Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 3.

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2.
Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4.

HORATIO, friend to Hamlet.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 5; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2.

LAERTES, son to Polonius.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 5; sc. 6.
Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2.

VOLTIMAND, a courtier.
Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2.

CORNELIUS, a courtier.
Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2.

ROSENCRANTZ, a courtier.

Appears, Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. GUILDENSTERN, a courtier.

Appears, Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4.

OSRIC, a courtier.

Appears, Act V. sc. 2.

A Courtier.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 5.

A Priest.

Appears, Act V. sc. 1.
MARCELLUS, an officer.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5.

BERNARDO, an officer.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2.
FRANCISCO, a soldier.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

REYNALDO, servant to Polonius. Appears, Act II. sc. 1.

A Captain.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 4.

An Ambassador.

Appears, Act V. sc. 2.

Ghost of Hamlet's Father.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 4.
FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway.
Appears, Act IV. sc. 4. Act V. sc. 2.

GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and mother of Hamlet.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2.

Act III. sc.1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 5; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2.

OPHELIA, daughter of Polonius. Appears, Act I. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 5.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Gravediggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, ELSINORE.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

SCENE I.-Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.

FRANCISCO on his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

BER. Who's there?

FRAN. Nay, answer mea: stand, and unfold yourself.
BER. Long live the king!

[blocks in formation]

FRAN. You come most carefully upon your hour.

BER. T is now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRAN. For this relief, much thanks: 't is bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Answer me. I, the sentinel, challenge you. Bernardo then gives the answer to the challenge, or watch-word-" Long live the king!"

BER. Have you had quiet guard?
FRAN.

BER. Well, good night.

If you

Not a mouse stirring.

do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivalsa of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

FRAN. I think I hear them.-Stand! who's there?

HOR. Friends to this ground.
MAR.

FRAN. Give you good night.
MAR.

And liegemen to the Dane.

O, farewell, honest soldier:

[blocks in formation]

BER. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.
MARd. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

BER. I have seen nothing.

MAR. Horatio says, 't is but our fantasy;

And will not let belief take hold of him,

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:

Therefore I have entreated him along

With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That, if again this apparition come,

Sit down awhile;

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
HOR. Tush! tush! 't will not appear.
BER.
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,

• Rivals-partners, companions. Shakspere uses rivality in the sense of partnership, in ‘Antony and Cleopatra:'" Cæsar having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality—would not let him partake in the glory of the action." The derivation of rival takes us into an early state of society. The rivalis was a common occupier of a river— rivus; and this sort of occupation being a fruitful source of strife, the partners became contenders. Hence the more commonly received meaning of rival.

с

In the quarto of 1604 (B), Stand, ho!

This form of expression is an abbreviation of " may God give you good night;" and our แ good night" is an abbreviation abbreviated. The French idiom has gone through the same process. In 'L'Avare' of Molière, it is said of Harpagon, “donner est un mot pour qui il a tant d'aversion, qu'il ne dit jamais, je vous donne, mais, je vous prête le bonjour." (Acte II., Scène 5.)

This line is ordinarily given to Horatio, as in the quarto (B). In the folio, and the first quarto of 1603 (4), it belongs to Marcellus.

• Confirm what we have seen.

[blocks in formation]

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
BER. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

The bell then beating one,—

MAR. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!

Enter GHOST.

BER. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
MAR. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio a.
BER. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

HOR. Most like:—it harrows me with fear, and wonder.
BER. It would be spoke to.

[blocks in formation]

HOR. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak. MAR. It is offended.

BER.

See! it stalks away.

HOR. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak.

MAR. 'T is gone, and will not answer.

BER. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on 't?

HOR. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the sensible and true avouch

[blocks in formation]

[Exit GHOST.

• Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin-the language of the church-service. Harrows, in the folio. In quarto (A), horrors; in (B), horrows. Mr. Caldecott states that the word harrow is here used in the metaphorical sense which it takes from the operations of the harrow, in tearing asunder clods of earth. On the other hand some etymologists assert that to harrow and to harry (to vex, to disturb) are the same, and that the implement of husbandry derived its name from the verb. Mr. Caldecott has a curious note on the harou-the cry for helpof the Normans, with which harrow and harry seem to have some connection. (See his 'Specimen of an Edition of Shakespeare,' 1832.)

* In quarto (B), speak to; Question, in the folio, and quarto (A).

He smote the sledded Polacks a on the ice.

"T is strange.

MAR. Thus, twice before, and just b at this dead hour,
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HOR. In what particular thought to work, I know not;
But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
MAR. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land?
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war:
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is 't that can inform me ?

[blocks in formation]

Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law, and heraldry d,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd on, to the conqueror:

Against the which, a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same cov'nante

And carriage of the article design'd,

His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young

Fortinbras,

Polacks-Poles. In the old copies the word is spelt Pollax, according probably with the pronunciation. Steevens reads Polack," as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one."

b Just, in the folio; in quarto (B), jump. Malone properly observes, that "in the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient." In this play, however, the more ancient word occurs-" so jump upon this bloody question." (Act V., Scene 2.)

• What might be in preparation. To-weard, to-ward, is the Anglo-Saxon participle, equivalent to coming, about to come.

66

The solemn agreement for this trial at arms was recognised by the courts of law and of chivalry. They were distinct ratifications; and therefore "law and heraldry" does not mean the herald law," as Upton says.

[ocr errors][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »