User:Pasicles/Sandbox

User:Pasicles/Sandbox

THE TRAGEDY

OF

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK

ACT I

SCENE I.^{[a 1]}—Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.

Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo.

Ber. Who's there?^{[a 2]}

Fran. Nay, answer me;^{[b 1]} stand, and unfold yourself.

Ber. Long live the king!^{[b 2]}

Fran. Bernardo?

Ber. He. 5

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber. Tis now struck^{[a 3]} twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks; 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard?

Fran. Not a mouse stirring. 10

Ber. Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals^{[b 3]} of my watch, bid them make haste.

Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is^{[a 4]} there?

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Hor. Friends to this ground.

Mar.And liegemen to the Dane. 15

Fran. Give^{[b 4]} you good night.

Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier:^{[a 5]}
Who hath relieved you?

Fran. Bernardo has^{[a 6]} my place.
Give you good night. [Exit.

Mar. Holla! Bernardo!

Ber. Say,—
What, is Horatio there?

Hor. A piece of him.^{[b 5]}

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. 20

Mar.^{[a 7][b 6]} What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us: 25
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to^{[a 8]} watch the minutes of this night.
That if again this apparition come,
He may approve^{[b 7]} our eyes and speak to it.

Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

Ber. Sit down awhile; 30
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have^{[a 9]} seen.

Hor. Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all, 35
When yond 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^{[a 10]} one,—

Enter Ghost.^{[a 11]}

Mar. Peace! break thee off; look, where it comes again! 40

Ber. In the same figure,^{[a 12]} like the king that's dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar;^{[b 8]} speak to it, Horatio.

Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like; it harrows^{[a 13][b 9]} me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Question^{[a 14]} it, Horatio.^{[b 10]} 45

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^{[b 11]} march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!

Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See, it stalks away. 50

Hor. Stay! speak, speak: I charge thee, speak!
[Exit Ghost.

Mar. 'Tis 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? 55

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?

Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on^{[b 12]} 60
When he^{[a 15]} the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,^{[b 13]}
He smote the sledded^{[a 16]} Polacks^{[a 17][b 14]} on the ice.
'Tis strange.

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump^{[a 18][b 15]} at this dead hour, 65
With martial stalk hath he gone by^{[a 19]} our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;
But, in the gross and scope of my^{[a 20]} opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now,^{[b 16]} sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 70
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject^{[b 17]} of the land,
And why^{[a 21]} such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress^{[b 18]} of shipwrights, whose sore task 75
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward,^{[b 19]} that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is 't that can inform me?

Hor. That can I;
At least the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80
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^{[b 20]} pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet—
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him— 85
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact^{[b 21]}
Well ratified by law and heraldry,^{[b 22]}
Did forfeit, with his life, all those^{[a 22]} his lands
Which he stood seized of,^{[a 23][b 23]} to the conqueror;
Against the which, a moiety^{[b 24]} competent 90
Was gaged by our king; which had returned^{[a 24]}
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant^{[a 25][b 25]}
And carriage^{[b 26]} of the article design'd,^{[a 26]}
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 95
Of unimproved^{[a 27][b 27]} mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up^{[b 28]} a list^{[a 28]} of lawless^{[a 29][b 29]} resolutes,^{[b 30]}
For food and diet,^{[b 31]} to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in 't; which is no other— 100
As^{[a 30]} it doth well appear unto our state—
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsative,^{[a 31]} those foresaid lands
So by his father lost. And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations, 105
The source of this our watch and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage^{[b 32]} in the land.

Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so:^{[a 32]}
Well may it sort^{[b 33]} that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch, so like the king 110
That was and is the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote^{[b 34]} it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state^{[b 35]} of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead^{[b 36]} 115
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:^{[b 37]}
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:120
And even the like precurse of fierce^{[a 33]} events,
As harbingers preceding still^{[b 38]} the fates
And prologue to the omen^{[b 39]} coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures^{[b 40]} and countrymen.125

Re-enter Ghost.

But, soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.^{[b 41]} Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice.
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done, 130
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily,^{[b 42]} foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak! 135
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you^{[a 34]} spirits oft walk in death,
[The cock crows.^{[a 35]}
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.

Mar. Shall I strike at^{[a 36]} it with my partisan?^{[b 43]} 140

Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'Tis here!

Hor. 'Tis here!

Mar. 'Tis gone! [Exit Ghost.
We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable, 145
And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet^{[b 44]} to the morn,^{[a 37]} 150
Doth with his lofty^{[b 45]} and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or, air,
The extravagant^{[b 46]} and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein 155
This present object made probation.^{[b 47]}

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say^{[a 38]} that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The^{[a 39]} bird of dawning singeth all night long; 160
And then, they say, no spirit can walk^{[a 40][b 48]} abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,^{[b 49]}
No fairy takes,^{[a 41]} nor witch hath power to charm.
So hallow'd and so gracious is the^{[a 42][b 50]} time.

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 165
But look, the Morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern^{[a 43]} 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, 170
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 conveniently.^{[a 44]} 175
[Exeunt.

Critical notes

1. Act I, Scene I.] Acts and scenes are not marked in Q; in F only as far as II. ii.
2. 1–5] Many editors follow Capell in printing as verse, the first line ending with unfold.
3. 7. now struck] Steevens conj. new-struck.
4. 14. ho! Who is] Q, who's F.
5. 16. soldier] F, souldiers Q.
6. 17. has] F, hath Q.
7. 21. Mar.] Q 1, F; Hora. Q.
8. 26, 27. along With us to] comma after along Q, after us F.
9. 33. two nights have] F, have two nights Q.
10. 39. beating] towling Q 1.
11. Enter Ghost] Q; Enter the Ghost after off, line 40, F.
12. 41. figure,] F, no comma Q.
13. 44. harrows] horrors Q 1.
14. 45. Question] F, Speake to Q.
15. 61. he] omitted in F.
16. 63. sledded] F, shaded Q.
17. 63. Polacks] Mal., pollax Q 1, Qq 2, 3, 4; Pollax Ff 1, 2, Qq 5, 6; Polax F 3; Pole-axe F 4; Polack Pope and other editors (meaning the King of Poland).
18. 65. jump] Q 1, Q; just F.
19. 66. hath he gone by] he passed through Q 1.
20. 68. my] F, mine Q.
21. 73. why] F, with Q.
22. 88. those F] these Q.
23. 89. of] Q, on F.
24. 91. returned] F, returne Q.
25. 93. covenant] Cou'nant F, comart Qq 2–5, co-mart Q 6 and many editors, Q of 1676 reads compact.
26. 94. article design'd] Ff 2, 3, 4; article desseigne Qq 2, 3; articles deseigne Q 4; Articles designe Q 5; Article designe F 1.
27. 96. unimproved] inapproved Q 1; Singer, ed. 2; Keightley.
28. 98. list] sight Q 1.
29. 98. lawless] Q, landlesse F and many editors.
30. 101. As] Q, And F.
31. 103. compulsative] F, compulsatory Q and many editors.
32. 108–125. Ber. I think . . . countrymen] Q, omitted in F.
33. 121. fierce] Q 4 (fearce), feare Q fear'd Collier's conjecture.
34. 138. you] F, your Q.
35. 138. The cock crows] Q, omitted in F.
36. 140. at] F, omitted in Q.
37. 150. morn] Q, morning Q 1, day F.
38. 158. say] Q, sayes F.
39. 160. The] Q 1, F; This Q.
40. 161. can walk] F, dare sturre Q, dare walke Q 1.
41. 163. takes] Q, talkes F.
42. 164. the] F, that Q 1, Q.
43. 167. eastern] F, eastward Q.
44. 175. conveniently] Q 1, F; convenient Q.

Explanatory notes

1. 2, me] Me emphatic, Francisco being the sentinel on guard.
2. 3. king] Perhaps the watchword, Horatio and Marcellus answer the challenge otherwise, but Francisco is not (line 15) at his post.
3. 13. rivals] partners, which is the reading of Q 1. Compare "rivality" in Ant. and Cleop. III. v. 8, meaning "partnership," and The Tragedy of Hoffman (1631):
   "ile seat thee by my throne of state
   And make thee rivall in those governments."
4. 16. Give] Ellipsis for "God give." Compare Romeo and Juliet, i. ii. 59.
5. 19. A piece of him] Warburton supposed that Horatio gives his hand; it is night, adds Ingleby, and Horatio is hardly visible to Bernardo. Shakespeare's intention seems to be to show that Horatio, the sceptical, can answer jestingly.
6. 21. Mar.] The agreement of Q 1 with Ff in assigning this speech to Marcellus is strong against the Quartos, which assign it to Horatio, "Thing" need not imply doubt or disrespect. Aufidius, Coriolanus, IV. v. 122, addresses Coriolanus as "Thou noble thing!" "This thing" may be uttered with awe by Marcellus, or with an air of incredulity by Horatio.
7. 29 approve] corroborate, justify, as in Ant, and Cleop. I. i. 60: "he approves the common liar."
8. 42. scholar] Latin was the language of exorcisms. Reed cites Beaumont and Fletcher, Night Walker II. I:
   "Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin,
   And that would daunt the devil."
9. 44. harrows] Compare I. v. 16; and Milton, Comus, 565, "Amazed I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear."
10. 45. Compare Boswell's Life of Johnson (ed. Birkbeck Hill, iii. 307): "Johnson once observed to me, 'Tom Tyers described me the best: "Sir (said he) you are like a ghost: you never speak till you are spoken to."'"
11. 49. sometimes] sometime, formerly, as in Henry VIII. II. iv. 181.
12. 60. Furness asks, "Was this the very armour that he wore thirty years before, on the day Hamlet was born (see V. i. 155-176)? How old was Horatio?" But the armour would be remembered and be pointed out, when worn later.
13. 62. parle] parley. King John, II. 205: "this gentle parle."
14. 63. sledded Polacks] Poles in sleds or sledges. See Polack in II. ii. 75, and IV. iv. 23. The Earl of Rochester, 1761, explained sleaded as loaded with lead, and Polacks as pole-axe. Boswell suggested that a person who carried the pole-axe was meant. "Sled" for sledge is found in Cotgrave's French Dictionary. Schmidt, reading "pollax," explains "sledded" as having a sled or sledge, i.e., a heavy hammer.
15. 65. jump] just, exactly. See v. ii. 386.
16. 70. Good now,] Please you, as in Winter's Tale, V. i. 19; Q 1 places a comma after "good," connecting "now" with "sit down."
17. 73. subject] subjects, as in I. ii. 33.
18. 75. impress] impressment, as in Troilus and Cressida, II. i. 107.
19. 77. toward] imminent, as in V. ii. 376.
20. 83. emulate] emulous; not elsewhere in Shakespeare.
21. 86. compact] Always accented by Shakespeare on the last syllable, with one exception: 1 Henry VI, V. iv. 163
22. 87. heraldry] Part of a herald's duty was to regulate the forms connected with a challenge and combat of state importance.
23. 89. seized of] possessed of—the legal term still in use.
24. 90. moiety] a portion, not necessarily a half. 1 Henry IV. III. i. 96: "my moiety . . . equals not one of yours."
25. 93. covenant] The "co-mart" of the Qq, if not a misprint, is of Shakespeare's coinage, meaning joint bargain.
26. 94. carriage] process, or import.
27. 96. unimproved] Clar. Press explains as "untutored, not chastened by experience." "Improve" is found in Chapman and Whitgift, meaning reprove (see Nares' Glossary), and "unimproved" may possibly mean unrebuked or unimpeached.
28. 98. Sharked up] Perhaps gathered as a sharker or swindler; or snatched indiscriminately as a shark swallows food.
29. 98. lawless] The F "landless" gives also an appropriate sense; but here Q 1 agrees with Q 2 in giving "lawless."
30. 98. resolutes] braves.
31. 99. food and diet,] Paid only by what they eat. Qq 1, 2 have no comma after "diet"; may the meaning be that the resolutes are to be the food and diet of a devouring enterprise, which has a stomach in it ("food for powder"), with a play on "stomach" in its second sense of stubborn resolution?
32. 107. romage] rummage, originally a nautical term for the stowage of a cargo (Skeat).
33. 109. sort] suit, as in Midsummer Night's Dream, V. 55, "not sorting with a nuptial ceremony." Schmidt supposes it may mean "fall out," "have an issue," as in other passages of Shakespeare.
34. 112. mote] The moth of Q is only an obsolete spelling of mote.
35. 113. state] Wilson (Christopher North) pleads for "State" meaning Reigning City.
36. 115-120.] Plutarch describes the prodigies preceding and following Cæsar's death—fires in the elements, spirits running up and down in the night, a pale sun, which gave little light or heat. Compare Julius Cæsar, I. iii. Such prodigies are very impressively described in Marlowe's Lucan's First Booke translated, published in 1600.
37. 117, 118.] Perhaps a line following 116 has been lost; it may have mentioned prodigies in the heavens, or may have told of warriors fighting upon the clouds; in Julius Cæsar, II. ii. we read of such warriors who were "fiery," and from their encounters there "drizzled blood." Of many attempted emendations none is satisfactory. Malone conjectured "Astres with . . . Disastrous dimm'd the sun"; astre or aster is found in Florio's Ital. Dict. under "Stella" and in his translation of Montaigne. New Eng. Dict. explains "disasters" here as unfavourable aspects. The "moist star" is the moon—governess of floods; so in Winter's Tale, I. ii. 1: "Nine changes of the watery star."
38. 122. still] constantly, as in Tempest, I. ii. 229: "the still vex'd Bermoothes."
39. 123. omen] the ominous event, Farmer cites from Heywood's Life of Merlin: "Merlin . . . His country's omen did long since foretell."
40. 125. climatures] regions; in which sense "climate" is commonly found, Dyce reads climature, Clar. Press suggests the inhabitants of our regions.
41. 127. I'll cross it, though it blast me] Blakeway cites from Lodge's Illustrations of British History, iii. 48, a story of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby (who died 1594): on Friday a tall man appeared, who twice crossed him swiftly; and when the bewitched Earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick. Opposite this line Q has the stage direction: "It spreads his armes."
42. 134. happily] haply. See II. ii. 408, and Measure for Measure, IV, ii. 98 (Clar. Press). Hudson explains it "fortunately." Furness writes: "The structure of this solemn appeal is almost identical with that of a very different strain in As You Like It, II. iv. 33-42."
43. 140. partisan] a kind of halbert or pike.
44. 150. trumpet] Malone quotes from England's Parnassus, 1600 (in a passage assigned to Drayton): "the cocke, the morning's trumpeter." "Trumpet" for "trumpeter" occurs in several passages of Shakespeare. Henry V, IV. ii. 61: "I will the banner from a trumpet take."
45. 151. lofty] like "shrill," qualifies "sounding"; unless the uplifted throat of the crowing cock is meant.
46. 154. extravagant] wandering out of bounds, vagrant. Othello, I. i. 137: "an extravagant and wheeling stranger." "Erring," straying.
47. 166. probation] proof, as in Measure for Measure, V. 157.
48. 161. walk] The Q "stir" has not the special ghostly significance of "walk," which is frequent in Shakespeare, e.g. Winter's Tale, V. i. 63: "were I the ghost that walk'd."
49. 162. strike] blast, especially of planetary influence. Coriolanus, II. ii. 117: "struck Corioli like a planet." Furness quotes Florio's Dict.: "Assiderare: to blast or strike with a planet, to be taken."
50. 163. takes] affects with malignant influence. Merry Wives, IV. iv. 32 (of Herne the Hunter): "And there he blasts the tree and takes the cattle." So "taking airs" in Lear, II. iv. 166.