For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in 't: which is no other (As it doth well appear unto our state) But to recover of us, by strong hand, And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands So by his father lost: and this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
Ber. I think it be no other, but even so: Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king That was, and is, the question of these wars. Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of fierce events (As harbingers preceding still the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on) Have heaven and earth together démonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen.-
But soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Speak 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 privy to thy country's fate, Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crous. Speak of it: stay, and speak !-Stop it, Marcellus!
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object made probation.
Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
Hor. So have I heard, and do in part be- lieve it.
But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill: Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? Mar. Let's do 't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most convenient.
Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.
King. 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, That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore, our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress of this warlike state, Have we, as 't were, with a defeated joy (With one auspicious, and one 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 barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 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, Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, He hath not failed to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bands of law, To our most valiant brother.-So much for him. 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 His further gait herein; in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject:—and we here despatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; Giving to you no further personal power To business with the king, more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow.
Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. Cor. In that, and all things, will we shew our duty. King. 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,
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart,
By laboursome petition; and, at last, Upon his will I sealed my hard consent: I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
King. 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: Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind. [Aside.
King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Ham. Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the
Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine look like a friend on Denmark. eye
Do not for ever, with thy vailéd lids,
Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st 't is common; all that live must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Queen. If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not
Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, 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, moods, shows 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. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your
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 In filial obligation, for some term To do obsequious sorrow: but to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course Of impious stubbornness; 't is unmanly grief: It shews a will most incorrect to heaven; A heart unfortified, a mind impatient; An understanding simple and unschooled. 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, Take it to heart? Fie! 't is 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 Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart towards 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. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
pray thee stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. King. Why, 't is 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 shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come, away!
[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, and LAERTES.
Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!-O God, O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on 't, O fie! 't is an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in
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, 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,—
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