Act 1, page 1

Table of Contents

ACT I SCENE II� Setting: A room of state in the castle.

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

KING CLAUDIUS Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 5 That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,–– 10 With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole,–– Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15 With this affair along. For all, our thanks. Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother's death Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20 Colleagued with the dream of his advantage, He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25 Now for ourself and for this time of meeting: Thus much the business is: we have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,–– Who, impotent and bed–rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew's purpose,––to suppress 30 His further gait herein; in that the levies, The lists and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject: and we here dispatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; 35 Giving to you no further personal power To business with the king, more than the scope Of these delated articles allow. Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. VOLTIMAND and Cornelius In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 KING CLAUDIUS We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.

[Exeunt�VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]

	And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
	You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
	You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
	And lose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,	45
	That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
	The head is not more native to the heart,
	The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
	Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
	What wouldst thou have, Laertes?	50
LAERTES	My dread lord,
	Your leave and favour to return to France;
	From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
	To show my duty in your coronation,
	Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,	55
	My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
	And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING CLAUDIUS	Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
LORD POLONIUS	He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
	By laboursome petition, and at last	60
	Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
	I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
KING CLAUDIUS	Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
	And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
	But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,––	65
HAMLET	[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
KING CLAUDIUS	How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET	Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
	And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.	70
	Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
	Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
	Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
	Passing through nature to eternity.
HAMLET	Ay, madam, 'tis common.	75
QUEEN GERTRUDE	If it be,
	Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET	Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
	Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
	Nor customary suits of solemn black,	80
	Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
	No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
	Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage,
	Together with all forms, modes, shapes of grief,
	That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
	For they are actions that a man might play:
	But I have that within which passeth show;
	These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
KING CLAUDIUS	Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
	To give these mourning duties to your father:
	But, you must know, your father lost a father;
	That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound	90
	In filial obligation for some term
	To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
	In obstinate condolement is a course
	Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
	It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
	A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
	An understanding simple and unschool'd:
	For what we know must be and is as common
	As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
	Why should we in our peevish opposition	100
	Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
	A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
	To reason most absurd: whose common theme
	Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
	From the first corse till he that died to–day,
	This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
	This unprevailing woe, and think of us
	As of a father: for let the world take note,
	You are the most immediate to our throne;
	And with no less nobility of love	110
	Than that which dearest father bears his son,
	Do I impart toward you. For your intent
	In going back to school in Wittenberg,
	It is most retrograde to our desire:
	And we beseech you, bend you to remain
	Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
	Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
	I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
HAMLET	I shall in all my best obey you, madam.	120
KING CLAUDIUS	Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
	Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
	This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
	Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
	No jocund health that Denmark drinks to–day,
	But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
	And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
	Re–speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
[Exeunt all but�HAMLET]
HAMLET	O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
	Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!	130
	Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
	His canon 'gainst self–slaughter! O God! God!
	How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
	Seem to me all the uses of this world!
	Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
	That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
	Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
	But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
	So excellent a king; that was, to this,
	Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother	140
	That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
	Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
	Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
	As if increase of appetite had grown
	By what it fed on: and yet, within a month––
	Let me not think on't––Frailty, thy name is woman!––
	A little month, or ere those shoes were old
	With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
	Like Niobe, all tears:––why she, even she––
	O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,	150
	Would have mourn'd longer––married with my uncle,
	My father's brother, but no more like my father
	Than I to Hercules: within a month:
	Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
	Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
	She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
	With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
	It is not nor it cannot come to good:
	But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

[Enter�HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO]

HORATIO	Hail to your lordship!
HAMLET	I am glad to see you well:
	Horatio,––or I do forget myself.
HORATIO	The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.	165
HAMLET	Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
	And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
MARCELLUS	My good lord––
HAMLET	I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
	But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO	A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET	I would not hear your enemy say so,	170
	Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
	To make it truster of your own report
	Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
	But what is your affair in Elsinore?
	We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
HORATIO	My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
HAMLET	I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow–student;
	I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
HORATIO	Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
HAMLET	Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
	Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.	181
	Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
	Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
	My father!––methinks I see my father.
HORATIO	Where, my lord?
HAMLET	In my mind's eye, Horatio.
HORATIO	I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
HAMLET	He was a man, take him for all in all,
	I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO	My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET	Saw? who?	190
HORATIO	My lord, the king your father.
HAMLET	The king my father!
HORATIO	Season your admiration for awhile
	With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
	Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
	This marvel to you.
HAMLET	For God's love, let me hear.
HORATIO	Two nights together had these gentlemen,
	Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
	In the dead vast and middle of the night,
	Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
	Armed at point exactly, cap–a–pe,	200
	Appears before them, and with solemn march
	Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
	By their oppress'd 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 deliver'd, both in time,
	Form of the thing, each word made true and good,	210
	The apparition comes: I knew your father;
	These hands are not more like.
HAMLET	But where was this?
MARCELLUS	My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
HAMLET	Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO	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 vanish'd from our sight.
HAMLET	Tis very strange.	220
HORATIO	As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
	And we did think it writ down in our duty
	To let you know of it.
HAMLET	Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
	Hold you the watch to–night?
BERNARDO	We do, my lord.
HAMLET	Arm'd, say you?
BERNARDO	Arm'd, my lord.
HAMLET	From top to toe?
BERNARDO	My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET	Then saw you not his face?
HORATIO	O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET	What, look'd he frowningly?
HORATIO	A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.	230
HAMLET	Pale or red?
HORATIO	Nay, very pale.
HAMLET	And fix'd his eyes upon you?
HORATIO	Most constantly.
HAMLET	I would I had been there.
HORATIO	It would have much amazed you.
HAMLET	Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
HORATIO	While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
BERNARDO	Longer, longer.
HORATIO	Not when I saw't.
HAMLET	His beard was grizzled––no?
HORATIO	It was, as I have seen it in his life,
	A sable silver'd.
HAMLET	I will watch to–night;	240
	Perchance 'twill walk again.
HORATIO	I warrant it will.
HAMLET	If it assume my noble father's person,
	I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
	And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
	If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
	Let it be tenable in your silence still;
	And whatsoever else shall hap to–night,
	Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
	I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
	Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,	250
	I'll visit you.
All	Our duty to your honour.
HAMLET	Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
[Exeunt all but�HAMLET]
	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.
[Exit]