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.

(1)

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

FRAN. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

a

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] Announce, make known.

с

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

B

If

BAR. Well, good night.

you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

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

HOR. Friends to this ground.

BAR. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Mar

cellus.

HOR. 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.

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. Prot. V. 4.

Sit down awhile;

HOR. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
BAR.
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.a

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." BAR. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Ho

ratio.

HOR. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, and wonder.(7)

BAR. It would be spoke to.

MAR.

Speak to it, Horatio.

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

night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

What we have seen] We must here supply, "with," or "by relating."

b

Usurp'st this time of night] Abuses, uses against right, and the order of things.

"He but usurp'd his life;" i, e. occupied it beyond, and out of its season. End of Lear.

Pollax.

O.C.

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee,

speak.

MAR. It is offended.

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 avoucha

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,
He smote the sledded Polacks* on the ice.(8)
'Tis strange.

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 of mine opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

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

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

gross and scope] Uoon the whole, and in a general view.

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

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land?
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart" for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?

HOR.

That can I;

At least, the whisper goes so.
Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law, and heraldry,(")

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror :
Against the which, a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same cov'nant
And carriage of the article design'd, (12)

*

deseigne, 4tos. de

His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras, signe. 1623.

Of unimproved mettle (13) hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes
For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in't: (14) which is no other
(And it doth well appear unto our state)
But to recover of us by strong hand

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

b mart] Marketing, exchange.