The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,

  Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool.

  OPHELIA

  My lord, he hath importuned me with love

  In honourable fashion—

  POLONIUS

  Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.

  OPHELIA

  And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

  With all the vows of heaven.

  POLONIUS

  Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know

  When the blood burns how prodigal the soul

  Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,

  Giving more light than heat, extinct in both

  Even in their promise as it is a-making,

  You must not take for fire. From this time, daughter,

  Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.

  Set your entreatments at a higher rate

  Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,

  Believe so much in him, that he is young,

  And with a larger tether may he walk

  Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,

  Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,

  Not of the dye which their investments show,

  But mere imploratators of unholy suits,

  Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds

  The better to beguile. This is for all—

  I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth

  Have you so slander any moment leisure

  As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.

  Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.

  OPHELIA I shall obey, my lord.

  Exeunt

  1.4 Enter Prince Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus

  HAMLET

  The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.

  HORATIO

  It is a nipping and an eager air.

  HAMLET What hour now?

  HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve.

  MARCELLUS No, it is struck.

  HORATIO

  Indeed? I heard it not. Then it draws near the season

  Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

  A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces of ordnance goes off

  What does this mean, my lord?

  HAMLET

  The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,

  Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels,

  And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down

  The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out

  The triumph of his pledge.

  HORATIO Is it a custom?

  HAMLET Ay, marry is’t,

  And to my mind, though I am native here

  And to the manner born, it is a custom

  More honoured in the breach than the observance.

  Enter the Ghost, as before

  HORATIO Look, my lord, it comes.

  HAMLET

  Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

  Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,

  Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

  Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

  Thou com’st 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, hearsèd in death,

  Have burst their cerements, why the sepulchre

  Wherein we saw thee quietly enurned

  Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws

  To cast thee up again. What may this mean,

  That thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel,

  Revisitst 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?

  The Ghost beckons Hamlet

  HORATIO

  It beckons you to go away with it

  As if it some impartment did desire

  To you alone.

  MARCELLUS (to Hamlet) Look with what courteous action

  It wafts you to a more removed ground.

  But do not go with it.

  HORATIO (to Hamlet)

  No, by no means.

  HAMLET

  It will not speak. Then will I follow it.

  HORATIO

  Do not, my lord.

  HAMLET

  Why, what should be the fear?

  I do not set my life at a pin’s fee,

  And for my soul, what can it do to that,

  Being a thing immortal as itself?

  The Ghost beckons Hamlet

  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

  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 Ghost beckons Hamlet

  HAMLET

  It wafts me still. (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.

  MARCELLUS

  You shall not go, my lord.

  HAMLET

  Hold off your hand.

  HORATIO

  Be ruled. You shall not go.

  HAMLET

  My fate cries out,

  And makes each petty artere in this body

  As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.

  The Ghost beckons Hamlet

  Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.

  By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.

  I say, away! (To the Ghost) Go on, I’ll follow thee.

  Exeunt the 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.

  HORATIO

  Heaven will direct it.

  MARCELLUS

  Nay, let’s follow him.

  Exeunt

  1.5 Enter the Ghost, and Prince Hamlet following

  HAMLET

  Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.

  GHOST

  Mark me.

  HAMLET

  I will.

  GHOST

  My hour is almost come

  When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames

  Must render up myself.

  HAMLET

  Alas, poor ghost!

  GHOST

  Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

  To what I shall unfold.

  HAMLET

  GHOST

  So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.

  HAMLET What?

  GHOST I am thy father’s spirit,

  Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,

  And for the day confined to fast in fires

  Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

  Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid

  To tell the secrets of my prison-house

  I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

  Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

  Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,

  Thy knotty and combined locks to part,

  And each particular hair to stand on end

  Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.

  But this eternal blazon must not be

  To ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, list, O list!

  If thou didst ever thy dear father love—

  HAMLET O God!


  GHOST

  Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

  HAMLET Murder?

  GHOST

  Murder most foul, as in the best it is,

  But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

  HAMLET

  Haste, haste me to know it, that with wings as swift

  As meditation or the thoughts of love

  May sweep to my revenge.

  GHOST

  I find thee apt,

  And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

  That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf

  Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.

  ’Tis given out that, sleeping in mine orchard,

  A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark

  Is by a forged process of my death

  Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,

  The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

  Now wears his crown.

  HAMLET

  O my prophetic soul! Mine uncle?

  GHOST

  Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

  With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts—

  O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

  So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust

  The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.

  O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!—

  From me, whose love was of that dignity

  That it went hand-in-hand even with the vow

  I made to her in marriage, and to decline

  Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

  To those of mine.

  But virtue, as it never will be moved,

  Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

  So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

  Will sate itself in a celestial bed,

  And prey on garbage.

  But soft, methinks I scent the morning’s air.

  Brief let me be. Sleeping within mine orchard,

  My custom always in the afternoon,

  Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole

  With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,

  And in the porches of mine ears did pour

  The leperous distilment, whose effect

  Holds such an enmity with blood of man

  That swift as quicksilver it courses through

  The natural gates and alleys of the body,

  And with a sudden vigour it doth posset

  And curd, like eager droppings into milk,

  The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;

  And a most instant tetter barked about,

  Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,

  All my smooth body.

  Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand

  Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,

  Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

  Unhouseled, dis-appointed, unaneled,

  No reck’ning made, but sent to my account

  With all my imperfections on my head.

  O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!

  If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.

  Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

  A couch for luxury and damned incest.

  But howsoever thou pursuest this act,

  Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive

  Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,

  And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge

  To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.

  The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,

  And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

  Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. Remember me. Exit

  HAMLET

  O all you host of heaven! Oearth! What else?

  And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,

  And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,

  But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?

  Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat

  In this distracted globe. Remember thee?

  Yea, from the table of my memory

  I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,

  All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,

  That youth and observation copied there,

  And thy commandment all alone shall live

  Within the book and volume of my brain

  Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes, by heaven.

  O most pernicious woman!

  O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

  My tables,

  My tables—meet it is I set it down

  That one may smile and smile and be a villain.

  At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.

  He writes

  So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:

  It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’.

  I have sworn’t.

  HORATIO and MARCELLUS (within) My lord, my lord.

  Enter Horatio and Marcellus

  MARCELLUS (calling) Lord Hamlet! 115

  HORATIO Heaven secure him.

  HAMLET So be it.

  HORATIO (calling) Illo, ho, ho, my lord.

  HAMLET

  Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come.

  MARCELLUS How is’t, my noble lord?

  HORATIO (to Hamlet) What news, my lord?

  HAMLET O wonderful!

  HORATIO

  Good my lord, tell it.

  HAMLET

  No, you’ll reveal it.

  HORATIO

  Not I, my lord, by heaven.

  MARCELLUS

  Nor I, my lord.

  HAMLET

  How say you then, would heart of man once think it?

  But you’ll be secret?

  HORATIO and MARCELLUS Ay, by heav’n, my lord.

  HAMLET

  There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark

  But he’s an arrant knave.

  HORATIO

  There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave

  To tell us this.

  HAMLET

  Why, right, you are i’th’ right,

  And so without more circumstance at all

  I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,

  You as your business and desires shall point you—

  For every man has business and desire,

  Such as it is—and for mine own poor part,

  Look you, I’ll go pray.

  HORATIO

  These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

  HAMLET

  I’m sorry they offend you, heartily,

  Yes, faith, heartily.

  HORATIO

  There’s no offence, my lord.

  HAMLET

  Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,

  And much offence, too. Touching this vision here,

  It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.

  For your desire to know what is between us,

  O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,

  As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,

  Give me one poor request.

  HORATIO

  What is’t, my lord? We will.

  HAMLET

  Never make known what you have seen tonight.

  HORATIO and MARCELLUS

  My lord, we will not.

  HAMLET

  Nay, but swear’t.

  HORATIO

  In faith, my lord, not I.

  MARCELLUS

  Nor I, my lord, in faith.

  HAMLET

  Upon my sword.

  MARCELLUS

  We have sworn, my lord, already.

  HAMLET

  Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.

  The Ghost cries under the stage

  GHOST

  Swear.

  HAMLET

  Ah ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?—

  Come on. You hear this fellow in the cellarage.

  Consent
to swear.

  HORATIO

  Propose the oath, my lord.

  HAMLET

  Never to speak of this that you have seen,

  Swear by my sword.

  GHOST (under the stage) Swear.

  ⌈They swear⌉

  HAMLET

  Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.—

  Come hither, gentlemen,

  And lay your hands again upon my sword.

  Never to speak of this that you have heard,

  Swear by my sword.

  GHOST (under the stage) Swear.

  ⌈They swear⌉

  HAMLET

  Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast?

  A worthy pioneer.—Once more remove, good friends.

  HORATIO

  O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

  HAMLET

  And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

  There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

  Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come,

  Here as before, never, so help you mercy,

  How strange or odd soe‘er I bear myself—

  As I perchance hereafter shall think meet

  To put an antic disposition on—

  That you at such time seeing me never shall,

  With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake,

  Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase

  As ‘Well, we know’ or ‘We could an if we would’,

  Or ‘If we list to speak’, or ‘There be, an if they might’,

  Or such ambiguous giving out, to note

  That you know aught of me—this not to do,

  So grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear.

  GHOST (under the stage) Swear.

  ⌈They swear⌉

  HAMLET

  Rest, rest, perturbed spirit.—So, gentlemen,

  With all my love I do commend me to you,

  And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

  May do t’express his love and friending to you,

  God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,

  And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.

  The time is out of joint. O cursed spite

  That ever I was born to set it right!

  Nay, come, let’s go together. Exeunt

  2.1 Enter old Polonius with his man Reynaldo

  POLONIUS

  Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

  REYNALDO I will, my lord.

  POLONIUS

  You shall do marv’lous wisely, good Reynaldo,

  Before you visit him to make enquire

  Of his behaviour.