Codes
+ + = emendation; <> = First Folio; [ ] = Second Quarto only

+1.4+
                Enter 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.                                                 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.]

 
 

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,
particularly associated with heavy drinking.

1.4.11    Rhenish: Rhine wine

1.4.13    triumph of his pledge: his feat of emptying the cup in
                 one draft

1.4.17    to the manner born: destined through birth to accept
                 this custom

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
                 happens with

1.4.27    mole of nature: natural fault

1.4.30    o'ergrowth of some complexion: i.e., the increase of
                one of the four "humors," which were thought to
                control man's physical and emotional being

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
                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)

1.4.36    His virtues else: the other virtues of these men

1.4.39-41 The dram . . . scandal: These difficult lines have
           never been satisfactorily repaired, but the general
           sense may be that a small amount of evil makes even
           something admirable seem disreputable