We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student, I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! — My father, Methinks, I see my father. Hor.

My lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Where,

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.

Ham.

The king my father! Hor. Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear; till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waist and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered. A figure like your father,

Armed at point, exactly, cap-a-pie,

Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them thrice he walked,
By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes,

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I with them, the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had delivered, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good.
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

Ham.

But where was this?

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watched.
Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

My lord, I did;

But answer made it none yet once, methought
It lifted up its head, and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak :
But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanished from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange. Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true; And we did think it writ down in our duty,

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

All.

Ham. Armed, say you?

All.

Hum.

We do, my lord.

All. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham.

His face.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

Ham.

Pale, or red?

A countenance more

And fixed his eyes upon you?

I would, I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amazed you.

Ham.

Very like Stayed it long?

Very like,

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundre

Perchance, 't will walk again.
Hor.
Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my pe ice. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto concealed this sight,

Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So far, fare you
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All.

Our duty to your honor.

well.

Hum. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.

(Exeunt Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernard.}

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well:

I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come !
Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.

Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held is wont to walk.

(A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot off, within.) What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse.

Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels;

And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,

The kettle drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Hor.

Is it a custom ?

Ham. Ay, marry, is 't:

But to my mind, though I am native here,

And to the manner born, it is a custom

More honored in the breach, than the observance.

This heavy-headed revel, east and west,

Makes us traduced, and taxed of other rations :

They clepe us, drunkards, and with swit ish phrase
Soil our addition; and, indeed it takes

From our achievements, though perfori ed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.,

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin,)
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners ;-
that these men, ·
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect;
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,)
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault :-
:- the dram of base
Doth all the noble substance often dout

To his own scandal.

Hor.

Look, my lord, it comes!

(Enter Ghost.)

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned,

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou comest in such a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane; O, answer me:

Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulcher,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,
So horridly to shake our disposition,

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,

As if it some impartment did desire

To you alone.

Mar. Look, with what courteous action, It waves you to a more removed ground : But do not go with it.

Hor.

No, by no means.

Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it.
Hor. Do not, my lord.

Ham.

Why, what should be the fear?

I do not set my life at a pin's fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?

It waves me forth again; -- I'll follow it.

Hor. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, m ford, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,

That beetles o'er his base into the sea?

And there assume some other horrible form,

Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,
And draw you into madness? think of it:
The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain,
That looks so many fathoms to the sea,
And hears it roar beneath.

Ham.

Go on, I'll follow thee.

It waves me still :

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.

Ham.

Hold off your hands.

My fate cries out

Hor. Be ruled, you shall not go.

Ham.
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I called; - unhand me, gentlemen;

(Ghost beckons.)

(Breaking from them.) By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me : - Go on, I'll follow thee.

I say, away:

(Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.)

Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.
Mar. Let's follow; 't is not fit thus to obey him.
Hor. Have after: - To what issue will this come?
Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Hor. Heaven will direct it.

Gul. Good, my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
Ham. Sir, a whole history.

Guil. The king, sir,