We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe; and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet;
I pray thee stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply;
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell;
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, LORDS, &c., POLONIUS, and LAERTEL

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter !
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two;
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? And yet, within a month,-
Let me not think on't ;-Frailty, thy name is woman!-
A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears; -why she, even she,-
O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer, -married with my uncle,
My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules:

It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue!

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.

Hor. Hail to your lordship!

Ham.

Horatio, or I do forget myself.

I am glad to see you well:

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you.

And what inake you from Wittenberg, Horatio ?-
Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord.

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir,

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so;
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know, you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;

I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.
Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !-
My father,-Methinks, I see my father.

Hor.

My lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Where,

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yestern.ght.
Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham.

The king my father !

Hor. Season your admiration for a while

With an attent ear; till I may deliver,

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

This marvel to you.

Ham.

For heaven's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd,
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I with them, the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;

These hands are not more like.

Ham.

But where was this?

Mar. My lord, upon the platform

Harn. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

where we watch'd.

My lord, I did :

But answer made it none: yet once, methought,
It lifted up its head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak :

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;

And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,

And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honor'd lord, 'tis true;

And we did think it writ down in our duty,

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to-night?

All.

We do, my lord.

Ham. Arm'd,say you?

All.

Arm'd, my lord.

Ham.

From top to to!

Ham.

His face.

All. My lord, from head to foot.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

Ham. What, look'd he frowningly ?
Hor.

Then saw you not

A countenance more

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

Ham. His beard was grizzl'd? no?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A sable silver'd.

Ham.

I will watch to-night;

Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor.

I warrant, it will.

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All.

Our duty to your honor.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.

[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUs, and BernarDO

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise,

Though all the earth o'erwhelms them, to men's eyes.

SCENE III. A Room in Polonius' House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell :
And, sister, as the winds give benefit,
Pray let me hear from you.

Oph.

Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,

Carve for himself:

Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire;
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.

Laer.

O fear me not. I stay too long; -But here my father comes. Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame;

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

[Exit. [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head

And you are staid for: There, my blessing with you!

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy: rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend:
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, To thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend.
Laer. Farewell, Ophelia: and remember well

What I have said to you.

Oph.

'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewell.

SCENE IV.-The Platform.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS.

Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.

Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor.

Mar. No, it is struck.

I think, it lacks of twelve.

Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; then it draws near the season,

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within.

What does this mean, my lord ?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,