Table of Contents
ACT I SCENE IV� Setting: The platform.
[Enter�HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS]
[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within]
| What does this mean, my lord? | ||
| HAMLET | The king doth wake to–night and takes his rouse, | |
| Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up–spring reels; | ||
| And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, | 10 | |
| The kettle–drum and trumpet thus bray out | ||
| The triumph of his pledge. | ||
| HORATIO | Is it a custom? | |
| HAMLET | Ay, marry, is't: | |
| But to my mind, though I am native here | ||
| And to the manner born, it is a custom | ||
| More honour'd in the breach than the observance. | ||
| This heavy–headed revel east and west | ||
| Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations: | ||
| They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase | ||
| Soil our addition; and indeed it takes | 20 | |
| From our achievements, though perform'd 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, | 30 | |
| 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 eale | ||
| Doth all the noble substance of a doubt | ||
| To his own scandal. | ||
| HORATIO | Look, my lord, it comes! | |
| [Enter Ghost] | ||
| HAMLET | Angels and ministers of grace defend us! | |
| Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, | 40 | |
| 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 sepulchre, | ||
| Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd, | ||
| Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, | 50 | |
| To cast thee up again. What may this mean, | ||
| That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel | ||
| Revisit'st 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? | ||
| [Ghost beckons�HAMLET] | ||
| HORATIO | It beckons you to go away with it, | |
| As if it some impartment did desire | ||
| To you alone. | ||
| MARCELLUS | Look, with what courteous action | 60 |
| It waves you to a more removed ground: | ||
| But do not go with it. | ||
| HORATIO | No, by no means. | |
| HAMLET | It will not speak; then I will follow it. | |
| HORATIO | Do not, my lord. | |
| HAMLET | Why, what should be the fear? | |
| I do not set my life in 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. | ||
| HORATIO | What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, | |
| Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff | 70 | |
| 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. | ||
| HAMLET | It waves me still. | |
| Go on; I'll follow thee. | ||
| MARCELLUS | You shall not go, my lord. | |
| HAMLET | Hold off your hands. | 80 |
| HORATIO | Be ruled; you shall not go. | |
| HAMLET | My fate cries out, | |
| And makes each petty artery in this body | ||
| As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. | ||
| Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen. | ||
| By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me! | ||
| I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee. | ||
| [Exeunt Ghost�and HAMLET] | ||
| HORATIO | He waxes desperate with imagination. | |
| MARCELLUS | Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. | |
| HORATIO | Have after. To what issue will this come? | |
| MARCELLUS | Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. | 90 |
| HORATIO | Heaven will direct it. | |
| MARCELLUS | Nay, let's follow him. | |
| [Exeunt] |