i.e., (1) too closely related as step-son to Claudius (2) too much in the sunshine of royal favor.[\/footnote]\n\nQueen<\/strong>\nGood Hamlet, cast thy nighted color[footnote](1) dark mourning garments (2) melancholy.[\/footnote] off\nAnd let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.[footnote]The King of Denmark.[\/footnote]\n250<\/sub>Do not forever with thy vail\u00e8d lids[footnote]Lowered eyelids.[\/footnote]\nSeek for thy noble father in the dust.\nThou know'st 'tis common:[footnote](1) a common occurrence (2) as Hamlet uses the term in line 74, \"vulgar, disgusting.\"[\/footnote] all that lives must die,\nPassing through nature to eternity.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAy, madam, it is common.\n\n255<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>\nIf it be,\nWhy seems it so particular[footnote]Personal.[\/footnote] with thee?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n\"Seems,\" madam? Nay, it is, I know not \"seems.\"\n'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,\nNor customary suits of solemn black,\n260<\/sub>Nor windy suspiration[footnote]Sighing.[\/footnote] of forced breath,\nNo, nor the fruitful river[footnote]Abundance of tears.[\/footnote] in the eye,\nNor the dejected havior[footnote]Expression.[\/footnote] of the visage,\nTogether with all forms, moods,[footnote]Outward manifestations of feeling.[\/footnote] shapes of grief\nThat can denote me truly. These indeed seem,\n265<\/sub>For they are actions that a man might play.\nBut I have that within which passeth show;\nThese but the trappings[footnote]Outward decorative signs.[\/footnote] and the suits of woe.\n\nKing<\/strong>\n'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,\n270<\/sub>To give these mourning duties to your father.\nBut you must know your father lost a father;\nThat father lost,[footnote]That father who is now dead.[\/footnote] lost his, and the survivor bound\nIn filial obligation for some term\nTo do obsequious[footnote]Appropriate to obsequies or funerals.[\/footnote] sorrow; but to persever\n275<\/sub>In obstinate condolement is a course\nOf impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief.\nIt shows a will most incorrect to heaven,\nA heart unfortified, a mind impatient,\nAn understanding simple and unschooled;\n280<\/sub>For what we know must be and is as common\nAs any the most vulgar thing to sense,[footnote]For since everything that happens to us must be as common as the most ordinary experience.[\/footnote]\nWhy should we in our peevish opposition\nTake it to heart? Fie, 'tis a fault to heaven,\nA fault against the dead, a fault to nature,\n285<\/sub>To reason most absurd, whose common theme\nIs death of fathers, and who still[footnote]Continually, always.[\/footnote] hath cried\nFrom the first corpse[footnote]The body of the first human ever to have died, Abel. The murder of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain, depicted in Genesis 4, is the first recorded death in the Bible after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden for their having disobeyed God.[\/footnote] till he that died today\n\"This must be so.\" We pray you throw to earth\nThis unprevailing[footnote]Profitless.[\/footnote] woe, and think of us\n290<\/sub>As of a father; for let the world take note\nYou are the most immediate[footnote]Next in succession.[\/footnote] to our throne,\nAnd with no less nobility of love\nThan that which dearest father bears his son\nDo I impart toward you. For[footnote]As for.[\/footnote] your intent\n295<\/sub>In going back to school in Wittenberg,[footnote]The German city on the River Elbe, home to the famous university where in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirke, in what is conventionally regarded as the opening salvo of the Protestant Reformation.[\/footnote]\nIt is most retrograde[footnote]Contrary.[\/footnote] to our desire,\nAnd we beseech you bend you[footnote]Yield to our wishes.[\/footnote] to remain\nHere in the cheer and comfort of our eye,\nOur chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.\n\n300<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>\nLet not thy mother lose her prayers,[footnote]Fail to achieve the thing she prays for.[\/footnote] Hamlet.\nI pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI shall in all my best obey you, madam.[footnote]To the best of my ability. Hamlet pointedly replies to his mother, not to the King. He uses the formal \"you\" rather than \"thee,\" as was appropriate in addressing a parent.[\/footnote]\n\nKing<\/strong>\nWhy, 'tis a loving and a fair reply.\n305<\/sub>Be as ourself[footnote]Enjoy the privileges and status of royalty. (The plural \"ourself\" indicates the royal plural; it means \"myself, I as king.\") The King invites Hamlet to enjoy the same privileges as the King himself.[\/footnote] in Denmark.--Madam, come.\nThis gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet\nSits smiling to[footnote]Pleases.[\/footnote] my heart, in grace[footnote]Honor.[\/footnote] whereof\nNo jocund[footnote]Cheerful, merry, joyful.[\/footnote] health that Denmark[footnote]The King of Denmark, Claudius. Hamlet's disapproval of heavy drinking among the Danes as \"a custom \/ More honored in the breach than the observance,\" in 1.4.15 ff., is directed particularly at Claudius, who uses any public ceremony as the opportunity to raise a toast. Drinking is emblematic of his worldly covetousness.[\/footnote] drinks today\nBut the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,[footnote]Sound, announce. The firing of artillery is to mark the occasion, as at 1.4.6 ff.[\/footnote]\n310<\/sub>And the King's rouse[footnote]Bout of drinking, ceremonial toast.[\/footnote] the heavens shall bruit again,[footnote]Loudly echo.[\/footnote]\nRespeaking earthly thunder.[footnote]Echoing our cannon.[\/footnote] Come, away!\nFlourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nOh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,\nThaw, and resolve[footnote]Dissolve.[\/footnote] itself into a dew!\n315<\/sub>Or that the Everlasting[footnote]God.[\/footnote] had not fixed\nHis canon[footnote]Divine law.[\/footnote] 'gainst self-slaughter! Oh, God, God,\nHow weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable\nSeem to me all the uses of this world!\nFie on't, ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden\n320<\/sub>That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature[footnote]Offensively vigorous in growth and coarse in their very natures.[\/footnote]\nPossess it merely.[footnote]Completely.[\/footnote] That it should come to this!\nBut two months dead--nay, not so much, not two!\nSo excellent a king, that was to this[footnote]Compared to Claudius.[\/footnote]\nHyperion[footnote]Titan sun-god in Greek mythology.[\/footnote] to a satyr,[footnote]Lecherous half-goat, half-human deity of classical mythology.[\/footnote] so loving to my mother\n325<\/sub>That he might not beteem[footnote]Would not allow.[\/footnote] the winds of heaven\nVisit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,\nMust I remember? Why, she would hang on him\nAs if increase of appetite had grown\nBy what it fed on.[footnote]As if her desire and love for her husband was augmented by the intense pleasure of that love.[\/footnote] And yet within a month--\n330<\/sub>Let me not think on't; frailty, thy name is woman!\nA little month,[footnote]Compare this interval of time with \"But two months dead\" at line 138 (TLN 322) above.[\/footnote] or ere[footnote]Even before.[\/footnote] those shoes were old\nWith which she followed my poor father's body,\nLike Niobe,[footnote]When Niobe boasted that her fourteen children outnumbered those of Leto, Leto's children, Apollo and Artemis, slew all of Niobe's children as a punishment for their mother's hubris or pride. Turned by Zeus into a stone, Niobe never ceased her bitter tears, flowing as a spring from the rock. The story of Niobe and her children is told by (among others) Ovid in his Metamorphoses, 6.146-312.[\/footnote] all tears, why, she, even she--\nOh, God, a beast that wants discourse of reason[footnote]Lacks the ability to reason.[\/footnote]\n335<\/sub>Would have mourned longer!--married with my uncle,\nMy father's brother, but no more like my father\nThan I to Hercules.[footnote]Hero of classical mythology noted for his twelve \"labors,\" deeds requiring \"Herculean\" strength.[\/footnote] Within a month,\nEre yet the salt of most unrighteous tears\nHad left the flushing of her gall\u00e8d[footnote]Inflamed, irritated.[\/footnote] eyes,\n340<\/sub>She married. Oh, most wicked speed, to post[footnote]Hasten.[\/footnote]\nWith such dexterity to incestuous[footnote]Judaeo-Christian tradition (see Leviticus 18.16 and 20.21), incorporated into the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, forbade a man to marry his brother's wife' as Claudius has done in this play, and, historically as Henry VIII had done by marrying his dead brother Arthur's wife, Katharine of Aragon.[\/footnote] sheets!\nIt is not, nor it cannot come to good,\nBut break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.\nEnter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo.<\/em>\n\n345<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nHail to your lordship!\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI am glad to see you well.--\nHoratio, or I do forget myself![footnote]i.e., I know you as well as I know myself. Hamlet, distracted and unhappy, does not recognize at first that Horatio is among those who have just entered and whom he initially greets with the conventional formula, \"I am glad to see you well.\" Compare today's formulaic \"How are you?\"[\/footnote]\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nThe same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.\n\n350<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nSir, my good friend, I'll change that name with you.[footnote]Share and exchange mutually the name of \"friend\" with you, rather than having you address me as your master. If anything, I am your servant.[\/footnote]\nAnd what make you from[footnote]Are you going away from.[\/footnote] Wittenberg, Horatio?--\nMarcellus.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nMy good lord.\n\n355<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nI am very glad to see you.[footnote]Hamlet, realizing that in his excitement at seeing Horatio he has not observed the social niceties of greeting the others who have just arrived, repairs that little slip by welcoming Marcellus by name and then Barnardo with \"Good even, sir,\" before returning to his question to Horatio.[\/footnote] [To Barnardo.]<\/em> Good even, sir.\n[To Horatio]<\/em> But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nA truant disposition, good my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI would not have your enemy say so,\nNor shall you do my ear that violence\n360<\/sub>To make it truster of your own report\nAgainst yourself.[footnote]Nor will I trust my own ears if they tell me you are calling yourself a truant, a delinquent.[\/footnote] I know you are no truant.\nBut what is your affair in Elsinore?\nWe'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMy lord, I came to see your father's funeral.\n\n365<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nI prithee do not mock me, fellow student.\nI think it was to see my mother's wedding.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIndeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.[footnote]Quickly afterwards.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats\nDid coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.[footnote]The food left uneaten from the funeral banquet, including meat pies and pastries, provided cold leftovers for the marriage festivities. A bitterly satiric exaggeration.[\/footnote]\n370<\/sub>Would I had met my dearest[footnote]Direst, most hated, bitterest.[\/footnote] foe in heaven\nEre I had ever seen that day, Horatio!\nMy father--methinks I see my father.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nOh, where, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIn my mind's eye, Horatio.\n\n375<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nI saw him once. 'A[footnote]He.[\/footnote] was a goodly king.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHe was a man, take him for all in all,\nI shall not look upon his like again.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMy lord, I think I saw him yesternight.[footnote]Last night.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nSaw? Who?\n\n380<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nMy lord, the King your father.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThe King my father?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nSeason your admiration[footnote]Moderate your astonishment.[\/footnote] for a while\nWith an attent[footnote]Attentive.[\/footnote] ear till I may deliver,\nUpon the witness of these gentlemen,\n385<\/sub>This marvel to you.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nFor God's love, let me hear!\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nTwo nights together had these gentlemen,\nMarcellus and Barnardo, on their watch\nIn the dead waste[footnote]Lifeless desolation. Perhaps with a pun in \"waste\" on \"waist, middle.\"[\/footnote] and middle of the night\n390<\/sub>Been thus encountered: a figure like your father\nArmed at all points,[footnote]Provided with weapons in every detail.[\/footnote] exactly, cap-\u00e0-pie,[footnote]From head to foot. From old French.[\/footnote]\nAppears before them, and with solemn march\nGoes slow[footnote]Slowly.[\/footnote] and stately by them. Thrice he walked\nBy their oppressed and fear-surpris\u00e8d eyes[footnote]Eyes that show sudden surprise and fear.[\/footnote]\n395<\/sub>Within his truncheon's[footnote]A truncheon is a military officer's baton or staff, a sign of his office.[\/footnote] length, whilst they, distilled\nAlmost to jelly with the act[footnote]Effect.[\/footnote] of fear,\nStand dumb and speak not to him. This to me\nIn dreadful[footnote]Full of dread, dread-inspired.[\/footnote] secrecy impart they did,\nAnd I with them the third night kept the watch,\n400<\/sub>Where, as they had delivered, both in time,\nForm of the thing, each word made true and good,\nThe apparition comes. I knew your father.\nThese hands are not more like.[footnote]These two hands of mine are not more like each other than this apparition was like your father.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nBut where was this?\n\n405<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>\nMy lord, upon the platform[footnote]Battlements of the castle.[\/footnote] where we watched.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nDid you not speak to it?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMy lord, I did,\nBut answer made it none. Yet once methought\nIt lifted up it head[footnote]Its head.[\/footnote] and did address\n410<\/sub>Itself to motion, like as it would speak;[footnote]Moved in such a way as to suggest that it was about to speak.[\/footnote]\nBut even[footnote]Just.[\/footnote] then the morning cock crew loud,\nAnd at the sound it shrunk in haste away\nAnd vanished from our sight.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n'Tis very strange.\n\n415<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nAs I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true,\nAnd we did think it writ down in our duty[footnote]Prescribed in the duty we owe you.[\/footnote]\nTo let you know of it.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIndeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.\nHold you the watch tonight?\n\n420<\/sub>All<\/strong>[footnote]i.e., Marcellus, Barnardo, and Horatio.[\/footnote]\nWe do, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nArmed, say you?\n\nAll<\/strong>\nArmed, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nFrom top to toe?\n\nAll<\/strong>\nMy lord, from head to foot.\n\n425<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nThen saw you not his face?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nOh, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver[footnote]Visor on the helmet.[\/footnote] up.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhat looked he, frowningly?[footnote]Did it appear that he was frowning?[\/footnote]\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nA countenance[footnote]Expression.[\/footnote] more in sorrow than in anger.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nPale, or red?\n\n430<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nNay, very pale.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAnd fixed his eyes upon you?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMost constantly.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI would[footnote]I wish.[\/footnote] I had been there.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIt would have much amazed you.\n\n435<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nVery like, very like.[footnote]Very likely.[\/footnote] Stayed it long?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nWhile one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.\n\nBoth<\/strong>[footnote]i.e., Marcellus and Barnardo.[\/footnote]\nLonger, longer.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nNot when I saw't.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHis beard was grizzled, no?[footnote]Grey or mingled with grey, was it not?[\/footnote]\n\n440<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nIt was as I have seen it in his life,\nA sable silvered.[footnote]silvered Black sprinkled with silver-grey. The sable, prized then and now for its fur, is a carnivorous weasel-like mammal.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI will watch[footnote]Stand watch.[\/footnote] tonight.\nPerchance 'twill walk again.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nI warr'nt[footnote]Guarantee.[\/footnote] it will.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIf it assume my noble father's person,\n445<\/sub>I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape\nAnd bid me hold my peace.[footnote]Be silent.[\/footnote] I pray you all,\nIf you have hitherto concealed this sight\nLet it be tenable[footnote]Able to be held.[\/footnote] in your silence still,\nAnd whatsomever else shall hap tonight,\n450<\/sub>Give it an understanding but no tongue;\nI will requite[footnote]Repay.[\/footnote] your loves. So, fare you well.\nUpon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve\nI'll visit you.\n\nAll<\/strong>\nOur duty to your honor.\nExeunt [all but Hamlet].<\/em>\n\n455<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nYour loves, as mine to you.[footnote]i.e., I accept your \"duty\" as love, and I pledge my love to you in that same sense.[\/footnote] Farewell.\nMy father's spirit--in arms! All is not well.\nI doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!\nTill then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,\nThough all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.\nExit.<\/em>\n

Scene 3<\/h1>\nEnter<\/em>[footnote]Location: Polonius's apartment in the castle, or some place nearby.[\/footnote] Laertes, and Ophelia his sister.<\/em>\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nMy necessaries are embarked.[footnote]Loaded on board a sailing vessel.[\/footnote] Farewell.\nAnd sister, as[footnote]Whenever.[\/footnote] the winds give benefit\nAnd convoy is assistant, do[footnote]And as means of transportation are available, do[\/footnote] not sleep\n465<\/sub>But let[footnote]Without letting[\/footnote] me hear from you.\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nDo you doubt that?\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nFor Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,[footnote]As for Hamlet and the attentions he pays you, which must be regarded as trifling.[\/footnote]\nHold it a fashion and a toy in blood,[footnote]A passing fancy prompted by sexual attraction.[\/footnote]\nA violet in the youth of primy nature,[footnote]i.e., Natural impulses in the springtime of their vigor.[\/footnote]\n470<\/sub>Forward,[footnote]Insistent, eagerly pulsating, early-blooming and soon to fade.[\/footnote] not permanent, sweet, not lasting,\nThe perfume and suppliance of a minute,[footnote]Something sweet to supply the pleasures of a moment.[\/footnote]\nNo more.\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nNo more but so?\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nThink it no more.\nFor nature crescent does not grow alone\n475<\/sub>In thews and bulk, but as this temple[footnote]The body, temple of the soul.[\/footnote] waxes\nThe inward service of the mind and soul\nGrows wide withal.[footnote]For all living creatures (especially humans), as they mature, grow not in physical strength alone, but as the body ages the inner qualities of mind and soul develop also. (\"Thews\" are sinews. \"Inward service\" is the inner life.) Laertes seems to be warning Ophelia that as Hamlet grows older, his interests may change.[\/footnote] Perhaps he loves you now,\nAnd now no soil nor cautel[footnote]Stain or deceit.[\/footnote] doth besmirch\nThe virtue of his will;[footnote]The sincerity of his desires and intentions.[\/footnote] but you must fear,\n480<\/sub>His greatness weighed,[footnote]When his royal rank is taken into consideration.[\/footnote] his will is not his own,\nFor he himself is subject to his birth.\nHe may not, as unvalued persons[footnote]Persons of ordinary social standing.[\/footnote] do,\nCarve for himself,[footnote]Help himself to the choicest morsel of the roast; i.e., choose for himself.[\/footnote] for on his choice depends\nThe safety and health of the whole state,\n485<\/sub>And therefore must his choice be circumscribed\nUnto the voice and yielding[footnote]Expressed opinion and consent.[\/footnote] of that body[footnote]The body politic, the state.[\/footnote]\nWhereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,\nIt fits your wisdom so far to believe it\nAs he in his particular act and place[footnote]In the particular circumstances to which he is restricted by his high station.[\/footnote]\n490<\/sub>May give his saying deed, which is no further\nThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal.[footnote]Than general opinion in Denmark will go along with.[\/footnote]\nThen weigh what loss your honor may sustain\nIf with too credent[footnote]Credulous, trusting.[\/footnote] ear you list[footnote]Listen to.[\/footnote] his songs,\nOr lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open\n495<\/sub>To his unmastered importunity.[footnote]Uncontrolled urgency of desire.[\/footnote]\nFear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,\nAnd keep within the rear of your affection,\nOut of the shot and danger of desire.[footnote]i.e., Don't let your passionate feelings lead you where you will be vulnerable to his amorous assaults.[\/footnote]\nThe chariest[footnote]Most modest.[\/footnote] maid is prodigal enough\n500<\/sub>If she unmask her beauty to the moon.[footnote]Is taking enough of a risk if she merely expose herself to the chaste moon. The moon (Diana, Artemis, Phoebe), as a symbol of chaste affection, was widely associated with Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabethan ladies were careful to mask themselves from the sun; Ophelia is being urged to be even more cautious than that.[\/footnote]\nVirtue itself scapes not calumnious[footnote]Slanderous.[\/footnote] strokes.\nThe canker galls the infants of the spring[footnote]The cankerworm injures the budding flowers of springtime.[\/footnote]\nToo oft before their buttons be disclosed,[footnote]Before their buds are open.[\/footnote]\nAnd in the morn and liquid dew of youth[footnote]In the early time of life, a time that has the freshness and innocence of the dew-sprinkled dawn.[\/footnote]\n505<\/sub>Contagious blastments[footnote]Blightings.[\/footnote] are most imminent.\nBe wary, then; best safety lies in fear.\nYouth to itself rebels, though none else near.[footnote]Youth yields to the rebellion of the flesh without any outside promptings.[\/footnote]\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nI shall the effect of this good lesson keep\nAs watchman to my heart.[footnote]Guardian over my affections.[\/footnote] But, good my brother,\n510<\/sub>Do not, as some ungracious[footnote]Ungodly, lacking in spiritual grace.[\/footnote] pastors do,\nShow me the steep and thorny way to heaven\nWhilst, like a puffed[footnote]Bloated or swollen (presumably with the arrogance of youth).[\/footnote] and reckless libertine,\nHimself the primrose path of dalliance treads,\nAnd recks not his own rede.[footnote]Pays no heed to his own best advice.[\/footnote]\nEnter Polonius<\/em>\n\n515<\/sub>Laertes<\/strong>\nOh, fear me not.[footnote]Don't worry about me.[\/footnote]\nI stay too long. But here my father comes.\nA double blessing is a double grace;\nOccasion smiles upon a second leave.[footnote]The goddess Occasion or Opportunity has smiled upon me by provided me the chance to say goodbye to my father a second time and thereby receive from him a second blessing. In some modern productions, Laertes (and his sister too) are both rather put off by their father's tedious moralizing. If so, Laertes's speech here is tinged with irony; he thinks he's already been through the business of saying goodbye to his father.[\/footnote]\n\n520<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>\nYet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!\nThe wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,[footnote]i.e., You have a following wind now, so don't delay.[\/footnote]\nAnd you are stayed for. There, my blessing[footnote]You are being waited for on board. There now, take my blessing.[\/footnote] with thee,\nAnd these few precepts in thy memory\nSee thou character.[footnote]See to it that you inscribe.[\/footnote] Give thy thoughts no tongue,\n525<\/sub>Nor any unproportioned thought his act.[footnote]And do not act upon any thought that is inadequately thought through or miscalculated.[\/footnote]\nBe thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.[footnote]Be sociable but not indiscriminate in your social dealings.[\/footnote]\nThose friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,\nGrapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,[footnote]Metal hoops such as would be used to hold together the sides of a barrel.[\/footnote]\nBut do not dull thy palm[footnote]i.e., shake hands so often as to make the gesture essentially meaningless.[\/footnote] with entertainment[footnote]Greeting with a handshake.[\/footnote]\n530<\/sub>Of each new-hatched, unfledged[footnote]Newly hatched in the nest and still unable to fly.[\/footnote] comrade. Beware\nOf entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,\nBear't that th'oppos\u00e8d[footnote]Manage the business so that your adversary.[\/footnote] may beware of thee.\nGive every man thine ear, but few thy voice.\nTake each man's censure,[footnote]Opinion, judgment.[\/footnote] but reserve thy judgment.[footnote]Do not abandon your own opinion of what is said.[\/footnote]\n535<\/sub>Costly thy habit[footnote]Clothing, dress.[\/footnote] as thy purse can buy,\nBut not expressed in fancy[footnote]Extravagant fashion.[\/footnote]--rich, not gaudy,\nFor the apparel oft proclaims the man,[footnote]We are what we wear.[\/footnote]\nAnd they in France of the best rank and station\nAre of all most select and generous, chief in that.[footnote]Are of all people the most refined in manners and in choosing what to wear.[\/footnote]\n540<\/sub>Neither a borrower nor a lender be,\nFor loan oft loses both itself and friend,\nAnd borrowing dulleth edge of husbandry.[footnote]Thrift.[\/footnote]\nThis above all: to thine own self be true,\nAnd it must follow as the night the day\n545<\/sub>Thou canst not then be false to any man.\nFarewell. My blessing season this in thee![footnote]May my blessing enable my advice to mature and ripen in your mind.[\/footnote]\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nMost humbly do I take my leave, my lord.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nThe time invites you. Go. Your servants tend.[footnote]Attend, are waiting.[\/footnote]\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nFarewell, Ophelia, and remember well\n550<\/sub>What I have said to you.\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\n'Tis in my memory locked,\nAnd you yourself shall keep the key of it.\n\nLaertes<\/strong>\nFarewell.\nExit Laertes.<\/em>\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nWhat is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?\n\n555<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>\nSo please you, something touching[footnote]Concerning.[\/footnote] the Lord Hamlet.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMarry,[footnote]i.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.)[\/footnote] well bethought.[footnote]Appropriately thought of; I'm glad you mentioned that.[\/footnote]\n'Tis told me he hath very oft of late\nGiven private time to you, and you yourself\nHave of your audience[footnote]Hearing, attention.[\/footnote] been most free and bounteous.\n560<\/sub>If it be so--as so 'tis put on me,[footnote]Presented or suggested to me.[\/footnote]\nAnd that in way of caution--I must tell you\nYou do not understand yourself[footnote]Appreciate your situation.[\/footnote] so clearly\nAs it behooves[footnote]Befits.[\/footnote] my daughter and your honor.[footnote]Reputation.[\/footnote]\nWhat is between you? Give me up the truth.\n\n565<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>\nHe hath, my lord, of late made many tenders[footnote]Offers.[\/footnote]\nOf his affection to me.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAffection? Pooh, you speak like a green[footnote]Inexperienced.[\/footnote] girl,\nUnsifted[footnote]Untried.[\/footnote] in such perilous circumstance.\nDo you believe his \"tenders,\" as you call them?\n\n570<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>\nI do not know, my lord, what I should think.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nMarry, I'll teach you. Think yourself a baby\nThat you have ta'en his tenders for true pay\nWhich are not sterling.[footnote]Lawful currency.[\/footnote] Tender yourself more dearly,[footnote](1) Take better care of yourself; (2) Hold out for a better bargain, i.e., marriage.[\/footnote]\nOr--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase\n575<\/sub>Running it thus[footnote]i.e., if I may use a metaphor from horsemanship, at the risk of running it so hard that it is broken-winded.[\/footnote]--you'll tender me a fool.[footnote](1) make me look foolish, and yourself as well; (2) present me with a grandchild. (The word \"fool\" could be applied to babies, often endearingly.)[\/footnote]\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nMy lord, he hath importuned me with love\nIn honorable fashion.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAy, fashion[footnote]Mere form, conventional flattery. (Playing on Ophelia's \"fashion\" in the previous line in the more usual sense of \"manner.\")[\/footnote] you may call it. Go to, go to.[footnote]i.e., What nonsense. (An expression of impatient dismissal).[\/footnote]\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nAnd hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,\n580<\/sub>With almost all the holy vows of heaven.\n\nPolonius<\/strong>\nAy, springes to catch woodcocks.[footnote]Traps to catch proverbially gullible birds.[\/footnote] I do know\nWhen the blood burns, how prodigal the soul\nLends the tongue vows.[footnote]When passionate desire rages, how prodigally the soul prompts the tongue to promise anything to the desired person.[\/footnote] These blazes, daughter,\nGiving more light than heat, extinct in both\n585<\/sub>Even in their promise as it is a-making,[footnote]Lacking any real feeling or warmth of affection from the very first moment of the promise-making.[\/footnote]\nYou must not take[footnote]Mistake.[\/footnote] for fire. From this time, daughter,\nBe something[footnote]Somewhat.[\/footnote] scanter of your maiden presence.\nSet your entreatments at a higher rate\nThan a command to parley.[footnote]Do not offer to surrender your chastity simply because he has requested a meeting to discuss terms.[\/footnote] For[footnote]As for.[\/footnote] Lord Hamlet,\n590<\/sub>Believe so much in him[footnote]This much concerning him.[\/footnote] that he is young,\nAnd with a larger tether may he walk\nThan may be given you. In few,[footnote]In brief.[\/footnote] Ophelia,\nDo not believe his vows, for they are brokers[footnote]Go-betweens, solicitors.[\/footnote]\nNot of that dye which their investments show,[footnote]Not truly of the color that their garments seem to show. (The vows are not what they seem.)[\/footnote]\n595<\/sub>But mere implorators of unholy suits,\nBreathing[footnote]Speaking.[\/footnote] like sanctified and pious bawds\nThe better to beguile. This is for all:[footnote]This is once for all; I don't want to have to say it again.[\/footnote]\nI would not, in plain terms, from this time forth\nHave you so slander any moment leisure[footnote]Abuse any moment's leisure (or any occasion).[\/footnote]\n600<\/sub>As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.\nLook to't, I charge you. Come your ways.[footnote]Come along.[\/footnote]\n\nOphelia<\/strong>\nI shall obey, my lord.\nExeunt.<\/em>\n

Scene 4<\/h1>\nEnter<\/em>[footnote]Location: The battlements or rampart walls of the castle.[\/footnote] Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThe air bites shrewdly;[footnote]Keenly, sharply.[\/footnote] it is very cold.\n\n605<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nIt is a nipping and an eager[footnote]Biting, keen, sharp. From French \"aigre,\" sour.[\/footnote] air.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhat hour now?\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nI think it lacks of[footnote]Is just short of.[\/footnote] twelve.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nNo, it is struck.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIndeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season[footnote]Time.[\/footnote]\n610<\/sub>Wherein the spirit held his wont[footnote]Was accustomed.[\/footnote] to walk.\nA flourish of trumpets, and two pieces[footnote]i.e., of cannon, ordnance.[\/footnote] goes off.\nWhat does this mean, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThe King doth wake[footnote]Revels into the night.[\/footnote] tonight and takes his rouse,[footnote]Carouses.[\/footnote]\nKeeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels;[footnote]Drinks many toasts and drunkenly reels his way through a lively German dance called the \"upspring.\"[\/footnote]\nAnd as he drains his drafts of Rhenish[footnote]Rhine wine.[\/footnote] down\n615<\/sub>The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out\nThe triumph of his pledge.[footnote]Raucously celebrate his draining the cup in his many celebratory toasts.[\/footnote]\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIs it a custom?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAy, marry,[footnote]i.e., by the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.)[\/footnote] is't,\nBut to my mind, though I am native here\n620<\/sub>And to the manner born,[footnote]Having a lifelong familiarity with this custom.[\/footnote] it is a custom\nMore honored in the breach than the observance.[footnote]Better neglected than followed.[\/footnote]\n621.1<\/sub>This heavy-headed revel east and west\nMakes us traduced and taxed of other nations.[footnote]This drunken reveling causes us to be defamed and censored everywhere (east and west) by all other nations.[\/footnote]\nThey clepe[footnote]Call.[\/footnote] us drunkards, and with swinish phrase\nSoil our addition,[footnote]And tarnish our reputation by calling us swine.[\/footnote] and indeed it takes\n621.5<\/sub>From our achievements, though performed at height,[footnote]No matter how outstandingly performed.[\/footnote]\nThe pith and marrow of our attribute.[footnote]The very essence of the reputation we should enjoy.[\/footnote]\nSo, oft it chances in particular men,\nThat, for some vicious mole of nature in them,[footnote]Because of some inborn vicious inclination in them.[\/footnote]\nAs in their birth,[footnote]The qualities bestowed on them by their parents and ancestors.[\/footnote] wherein they are not guilty,\n621.10<\/sub>Since nature cannot choose his[footnote]its.[\/footnote] origin,\nBy the o'ergrowth of some complexion,[footnote]i.e., By one element of our constitution gaining undue dominance over the others.[\/footnote]\nOft breaking down the pales[footnote]Palisades, barrier fences, serving as a fortification.[\/footnote] and forts of reason,\nOr by some habit that too much o'erleavens\nThe form of plausive manners,[footnote]i.e., prompts excessive behavior, thereby corrupting what would otherwise be acceptable and pleasing manners (much as too much yeast causes excessive swelling in the dough).[\/footnote] that these men,\n621.15<\/sub>Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,\nBeing Nature's livery, or Fortune's star,[footnote]Being the result of an inborn condition or a gift of Fortune, goddess of chance. Whether Nature and Fortune exerted the larger influence on human life was a favorite debating topic in the Renaissance.[\/footnote]\nHis virtues else,[footnote]Such a person's virtues in other respects.[\/footnote] be they as pure as grace,\nAs infinite as man may undergo,[footnote]Sustain.[\/footnote]\nShall in the general censure take corruption[footnote]Shall in the court of public opinion acquire a misconstrued reputation.[\/footnote]\n621.20<\/sub>From that particular fault. The dram of evil\nDoth all the noble substance often dout\nTo his own scandal.[footnote]i.e., The tiny amount (literally, one eighth of an ounce) of evil qualities often blots or brings disrepute upon the noble substance of the whole. (To \"dout\" is to extinguish, blot out.)[\/footnote]\nEnter Ghost.<\/em>\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nLook, my lord, it comes!\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAngels and ministers of grace defend us![footnote]May angels who minister grace defend us![\/footnote]\n625<\/sub>Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,[footnote]Whether you are a good angel or a demon.[\/footnote]\nBring with thee airs from heaven or blasts[footnote]Whether you bring gentle breezes from heaven or pestilent gusts.[\/footnote] from hell,\nBe thy intents[footnote]Whether your intentions are.[\/footnote] wicked or charitable,\nThou com'st in such a questionable shape\nThat I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,\n630<\/sub>King, father, royal Dane. Oh, answer me!\nLet me not burst in ignorance, but tell\nWhy thy canonized[footnote]Consecrated. Pronounced with the stress on the second of three syllables.[\/footnote] bones, hears\u00e8d[footnote]Laid in a coffin.[\/footnote] in death,\nHave burst their cerements?[footnote]Grave clothes.[\/footnote] Why the sepulcher\nWherein we saw thee quietly inurned[footnote]Entombed, placed in an urn for ashes of the dead.[\/footnote]\n635<\/sub>Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws\nTo cast thee up again? What may this mean\nThat thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel[footnote]Full armor.[\/footnote]\nRevisits thus the glimpses of the moon,[footnote]The sublunary world, all that is fitfully lit by pale moonlight.[\/footnote]\nMaking night hideous, and we fools of nature[footnote]We mere mortals, limited to natural knowledge and subject to nature.[\/footnote]\n640<\/sub>So horridly to shake our disposition[footnote]To unsettle our mental composure so horrendously.[\/footnote]\nWith thoughts beyond the reaches[footnote]The capacities.[\/footnote] of our souls?\nSay, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?\n[The] Ghost beckons Hamlet.<\/em>\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nIt beckons you to go away with it,\n645<\/sub>As if it some impartment did desire\nTo you alone.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nLook with what courteous action\nIt wafts you to a more remov\u00e8d ground.\nBut do not go with it.\n\n650<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nNo, by no means.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIt will not speak. Then I will follow it.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nDo not, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhy, what should be the fear?\nI do not set my life at a pin's fee,[footnote]The value of a pin.[\/footnote]\n655<\/sub>And for[footnote]As for.[\/footnote] my soul, what can it do to that,\nBeing a thing immortal as itself?\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em>\nIt waves me forth again. I'll follow it.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nWhat if it tempt you toward the flood,[footnote]Sea.[\/footnote] my lord,\nOr to the dreadful summit of the cliff\n660<\/sub>That beetles o'er his base[footnote]Threateningly overhangs its base like bushy eyebrows.[\/footnote] into the sea,\nAnd there assume some other horrible form\nWhich might deprive your sovereignty of reason[footnote]Take away from you the supremacy of reason over passion. \"Your sovereignty\" also hints at the fact that Hamlet is Prince of Denmark and heir to the throne.[\/footnote]\nAnd draw you into madness? Think of it:\n663.1<\/sub>The very place puts toys of desperation,[footnote]Imaginings of desperate acts, such as suicide.[\/footnote]\nWithout more motive, into every brain\nThat looks so many fathoms[footnote]Units of depth measurement at sea of about six feet.[\/footnote] to the sea\nAnd hears it roar beneath.\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIt wafts me still.--Go on, I'll follow thee.\n\n665<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>\nYou shall not go, my lord.\n[They attempt to restrain him.]<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHold off your hands!\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nBe ruled. You shall not go.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nMy fate cries out[footnote]My destiny summons me.[\/footnote]\nAnd makes each petty[footnote]Even the most insignificant.[\/footnote] artery in this body\n670<\/sub>As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.[footnote]A sinew of the huge lion (from Nemea, near Corinth in Greece) slain by Hercules in the first of his twelve labors.[\/footnote]\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em>\nStill am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen!\nBy heav'n, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.\nI say, away!--Go on, I'll follow thee.\nExeunt Ghost and Hamlet.<\/em>\n\n675<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nHe waxes desperate with imagination.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nLet's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nHave after.[footnote]Let's go after him.[\/footnote] To what issue[footnote]Outcome.[\/footnote] will this come?\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nHeaven will direct[footnote]i.e., the \"issue\" or outcome.[\/footnote] it.\n\n680<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>\nNay, let's follow him.\nExeunt.<\/em>\n

Scene 5<\/h1>\nEnter<\/em>[footnote]Location: The battlements of the castle, as before. The scene is virtually continuous, though the stage is momentarily bare and we are to understand that the Ghost and Hamlet have moved to a new location on the battlements.[\/footnote] Ghost and Hamlet.<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I'll go no further.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nMark me.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI will.\n\n685<\/sub>Ghost<\/strong>\nMy hour is almost come\nWhen I to sulf'rous and tormenting flames\nMust render up myself.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAlas, poor ghost!\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nPity me not, but lend thy serious hearing\n690<\/sub>To what I shall unfold.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nSpeak. I am bound[footnote](1) destined, ready; (2) obligated, duty-bound. The Ghost replies to the second of these meanings.[\/footnote] to hear.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nSo art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhat?\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nI am thy father's spirit,\n695<\/sub>Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,\nAnd for the day confined to fast[footnote]Do penance by fasting. A conventional punishment in Purgatory.[\/footnote] in fires,\nTill the foul crimes[footnote]Sins.[\/footnote] done in my days of nature[footnote]My days on earth as a mortal.[\/footnote]\nAre burnt and purged[footnote]In Roman Catholic doctrine, Purgatory (not actually mentioned by name in this play) is an intermediate state after death for the purging of sins. If an individual has died in God's grace but has committed sins not yet pardoned (owing, as in this present instance, to a sudden death leaving no time for confessing those sins to a priest), the soul can make satisfaction in Purgatory for those sins and thus become fit for heaven.[\/footnote] away. But that[footnote]Were it not that.[\/footnote] I am forbid\nTo tell the secrets of my prison house,\n700<\/sub>I could a tale unfold whose lightest word\nWould harrow up[footnote]Lacerate, tear up, uproot.[\/footnote] thy soul, freeze thy young blood,\nMake thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,[footnote]Eye-sockets, compared here to the crystalline spheres or orbits in which, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, the heavenly bodies moved around the earth.[\/footnote]\nThy knotted and combin\u00e8d locks[footnote]Hair neatly combed and arranged in its proper place.[\/footnote] to part,\nAnd each particular hair to stand on end[footnote]The eighteenth-century actor-manager, David Garrick, wore a trick wig that would stand its hairs on end as a sign of fright. See 3.4.124-5 below, where the Queen sees Hamlet's hair standing on end; the effect is caused there by the appearance of the Ghost, though the Queen in unable to see that.[\/footnote]\n705<\/sub>Like quills upon the fretful[footnote]Peevish.[\/footnote] porpentine.[footnote]Shakespeare's usual spelling of \"porcupine.\"[\/footnote]\nBut this eternal blazon[footnote]Revelation of the secrets of the supernatural world.[\/footnote] must not be\nTo ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, oh, list:[footnote]Listen.[\/footnote]\nIf thou didst ever thy dear father love--\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nO God!\n\n710<\/sub>Ghost<\/strong>\nRevenge his foul and most unnatural murder.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nMurder?\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nMurder most foul, as in the best it is,[footnote]Murder is foul even under the best of circumstances.[\/footnote]\nBut this most foul, strange, and unnatural.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\n715<\/sub>Haste me to know't, that I with wings as swift\nAs meditation or the thoughts of love\nMay sweep to my revenge.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nI find thee apt,\nAnd duller shouldst thou be than the fat[footnote]Torpid, lethargic, gross, bloated.[\/footnote] weed\n720<\/sub>That rots itself in ease on Lethe[footnote]The river of forgetfulness in Hades.[\/footnote] wharf\nWouldst thou[footnote]If you would not.[\/footnote] not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:\n'Tis given out[footnote]The official story goes.[\/footnote] that, sleeping in my orchard,[footnote]My garden.[\/footnote]\nA serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark\nIs by a forg\u00e8d process[footnote]Fabricated account.[\/footnote] of my death\n725<\/sub>Rankly abused.[footnote]Grossly deceived.[\/footnote] But know, thou noble youth,\nThe serpent that did sting[footnote]Elizabethans generally believed that poisonous snakes attacked their victims with their tongues rather than their fangs.[\/footnote] thy father's life\nNow wears his crown.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nOh, my prophetic soul! My uncle?\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nAy, that incestuous,[footnote]See 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and note above.[\/footnote] that adulterate[footnote]Adulterous. Whether the Ghost suspects or knows that his brother had been involved with Queen Gertrude in an adulterous affair before the murder is not clear, though the Ghost's insistence later in this speech that the Queen is to be spared and left to the workings of her conscience (lines 84-8 below, TLN 769-73) tends to suggest that he does not regard her as guilty to such a heinous degree.[\/footnote] beast,\n730<\/sub>With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts[footnote](1) with perfidious natural gifts; (2) with seductive presents.[\/footnote]--\nOh, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power\nSo to seduce!--won to his shameful lust\nThe will of my most seeming virtuous queen.\nOh, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!\n735<\/sub>From me, whose love was of that dignity\nThat it went hand in hand even with the vow[footnote]With the very vow.[\/footnote]\nI made to her in marriage, and to decline\nUpon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor\nTo[footnote]Compared with.[\/footnote] those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved,\n740<\/sub>Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,\nSo lust, though to a radiant angel linked,\nWill sate itself[footnote]Satisfy its craving.[\/footnote] in a celestial bed\nAnd prey on garbage.[footnote]But just as true virtue will remain steadfast even when tempted by unchaste desire disguising itself as an angel, lust conversely will attempt to glut its insatiable appetite even in a heavenly bed, and then, unsatisfied with that, turn to prey on filth.[\/footnote]\nBut soft,[footnote]Wait a minute, hold on.[\/footnote] methinks I scent the morning's air.[footnote]he Ghost here confirms the tradition that Horatio has reported at 1.1.148 ff. (TLN 155 ff.): ghosts who visit the world of the living at night are supposed to return to their confines by dawn.[\/footnote]\nBrief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,\n745<\/sub>My custom always of the afternoon,\nUpon my secure hour,[footnote]A time free from worries, and a safe time when one can relax one's guard.[\/footnote] thy uncle stole\nWith juice of curs\u00e8d hebona[footnote]A poison. The name of this unidentified poison may be related to henbane, of the nightshade family.[\/footnote] in a vial,\nAnd in the porches of my ears[footnote]i.e., the entranceways to my head.[\/footnote] did pour\nThe leperous distillment,[footnote]A distillation causing a leprosy-like disfigurement.[\/footnote] whose effect\n750<\/sub>Holds such an enmity with blood of man\nThat swift as quicksilver[footnote]Mercury.[\/footnote] it courses through\nThe natural gates and alleys of the body,\nAnd with a sudden vigor it doth posset\nAnd curd[footnote]Thicken and curdle (causing the blood to clot like sour cream).[\/footnote] like eager[footnote]Sour, acid.[\/footnote] droppings into milk\n755<\/sub>The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine,\nAnd a most instant tetter[footnote]Eruption of scabs or blisters.[\/footnote] barked about,\nMost lazarlike[footnote]Leper-like. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the man had died of a grievous sickness and had lain in the earth four days, so that his body was loathsome (John 11). Traditionally, his putrid condition came to be associated with leprosy.[\/footnote] with vile and loathsome crust,[footnote]Enveloped with a loathsome scaly crust, like the bark of a tree-trunk.[\/footnote]\nAll my smooth body.\nThus was I sleeping by a brother's hand\n760<\/sub>Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,[footnote]Deprived.[\/footnote]\nCut off even in the blossoms of my sin,[footnote]When my sins were at their height.[\/footnote]\nUnhousled, disappointed, unaneled,[footnote]Without having partaken of the sacrament of the Mass, unprepared because of not having made deathbed confession and not having received absolution, and not anointed with the holy oil of Extreme Unction. These are specific terms from Roman Catholic practice. \"Housel\" signifies the host, the bread and wine that are consecrated in the Mass as the body and blood of Christ.[\/footnote]\nNo reck'ning[footnote]Settling of spiritual accounts, making restitution for sins.[\/footnote] made, but sent to my account\nWith all my imperfections on my head.\n765<\/sub>Oh, horrible, oh, horrible, most horrible!\nIf thou hast nature[footnote]i.e., the natural feelings of a son for his father.[\/footnote] in thee, bear it not.\nLet not the royal bed of Denmark be\nA couch for luxury[footnote]Lechery.[\/footnote] and damn\u00e8d incest.[footnote]See notes at 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and 1.5.43 (TLN 729) above.[\/footnote]\nBut howsomever thou pursues this act,\n770<\/sub>Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive\nAgainst thy mother aught;[footnote]Anything, any punishment.[\/footnote] leave her to heaven\nAnd to those thorns that in her bosom lodge\nTo prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.\nThe glow-worm shows the matin[footnote]Morning.[\/footnote] to be near\n775<\/sub>And 'gins to pale his[footnote]Begins . . . its.[\/footnote] uneffectual fire.\nAdieu, adieu, Hamlet! Remember me.\nExit.<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nO all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?\nAnd shall I couple[footnote]Add.[\/footnote] hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold,[footnote]Hold fast; do not panic; do not waver.[\/footnote] my heart,\nAnd you, my sinews, grow not instant old,\n780<\/sub>But bear me stiffly[footnote]Strongly, vigorously.[\/footnote] up. Remember thee?\nAy, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat\nIn this distracted globe.[footnote]As long as memory continues to function in my distracted head.[\/footnote] Remember thee?\nYea, from the table[footnote]Wax writing tablet. Compare the use of the plural in \"My tables, my tables\" in line 107 below.[\/footnote] of my memory\nI'll wipe away all trivial fond[footnote]Foolish.[\/footnote] records,[footnote]Stressed on the second syllable.[\/footnote]\n785<\/sub>All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past[footnote]All wise sayings copied from books, all shapes or images drawn on the tablet of my memory, all past impressions.[\/footnote]\nThat youth and observation copied there,[footnote]That I observed and noted down when I was young.[\/footnote]\nAnd thy commandment all alone shall live\nWithin the book and volume[footnote]Voluminous book.[\/footnote] of my brain,\nUnmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven.\n790<\/sub>Oh, most pernicious woman!\nOh, villain, villain, smiling damn\u00e8d villain!\nMy tables, my tables--meet[footnote]Fitting.[\/footnote] it is I set it down[footnote]Hamlet may actually have a wax tablet on which he proceeds to note his observation, or he may be speaking metaphorically.[\/footnote]\nThat one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.\nAt least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.\n795<\/sub>So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.[footnote]Now to the business of fulfilling what I have promised.[\/footnote]\nIt is \"Adieu, adieu, remember me.\"\nI have sworn't.\nEnter Horatio and Marcellus [calling first from within].<\/em>\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nMy lord, my lord!\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nLord Hamlet!\n\n800<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nHeavens secure him![footnote]May heaven keep him safe! Horatio and Marcellus have worried, at 1.4.71 (TLN 658), ff., that the Ghost might tempt Hamlet toward the sea or cliff and there deprive him into madness.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nSo be it.\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nIllo, ho, ho, my lord![footnote]Marcellus is hallooing to Hamlet, seeking still to find him. Hamlet has not yet spoken to them to assure them he is safe.[\/footnote]\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHillo, ho, ho, boy, come, bird, come![footnote]Hamlet halloos in reply, as though he were calling out to a hawk or falcon, commanding it to return to its master. Hamlet may be mocking their halloos, or this may be part of the \"wild and whirling words\" or \"antic disposition\" that he begins to adopt.[\/footnote]\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nHow is't, my noble lord?\n\n805<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nWhat news, my lord?\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nOh, wonderful!\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nGood my lord, tell it.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nNo, you'll reveal it.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nNot I, my lord, by heaven.\n\n810<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>\nNor I, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHow say you then, would heart of man once[footnote]Ever.[\/footnote] think it--\nBut you'll be secret?\n\nBoth<\/strong>\nAy, by heaven, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nThere's ne'er a villaindwelling in all Denmark\n815<\/sub>But he's an arrant knave.[footnote]Hamlet seems about ready to tell them what he has learned from the Ghost, but then jestingly turns the matter aside with a self-evident truism: there's no villain in Denmark who is not a thoroughgoing villain.[\/footnote]\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nThere needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave\nTo tell us this.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWhy, right, you are i'th' right.\nAnd so, without more circumstance[footnote]Elaboration.[\/footnote] at all\n820<\/sub>I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:\nYou as your business and desires shall point you\n(For every man hath business and desire,\nSuch as it is), and for my own poor part,\nLook you, I'll go pray.\n\n825<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nThese are but wild and whirling words, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nI am sorry they offend you--heartily,\nYes, faith, heartily.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nThere's no offense, my lord.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nYes, by Saint Patrick,[footnote]The keeper of Purgatory, according to tradition.[\/footnote] but there is, Horatio,\n830<\/sub>And much offense[footnote]See also TLN 830. Horatio in line 140 means \"There was no offense in what you just said; no need to apologize.\" Hamlet, in line 142, changes the meaning of the word to apply to Claudius's crime: \"There certainly IS a great offense' against all human decency and law.\"[\/footnote] too. Touching[footnote]Concerning, regarding.[\/footnote] this vision here,\nIt is an honest[footnote]Genuine and truthful.[\/footnote] ghost, that let me tell you.\nFor[footnote]As for, regarding.[\/footnote] your desire to know what is between us,\nO'ermaster it as you may. And now, good friends,\nAs you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,\n835<\/sub>Give me one poor request.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nWhat is't, my lord? We will.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nNever make known what you have seen tonight.\n\nBoth<\/strong>\nMy lord, we will not.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nNay, but swear't.\n\n840<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>\nIn faith, my lord, not I.[footnote]Horatio insists that he will not tell anyone what they have seen this night. In the next speech, Marcellus vows also to keep the secret. They are not refusing to swear; in fact, they both seemingly take the view that they have sworn already by what they just said \"in faith.\" But Hamlet insists that they now swear by his sword, an especially solemn oath since the sword hilt can be held so as to form a crucifix. Hamlet may hold it that way. Mel Gibson, in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film Hamlet, holds his sword in such a way that the hilt forms a crucifix to ward off the potential evil of a supernatural visitation.[\/footnote]\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nNor I, my lord, in faith.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nUpon my sword.\n[He holds out his sword.]<\/em>\n\nMarcellus<\/strong>\nWe have sworn, my lord, already.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nIndeed, upon my sword, indeed.\n845<\/sub>Ghost cries under the stage.<\/em>\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nSwear.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHa, ha, boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny[footnote]Honest fellow, as trustworthy as the penny. Compare \"sterling,\" thoroughly excellent, conforming to the highest standard.[\/footnote]?--\nCome on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage.\nConsent to swear.\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nPropose the oath, my lord.\n\n850<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>\nNever to speak of this that you have seen.\nSwear by my sword.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nSwear.\n[They swear.]<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nHic et ubique?[footnote]Here and everywhere? (Latin). Traditionally, the devil was able to be everywhere at once.[\/footnote] Then we'll shift our ground.[footnote]Change where we are standing for another spot.[\/footnote]\n[He moves them to another spot.]<\/em>\nCome hither, gentlemen,\n855<\/sub>And lay your hands again upon my sword.\nNever to speak of this that you have heard\nSwear by my sword.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nSwear by his sword.\n[They swear.]<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nWell said, old mole. Canst work i'th' earth so fast?\n860<\/sub>A worthy pioneer![footnote]The small tiny-eyed burrowing mole is here compared to the \"pioneer,\" a foot soldier who dug tunnels and trenches used in warfare.[\/footnote]--Once more remove,[footnote]Move.[\/footnote] good friends.\n[They move once more.]<\/em>\n\nHoratio<\/strong>\nOh, day and night, but this is wondrous strange.\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nAnd therefore as a stranger give it welcome.\nThere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,\nThan are dreamt of in your philosophy.[footnote]This \"natural philosophy\" (i.e..,science) that people talk about. The \"your\" is probably impersonal, though Hamlet's jibe does apply to Horatio particularly; the two of them love to argue over issues of natural history and skepticism vs. providential readings of human life on earth.[\/footnote] But come,\n865<\/sub>Here as before: never, so help you mercy,[footnote]As you hope for God's mercy.[\/footnote]\nHow strange or odd some'er[footnote]However strangely or oddly.[\/footnote] I bear myself\n(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet\nTo put an antic disposition on),[footnote]To assume the wild and erratic behavior of a madman.[\/footnote]\nThat you at such times seeing me never shall,\n870<\/sub>With arms encumbered[footnote]Folded. The folded arms and headshake are intended to suggest that the person has knowledge but dares not speak. Folded arms in particular could suggest love melancholy.[\/footnote] thus, or this headshake,[footnote]Shaking my head thus.[\/footnote]\nOr by pronouncing of some doubtful[footnote]Ambiguous.[\/footnote] phrase\nAs, \"Well, well, we know,\" or \"We could an if we would,\"\nOr \"If we list[footnote]Wished, chose.[\/footnote] to speak,\" or \"There be, an if they might,\"[footnote]There are those (namely, ourselves) who could talk if they so chose.[\/footnote]\nOr such ambiguous giving out, to note[footnote]Indicate.[\/footnote]\n875<\/sub>That you know aught[footnote]Anything.[\/footnote] of me. This not to do,\nSo grace and mercy at your most need help you,[footnote]As you hope for God's grace and mercy at your hour of greatest spiritual need.[\/footnote]\nSwear.\n\nGhost<\/strong>\nSwear.\n[They swear.]<\/em>\n\nHamlet<\/strong>\nRest, rest, perturb\u00e8d spirit.--So, gentlemen,\n880<\/sub>With all my love I do commend me to you,[footnote]I give you my best wishes.[\/footnote]\nAnd what so poor a man as Hamlet is\nMay do t'express his love and friending[footnote]Friendliness, friendship.[\/footnote] to you,\nGod willing, shall not lack.[footnote]Be lacking, be left undone.[\/footnote] Let us go in together,\nAnd still[footnote]Always, continually.[\/footnote] your fingers on your lips, I pray.\n885<\/sub>The time is out of joint.[footnote]Disjointed, lacking coherence. The metaphor is derived from the medical procedure of setting bones that have been broken or separated at the joint.[\/footnote] Oh, curs\u00e8d spite,\nThat ever I was born to set it right!\n[They wait for him to leave first.]<\/em>\nNay, come, let's go together.[footnote]When Horatio and Marcellus politely defer to Hamlet as of senior rank and thus entitled to go first, he insists on equalizing this business among friends.[\/footnote]\nExeunt.<\/em>","rendered":"

Hamlet<\/em> (Modern, Editor\u2019s Version). Internet Shakespeare Editions<\/a>. University of Victoria. Editor: David Bevington. Adapted by James Sexton.<\/p>\n

Scene 1<\/h1>\n

Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.<\/em><\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nWho’s there?<\/p>\n

5<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>
\nNay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nLong live the King!<\/p>\n

Francisco<\/strong>
\nBarnardo?<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nHe.<\/p>\n

10<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>
\nYou come most carefully upon your hour.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\n‘Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.<\/p>\n

Francisco<\/strong>
\nFor this relief much thanks. ‘Tis bitter cold,
\nAnd I am sick at heart.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nHave you had quiet guard?<\/p>\n

15<\/sub>Francisco<\/strong>
\nNot a mouse stirring.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nWell, good night.
\nIf you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
\nThe rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
\nEnter Horatio and Marcellus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Francisco<\/strong>
\nI think I hear them.–Stand, ho! Who is there?<\/p>\n

20<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nFriends to this ground.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nAnd liegemen to the Dane.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Francisco<\/strong>
\nGive you good night.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nOh, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?<\/p>\n

Francisco<\/strong>
\nBarnardo hath my place. Give you good night.
\n25<\/sub>Exit Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nHolla, Barnardo!<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nSay, what, is Horatio there?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nA piece of him.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nWelcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.<\/p>\n

30<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhat, has this thing appeared again tonight?<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nI have seen nothing.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nHoratio says ’tis but our fantasy,[3]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd will not let belief take hold of him,
\nTouching[4]<\/sup><\/a> this dreaded sight twice seen of us.
\n35<\/sub>Therefore I have entreated him along
\nWith us[5]<\/sup><\/a> to watch the minutes of this night,[6]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat if again this apparition come
\nHe may approve[7]<\/sup><\/a> our eyes and speak to it.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nTush, tush, ’twill not appear.<\/p>\n

40<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>
\nSit down awhile,
\nAnd let us once again assail your ears,
\nThat are so fortified against our story,
\nWhat we two nights have seen.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nWell, sit we down,
\n45<\/sub>And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nLast night of all,[8]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhen yond same star that’s westward from the pole[9]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHad made his course t’illume[10]<\/sup><\/a> that part of heaven
\nWhere now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
\n50<\/sub>The bell then beating one–
\nEnter the Ghost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nPeace, break thee off! Look where it comes again!<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nIn the same figure like the King that’s dead.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nThou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.<\/p>\n

55<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>
\nLooks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMost like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nIt would be spoke to.[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nQuestion it, Horatio.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhat art thou that usurp’st[12]<\/sup><\/a> this time of night,
\n60<\/sub>Together with that fair and warlike form
\nIn which the majesty of buried Denmark[13]<\/sup><\/a>
\nDid sometimes[14]<\/sup><\/a> march? By heaven, I charge thee speak!<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nIt is offended.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nSee, it stalks away.<\/p>\n

65<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nStay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak!
\nExit the Ghost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\n‘Tis gone, and will not answer.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nHow now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale.
\nIs not this something more than fantasy?
\n70<\/sub>What think you on’t?[15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nBefore my God, I might not this believe
\nWithout the sensible[16]<\/sup><\/a> and true avouch[17]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOf mine own eyes.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nIs it not like the King?<\/p>\n

75<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nAs thou art to thyself.
\nSuch was the very armor he had on
\nWhen he the ambitious Norway[18]<\/sup><\/a> combated.
\nSo frowned he once, when in an angry parle[19]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHe smote the sledded Polacks[20]<\/sup><\/a> on the ice.
\n80<\/sub>‘Tis strange.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nThus twice before, and jump[21]<\/sup><\/a> at this dead hour,
\nWith martial stalk[22]<\/sup><\/a> hath he gone by our watch.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIn what particular thought to work[23]<\/sup><\/a> I know not,
\nBut in the gross and scope of mine opinion[24]<\/sup><\/a>
\n85<\/sub>This bodes[25]<\/sup><\/a> some strange eruption to our state.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nGood now,[26]<\/sup><\/a> sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
\nWhy this same strict and most observant watch
\nSo nightly toils the subject[27]<\/sup><\/a> of the land,
\nAnd why such daily cast[28]<\/sup><\/a> of brazen[29]<\/sup><\/a> cannon
\n90<\/sub>And foreign mart[30]<\/sup><\/a> for implements of war,
\nWhy such impress[31]<\/sup><\/a> of shipwrights, whose sore task
\nDoes not divide the Sunday from the week:[32]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhat might be toward,[33]<\/sup><\/a> that this sweaty haste
\nDoth make the night joint-laborer with the day?[34]<\/sup><\/a>
\n95<\/sub>Who is’t that can inform me?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nThat can I.
\nAt least the whisper goes so: our last King,
\nWhose image even but now appeared to us,
\nWas as you know by Fortinbras of Norway,[35]<\/sup><\/a> by a most emulate[36]<\/sup><\/a> pride,
\nDared to the combat;[37]<\/sup><\/a> in which our valiant Hamlet–
\nFor so this side of our known world[38]<\/sup><\/a> esteemed him–
\nDid slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed[39]<\/sup><\/a> compact
\nWell ratified by law and heraldry[40]<\/sup><\/a>
\n105<\/sub>Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
\nWhich he stood seized of,[41]<\/sup><\/a> to the conqueror;
\nAgainst the which a moiety competent
\nWas gag\u00e8d by our King,[42]<\/sup><\/a> which had returned[43]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTo the inheritance of Fortinbras
\n110<\/sub>Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same cov’nant[44]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd carriage of the article design[ed][45]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHis fell to Hamlet.[46]<\/sup><\/a> Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
\nOf unimprov\u00e8d mettle hot and full,[47]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHath in the skirts[48]<\/sup><\/a> of Norway here and there
\n115<\/sub>Sharked up a list of landless resolutes[49]<\/sup><\/a>
\nFor food and diet to some enterprise
\nThat hath a stomach in’t,[50]<\/sup><\/a> which is no other,
\nAs it doth well appear unto our state,
\nBut to recover of us[51]<\/sup><\/a> by strong hand
\n120<\/sub>And terms compulsative those foresaid lands
\nSo by his father[52]<\/sup><\/a> lost. And this, I take it,
\nIs the main motive of our preparations,
\nThe source[53]<\/sup><\/a> of this our watch, and the chief head
\nOf this post-haste and rummage[54]<\/sup><\/a> in the land.<\/p>\n

124.1<\/sub>Barnardo<\/strong>
\nI think it be no other but e’en so.
\nWell may it sort that[55]<\/sup><\/a> this portentous figure
\nComes arm\u00e8d through our watch so like the King
\nThat was and is the question of these wars.<\/p>\n

124.5<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nA mote[56]<\/sup><\/a> it is to trouble the mind’s eye.
\nIn the most high and palmy[57]<\/sup><\/a> state of Rome,
\nA little ere[58]<\/sup><\/a> the mightiest Julius[59]<\/sup><\/a> fell,
\nThe graves stood tenantless,[60]<\/sup><\/a> and the sheeted[61]<\/sup><\/a> dead
\nDid squeak and gibber in the Roman streets,
\n124.10<\/sub>As[62]<\/sup><\/a> stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,[63]<\/sup><\/a>
\nDisasters[64]<\/sup><\/a> in the sun; and the moist star,[65]<\/sup><\/a>
\nUpon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands,[66]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWas sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.[67]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd even the like precurse of feared events,
\n124.15<\/sub>As harbingers preceding still the fates
\nAnd prologue to the omen coming on,
\nHave heaven and earth together demonstrated
\nUnto our climatures and countrymen.[68]<\/sup><\/a>
\n125<\/sub>Enter Ghost again.<\/em>
\nBut soft,[69]<\/sup><\/a> behold, lo, where it comes again!
\nI’ll cross it[70]<\/sup><\/a> though it blast me.[71]<\/sup><\/a>–Stay, illusion!
\nIt spreads his arms.<\/em>
\nIf thou hast any sound or use of voice,
\nSpeak to me!
\n130<\/sub>If there be any good thing to be done
\nThat may to thee do ease and grace to me,
\nSpeak to me!
\nIf thou art privy to[72]<\/sup><\/a> thy country’s fate,
\nWhich happily[73]<\/sup><\/a> foreknowing may avoid,
\nOh, speak!
\nOr if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
\nExtorted treasure in the womb of earth,
\n135<\/sub>For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
\nSpeak of it. Stay and speak!
\nThe cock crows.<\/em>
\nStop it, Marcellus!<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nShall I strike at it with my partisan[74]<\/sup><\/a>?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nDo, if it will not stand.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\n‘Tis here.<\/p>\n

140<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\n‘Tis here.
\nExit Ghost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\n‘Tis gone.
\nWe do it wrong, being so majestical,
\nTo offer it the show of violence,
\nFor it is as the air, invulnerable,
\n145<\/sub>And our vain blows malicious mockery.<\/p>\n

Barnardo<\/strong>
\nIt was about to speak when the cock crew.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nAnd then it started[75]<\/sup><\/a> like a guilty thing
\nUpon a fearful summons. I have heard
\nThe cock, that is the trumpet[76]<\/sup><\/a> to the morn,
\n150<\/sub>Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
\nAwake the god of day, and, at his warning,
\nWhether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
\nTh’extravagant and erring[77]<\/sup><\/a> spirit hies[78]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTo his confine; and of the truth herein
\n155<\/sub>This present object made probation.[79]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nIt faded on the crowing of the cock.
\nSome say that ever ‘gainst[80]<\/sup><\/a> that season comes
\nWherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,
\nThe bird of dawning[81]<\/sup><\/a> singeth all night long,
\n160<\/sub>And then they say no spirit can walk abroad;
\nThe nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,[82]<\/sup><\/a>
\nNo fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,[83]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSo hallowed and so gracious[84]<\/sup><\/a> is that time.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nSo have I heard and do in part believe it.
\n165<\/sub>But look, the morn in russet[85]<\/sup><\/a> mantle clad
\nWalks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
\nBreak we our watch up, and by my advice
\nLet us impart what we have seen tonight
\nUnto young Hamlet, for, upon my life,
\n170<\/sub>This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
\nDo you consent we shall acquaint him with it
\nAs needful in our loves, fitting our duty?<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nLet’s do ‘t, I pray, and I this morning know
\nWhere we shall find him most conveniently.
\nExeunt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scene 2<\/h1>\n

Flourish.<\/em>[86]<\/sup><\/a> Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his sister Ophelia, Lords attendant [including Voltemand and Cornelius].<\/em><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nThough yet of Hamlet our[87]<\/sup><\/a> dear brother’s death
\n180<\/sub>The memory be green, and that it us befitted
\nTo bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
\nTo be contracted in one brow of woe,
\nYet so far hath discretion fought with nature
\nThat we with wisest sorrow think on him
\n185<\/sub>Together with remembrance of ourselves.
\nTherefore our sometime[88]<\/sup><\/a> sister, now our queen,
\nTh’imperial jointress[89]<\/sup><\/a> of this warlike state,
\nHave we as ’twere with a defeated joy,
\nWith one auspicious and one dropping eye,[90]<\/sup><\/a>
\n190<\/sub>With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
\nIn equal scale weighing delight and dole,[91]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTaken to wife. Nor have we herein barred
\nYour better wisdoms,[92]<\/sup><\/a> which have freely gone
\nWith this affair along.[93]<\/sup><\/a> For all, our thanks.
\n195<\/sub>Now follows that you know: young Fortinbras,
\nHolding a weak supposal of our worth,
\nOr thinking by our late[94]<\/sup><\/a> dear brother’s death
\nOur state to be disjoint and out of frame,[95]<\/sup><\/a>
\nCo-leagu\u00e8d with this dream of his advantage,[96]<\/sup><\/a>
\n200<\/sub>He hath not failed to pester us with message
\nImporting[97]<\/sup><\/a> the surrender of those lands
\nLost by his father, with all bonds of law,
\nTo our most valiant brother. So much for him.
\n205<\/sub>Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting,
\nThus much the business is: we have here writ
\nTo Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
\nWho, impotent and bed-rid,[98]<\/sup><\/a> scarcely hears
\nOf this his nephew’s purpose, to suppress
\n210<\/sub>His further gait herein, in that the levies,
\nThe lists, and full proportions are all made
\nOut of his subject;[99]<\/sup><\/a> and we here dispatch
\nYou, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
\nFor bearers[100]<\/sup><\/a> of this greeting to old Norway,
\n215<\/sub>Giving to you no further personal power
\nTo business with the King more than the scope
\nOf these dilated[101]<\/sup><\/a> articles allow.
\nFarewell, and let your haste commend your duty.[102]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Cornelius and Voltemand<\/strong>
\nIn that and all things will we show our duty.<\/p>\n

220<\/sub>King<\/strong>
\nWe doubt it nothing.[103]<\/sup><\/a> Heartily farewell.
\nExeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.<\/em>
\nAnd now, Laertes, what’s the news with you?
\nYou told us of some suit. What is’t, Laertes?
\nYou cannot speak of reason to the Dane[104]<\/sup><\/a>
\n225<\/sub>And lose your voice.[105]<\/sup><\/a> What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
\nThat shall not be my offer, not thy asking?[106]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThe head is not more native[107]<\/sup><\/a> to the heart,
\nThe hand more instrumental to the mouth,[108]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThan is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
\n230<\/sub>What wouldst thou have, Laertes?<\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nDread my lord,[109]<\/sup><\/a>
\nYour leave and favor[110]<\/sup><\/a> to return to France,
\nFrom whence though willingly I came to Denmark
\nTo show my duty in your coronation,
\n235<\/sub>Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
\nMy thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
\nAnd bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.[111]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nHave you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?<\/p>\n

240<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nH’ath,[112]<\/sup><\/a> my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
\n240.1<\/sub>By laborsome petition, and at last
\nUpon his will I sealed my hard consent.[113]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI do beseech you, give him leave to go.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nTake thy fair hour,[114]<\/sup><\/a> Laertes. Time be thine,
\nAnd thy best graces spend it at thy will.[115]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut now, my cousin[116]<\/sup><\/a> Hamlet, and my son–<\/p>\n

245<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nA little more than kin, and less than kind.[117]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nHow is it that the clouds still hang on you?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNot so, my lord, I am too much i’th’ sun.[118]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Queen<\/strong>
\nGood Hamlet, cast thy nighted color[119]<\/sup><\/a> off
\nAnd let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.[120]<\/sup><\/a>
\n250<\/sub>Do not forever with thy vail\u00e8d lids[121]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSeek for thy noble father in the dust.
\nThou know’st ’tis common:[122]<\/sup><\/a> all that lives must die,
\nPassing through nature to eternity.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAy, madam, it is common.<\/p>\n

255<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>
\nIf it be,
\nWhy seems it so particular[123]<\/sup><\/a> with thee?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is, I know not “seems.”
\n‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
\nNor customary suits of solemn black,
\n260<\/sub>Nor windy suspiration[124]<\/sup><\/a> of forced breath,
\nNo, nor the fruitful river[125]<\/sup><\/a> in the eye,
\nNor the dejected havior[126]<\/sup><\/a> of the visage,
\nTogether with all forms, moods,[127]<\/sup><\/a> shapes of grief
\nThat can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
\n265<\/sub>For they are actions that a man might play.
\nBut I have that within which passeth show;
\nThese but the trappings[128]<\/sup><\/a> and the suits of woe.<\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\n‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
\n270<\/sub>To give these mourning duties to your father.
\nBut you must know your father lost a father;
\nThat father lost,[129]<\/sup><\/a> lost his, and the survivor bound
\nIn filial obligation for some term
\nTo do obsequious[130]<\/sup><\/a> sorrow; but to persever
\n275<\/sub>In obstinate condolement is a course
\nOf impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief.
\nIt shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
\nA heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
\nAn understanding simple and unschooled;
\n280<\/sub>For what we know must be and is as common
\nAs any the most vulgar thing to sense,[131]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhy should we in our peevish opposition
\nTake it to heart? Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,
\nA fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
\n285<\/sub>To reason most absurd, whose common theme
\nIs death of fathers, and who still[132]<\/sup><\/a> hath cried
\nFrom the first corpse[133]<\/sup><\/a> till he that died today
\n“This must be so.” We pray you throw to earth
\nThis unprevailing[134]<\/sup><\/a> woe, and think of us
\n290<\/sub>As of a father; for let the world take note
\nYou are the most immediate[135]<\/sup><\/a> to our throne,
\nAnd with no less nobility of love
\nThan that which dearest father bears his son
\nDo I impart toward you. For[136]<\/sup><\/a> your intent
\n295<\/sub>In going back to school in Wittenberg,[137]<\/sup><\/a>
\nIt is most retrograde[138]<\/sup><\/a> to our desire,
\nAnd we beseech you bend you[139]<\/sup><\/a> to remain
\nHere in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
\nOur chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.<\/p>\n

300<\/sub>Queen<\/strong>
\nLet not thy mother lose her prayers,[140]<\/sup><\/a> Hamlet.
\nI pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI shall in all my best obey you, madam.[141]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

King<\/strong>
\nWhy, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.
\n305<\/sub>Be as ourself[142]<\/sup><\/a> in Denmark.–Madam, come.
\nThis gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
\nSits smiling to[143]<\/sup><\/a> my heart, in grace[144]<\/sup><\/a> whereof
\nNo jocund[145]<\/sup><\/a> health that Denmark[146]<\/sup><\/a> drinks today
\nBut the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,[147]<\/sup><\/a>
\n310<\/sub>And the King’s rouse[148]<\/sup><\/a> the heavens shall bruit again,[149]<\/sup><\/a>
\nRespeaking earthly thunder.[150]<\/sup><\/a> Come, away!
\nFlourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nOh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
\nThaw, and resolve[151]<\/sup><\/a> itself into a dew!
\n315<\/sub>Or that the Everlasting[152]<\/sup><\/a> had not fixed
\nHis canon[153]<\/sup><\/a> ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh, God, God,
\nHow weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
\nSeem to me all the uses of this world!
\nFie on’t, ah, fie! ‘Tis an unweeded garden
\n320<\/sub>That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature[154]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPossess it merely.[155]<\/sup><\/a> That it should come to this!
\nBut two months dead–nay, not so much, not two!
\nSo excellent a king, that was to this[156]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHyperion[157]<\/sup><\/a> to a satyr,[158]<\/sup><\/a> so loving to my mother
\n325<\/sub>That he might not beteem[159]<\/sup><\/a> the winds of heaven
\nVisit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,
\nMust I remember? Why, she would hang on him
\nAs if increase of appetite had grown
\nBy what it fed on.[160]<\/sup><\/a> And yet within a month–
\n330<\/sub>Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman!
\nA little month,[161]<\/sup><\/a> or ere[162]<\/sup><\/a> those shoes were old
\nWith which she followed my poor father’s body,
\nLike Niobe,[163]<\/sup><\/a> all tears, why, she, even she–
\nOh, God, a beast that wants discourse of reason[164]<\/sup><\/a>
\n335<\/sub>Would have mourned longer!–married with my uncle,
\nMy father’s brother, but no more like my father
\nThan I to Hercules.[165]<\/sup><\/a> Within a month,
\nEre yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
\nHad left the flushing of her gall\u00e8d[166]<\/sup><\/a> eyes,
\n340<\/sub>She married. Oh, most wicked speed, to post[167]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWith such dexterity to incestuous[168]<\/sup><\/a> sheets!
\nIt is not, nor it cannot come to good,
\nBut break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
\nEnter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo.<\/em><\/p>\n

345<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nHail to your lordship!<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI am glad to see you well.–
\nHoratio, or I do forget myself![169]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nThe same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.<\/p>\n

350<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nSir, my good friend, I’ll change that name with you.[170]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd what make you from[171]<\/sup><\/a> Wittenberg, Horatio?–
\nMarcellus.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nMy good lord.<\/p>\n

355<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI am very glad to see you.[172]<\/sup><\/a> [To Barnardo.]<\/em> Good even, sir.
\n[To Horatio]<\/em> But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nA truant disposition, good my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI would not have your enemy say so,
\nNor shall you do my ear that violence
\n360<\/sub>To make it truster of your own report
\nAgainst yourself.[173]<\/sup><\/a> I know you are no truant.
\nBut what is your affair in Elsinore?
\nWe’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.<\/p>\n

365<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI prithee do not mock me, fellow student.
\nI think it was to see my mother’s wedding.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIndeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.[174]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats
\nDid coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.[175]<\/sup><\/a>
\n370<\/sub>Would I had met my dearest[176]<\/sup><\/a> foe in heaven
\nEre I had ever seen that day, Horatio!
\nMy father–methinks I see my father.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nOh, where, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIn my mind’s eye, Horatio.<\/p>\n

375<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nI saw him once. ‘A[177]<\/sup><\/a> was a goodly king.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHe was a man, take him for all in all,
\nI shall not look upon his like again.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I think I saw him yesternight.[178]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nSaw? Who?<\/p>\n

380<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nMy lord, the King your father.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThe King my father?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nSeason your admiration[179]<\/sup><\/a> for a while
\nWith an attent[180]<\/sup><\/a> ear till I may deliver,
\nUpon the witness of these gentlemen,
\n385<\/sub>This marvel to you.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nFor God’s love, let me hear!<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nTwo nights together had these gentlemen,
\nMarcellus and Barnardo, on their watch
\nIn the dead waste[181]<\/sup><\/a> and middle of the night
\n390<\/sub>Been thus encountered: a figure like your father
\nArmed at all points,[182]<\/sup><\/a> exactly, cap-\u00e0-pie,[183]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAppears before them, and with solemn march
\nGoes slow[184]<\/sup><\/a> and stately by them. Thrice he walked
\nBy their oppressed and fear-surpris\u00e8d eyes[185]<\/sup><\/a>
\n395<\/sub>Within his truncheon’s[186]<\/sup><\/a> length, whilst they, distilled
\nAlmost to jelly with the act[187]<\/sup><\/a> of fear,
\nStand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
\nIn dreadful[188]<\/sup><\/a> secrecy impart they did,
\nAnd I with them the third night kept the watch,
\n400<\/sub>Where, as they had delivered, both in time,
\nForm of the thing, each word made true and good,
\nThe apparition comes. I knew your father.
\nThese hands are not more like.[189]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nBut where was this?<\/p>\n

405<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>
\nMy lord, upon the platform[190]<\/sup><\/a> where we watched.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nDid you not speak to it?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMy lord, I did,
\nBut answer made it none. Yet once methought
\nIt lifted up it head[191]<\/sup><\/a> and did address
\n410<\/sub>Itself to motion, like as it would speak;[192]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut even[193]<\/sup><\/a> then the morning cock crew loud,
\nAnd at the sound it shrunk in haste away
\nAnd vanished from our sight.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n‘Tis very strange.<\/p>\n

415<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nAs I do live, my honored lord, ’tis true,
\nAnd we did think it writ down in our duty[194]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTo let you know of it.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIndeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
\nHold you the watch tonight?<\/p>\n

420<\/sub>All<\/strong>[195]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWe do, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nArmed, say you?<\/p>\n

All<\/strong>
\nArmed, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nFrom top to toe?<\/p>\n

All<\/strong>
\nMy lord, from head to foot.<\/p>\n

425<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThen saw you not his face?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nOh, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver[196]<\/sup><\/a> up.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhat looked he, frowningly?[197]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nA countenance[198]<\/sup><\/a> more in sorrow than in anger.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nPale, or red?<\/p>\n

430<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nNay, very pale.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAnd fixed his eyes upon you?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMost constantly.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI would[199]<\/sup><\/a> I had been there.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIt would have much amazed you.<\/p>\n

435<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nVery like, very like.[200]<\/sup><\/a> Stayed it long?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhile one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.<\/p>\n

Both<\/strong>[201]<\/sup><\/a>
\nLonger, longer.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nNot when I saw’t.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHis beard was grizzled, no?[202]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

440<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nIt was as I have seen it in his life,
\nA sable silvered.[203]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI will watch[204]<\/sup><\/a> tonight.
\nPerchance ’twill walk again.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nI warr’nt[205]<\/sup><\/a> it will.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIf it assume my noble father’s person,
\n445<\/sub>I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
\nAnd bid me hold my peace.[206]<\/sup><\/a> I pray you all,
\nIf you have hitherto concealed this sight
\nLet it be tenable[207]<\/sup><\/a> in your silence still,
\nAnd whatsomever else shall hap tonight,
\n450<\/sub>Give it an understanding but no tongue;
\nI will requite[208]<\/sup><\/a> your loves. So, fare you well.
\nUpon the platform ‘twixt eleven and twelve
\nI’ll visit you.<\/p>\n

All<\/strong>
\nOur duty to your honor.
\nExeunt [all but Hamlet].<\/em><\/p>\n

455<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nYour loves, as mine to you.[209]<\/sup><\/a> Farewell.
\nMy father’s spirit–in arms! All is not well.
\nI doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
\nTill then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
\nThough all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
\nExit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scene 3<\/h1>\n

Enter<\/em>[210]<\/sup><\/a> Laertes, and Ophelia his sister.<\/em><\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nMy necessaries are embarked.[211]<\/sup><\/a> Farewell.
\nAnd sister, as[212]<\/sup><\/a> the winds give benefit
\nAnd convoy is assistant, do[213]<\/sup><\/a> not sleep
\n465<\/sub>But let[214]<\/sup><\/a> me hear from you.<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nDo you doubt that?<\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nFor Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,[215]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHold it a fashion and a toy in blood,[216]<\/sup><\/a>
\nA violet in the youth of primy nature,[217]<\/sup><\/a>
\n470<\/sub>Forward,[218]<\/sup><\/a> not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
\nThe perfume and suppliance of a minute,[219]<\/sup><\/a>
\nNo more.<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nNo more but so?<\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nThink it no more.
\nFor nature crescent does not grow alone
\n475<\/sub>In thews and bulk, but as this temple[220]<\/sup><\/a> waxes
\nThe inward service of the mind and soul
\nGrows wide withal.[221]<\/sup><\/a> Perhaps he loves you now,
\nAnd now no soil nor cautel[222]<\/sup><\/a> doth besmirch
\nThe virtue of his will;[223]<\/sup><\/a> but you must fear,
\n480<\/sub>His greatness weighed,[224]<\/sup><\/a> his will is not his own,
\nFor he himself is subject to his birth.
\nHe may not, as unvalued persons[225]<\/sup><\/a> do,
\nCarve for himself,[226]<\/sup><\/a> for on his choice depends
\nThe safety and health of the whole state,
\n485<\/sub>And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
\nUnto the voice and yielding[227]<\/sup><\/a> of that body[228]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
\nIt fits your wisdom so far to believe it
\nAs he in his particular act and place[229]<\/sup><\/a>
\n490<\/sub>May give his saying deed, which is no further
\nThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal.[230]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThen weigh what loss your honor may sustain
\nIf with too credent[231]<\/sup><\/a> ear you list[232]<\/sup><\/a> his songs,
\nOr lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
\n495<\/sub>To his unmastered importunity.[233]<\/sup><\/a>
\nFear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
\nAnd keep within the rear of your affection,
\nOut of the shot and danger of desire.[234]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThe chariest[235]<\/sup><\/a> maid is prodigal enough
\n500<\/sub>If she unmask her beauty to the moon.[236]<\/sup><\/a>
\nVirtue itself scapes not calumnious[237]<\/sup><\/a> strokes.
\nThe canker galls the infants of the spring[238]<\/sup><\/a>
\nToo oft before their buttons be disclosed,[239]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd in the morn and liquid dew of youth[240]<\/sup><\/a>
\n505<\/sub>Contagious blastments[241]<\/sup><\/a> are most imminent.
\nBe wary, then; best safety lies in fear.
\nYouth to itself rebels, though none else near.[242]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nI shall the effect of this good lesson keep
\nAs watchman to my heart.[243]<\/sup><\/a> But, good my brother,
\n510<\/sub>Do not, as some ungracious[244]<\/sup><\/a> pastors do,
\nShow me the steep and thorny way to heaven
\nWhilst, like a puffed[245]<\/sup><\/a> and reckless libertine,
\nHimself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
\nAnd recks not his own rede.[246]<\/sup><\/a>
\nEnter Polonius<\/em><\/p>\n

515<\/sub>Laertes<\/strong>
\nOh, fear me not.[247]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI stay too long. But here my father comes.
\nA double blessing is a double grace;
\nOccasion smiles upon a second leave.[248]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

520<\/sub>Polonius<\/strong>
\nYet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
\nThe wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,[249]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd you are stayed for. There, my blessing[250]<\/sup><\/a> with thee,
\nAnd these few precepts in thy memory
\nSee thou character.[251]<\/sup><\/a> Give thy thoughts no tongue,
\n525<\/sub>Nor any unproportioned thought his act.[252]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBe thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.[253]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThose friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
\nGrapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,[254]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut do not dull thy palm[255]<\/sup><\/a> with entertainment[256]<\/sup><\/a>
\n530<\/sub>Of each new-hatched, unfledged[257]<\/sup><\/a> comrade. Beware
\nOf entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
\nBear’t that th’oppos\u00e8d[258]<\/sup><\/a> may beware of thee.
\nGive every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
\nTake each man’s censure,[259]<\/sup><\/a> but reserve thy judgment.[260]<\/sup><\/a>
\n535<\/sub>Costly thy habit[261]<\/sup><\/a> as thy purse can buy,
\nBut not expressed in fancy[262]<\/sup><\/a>–rich, not gaudy,
\nFor the apparel oft proclaims the man,[263]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd they in France of the best rank and station
\nAre of all most select and generous, chief in that.[264]<\/sup><\/a>
\n540<\/sub>Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
\nFor loan oft loses both itself and friend,
\nAnd borrowing dulleth edge of husbandry.[265]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThis above all: to thine own self be true,
\nAnd it must follow as the night the day
\n545<\/sub>Thou canst not then be false to any man.
\nFarewell. My blessing season this in thee![266]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nMost humbly do I take my leave, my lord.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nThe time invites you. Go. Your servants tend.[267]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nFarewell, Ophelia, and remember well
\n550<\/sub>What I have said to you.<\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\n‘Tis in my memory locked,
\nAnd you yourself shall keep the key of it.<\/p>\n

Laertes<\/strong>
\nFarewell.
\nExit Laertes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nWhat is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?<\/p>\n

555<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>
\nSo please you, something touching[268]<\/sup><\/a> the Lord Hamlet.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMarry,[269]<\/sup><\/a> well bethought.[270]<\/sup><\/a>
\n‘Tis told me he hath very oft of late
\nGiven private time to you, and you yourself
\nHave of your audience[271]<\/sup><\/a> been most free and bounteous.
\n560<\/sub>If it be so–as so ’tis put on me,[272]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd that in way of caution–I must tell you
\nYou do not understand yourself[273]<\/sup><\/a> so clearly
\nAs it behooves[274]<\/sup><\/a> my daughter and your honor.[275]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWhat is between you? Give me up the truth.<\/p>\n

565<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>
\nHe hath, my lord, of late made many tenders[276]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOf his affection to me.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAffection? Pooh, you speak like a green[277]<\/sup><\/a> girl,
\nUnsifted[278]<\/sup><\/a> in such perilous circumstance.
\nDo you believe his “tenders,” as you call them?<\/p>\n

570<\/sub>Ophelia<\/strong>
\nI do not know, my lord, what I should think.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nMarry, I’ll teach you. Think yourself a baby
\nThat you have ta’en his tenders for true pay
\nWhich are not sterling.[279]<\/sup><\/a> Tender yourself more dearly,[280]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOr–not to crack the wind of the poor phrase
\n575<\/sub>Running it thus[281]<\/sup><\/a>–you’ll tender me a fool.[282]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nMy lord, he hath importuned me with love
\nIn honorable fashion.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAy, fashion[283]<\/sup><\/a> you may call it. Go to, go to.[284]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nAnd hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
\n580<\/sub>With almost all the holy vows of heaven.<\/p>\n

Polonius<\/strong>
\nAy, springes to catch woodcocks.[285]<\/sup><\/a> I do know
\nWhen the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
\nLends the tongue vows.[286]<\/sup><\/a> These blazes, daughter,
\nGiving more light than heat, extinct in both
\n585<\/sub>Even in their promise as it is a-making,[287]<\/sup><\/a>
\nYou must not take[288]<\/sup><\/a> for fire. From this time, daughter,
\nBe something[289]<\/sup><\/a> scanter of your maiden presence.
\nSet your entreatments at a higher rate
\nThan a command to parley.[290]<\/sup><\/a> For[291]<\/sup><\/a> Lord Hamlet,
\n590<\/sub>Believe so much in him[292]<\/sup><\/a> that he is young,
\nAnd with a larger tether may he walk
\nThan may be given you. In few,[293]<\/sup><\/a> Ophelia,
\nDo not believe his vows, for they are brokers[294]<\/sup><\/a>
\nNot of that dye which their investments show,[295]<\/sup><\/a>
\n595<\/sub>But mere implorators of unholy suits,
\nBreathing[296]<\/sup><\/a> like sanctified and pious bawds
\nThe better to beguile. This is for all:[297]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
\nHave you so slander any moment leisure[298]<\/sup><\/a>
\n600<\/sub>As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
\nLook to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.[299]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ophelia<\/strong>
\nI shall obey, my lord.
\nExeunt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scene 4<\/h1>\n

Enter<\/em>[300]<\/sup><\/a> Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThe air bites shrewdly;[301]<\/sup><\/a> it is very cold.<\/p>\n

605<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nIt is a nipping and an eager[302]<\/sup><\/a> air.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhat hour now?<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nI think it lacks of[303]<\/sup><\/a> twelve.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nNo, it is struck.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIndeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season[304]<\/sup><\/a>
\n610<\/sub>Wherein the spirit held his wont[305]<\/sup><\/a> to walk.
\nA flourish of trumpets, and two pieces[306]<\/sup><\/a> goes off.
\nWhat does this mean, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThe King doth wake[307]<\/sup><\/a> tonight and takes his rouse,[308]<\/sup><\/a>
\nKeeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels;[309]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd as he drains his drafts of Rhenish[310]<\/sup><\/a> down
\n615<\/sub>The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
\nThe triumph of his pledge.[311]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIs it a custom?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAy, marry,[312]<\/sup><\/a> is’t,
\nBut to my mind, though I am native here
\n620<\/sub>And to the manner born,[313]<\/sup><\/a> it is a custom
\nMore honored in the breach than the observance.[314]<\/sup><\/a>
\n621.1<\/sub>This heavy-headed revel east and west
\nMakes us traduced and taxed of other nations.[315]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThey clepe[316]<\/sup><\/a> us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
\nSoil our addition,[317]<\/sup><\/a> and indeed it takes
\n621.5<\/sub>From our achievements, though performed at height,[318]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThe pith and marrow of our attribute.[319]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSo, oft it chances in particular men,
\nThat, for some vicious mole of nature in them,[320]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs in their birth,[321]<\/sup><\/a> wherein they are not guilty,
\n621.10<\/sub>Since nature cannot choose his[322]<\/sup><\/a> origin,
\nBy the o’ergrowth of some complexion,[323]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOft breaking down the pales[324]<\/sup><\/a> and forts of reason,
\nOr by some habit that too much o’erleavens
\nThe form of plausive manners,[325]<\/sup><\/a> that these men,
\n621.15<\/sub>Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
\nBeing Nature’s livery, or Fortune’s star,[326]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHis virtues else,[327]<\/sup><\/a> be they as pure as grace,
\nAs infinite as man may undergo,[328]<\/sup><\/a>
\nShall in the general censure take corruption[329]<\/sup><\/a>
\n621.20<\/sub>From that particular fault. The dram of evil
\nDoth all the noble substance often dout
\nTo his own scandal.[330]<\/sup><\/a>
\nEnter Ghost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nLook, my lord, it comes!<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAngels and ministers of grace defend us![331]<\/sup><\/a>
\n625<\/sub>Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,[332]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBring with thee airs from heaven or blasts[333]<\/sup><\/a> from hell,
\nBe thy intents[334]<\/sup><\/a> wicked or charitable,
\nThou com’st in such a questionable shape
\nThat I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,
\n630<\/sub>King, father, royal Dane. Oh, answer me!
\nLet me not burst in ignorance, but tell
\nWhy thy canonized[335]<\/sup><\/a> bones, hears\u00e8d[336]<\/sup><\/a> in death,
\nHave burst their cerements?[337]<\/sup><\/a> Why the sepulcher
\nWherein we saw thee quietly inurned[338]<\/sup><\/a>
\n635<\/sub>Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
\nTo cast thee up again? What may this mean
\nThat thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel[339]<\/sup><\/a>
\nRevisits thus the glimpses of the moon,[340]<\/sup><\/a>
\nMaking night hideous, and we fools of nature[341]<\/sup><\/a>
\n640<\/sub>So horridly to shake our disposition[342]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWith thoughts beyond the reaches[343]<\/sup><\/a> of our souls?
\nSay, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
\n[The] Ghost beckons Hamlet.<\/em><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nIt beckons you to go away with it,
\n645<\/sub>As if it some impartment did desire
\nTo you alone.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nLook with what courteous action
\nIt wafts you to a more remov\u00e8d ground.
\nBut do not go with it.<\/p>\n

650<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nNo, by no means.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIt will not speak. Then I will follow it.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nDo not, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy, what should be the fear?
\nI do not set my life at a pin’s fee,[344]<\/sup><\/a>
\n655<\/sub>And for[345]<\/sup><\/a> my soul, what can it do to that,
\nBeing a thing immortal as itself?
\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em>
\nIt waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhat if it tempt you toward the flood,[346]<\/sup><\/a> my lord,
\nOr to the dreadful summit of the cliff
\n660<\/sub>That beetles o’er his base[347]<\/sup><\/a> into the sea,
\nAnd there assume some other horrible form
\nWhich might deprive your sovereignty of reason[348]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd draw you into madness? Think of it:
\n663.1<\/sub>The very place puts toys of desperation,[349]<\/sup><\/a>
\nWithout more motive, into every brain
\nThat looks so many fathoms[350]<\/sup><\/a> to the sea
\nAnd hears it roar beneath.
\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIt wafts me still.–Go on, I’ll follow thee.<\/p>\n

665<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>
\nYou shall not go, my lord.
\n[They attempt to restrain him.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHold off your hands!<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nBe ruled. You shall not go.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nMy fate cries out[351]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd makes each petty[352]<\/sup><\/a> artery in this body
\n670<\/sub>As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.[353]<\/sup><\/a>
\n[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.]<\/em>
\nStill am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen!
\nBy heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.
\nI say, away!–Go on, I’ll follow thee.
\nExeunt Ghost and Hamlet.<\/em><\/p>\n

675<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nHe waxes desperate with imagination.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nLet’s follow. ‘Tis not fit thus to obey him.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nHave after.[354]<\/sup><\/a> To what issue[355]<\/sup><\/a> will this come?<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nHeaven will direct[356]<\/sup><\/a> it.<\/p>\n

680<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>
\nNay, let’s follow him.
\nExeunt.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scene 5<\/h1>\n

Enter<\/em>[357]<\/sup><\/a> Ghost and Hamlet.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nMark me.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI will.<\/p>\n

685<\/sub>Ghost<\/strong>
\nMy hour is almost come
\nWhen I to sulf’rous and tormenting flames
\nMust render up myself.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAlas, poor ghost!<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nPity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
\n690<\/sub>To what I shall unfold.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nSpeak. I am bound[358]<\/sup><\/a> to hear.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nSo art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhat?<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nI am thy father’s spirit,
\n695<\/sub>Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
\nAnd for the day confined to fast[359]<\/sup><\/a> in fires,
\nTill the foul crimes[360]<\/sup><\/a> done in my days of nature[361]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAre burnt and purged[362]<\/sup><\/a> away. But that[363]<\/sup><\/a> I am forbid
\nTo tell the secrets of my prison house,
\n700<\/sub>I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
\nWould harrow up[364]<\/sup><\/a> thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
\nMake thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,[365]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThy knotted and combin\u00e8d locks[366]<\/sup><\/a> to part,
\nAnd each particular hair to stand on end[367]<\/sup><\/a>
\n705<\/sub>Like quills upon the fretful[368]<\/sup><\/a> porpentine.[369]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut this eternal blazon[370]<\/sup><\/a> must not be
\nTo ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, oh, list:[371]<\/sup><\/a>
\nIf thou didst ever thy dear father love–<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nO God!<\/p>\n

710<\/sub>Ghost<\/strong>
\nRevenge his foul and most unnatural murder.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nMurder?<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nMurder most foul, as in the best it is,[372]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut this most foul, strange, and unnatural.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\n715<\/sub>Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift
\nAs meditation or the thoughts of love
\nMay sweep to my revenge.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nI find thee apt,
\nAnd duller shouldst thou be than the fat[373]<\/sup><\/a> weed
\n720<\/sub>That rots itself in ease on Lethe[374]<\/sup><\/a> wharf
\nWouldst thou[375]<\/sup><\/a> not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
\n‘Tis given out[376]<\/sup><\/a> that, sleeping in my orchard,[377]<\/sup><\/a>
\nA serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
\nIs by a forg\u00e8d process[378]<\/sup><\/a> of my death
\n725<\/sub>Rankly abused.[379]<\/sup><\/a> But know, thou noble youth,
\nThe serpent that did sting[380]<\/sup><\/a> thy father’s life
\nNow wears his crown.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nOh, my prophetic soul! My uncle?<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nAy, that incestuous,[381]<\/sup><\/a> that adulterate[382]<\/sup><\/a> beast,
\n730<\/sub>With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts[383]<\/sup><\/a>—
\nOh, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
\nSo to seduce!–won to his shameful lust
\nThe will of my most seeming virtuous queen.
\nOh, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
\n735<\/sub>From me, whose love was of that dignity
\nThat it went hand in hand even with the vow[384]<\/sup><\/a>
\nI made to her in marriage, and to decline
\nUpon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
\nTo[385]<\/sup><\/a> those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved,
\n740<\/sub>Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
\nSo lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
\nWill sate itself[386]<\/sup><\/a> in a celestial bed
\nAnd prey on garbage.[387]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut soft,[388]<\/sup><\/a> methinks I scent the morning’s air.[389]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBrief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
\n745<\/sub>My custom always of the afternoon,
\nUpon my secure hour,[390]<\/sup><\/a> thy uncle stole
\nWith juice of curs\u00e8d hebona[391]<\/sup><\/a> in a vial,
\nAnd in the porches of my ears[392]<\/sup><\/a> did pour
\nThe leperous distillment,[393]<\/sup><\/a> whose effect
\n750<\/sub>Holds such an enmity with blood of man
\nThat swift as quicksilver[394]<\/sup><\/a> it courses through
\nThe natural gates and alleys of the body,
\nAnd with a sudden vigor it doth posset
\nAnd curd[395]<\/sup><\/a> like eager[396]<\/sup><\/a> droppings into milk
\n755<\/sub>The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine,
\nAnd a most instant tetter[397]<\/sup><\/a> barked about,
\nMost lazarlike[398]<\/sup><\/a> with vile and loathsome crust,[399]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAll my smooth body.
\nThus was I sleeping by a brother’s hand
\n760<\/sub>Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,[400]<\/sup><\/a>
\nCut off even in the blossoms of my sin,[401]<\/sup><\/a>
\nUnhousled, disappointed, unaneled,[402]<\/sup><\/a>
\nNo reck’ning[403]<\/sup><\/a> made, but sent to my account
\nWith all my imperfections on my head.
\n765<\/sub>Oh, horrible, oh, horrible, most horrible!
\nIf thou hast nature[404]<\/sup><\/a> in thee, bear it not.
\nLet not the royal bed of Denmark be
\nA couch for luxury[405]<\/sup><\/a> and damn\u00e8d incest.[406]<\/sup><\/a>
\nBut howsomever thou pursues this act,
\n770<\/sub>Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
\nAgainst thy mother aught;[407]<\/sup><\/a> leave her to heaven
\nAnd to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
\nTo prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.
\nThe glow-worm shows the matin[408]<\/sup><\/a> to be near
\n775<\/sub>And ‘gins to pale his[409]<\/sup><\/a> uneffectual fire.
\nAdieu, adieu, Hamlet! Remember me.
\nExit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nO all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
\nAnd shall I couple[410]<\/sup><\/a> hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold,[411]<\/sup><\/a> my heart,
\nAnd you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
\n780<\/sub>But bear me stiffly[412]<\/sup><\/a> up. Remember thee?
\nAy, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
\nIn this distracted globe.[413]<\/sup><\/a> Remember thee?
\nYea, from the table[414]<\/sup><\/a> of my memory
\nI’ll wipe away all trivial fond[415]<\/sup><\/a> records,[416]<\/sup><\/a>
\n785<\/sub>All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past[417]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat youth and observation copied there,[418]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd thy commandment all alone shall live
\nWithin the book and volume[419]<\/sup><\/a> of my brain,
\nUnmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven.
\n790<\/sub>Oh, most pernicious woman!
\nOh, villain, villain, smiling damn\u00e8d villain!
\nMy tables, my tables–meet[420]<\/sup><\/a> it is I set it down[421]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
\nAt least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
\n795<\/sub>So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.[422]<\/sup><\/a>
\nIt is “Adieu, adieu, remember me.”
\nI have sworn’t.
\nEnter Horatio and Marcellus [calling first from within].<\/em><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nMy lord, my lord!<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nLord Hamlet!<\/p>\n

800<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nHeavens secure him![423]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nSo be it.<\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nIllo, ho, ho, my lord![424]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHillo, ho, ho, boy, come, bird, come![425]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nHow is’t, my noble lord?<\/p>\n

805<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhat news, my lord?<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nOh, wonderful!<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nGood my lord, tell it.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNo, you’ll reveal it.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nNot I, my lord, by heaven.<\/p>\n

810<\/sub>Marcellus<\/strong>
\nNor I, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHow say you then, would heart of man once[426]<\/sup><\/a> think it–
\nBut you’ll be secret?<\/p>\n

Both<\/strong>
\nAy, by heaven, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nThere’s ne’er a villaindwelling in all Denmark
\n815<\/sub>But he’s an arrant knave.[427]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nThere needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
\nTo tell us this.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWhy, right, you are i’th’ right.
\nAnd so, without more circumstance[428]<\/sup><\/a> at all
\n820<\/sub>I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
\nYou as your business and desires shall point you
\n(For every man hath business and desire,
\nSuch as it is), and for my own poor part,
\nLook you, I’ll go pray.<\/p>\n

825<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nThese are but wild and whirling words, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nI am sorry they offend you–heartily,
\nYes, faith, heartily.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nThere’s no offense, my lord.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nYes, by Saint Patrick,[429]<\/sup><\/a> but there is, Horatio,
\n830<\/sub>And much offense[430]<\/sup><\/a> too. Touching[431]<\/sup><\/a> this vision here,
\nIt is an honest[432]<\/sup><\/a> ghost, that let me tell you.
\nFor[433]<\/sup><\/a> your desire to know what is between us,
\nO’ermaster it as you may. And now, good friends,
\nAs you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
\n835<\/sub>Give me one poor request.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nWhat is’t, my lord? We will.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNever make known what you have seen tonight.<\/p>\n

Both<\/strong>
\nMy lord, we will not.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNay, but swear’t.<\/p>\n

840<\/sub>Horatio<\/strong>
\nIn faith, my lord, not I.[434]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nNor I, my lord, in faith.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nUpon my sword.
\n[He holds out his sword.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcellus<\/strong>
\nWe have sworn, my lord, already.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nIndeed, upon my sword, indeed.
\n845<\/sub>Ghost cries under the stage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nSwear.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHa, ha, boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny[435]<\/sup><\/a>?–
\nCome on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage.
\nConsent to swear.<\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nPropose the oath, my lord.<\/p>\n

850<\/sub>Hamlet<\/strong>
\nNever to speak of this that you have seen.
\nSwear by my sword.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nSwear.
\n[They swear.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nHic et ubique?[436]<\/sup><\/a> Then we’ll shift our ground.[437]<\/sup><\/a>
\n[He moves them to another spot.]<\/em>
\nCome hither, gentlemen,
\n855<\/sub>And lay your hands again upon my sword.
\nNever to speak of this that you have heard
\nSwear by my sword.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nSwear by his sword.
\n[They swear.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nWell said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast?
\n860<\/sub>A worthy pioneer![438]<\/sup><\/a>–Once more remove,[439]<\/sup><\/a> good friends.
\n[They move once more.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Horatio<\/strong>
\nOh, day and night, but this is wondrous strange.<\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nAnd therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
\nThere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
\nThan are dreamt of in your philosophy.[440]<\/sup><\/a> But come,
\n865<\/sub>Here as before: never, so help you mercy,[441]<\/sup><\/a>
\nHow strange or odd some’er[442]<\/sup><\/a> I bear myself
\n(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
\nTo put an antic disposition on),[443]<\/sup><\/a>
\nThat you at such times seeing me never shall,
\n870<\/sub>With arms encumbered[444]<\/sup><\/a> thus, or this headshake,[445]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOr by pronouncing of some doubtful[446]<\/sup><\/a> phrase
\nAs, “Well, well, we know,” or “We could an if we would,”
\nOr “If we list[447]<\/sup><\/a> to speak,” or “There be, an if they might,”[448]<\/sup><\/a>
\nOr such ambiguous giving out, to note[449]<\/sup><\/a>
\n875<\/sub>That you know aught[450]<\/sup><\/a> of me. This not to do,
\nSo grace and mercy at your most need help you,[451]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSwear.<\/p>\n

Ghost<\/strong>
\nSwear.
\n[They swear.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/strong>
\nRest, rest, perturb\u00e8d spirit.–So, gentlemen,
\n880<\/sub>With all my love I do commend me to you,[452]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd what so poor a man as Hamlet is
\nMay do t’express his love and friending[453]<\/sup><\/a> to you,
\nGod willing, shall not lack.[454]<\/sup><\/a> Let us go in together,
\nAnd still[455]<\/sup><\/a> your fingers on your lips, I pray.
\n885<\/sub>The time is out of joint.[456]<\/sup><\/a> Oh, curs\u00e8d spite,
\nThat ever I was born to set it right!
\n[They wait for him to leave first.]<\/em>
\nNay, come, let’s go together.[457]<\/sup><\/a>
\nExeunt.<\/em><\/p>\n

  1. Identify who you are. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. Subjects of the Danish king. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. Fantastic imaginings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. Regarding, concerning. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  5. To come along with us. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  6. To keep watch with us tonight. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  7. Confirm, corroborate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  8. In the night just before the present one. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  9. Probably Arcturus, a bright star just to the west of the Big Dipper and the pole star or Polaris that is directly north in the night sky. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  10. To illuminate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  11. According to a widely held belief, ghosts could not speak until spoken to. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  12. You who wrongfully assert your authority over. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  13. The buried former King of Denmark, Hamlet's dead father. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  14. Formerly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  15. Of it. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  16. Evident to the senses (especially sight). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  17. Authority, confirmation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  18. King of Norway. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  19. Parley, conference with the enemy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  20. Poles traveling on sleds. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  21. Precisely. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  22. Stride. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  23. To organize my thoughts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  24. In my opinion, as I consider the whole topic. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  25. Foretells. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  26. i.e., I implore you all. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  27. Imposes toil on the subjects, the citizens. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  28. Casting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  29. Brass. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  30. Shopping abroad. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  31. Impressment, conscription. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  32. i.e., Requires them to work on Sunday just like every other day of the week. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  33. About to happen. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  34. i.e., Demands that work continue all twenty-four hours. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  35. Old Fortinbras, King of Norway (with whom old Hamlet fought as described in lines 64-5 TLN 76-7) above; not young Fortinbras, nephew of this present king. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  36. Competitive, rivalrous. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  37. Challenged to fight, one on one. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  38. i.e., all of Western Europe. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  39. Confirmed by an official seal. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  40. The laws and pageant customs of chivalry. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  41. Possessed of. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  42. In return for which a comparable portion of land was pledged by our King of Denmark. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  43. Which was to have been assigned. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  44. Contractual agreement. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  45. And intent of the contact in question. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  46. Old Fortinbras's lands would have been transferred to old Hamlet. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  47. Full of untested fiery spirits. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  48. Outskirts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  49. Rounded up a troop of restlessly ambitious younger sons and other gentry without landed title. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  50. To feed and supply a bold enterprise demanding appetite and raw courage for such a venture. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  51. From us. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  52. The old King of Norway, now dead, brother of the present Fortinbras of Norway. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  53. Motivation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  54. Frenetic activity and bustle. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  55. That could well explain why. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  56. Speck of dust. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  57. Flourishing, prosperous. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  58. Before. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  59. Julius Caesar. Caesar's assassination in Rome on March 15, 44 BC, is dramatized in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar<\/em>, where the event is heralded by many of the same prodigious omens cited in these lines. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  60. Unoccupied. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  61. Shrouded in grave-clothes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  62. Just as, like. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  63. Comets and their trails drizzling blood. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  64. Unfavorable astrological signs or aspects. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  65. i.e., the moon, governess of tides. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  66. The sea depends. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  67. The moon in eclipse was a foreboding sign of the day of Judgment and second coming of Christ predicted in Matthew 24.29 and Revelation 6.12. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  68. And no less fearful predictions of frightening happenings, serving as prognosticators and prologues incessantly preceding the calamitous events that are fated to come, are the means by which heaven and earth together make manifest to our regions and peoples what they can expect. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  69. i.e., gently, wait, hold on. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  70. Stand in its way, confront it; also, hold up a Christian cross in front of it (as Horatio may do here). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  71. Strike or wither me with a curse. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  72. Are possessed with secret knowledge of. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  73. Haply, perchance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  74. Long-handled, broad-bladed spear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  75. Moved suddenly and violently. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  76. Trumpeter, herald. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  77. Wandering, unrestrained. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  78. Hastens. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  79. Proof. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  80. Just before. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  81. The rooster. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  82. No planets exert their baleful influence. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  83. Cast a spell, enchant. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  84. Suffused with divine grace. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  85. Reddish brown. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  86. A trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of royalty, etc. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  87. The royal \"we,\" seen also in lines 2, 3, 6, 7 (ourselves). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  88. Former ↵<\/a><\/li>
  89. Joint possessor of the throne. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  90. With one eye smiling and the other tear-stained and lowered in grief. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  91. Sorrow. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  92. The sage advice of you elders and statesmen (like Polonius). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  93. Have freely given consent to this marriage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  94. Recent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  95. Totally disordered. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  96. Combined with this illusory dream of his having us at a disadvantage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  97. Concerning, signifying. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  98. Wasted by disease and confined to bed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  99. i.e., insisting that the Norwegian king put an end to Fortinbras's proceeding any further in this business, since the raising of troops and supplies is all made up out of the King of Norway's subjects (and are therefore at his disposal for military purposes, not young Fortinbras's). (\"The lists\" means \"The roster of the troops levied.\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  100. To serve as bearers. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  101. Expanded, set out at length. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  102. Let your swift carrying out of my command give testimony of your dutiful obedience. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  103. Not in the slightest. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  104. The Danish king. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  105. Waste your speech. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  106. i.e., That I will offer almost before you ask. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  107. Closely related. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  108. Useful in carrying out what is verbally commanded. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  109. My awe-inspiring lord and master. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  110. Gracious permission. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  111. And submissively ask your gracious permission and forgiveness for my having asked such a favor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  112. He has. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  113. I gave my reluctant consent, as though affixing a seal to a document of approval. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  114. Seize your opportunity while there is still time, while you are young. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  115. And may you spend your time guided by your best qualities and inclinations. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  116. Anyone related by blood or kinship but not of the immediate family. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  117. i.e., Involved in a family relationship that is at once too close and yet lacking in loving affection. \"Kind\" puns on the ideas of (1) blood relationship and (2) kindly feeling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  118. i.e., (1) too closely related as step-son to Claudius (2) too much in the sunshine of royal favor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  119. (1) dark mourning garments (2) melancholy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  120. The King of Denmark. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  121. Lowered eyelids. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  122. (1) a common occurrence (2) as Hamlet uses the term in line 74, \"vulgar, disgusting.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  123. Personal. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  124. Sighing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  125. Abundance of tears. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  126. Expression. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  127. Outward manifestations of feeling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  128. Outward decorative signs. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  129. That father who is now dead. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  130. Appropriate to obsequies or funerals. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  131. For since everything that happens to us must be as common as the most ordinary experience. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  132. Continually, always. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  133. The body of the first human ever to have died, Abel. The murder of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain, depicted in Genesis 4, is the first recorded death in the Bible after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden for their having disobeyed God. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  134. Profitless. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  135. Next in succession. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  136. As for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  137. The German city on the River Elbe, home to the famous university where in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirke, in what is conventionally regarded as the opening salvo of the Protestant Reformation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  138. Contrary. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  139. Yield to our wishes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  140. Fail to achieve the thing she prays for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  141. To the best of my ability. Hamlet pointedly replies to his mother, not to the King. He uses the formal \"you\" rather than \"thee,\" as was appropriate in addressing a parent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  142. Enjoy the privileges and status of royalty. (The plural \"ourself\" indicates the royal plural; it means \"myself, I as king.\") The King invites Hamlet to enjoy the same privileges as the King himself. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  143. Pleases. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  144. Honor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  145. Cheerful, merry, joyful. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  146. The King of Denmark, Claudius. Hamlet's disapproval of heavy drinking among the Danes as \"a custom \/ More honored in the breach than the observance,\" in 1.4.15 ff., is directed particularly at Claudius, who uses any public ceremony as the opportunity to raise a toast. Drinking is emblematic of his worldly covetousness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  147. Sound, announce. The firing of artillery is to mark the occasion, as at 1.4.6 ff. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  148. Bout of drinking, ceremonial toast. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  149. Loudly echo. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  150. Echoing our cannon. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  151. Dissolve. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  152. God. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  153. Divine law. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  154. Offensively vigorous in growth and coarse in their very natures. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  155. Completely. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  156. Compared to Claudius. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  157. Titan sun-god in Greek mythology. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  158. Lecherous half-goat, half-human deity of classical mythology. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  159. Would not allow. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  160. As if her desire and love for her husband was augmented by the intense pleasure of that love. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  161. Compare this interval of time with \"But two months dead\" at line 138 (TLN 322) above. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  162. Even before. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  163. When Niobe boasted that her fourteen children outnumbered those of Leto, Leto's children, Apollo and Artemis, slew all of Niobe's children as a punishment for their mother's hubris or pride. Turned by Zeus into a stone, Niobe never ceased her bitter tears, flowing as a spring from the rock. The story of Niobe and her children is told by (among others) Ovid in his Metamorphoses, 6.146-312. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  164. Lacks the ability to reason. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  165. Hero of classical mythology noted for his twelve \"labors,\" deeds requiring \"Herculean\" strength. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  166. Inflamed, irritated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  167. Hasten. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  168. Judaeo-Christian tradition (see Leviticus 18.16 and 20.21), incorporated into the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, forbade a man to marry his brother's wife' as Claudius has done in this play, and, historically as Henry VIII had done by marrying his dead brother Arthur's wife, Katharine of Aragon. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  169. i.e., I know you as well as I know myself. Hamlet, distracted and unhappy, does not recognize at first that Horatio is among those who have just entered and whom he initially greets with the conventional formula, \"I am glad to see you well.\" Compare today's formulaic \"How are you?\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  170. Share and exchange mutually the name of \"friend\" with you, rather than having you address me as your master. If anything, I am your servant. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  171. Are you going away from. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  172. Hamlet, realizing that in his excitement at seeing Horatio he has not observed the social niceties of greeting the others who have just arrived, repairs that little slip by welcoming Marcellus by name and then Barnardo with \"Good even, sir,\" before returning to his question to Horatio. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  173. Nor will I trust my own ears if they tell me you are calling yourself a truant, a delinquent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  174. Quickly afterwards. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  175. The food left uneaten from the funeral banquet, including meat pies and pastries, provided cold leftovers for the marriage festivities. A bitterly satiric exaggeration. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  176. Direst, most hated, bitterest. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  177. He. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  178. Last night. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  179. Moderate your astonishment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  180. Attentive. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  181. Lifeless desolation. Perhaps with a pun in \"waste\" on \"waist, middle.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  182. Provided with weapons in every detail. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  183. From head to foot. From old French. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  184. Slowly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  185. Eyes that show sudden surprise and fear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  186. A truncheon is a military officer's baton or staff, a sign of his office. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  187. Effect. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  188. Full of dread, dread-inspired. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  189. These two hands of mine are not more like each other than this apparition was like your father. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  190. Battlements of the castle. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  191. Its head. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  192. Moved in such a way as to suggest that it was about to speak. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  193. Just. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  194. Prescribed in the duty we owe you. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  195. i.e., Marcellus, Barnardo, and Horatio. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  196. Visor on the helmet. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  197. Did it appear that he was frowning? ↵<\/a><\/li>
  198. Expression. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  199. I wish. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  200. Very likely. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  201. i.e., Marcellus and Barnardo. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  202. Grey or mingled with grey, was it not? ↵<\/a><\/li>
  203. silvered Black sprinkled with silver-grey. The sable, prized then and now for its fur, is a carnivorous weasel-like mammal. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  204. Stand watch. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  205. Guarantee. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  206. Be silent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  207. Able to be held. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  208. Repay. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  209. i.e., I accept your \"duty\" as love, and I pledge my love to you in that same sense. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  210. Location: Polonius's apartment in the castle, or some place nearby. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  211. Loaded on board a sailing vessel. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  212. Whenever. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  213. And as means of transportation are available, do ↵<\/a><\/li>
  214. Without letting ↵<\/a><\/li>
  215. As for Hamlet and the attentions he pays you, which must be regarded as trifling. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  216. A passing fancy prompted by sexual attraction. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  217. i.e., Natural impulses in the springtime of their vigor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  218. Insistent, eagerly pulsating, early-blooming and soon to fade. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  219. Something sweet to supply the pleasures of a moment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  220. The body, temple of the soul. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  221. For all living creatures (especially humans), as they mature, grow not in physical strength alone, but as the body ages the inner qualities of mind and soul develop also. (\"Thews\" are sinews. \"Inward service\" is the inner life.) Laertes seems to be warning Ophelia that as Hamlet grows older, his interests may change. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  222. Stain or deceit. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  223. The sincerity of his desires and intentions. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  224. When his royal rank is taken into consideration. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  225. Persons of ordinary social standing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  226. Help himself to the choicest morsel of the roast; i.e., choose for himself. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  227. Expressed opinion and consent. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  228. The body politic, the state. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  229. In the particular circumstances to which he is restricted by his high station. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  230. Than general opinion in Denmark will go along with. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  231. Credulous, trusting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  232. Listen to. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  233. Uncontrolled urgency of desire. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  234. i.e., Don't let your passionate feelings lead you where you will be vulnerable to his amorous assaults. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  235. Most modest. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  236. Is taking enough of a risk if she merely expose herself to the chaste moon. The moon (Diana, Artemis, Phoebe), as a symbol of chaste affection, was widely associated with Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabethan ladies were careful to mask themselves from the sun; Ophelia is being urged to be even more cautious than that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  237. Slanderous. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  238. The cankerworm injures the budding flowers of springtime. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  239. Before their buds are open. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  240. In the early time of life, a time that has the freshness and innocence of the dew-sprinkled dawn. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  241. Blightings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  242. Youth yields to the rebellion of the flesh without any outside promptings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  243. Guardian over my affections. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  244. Ungodly, lacking in spiritual grace. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  245. Bloated or swollen (presumably with the arrogance of youth). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  246. Pays no heed to his own best advice. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  247. Don't worry about me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  248. The goddess Occasion or Opportunity has smiled upon me by provided me the chance to say goodbye to my father a second time and thereby receive from him a second blessing. In some modern productions, Laertes (and his sister too) are both rather put off by their father's tedious moralizing. If so, Laertes's speech here is tinged with irony; he thinks he's already been through the business of saying goodbye to his father. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  249. i.e., You have a following wind now, so don't delay. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  250. You are being waited for on board. There now, take my blessing. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  251. See to it that you inscribe. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  252. And do not act upon any thought that is inadequately thought through or miscalculated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  253. Be sociable but not indiscriminate in your social dealings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  254. Metal hoops such as would be used to hold together the sides of a barrel. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  255. i.e., shake hands so often as to make the gesture essentially meaningless. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  256. Greeting with a handshake. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  257. Newly hatched in the nest and still unable to fly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  258. Manage the business so that your adversary. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  259. Opinion, judgment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  260. Do not abandon your own opinion of what is said. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  261. Clothing, dress. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  262. Extravagant fashion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  263. We are what we wear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  264. Are of all people the most refined in manners and in choosing what to wear. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  265. Thrift. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  266. May my blessing enable my advice to mature and ripen in your mind. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  267. Attend, are waiting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  268. Concerning. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  269. i.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  270. Appropriately thought of; I'm glad you mentioned that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  271. Hearing, attention. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  272. Presented or suggested to me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  273. Appreciate your situation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  274. Befits. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  275. Reputation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  276. Offers. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  277. Inexperienced. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  278. Untried. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  279. Lawful currency. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  280. (1) Take better care of yourself; (2) Hold out for a better bargain, i.e., marriage. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  281. i.e., if I may use a metaphor from horsemanship, at the risk of running it so hard that it is broken-winded. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  282. (1) make me look foolish, and yourself as well; (2) present me with a grandchild. (The word \"fool\" could be applied to babies, often endearingly.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  283. Mere form, conventional flattery. (Playing on Ophelia's \"fashion\" in the previous line in the more usual sense of \"manner.\") ↵<\/a><\/li>
  284. i.e., What nonsense. (An expression of impatient dismissal). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  285. Traps to catch proverbially gullible birds. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  286. When passionate desire rages, how prodigally the soul prompts the tongue to promise anything to the desired person. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  287. Lacking any real feeling or warmth of affection from the very first moment of the promise-making. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  288. Mistake. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  289. Somewhat. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  290. Do not offer to surrender your chastity simply because he has requested a meeting to discuss terms. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  291. As for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  292. This much concerning him. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  293. In brief. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  294. Go-betweens, solicitors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  295. Not truly of the color that their garments seem to show. (The vows are not what they seem.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  296. Speaking. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  297. This is once for all; I don't want to have to say it again. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  298. Abuse any moment's leisure (or any occasion). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  299. Come along. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  300. Location: The battlements or rampart walls of the castle. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  301. Keenly, sharply. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  302. Biting, keen, sharp. From French \"aigre,\" sour. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  303. Is just short of. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  304. Time. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  305. Was accustomed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  306. i.e., of cannon, ordnance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  307. Revels into the night. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  308. Carouses. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  309. Drinks many toasts and drunkenly reels his way through a lively German dance called the \"upspring.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  310. Rhine wine. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  311. Raucously celebrate his draining the cup in his many celebratory toasts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  312. i.e., by the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  313. Having a lifelong familiarity with this custom. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  314. Better neglected than followed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  315. This drunken reveling causes us to be defamed and censored everywhere (east and west) by all other nations. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  316. Call. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  317. And tarnish our reputation by calling us swine. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  318. No matter how outstandingly performed. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  319. The very essence of the reputation we should enjoy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  320. Because of some inborn vicious inclination in them. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  321. The qualities bestowed on them by their parents and ancestors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  322. its. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  323. i.e., By one element of our constitution gaining undue dominance over the others. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  324. Palisades, barrier fences, serving as a fortification. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  325. i.e., prompts excessive behavior, thereby corrupting what would otherwise be acceptable and pleasing manners (much as too much yeast causes excessive swelling in the dough). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  326. Being the result of an inborn condition or a gift of Fortune, goddess of chance. Whether Nature and Fortune exerted the larger influence on human life was a favorite debating topic in the Renaissance. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  327. Such a person's virtues in other respects. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  328. Sustain. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  329. Shall in the court of public opinion acquire a misconstrued reputation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  330. i.e., The tiny amount (literally, one eighth of an ounce) of evil qualities often blots or brings disrepute upon the noble substance of the whole. (To \"dout\" is to extinguish, blot out.) ↵<\/a><\/li>
  331. May angels who minister grace defend us! ↵<\/a><\/li>
  332. Whether you are a good angel or a demon. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  333. Whether you bring gentle breezes from heaven or pestilent gusts. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  334. Whether your intentions are. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  335. Consecrated. Pronounced with the stress on the second of three syllables. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  336. Laid in a coffin. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  337. Grave clothes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  338. Entombed, placed in an urn for ashes of the dead. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  339. Full armor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  340. The sublunary world, all that is fitfully lit by pale moonlight. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  341. We mere mortals, limited to natural knowledge and subject to nature. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  342. To unsettle our mental composure so horrendously. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  343. The capacities. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  344. The value of a pin. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  345. As for. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  346. Sea. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  347. Threateningly overhangs its base like bushy eyebrows. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  348. Take away from you the supremacy of reason over passion. \"Your sovereignty\" also hints at the fact that Hamlet is Prince of Denmark and heir to the throne. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  349. Imaginings of desperate acts, such as suicide. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  350. Units of depth measurement at sea of about six feet. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  351. My destiny summons me. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  352. Even the most insignificant. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  353. A sinew of the huge lion (from Nemea, near Corinth in Greece) slain by Hercules in the first of his twelve labors. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  354. Let's go after him. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  355. Outcome. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  356. i.e., the \"issue\" or outcome. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  357. Location: The battlements of the castle, as before. The scene is virtually continuous, though the stage is momentarily bare and we are to understand that the Ghost and Hamlet have moved to a new location on the battlements. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  358. (1) destined, ready; (2) obligated, duty-bound. The Ghost replies to the second of these meanings. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  359. Do penance by fasting. A conventional punishment in Purgatory. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  360. Sins. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  361. My days on earth as a mortal. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  362. In Roman Catholic doctrine, Purgatory (not actually mentioned by name in this play) is an intermediate state after death for the purging of sins. If an individual has died in God's grace but has committed sins not yet pardoned (owing, as in this present instance, to a sudden death leaving no time for confessing those sins to a priest), the soul can make satisfaction in Purgatory for those sins and thus become fit for heaven. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  363. Were it not that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  364. Lacerate, tear up, uproot. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  365. Eye-sockets, compared here to the crystalline spheres or orbits in which, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, the heavenly bodies moved around the earth. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  366. Hair neatly combed and arranged in its proper place. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  367. The eighteenth-century actor-manager, David Garrick, wore a trick wig that would stand its hairs on end as a sign of fright. See 3.4.124-5 below, where the Queen sees Hamlet's hair standing on end; the effect is caused there by the appearance of the Ghost, though the Queen in unable to see that. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  368. Peevish. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  369. Shakespeare's usual spelling of \"porcupine.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  370. Revelation of the secrets of the supernatural world. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  371. Listen. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  372. Murder is foul even under the best of circumstances. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  373. Torpid, lethargic, gross, bloated. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  374. The river of forgetfulness in Hades. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  375. If you would not. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  376. The official story goes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  377. My garden. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  378. Fabricated account. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  379. Grossly deceived. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  380. Elizabethans generally believed that poisonous snakes attacked their victims with their tongues rather than their fangs. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  381. See 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and note above. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  382. Adulterous. Whether the Ghost suspects or knows that his brother had been involved with Queen Gertrude in an adulterous affair before the murder is not clear, though the Ghost's insistence later in this speech that the Queen is to be spared and left to the workings of her conscience (lines 84-8 below, TLN 769-73) tends to suggest that he does not regard her as guilty to such a heinous degree. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  383. (1) with perfidious natural gifts; (2) with seductive presents. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  384. With the very vow. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  385. Compared with. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  386. Satisfy its craving. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  387. But just as true virtue will remain steadfast even when tempted by unchaste desire disguising itself as an angel, lust conversely will attempt to glut its insatiable appetite even in a heavenly bed, and then, unsatisfied with that, turn to prey on filth. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  388. Wait a minute, hold on. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  389. he Ghost here confirms the tradition that Horatio has reported at 1.1.148 ff. (TLN 155 ff.): ghosts who visit the world of the living at night are supposed to return to their confines by dawn. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  390. A time free from worries, and a safe time when one can relax one's guard. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  391. A poison. The name of this unidentified poison may be related to henbane, of the nightshade family. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  392. i.e., the entranceways to my head. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  393. A distillation causing a leprosy-like disfigurement. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  394. Mercury. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  395. Thicken and curdle (causing the blood to clot like sour cream). ↵<\/a><\/li>
  396. Sour, acid. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  397. Eruption of scabs or blisters. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  398. Leper-like. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the man had died of a grievous sickness and had lain in the earth four days, so that his body was loathsome (John 11). Traditionally, his putrid condition came to be associated with leprosy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  399. Enveloped with a loathsome scaly crust, like the bark of a tree-trunk. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  400. Deprived. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  401. When my sins were at their height. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  402. Without having partaken of the sacrament of the Mass, unprepared because of not having made deathbed confession and not having received absolution, and not anointed with the holy oil of Extreme Unction. These are specific terms from Roman Catholic practice. \"Housel\" signifies the host, the bread and wine that are consecrated in the Mass as the body and blood of Christ. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  403. Settling of spiritual accounts, making restitution for sins. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  404. i.e., the natural feelings of a son for his father. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  405. Lechery. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  406. See notes at 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and 1.5.43 (TLN 729) above. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  407. Anything, any punishment. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  408. Morning. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  409. Begins . . . its. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  410. Add. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  411. Hold fast; do not panic; do not waver. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  412. Strongly, vigorously. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  413. As long as memory continues to function in my distracted head. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  414. Wax writing tablet. Compare the use of the plural in \"My tables, my tables\" in line 107 below. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  415. Foolish. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  416. Stressed on the second syllable. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  417. All wise sayings copied from books, all shapes or images drawn on the tablet of my memory, all past impressions. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  418. That I observed and noted down when I was young. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  419. Voluminous book. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  420. Fitting. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  421. Hamlet may actually have a wax tablet on which he proceeds to note his observation, or he may be speaking metaphorically. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  422. Now to the business of fulfilling what I have promised. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  423. May heaven keep him safe! Horatio and Marcellus have worried, at 1.4.71 (TLN 658), ff., that the Ghost might tempt Hamlet toward the sea or cliff and there deprive him into madness. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  424. Marcellus is hallooing to Hamlet, seeking still to find him. Hamlet has not yet spoken to them to assure them he is safe. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  425. Hamlet halloos in reply, as though he were calling out to a hawk or falcon, commanding it to return to its master. Hamlet may be mocking their halloos, or this may be part of the \"wild and whirling words\" or \"antic disposition\" that he begins to adopt. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  426. Ever. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  427. Hamlet seems about ready to tell them what he has learned from the Ghost, but then jestingly turns the matter aside with a self-evident truism: there's no villain in Denmark who is not a thoroughgoing villain. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  428. Elaboration. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  429. The keeper of Purgatory, according to tradition. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  430. See also TLN 830. Horatio in line 140 means \"There was no offense in what you just said; no need to apologize.\" Hamlet, in line 142, changes the meaning of the word to apply to Claudius's crime: \"There certainly IS a great offense' against all human decency and law.\" ↵<\/a><\/li>
  431. Concerning, regarding. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  432. Genuine and truthful. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  433. As for, regarding. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  434. Horatio insists that he will not tell anyone what they have seen this night. In the next speech, Marcellus vows also to keep the secret. They are not refusing to swear; in fact, they both seemingly take the view that they have sworn already by what they just said \"in faith.\" But Hamlet insists that they now swear by his sword, an especially solemn oath since the sword hilt can be held so as to form a crucifix. Hamlet may hold it that way. Mel Gibson, in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film Hamlet, holds his sword in such a way that the hilt forms a crucifix to ward off the potential evil of a supernatural visitation. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  435. Honest fellow, as trustworthy as the penny. Compare \"sterling,\" thoroughly excellent, conforming to the highest standard. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  436. Here and everywhere? (Latin). Traditionally, the devil was able to be everywhere at once. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  437. Change where we are standing for another spot. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  438. The small tiny-eyed burrowing mole is here compared to the \"pioneer,\" a foot soldier who dug tunnels and trenches used in warfare. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  439. Move. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  440. This \"natural philosophy\" (i.e..,science) that people talk about. The \"your\" is probably impersonal, though Hamlet's jibe does apply to Horatio particularly; the two of them love to argue over issues of natural history and skepticism vs. providential readings of human life on earth. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  441. As you hope for God's mercy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  442. However strangely or oddly. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  443. To assume the wild and erratic behavior of a madman. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  444. Folded. The folded arms and headshake are intended to suggest that the person has knowledge but dares not speak. Folded arms in particular could suggest love melancholy. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  445. Shaking my head thus. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  446. Ambiguous. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  447. Wished, chose. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  448. There are those (namely, ourselves) who could talk if they so chose. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  449. Indicate. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  450. Anything. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  451. As you hope for God's grace and mercy at your hour of greatest spiritual need. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  452. I give you my best wishes. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  453. Friendliness, friendship. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  454. Be lacking, be left undone. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  455. Always, continually. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  456. Disjointed, lacking coherence. The metaphor is derived from the medical procedure of setting bones that have been broken or separated at the joint. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  457. When Horatio and Marcellus politely defer to Hamlet as of senior rank and thus entitled to go first, he insists on equalizing this business among friends. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["william-shakespeare"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[60],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-202","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-william-shakespeare","license-cc-by"],"part":188,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/202\/revisions\/203"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/188"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/202\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}