PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Claudius, King of Denmark.

Hamlet,* son to the former, and nephew to the pre

sent King.

Polonius, Lord Chamberlain.

Horatio, friend to Hamlet.

Laertes, son to Polonius.

Barnardo,

Officers.

Francisco, a soldier.

Reynoldo, servant to Polonius.
A Captain. An Ambassador.
Ghost of Hamlet's father.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway.

Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and mother of Hamlet.
Ophelia, daughter of Polonius.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Gravediggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, Elsinore.

* i. e. Amleth: the h being transferred from the end to the beginning of the name.

STEEVENS.

HAMLET,

PRINCE OF DENMARK.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.

FRANCISCO on his Post. Enter to him BARNARDO.

BAR. Who's there?

FRAN. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold Yourself.

BAR. Long live the king!

FRAN.

BAR.

Barnardo?

He.

FRAN. You come most carefully upon your hour. BAR. "Tis now struck twelve;(1) get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRAN. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.

BAR. Have you had quiet guard?

FRAN.

Not a mouse stirring.

me] i. e. me who am already on the watch, and have a right

to demand the watch-word. STEEVENS.

bunfold] i. e. announce, make known.

Long live, &c.] The watch-word.

* stand ho! 4tos.

BAR. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch,(2) bid them make haste.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

FRAN. I think, I hear them.-Stand! Who is there?

HOR. Friends to this ground.

+ HOR.

4tos. but

MAR. 4to. 1603.

Tut. 4to. 1603.

BAR. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Mar

cellus.

MAR. What, has this thing appear'd again tonight?

BAR. I have seen nothing.

MAR. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;
And will not let belief take hold of him,

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us :
Therefore I have entreated him along

With us, to watch the minutes of this night;(5)
That, if again this apparition come,

He

may approve our eyes, and speak to it. HOR. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear. BAR.

Sit down awhile;

And let us once again assail your ears,

a Approve our eyes] "To approove or confirme. Ratum

habere aliquid." Baret's Alvearie, Fo. 1580.

Approves the common liar." Ant. & Cl. I. 1. Dem.
See Two G. of V. V. 4. Prot.

That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen."

HOR.

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.

BAR. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,
The bell then beating one,-

MAR. Peace, break thee off; look, where it
comes again!

Enter Ghost.

BAR. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
MAR. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.(6)
BAR. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
HOR. Most like:-it harrows* me with fear, and horrows.
wonder.(7)

BAR. It would be spoke to.

MAR.

4tos. horrors. 4to. 1603.

Question+ it, Horatio. + speak to.

HOR. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of

night,b

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee,
speak.

MAR. It is offended.

against our story,

What we two nights have seen] In grammar the two words story and what are put in apposition; and mean that story, the account or relation which we gave or made of the spectacle seen, etc. etc. Otherwise, with must be understood before what, and the second line be thrown into a parenthesis: but, as above interpreted, it is the natural and familiar, old English, dialogue language.

Usurp'st this time of night] i. e. abuses, uses against right, and the order of things. "He but usurp'd his life;" i. e. has occupied it beyond, and out of its season. End of Lear. Kent.

BAR.

See! it stalks away.

HOR. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak.

[Exit Ghost.

MAR. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

BAR. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look

pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you of it?

HOR. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch a

Of mine own eyes.

MAR.

Is it not like the king?

HOR. As thou art to thyself:

Such was the very armour he had on,

When [he] the ambitious Norway combated; So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, Pollax. He smote the sledded Polacks* on the ice.(8) 'Tis strange.

O. C.

+ jump. 4tos.

+ mine. 4tos.

MAR. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead
hour,(9)

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HOR. In what particular thought to work," I
know not;
But in the
gross

and scope

с

• of my opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

MAR. Good now,d sit down, and tell me, he that
knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land?

a I might not this believe, &c.] i. e. I could not it had not been permitted me, &c. without the full and perfect evidence, &c.

b In what particular thought to work] i. e. in what particular course to set my thoughts at work: in what particular train to direct the mind and exercise it in conjecture.

с

gross and scope] i. e. upon the whole, and in a general view.

d Good now] i. e. in good time: à la bonne heure. An interjection, a gentle exclamation of intreaty.—Johns. Dict. As an adverb he interprets it, well.