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Folger
Hamlet Electronic Text (1992)
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Codes:
+ + = emendation; <> = First Folio; [ ] = Second Quarto only +1.4+ HAMLET
Enter Ghost.
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it comes. HORATIO MARCELLUS
Nay, let's follow him. HAMLET HAMLET
I will. HAMLET Speak. I am bound
to hear.
GHOST HAMLET ____________________________________________________________
While Claudius drinks away the night, Hamlet, Horatio
and Marcellus 1.4.1 shrewdly:
keenly, intensely
1.4.2 eager:
sharp (from the French aigre)
1.4.7 held
his wont: has been accustomed
1.4.9 doth
. . . rouse: stays awake tonight drinking
1.4.10 Keeps
wassail: carouses; upspring: a German dance,
1.4.11 Rhenish:
Rhine wine
1.4.13 triumph
of his pledge: his feat of emptying the cup in 1.4.17 to
the manner born: destined through birth to accept 1.4.20 taxed
of: censured by
1.4.21 clepe:
call
1.4.22 addition:
titles of honor
1.4.25 pith
and marrow: essence; attribute: reputation
1.4.26 So:
in the same way; oft it chances in: it often
1.4.27 mole
of nature: natural fault
1.4.30 o'ergrowth
of some complexion: i.e., the increase of 1.4.31 pales
and forts: palings and ramparts
1.4.32 o'erleavens:
radically changes
1.4.33 plausive:
pleasing
1.4.35 nature's
livery: i.e., something by which one is marked 1.4.36 His
virtues else: the other virtues of these men
1.4.39-41 The dram
. . . scandal: These difficult lines have 1.4.48 questionable:
problematic
1.4.52 canonized:
i.e., buried in accord with the canons of 1.4.59-61 and we .
. . our souls: and causing us weak humans to 1.4.64 some
. . . desire: did desire to impart something
1.4.73 a
pin's fee: the cost of a pin
1.4.81 deprive
your sovereignty of reason: depose reason as 1.4.83 toys
of desperation: desperate impulses
1.4.92 arture:
artery (Arteries were believed to be the veins 1.4.93 the
Nemean lion's nerve: the sinews of the lion killed 1.4.95 lets
me: holds me back
___________________________________________________________________
The Ghost tells Hamlet a tale of horror. Saying
that he is the 1.5.3
Mark me: pay attention to me
1.5.9
lend thy serious hearing: listen intently
1.5.11 bound:
ready (The word also means "in duty bound" and 1.5.16 for:
during
1.5.21 harrow
up: tear up (agricultural image)
1.5.22-23 stars
. . . spheres: In Ptolemaic astronomy, each 1.5.25 an
end: on end
1.5.26 fearful
porpentine: uneasy (threatened) porcupine
1.5.27 eternal
blazon: description of that which is eternal
1.5.39 duller
. . . be : you would be duller; fat: thick
1.5.40 Lethe
wharf: bank of the river Lethe (the river of 1.5.41 Wouldst
thou not: if you did not
1.5.42 orchard:
palace garden
1.5.44 forgèd
process: false story
1.5.45 Rankly
abused: completely misled
1.5.57-58 decline/
Upon: to turn to (with the sense of 1.5.65 soft:
"enough" or "wait a minute"
1.5.69 hebona:
a poison (The word may be linked to "henbane," 1.5.71 leprous
distilment: distillation causing a condition 1.5.75 posset:
clot
1.5.76 eager:
acid
1.5.78-80 a most
instant tetter . . . body: i.e., sores and
1.5.82 dispatched:
dispossessed
1.5.84 unhousled
. . . unaneled: without having received final
1.5.90 luxury:
lust
1.5.96 matin:
morning
1.5.104 globe:
Hamlet perhaps gestures to his head.
1.5.105 table:
table-book or slate, used here metaphorically 1.5.106 fond
records: foolish jottings (records
accented on the 1.5.108 youth
and observation: youthful observation
1.5.114 meet
it is: it is appropriate that
1.5.125 Hillo,
ho . . . bird, come: Hamlet mocks Marcellus's
1.5.138 arrant:
complete
1.5.142 circumstance:
ceremony
1.5.154 honest:
genuine
1.5.165 Upon
my sword: an appropriate object on which to swear 1.5.170 truepenny:
honest fellow
1.5.177 Hic
et ubique: here and everywhere
1.5.184 pioner:
a foot-soldier who marches in advance of the 1.5.186 as
a stranger give it welcome: welcome it as one
should 1.5.188 your
philosophy: i.e., philosophy in general
1.189-202 never
. . . help you: i.e., swear never to note, even
1.5.190 How
. . . some'er: howsoever
1.5.191-92 As
I . . . on: since I may in the future think it
1.5.194 With
arms . . . headshake: with your arms folded or 1.5.195 doubtful:
ambiguous
1.5.196 an
if: if
1.5.198 list:
should choose
1.5.200 giving-out:
expression; note: indicate
1.5.204 Rest,
rest, perturbèd spirit: These words suggest
that Copyright © 1992. The
Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved.
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
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.
5
HORATIO
Indeed, I heard it not. It then draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets and two pieces 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; 10
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish
down,
The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO Is it a custom?
HAMLET Ay, marry, is 't,
15
But, to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
[This heavy-headed +revel+ east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
20
They clepe us drunkards and with swinish
phrase
Soil our addition. And, indeed, it takes
From our achievements, though performed at
height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.
25
So oft it chances in
particular men
That for some vicious mole of nature in
them,
As in their birth (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin),
By +the+ o'ergrowth of some complexion
30
(Oft breaking down the pales and forts
of reason),
Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
The form of plausive manners--that these
men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery or fortune's
star,
35
His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of +evil+
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
40
To his own scandal.]
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
45
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!
50
Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd
in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulcher,
Wherein we saw thee quietly interred,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
55
To cast thee up again. What may this mean
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
60
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
<Ghost> beckons.
HORATIO
It beckons you to go away with it
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
65
MARCELLUS
Look with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removèd ground.
But do not go with it.
HORATIO
No, by no means.
HAMLET
It will not speak. Then I will follow it.
70
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?
75
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
80
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
And draw you into madness? Think of it.
[The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
85
And hears it roar beneath.]
HAMLET
It waves me still.-- Go on, I'll follow thee.
MARCELLUS
You shall not go, my lord. +They hold back Hamlet.+
HAMLET
Hold off your hands.
Be ruled. You shall not go.
90
HAMLET
My fate cries out
And makes each petty arture in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets
me! 95
I say, away!--Go on. I'll follow thee.
Ghost and Hamlet exit.
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.
100
HORATIO
Heaven will direct it.
They exit.
+1.5+
Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I'll go no
further.
GHOST
Mark me.
GHOST
My hour is almost come
5
When I to sulf'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.
10
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
15
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
20
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy
young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from
their
spheres,
Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand an end,
25
Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
HAMLET O God!
30
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 me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift
35
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 roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
40
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now,
Hamlet, hear.
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forgèd process of my
death
Rankly abused. But know, thou noble
youth,
45
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.
HAMLET O, my prophetic soul! My uncle!
GHOST
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his +wit,+ with traitorous gifts-- 50
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
55
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,
60
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
air.
65
Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursèd hebona
in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
70
The leprous 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 vigor it doth <posset>
75
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.
80
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, disappointed, unaneled,
No reck'ning made, but sent to my account
85
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 damnèd
incest.
90
But, howsomever thou pursues 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.
95
The glowworm shows the matin to be
near
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me.
<He exits.>
O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
101
But bear me <stiffly> up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember
thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory
105
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,
110
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables--meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
115
At least I am 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.
Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
HORATIO My lord, my lord!
120
MARCELLUS Lord Hamlet.
HORATIO Heavens secure him!
HAMLET So be it.
MARCELLUS Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
HAMLET Hillo, ho,
ho, boy! Come, <bird,> come!
MARCELLUS
How is 't, my noble lord?
125
HORATIO
What news, my lord?
HAMLET O, wonderful!
HORATIO
Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET
No, you will reveal it. 130
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?
135
HORATIO / MARCELLUS
Ay, by heaven, <my lord.>
HAMLET
There's never 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.
140
HAMLET
Why, right, you are in the right.
And so, without more circumstance
at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,
You, as your business and desire shall point you
(For every man hath business and desire,
145
Such as it is), and for my own poor part,
I will go pray.
HORATIO
These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET
I am sorry they offend you, heartily;
Yes, faith, heartily.
150
HORATIO
There's no offense, my lord.
HAMLET
Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
And much offense, too. Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost--that let me
tell you.
For your desire to know what is between us,
155
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.
160
HORATIO / 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.
165
MARCELLUS
We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
GHOST cries under the stage Swear.
HAMLET
Ha, ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there,
truepenny?
170
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.
175
GHOST, +beneath+ Swear.
HAMLET
Hic et ubique? Then we'll
shift our ground.
Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword.
Swear by my sword
180
Never to speak of this that you have heard.
GHOST, +beneath+ Swear by his sword.
HAMLET
Well said, old mole. Canst work i' th' earth so fast?
A worthy pioner! Once more remove,
good friends.
HORATIO
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
185
HAMLET
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
But come.
Here, as before, never, so help you
mercy,
How strange or odd some'er I bear
myself
190
(As I perchance hereafter shall think
meet
To put an antic disposition on)
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful
phrase,
195
As "Well, 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
200
That you know aught of me--this do swear,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you.
GHOST, +beneath+ Swear.
HAMLET
Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit.--So,
gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you,
205
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 cursèd spite
210
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.
They exit.
1.4
are visited by the Ghost. It signals to Hamlet.
Hamlet's friends
try to stop him from following the Ghost, but Hamlet will
not be
held back.
____________________________________________________________
particularly associated with heavy drinking.
one draft
this custom
happens with
one of the four "humors," which were thought to
control man's physical and emotional being
by nature (as in their birth, or the o'ergrowth
of some complexion");
fortune's star: something
determined by luck (as in the accidental forming
of some habit)
never been satisfactorily repaired, but the general
sense may be that a small amount of evil makes even
something admirable seem disreputable
the church (accent on second syllable)
agitate our minds with thoughts that go beyond
what even our souls can reach to
ruler of your mind
that carried the body's invisible "vital spirits.")
by Hercules as one of his twelve "labors"
1.5
spirit of Hamlet's father, he demands that Hamlet avenge
King
Hamlet's murder at the hands of Claudius. Hamlet,
horrified, vows
to "remember" and swears his friends to secrecy about what
they
have seen.
___________________________________________________________________
"obligated," which is the sense to which the Ghost
responds in the following line)
planet (star) was carried around the earth in a
crystalline sphere.
forgetfulness)
"declining" as falling, bending downward)
a poisonous weed, or to "ebony,"
the sap of which was
thought to be poisonous. Marlowe,
in The Jew of Malta,
mentions "the juice of hebon"
as deadly.)
like leprosy
scabs, as on a leper, covered
my body with a vile crust
like the bark of a tree tetter:
a skin disease marked
by sores and scabs lazar-like:
like a leper
rites
(Hamlet wants to wipe his memory
clean, as one would
erase a slate or table-book. Later
[lines 114-116), he
takes out actual "tables.")
second syllable)
call, as if it were the call of a falconer.
an oath, in that the hilts form a cross
army to dig trenches and clear the way; a digger
or miner; remove: move to another spot
welcome a stranger
through gestures and hints, that
you know anything about
me, no matter how strangely I
act
appropriate to act bizarrely
shaking your head in a knowing way
Horatio and Marcellus have sworn
the oath demanded by
Hamlet and the Ghost; Q2 and F
give no stage direction
to indicate when they do so.