[Page 2]
_ACTUS PRIMUS._
_Enter Barnardo and Francisco two Centinels_[1].
_Barnardo._ Who's there?
_Fran._[2] Nay answer me: Stand and vnfold yourselfe.
_Bar._ Long liue the King.[3]
_Fran._ _Barnardo?_
_Bar._ He.
_Fran._ You come most carefully vpon your houre.
_Bar._ 'Tis now strook twelue, get thee to bed _Francisco_.
_Fran._ For this releefe much thankes: 'Tis
[Sidenote: 42] bitter cold,
And I am sicke at heart.[4]
_Barn._ Haue you had quiet Guard?[5]
_Fran._ Not a Mouse stirring.
_Barn._ Well, goodnight. If you do meet _Horatio_ and
_Marcellus_, the Riuals[6] of my Watch, bid them make hast.
_Enter Horatio and Marcellus._
_Fran._ I thinke I heare them. Stand: who's there?
[Sidenote: Stand ho, who is there?]
_Hor._ Friends to this ground.
_Mar._ And Leige-men to the Dane.
_Fran._ Giue you good night.
_Mar._ O farwel honest Soldier, who hath [Sidenote: souldiers]
relieu'd you?
[Footnote 1: --meeting. Almost dark.]
[Footnote 2: --on the post, and with the right of challenge.]
[Footnote 3: The watchword.]
[Footnote 4: The key-note to the play--as in _Macbeth_: 'Fair is
foul and foul is fair.' The whole nation is troubled by late events at
court.]
[Footnote 5: --thinking of the apparition.]
[Footnote 6: _Companions_.]
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_Fra._ _Barnardo_ ha's my place: giue you good-night. [Sidenote: hath]
_Exit Fran._
_Mar._ Holla _Barnardo_.
_Bar._ Say, what is Horatio there?
_Hor._ A peece of him.
_Bar._ Welcome _Horatio_, welcome good _Marcellus_.
_Mar._ What, ha's this thing appear'd againe to [Sidenote: _Hor_.[1]]
night.
_Bar._ I haue seene nothing.
_Mar._ Horatio saies, 'tis but our Fantasie,
And will not let beleefe take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seene of vs,
Therefore I haue intreated him along
With vs, to watch the minutes of this Night,
That if againe this Apparition come,
[Sidenote: 6] He may approue our eyes, and speake to it.[2]
_Hor._ Tush, tush, 'twill not appeare.
_Bar._ Sit downe a-while,
And let vs once againe assaile your eares,
That are so fortified against our Story,
What we two Nights haue seene. [Sidenote: have two nights seen]
_Hor._ Well, sit we downe,
And let vs heare _Barnardo_ speake of this.
_Barn._ Last night of all,
When yond same Starre that's Westward from the Pole
Had made his course t'illume that part of Heauen
Where now it burnes, _Marcellus_ and my selfe,
The Bell then beating one.[3]
_Mar._ Peace, breake thee of: _Enter the Ghost_. [Sidenote: Enter Ghost]
Looke where it comes againe.
_Barn._ In the same figure, like the King that's dead.
[Footnote 1: Better, I think; for the tone is scoffing, and Horatio is
the incredulous one who has not seen it.]
[Footnote 2: --being a scholar, and able to address it as an apparition
ought to be addressed--Marcellus thinking, perhaps, with others, that a
ghost required Latin.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q._ 'towling one.]
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[Sidenote: 4] _Mar._ Thou art a Scholler; speake to it _Horatio._
_Barn._ Lookes it not like the King? Marke it _Horatio_.
[Sidenote: Looks a not]
_Hora._ Most like: It harrowes me with fear and wonder.
[Sidenote: horrowes[1]]
_Barn._ It would be spoke too.[2]
_Mar._ Question it _Horatio._ [Sidenote: Speak to it _Horatio_]
_Hor._ What art thou that vsurp'st this time of night,[3]
Together with that Faire and Warlike forme[4]
In which the Maiesty of buried Denmarke
Did sometimes[5] march: By Heauen I charge thee speake.
_Mar._ It is offended.[6]
_Barn._ See, it stalkes away.
_Hor._ Stay: speake; speake: I Charge thee, speake.
_Exit the Ghost._ [Sidenote: _Exit Ghost._]
_Mar._ 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
_Barn._ How now _Horatio_? You tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more then Fantasie?
What thinke you on't?
_Hor._ Before my God, I might not this beleeue
Without the sensible and true auouch
Of mine owne eyes.
_Mar._ Is it not like the King?
_Hor._ As thou art to thy selfe,
Such was the very Armour he had on,
When th' Ambitious Norwey combatted: [Sidenote: when he the ambitious]
So frown'd he once, when in an angry parle
He smot the sledded Pollax on the Ice.[8] [Sidenote: sleaded[7]]
'Tis strange.
[Sidenote: 274] _Mar._ Thus twice before, and iust at this dead houre,
[Sidenote: and jump at this]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'horrors mee'.]
[Footnote 2: A ghost could not speak, it was believed, until it was
spoken to.]
[Footnote 3: It was intruding upon the realm of the embodied.]
[Footnote 4: None of them took it as certainly the late king: it was
only clear to them that it was like him. Hence they say, 'usurp'st the
forme.']
[Footnote 5: _formerly_.]
[Footnote 6: --at the word _usurp'st_.]
[Footnote 7: Also _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 8: The usual interpretation is 'the sledged Poles'; but not to
mention that in a parley such action would have been treacherous, there
is another far more picturesque, and more befitting the _angry parle_,
at the same time more characteristic and forcible: the king in his anger
smote his loaded pole-axe on the ice. There is some uncertainty about
the word _sledded_ or _sleaded_ (which latter suggests _lead_), but we
have the word _sledge_ and _sledge-hammer_, the smith's heaviest, and
the phrase, 'a sledging blow.' The quarrel on the occasion referred to
rather seems with the Norwegians (See Schmidt's _Shakespeare-Lexicon:
Sledded_.) than with the Poles; and there would be no doubt as to the
latter interpretation being the right one, were it not that _the
Polacke_, for the Pole, or nation of the Poles, does occur in the play.
That is, however, no reason why the Dane should not have carried a
pole-axe, or caught one from the hand of an attendant. In both our
authorities, and in the _1st Q_. also, the word is _pollax_--as in
Chaucer's _Knights Tale_: 'No maner schot, ne pollax, ne schort
knyf,'--in the _Folio_ alone with a capital; whereas not once in the
play is the similar word that stands for the Poles used in the plural.
In the _2nd Quarto_ there is _Pollacke_ three times, _Pollack_ once,
_Pole_ once; in the _1st Quarto_, _Polacke_ twice; in the _Folio_,
_Poleak_ twice, _Polake_ once. The Poet seems to have avoided the plural
form.]
[Page 8]
With Martiall stalke,[1] hath he gone by our Watch.
_Hor_. In what particular thought to work, I know not:
But in the grosse and scope of my Opinion, [Sidenote: mine]
This boades some strange erruption to our State.
_Mar_. Good now sit downe, and tell me he that knowes
[Sidenote: 16] Why this same strict and most obseruant Watch,[2]
So nightly toyles the subiect of the Land,
And why such dayly Cast of Brazon Cannon
[Sidenote: And with such dayly cost]
And Forraigne Mart for Implements of warre:
Why such impresse of Ship-wrights, whose sore Taske
Do's not diuide the Sunday from the weeke,
What might be toward, that this sweaty hast[3]
Doth make the Night ioynt-Labourer with the day:
Who is't that can informe me?
_Hor._ That can I,
At least the whisper goes so: Our last King,
Whose Image euen but now appear'd to vs,
Was (as you know) by _Fortinbras_ of Norway,
(Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate Pride)[4]
Dar'd to the Combate. In which, our Valiant _Hamlet_,
(For so this side of our knowne world esteem'd him)[5]
[Sidenote: 6] Did slay this _Fortinbras_: who by a Seal'd Compact,
Well ratified by Law, and Heraldrie, [Sidenote: heraldy]
Did forfeite (with his life) all those his Lands [Sidenote: these]
Which he stood seiz'd on,[6] to the Conqueror: [Sidenote: seaz'd of,]
Against the which, a Moity[7] competent
Was gaged by our King: which had return'd [Sidenote: had returne]
To the Inheritance of _Fortinbras_,
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'Marshall stalke'.]
[Footnote 2: Here is set up a frame of external relations, to inclose
with fitting contrast, harmony, and suggestion, the coming show of
things. 273]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'sweaty march'.]
[Footnote 4: Pride that leads to emulate: the ambition to excel--not
oneself, but another.]
[Footnote 5: The whole western hemisphere.]
[Footnote 6: _stood possessed of_.]
[Footnote 7: Used by Shakspere for _a part_.]
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Had he bin Vanquisher, as by the same Cou'nant
[Sidenote: the same comart]
And carriage of the Article designe,[1] [Sidenote: desseigne,]
His fell to _Hamlet_. Now sir, young _Fortinbras_,
Of vnimproued[2] Mettle, hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there,
Shark'd[3] vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes, [Sidenote: of lawlesse]
For Foode and Diet, to some Enterprize
That hath a stomacke in't[4]: which is no other
(And it doth well appeare vnto our State) [Sidenote: As it]
But to recouer of vs by strong hand
And termes Compulsatiue, those foresaid Lands [Sidenote: compulsatory,]
So by his Father lost: and this (I take it)
Is the maine Motiue of our Preparations,
The Sourse of this our Watch, and the cheefe head
Of this post-hast, and Romage[5] in the Land.
[A]_Enter Ghost againe_.
But soft, behold: Loe, where it comes againe:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Bar._ I thinke it be no other, but enso;
Well may it sort[6] that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch so like the King
That was and is the question of these warres.
_Hora._ A moth it is to trouble the mindes eye:
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest _Iulius_ fell
The graues stood tennatlesse, and the sheeted dead
Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets[7]
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood
Disasters in the sunne; and the moist starre,
Vpon whose influence _Neptunes_ Empier stands
Was sicke almost to doomesday with eclipse.
And euen the like precurse of feare euents
As harbindgers preceading still the fates
And prologue to the _Omen_ comming on
Haue heauen and earth together demonstrated
Vnto our Climatures and countrymen.[8]
_Enter Ghost_.]
[Footnote 1: French désigné.]
[Footnote 2: _not proved_ or _tried. Improvement_, as we use the word,
is the result of proof or trial: _upon-proof-ment_.]
[Footnote 3: Is _shark'd_ related to the German _scharren_? _Zusammen
scharren--to scrape together._ The Anglo-Saxon _searwian_ is _to
prepare, entrap, take_.]
[Footnote 4: Some enterprise of acquisition; one for the sake of getting
something.]
[Footnote 5: In Scotch, _remish_--the noise of confused and varied
movements; a _row_; a _rampage_.--Associated with French _remuage_?]
[Footnote 6: _suit_: so used in Scotland still, I think.]
[Footnote 7: _Julius Caesar_, act i. sc. 3, and act ii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 8: The only suggestion I dare make for the rectifying of the
confusion of this speech is, that, if the eleventh line were inserted
between the fifth and sixth, there would be sense, and very nearly
grammar.
and the sheeted dead
Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets,
As harbindgers preceading still the fates;
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood
(Here understand _precede_)
Disasters in the sunne;
The tenth will close with the twelfth line well enough.
But no one, any more than myself, will be _satisfied_ with the
suggestion. The probability is, of course, that a line has dropped out
between the fifth and sixth. Anything like this would restore the
connection:
_The labouring heavens themselves teemed dire portent_
As starres &c.]
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Ile crosse it, though it blast me.[1] Stay Illusion:[2]
[Sidenote: _It[4] spreads his armes_.]
If thou hast any sound, or vse of Voyce,[3]
Speake to me. If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me; speak to me.
If thou art priuy to thy Countries Fate
(Which happily foreknowing may auoyd) Oh speake.
Or, if thou hast vp-hoorded in thy life
Extorted Treasure in the wombe of Earth,
(For which, they say, you Spirits oft walke in death) [Sidenote: your]
[Sidenote: _The cocke crowes_]
Speake of it. Stay, and speake. Stop it _Marcellus_.
_Mar_. Shall I strike at it with my Partizan? [Sidenote: strike it with]
_Hor_. Do, if it will not stand.
_Barn_. 'Tis heere.
_Hor_. 'Tis heere.
_Mar_. 'Tis gone. _Exit Ghost_[5]
We do it wrong, being so Maiesticall[6]
To offer it the shew of Violence,
For it is as the Ayre, invulnerable,
And our vaine blowes, malicious Mockery.
_Barn_. It was about to speake, when the Cocke crew.
_Hor_. And then it started, like a guilty thing
Vpon a fearfull Summons. I haue heard,
The Cocke that is the Trumpet to the day, [Sidenote: to the morne,]
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding Throate[7]
Awake the God of Day: and at his warning,
Whether in Sea, or Fire, in Earth, or Ayre,
Th'extrauagant,[8] and erring[9] Spirit, hyes
To his Confine. And of the truth heerein,
This present Obiect made probation.[10]
_Mar_. It faded on the crowing of the Cocke.[11]
[Footnote 1: There are various tales of the blasting power of evil
ghosts.]
[Footnote 2: Plain doubt, and strong.]
[Footnote 3: 'sound of voice, or use of voice': physical or mental
faculty of speech.]
[Footnote 4: I judge this _It_ a mistake for _H._, standing for
_Horatio_: he would stop it.]
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 6: 'As we cannot hurt it, our blows are a mockery; and it is
wrong to mock anything so majestic': _For_ belongs to _shew_; 'We do it
wrong, being so majestical, to offer it what is but a _show_ of
violence, for it is, &c.']
[Footnote 7: _1st Q._ 'his earely and shrill crowing throate.']
[Footnote 8: straying beyond bounds.]
[Footnote 9: wandering.]
[Footnote 10: 'gave proof.']
[Footnote 11: This line said thoughtfully--as the text of the
observation following it. From the _eerie_ discomfort of their position,
Marcellus takes refuge in the thought of the Saviour's birth into the
haunted world, bringing sweet law, restraint, and health.]
[Page 14]
Some sayes, that euer 'gainst that Season comes [Sidenote: say]
Wherein our Sauiours Birth is celebrated,
The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long: [Sidenote: This bird]
And then (they say) no Spirit can walke abroad,
[Sidenote: spirit dare sturre]
The nights are wholsome, then no Planets strike,
No Faiery talkes, nor Witch hath power to Charme:
[Sidenote: fairy takes,[1]]
So hallow'd, and so gracious is the time. [Sidenote: is that time.]
_Hor._ So haue I heard, and do in part beleeue it.
But looke, the Morne in Russet mantle clad,
Walkes o're the dew of yon high Easterne Hill, [Sidenote: Eastward[2]]
Breake we our Watch vp, and by my aduice [Sidenote: advise]
Let vs impart what we haue scene to night
Vnto yong _Hamlet_. For vpon my life,
This Spirit dumbe to vs, will speake to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needfull in our Loues, fitting our Duty?
[Sidenote: 30] _Mar._ Let do't I pray, and I this morning know
Where we shall finde him most conueniently. [Sidenote: convenient.]
_Exeunt._