Hamlet-Act 1, Scene 1
BARNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
BARNARDO
Long live the king!
FRANCISCO
Barnardo?
BARNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon your hour.
BARNARDO
'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.
BARNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
BARNARDO
Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, the rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
FRANCISCO
I think I hear them.
BARNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
No, you answer me. Show yourself.
BARNARDO
(giving the password)
Long live the king!
FRANCISCO
Barnardo?
BARNARDO
Yeah, it's me.
FRANCISCO
Just in time.
BARNARDO
It just turned twelve. Get yourself to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
Thanks for coming. It's freezing, and I'm getting depressed.
BARNARDO
Has anything happened?
FRANCISCO
Nothing.
BARNARDO
Good night then. Horatio and Marcellus were supposed to come, so if you see them, tell them to move it.
FRANCISCO
That must be them.
enter Horatio and Marcellus
Stand, ho! Who is there?
HORATIO
Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO
Give you good night.
MARCELLUS
O, farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO
Barnardo hath my place. Give you good night.
Who's there?
HORATIO
Friends.
MARCELLUS
And subjects of the Danish king.
FRANCISCO
Good night.
MARCELLUS
Oh, good night. Who took your place?
FRANCISCO
Barnardo. Good night.
exit Francisco
what just happened?
MARCELLUS
Holla, Barnardo!
BARNARDO
Say, what, is Horatio there?
HORATIO
A piece of him.
BARNARDO
Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.
HORATIO
What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
BARNARDO
I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS
Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, and will not let belief take hold of him, touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Therefore I have entreated him along with us to watch the minutes of this night, that if again this apparition come, he may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
BARNARDO
Sit down a while, and let us once again assail your ears, that are so fortified against our story, what we have two nights seen.
MARCELLUS
Hey, Barnardo!
BARNARDO
Hey, is Horatio there?
HORATIO
(offering his hand)
Part of him.
BARNARDO
Welcome, Horatio, Marcellus.
HORATIO
Have you seen this thing again tonight?
BARNARDO
Nope.
MARCELLUS
Horatio says it's just our imagination and won't believe us, so I asked him to come and watch with us, so that if it comes again he can confirm our story and talk to it.
HORATIO
It ain't gonna happen.
BARNARDO
Sit down and let us tell you what we saw, even though you're so determined not to believe.
HORATIO
Well, sit we down, and let us hear Barnardo speak of this.
BARNARDO
Last night of all, when yond same star that's westward from the polehad made his course t'illume that part of heaven where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, the bell then beating one-
HORATIO
Fine, I'll sit, let's hear Branardo.
BARNARDO
Last night, when that star west of the north star was where it is now, Marcellus and I, as the clock struck one-
enter Ghost
MARCELLUS
Hey, there it is again!
BARNARDO
Like the dead king.
MARCELLUS
You think you're so smart, talk to it, Horatio.
BARNARDO
Doesn't it look like the king?
HORATIO
Okay, you were right.
BARNARDO
I think it wants to talk.
MARCELLUS
Ask it something, Horatio.
HORATIO
What are you? For the love of God, tell us.
MARCELLUS
Be careful, you're scaring it off!
BARNARDO
Yeah, now it's leaving.
HORATIO
Come back, talk to us! Say something!
MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again.
BARNARDO
In the same figure like the king that's dead.
MARCELLUS
Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.
BARNARDO
Looks a not like the king? Mark it, Horatio.
HORATIO
Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
BARNARDO
It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS
Question it, Horatio.
HORATIO
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 march? By heaven, I charge thee speak.
MARCELLUS
It is offended.
BARNARDO
See, it stalks away.
HORATIO
Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak.
exit Ghost
MARCELLUS
'Tis gone and will not answer.
BARNARDO
How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on't?
HORATIO
Before my God, I might not this believe without the sensible and true avouch of mine own eyes.
MARCELLUS
Is it not like the King?
HORATIO
As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armour he had on when he th' ambitious Norway combated. So frown'd he once, when in an angry parle he smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. 'Tis strange.
MARCELLUS
Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, with martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
HORATIO
In what particular thought to work I know not, but in the gross and scope of my opinion, this bodes some strange eruption to our state.
MARCELLUS
(sarcastically)
Nice work, Horatio.
BARNARDO
Hah! I told you so. Who's the fool now?
HORATIO
I wasn't even about to believe this until I saw it.
MARCELLUS
Doesn't it look like the king?
HORATIO
As much as you look like yourself. That was his war armor the ghost was wearing-I saw him look like that in wars with Norway and Poland. Strange.
MARCELLUS
We've seen him like this twice already, and in the dead of night.
HORATIO
I don't know what to think, but this can't be good for Denmark.
MARCELLUS
Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, why this same strict and most observant watch so nightly toils the subject of the land, and why such daily cast of brazen cannon and foreign mart for implements of war, why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task does not divide the Sunday from the week. What might be toward that this sweaty haste doth make the night joint-laborer with the day, who is't that can inform me?
HORATIO
That can I. At least the whisper goes so : our last king, 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 pride, dar'd to the combat; in which our valient Hamlet (for so this side of our known world esteem'd him) did slay this Fortinbras, who by a seal'd compact well ratified by law and heraldry did forfeit, with his life, all those lands which he stood seiz'd of to the conqueror; against the which a moiety competent was gaged by our king, which had return'd to the inheritance of Fortinbras, had he been vanquisher; as, by the same cov'nant and carriage of the article design'd, his fell to Hamlet. now, sir, young Fortinbras, of unimproved mettle, hot and full, hath in the skirts of Norway shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes for food and diet to some enterprise that hath a stomach in't, which is no other, as it doth well appear unto our state, but to recover of us by strong hand and terms compulsory those foresaid lands so by his father lost. And this, I take it, is the main motive of our preparations, the source of this our watch, and the chief head of this post-haste and rummage in the land.
BARNARDO
I think it be no other but e'en so. Well may it sort that this portentious figure comes armed through our watch so like the king that was and is the question of these wars.
HORATIO
A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, a little ere the mightiest Julius fell, the graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; as stars with trains of fire and dews blood, disasters in the sun; and the moist star, upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of feared events, as harbingers preceding still the fates and prologue to the omen coming on, have heaven and earth together demonstrated unto our climatures and countrymen.
MARCELLUS
I've been noticing other bad omens-we have to be on watch constantly, the army is trying to gather all kinds of weapons, shipmakers have to work on Sundays, and all this is so important that everybody has to work at night. Does anybody have any idea what's going on?
HORATIO
Well, I've heard it's because after that duel when our old king Hamlet killed the king of Norway Prince Fortinbras was mad about Norway having to give up all its conquests in the deal so he's been raising a militia to try and atack us to get it back, so we're running scared trying to defend against him.
BARNARDO
Yeah, that makes sense, considering we just saw King Hamlet's ghost.
HORATIO
This is making me nervous. Ghosts showed up and other weird stuff happened in Rome before Julius Caesar died. This ghost has got to be a bad sign for Denmark.
what just happened?
enter Ghost
But soft, behold. Lo, where it comes again. I'll cross it though it blast me. Stay, illusion : if thou hast any sound or use of voice, speak to me. If there be any good thing to be done that may to thee do ease, and grace to me, speak to me; if thou art privy to thy country's fate which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, o speak; or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life extorted treasure in the womb of earth, for which they say your spirits oft walk in death, speak of it, stay and speak.
But there it is again. I'll talk to it no matter what it tries to do to me. Stay, talk to us if you can. if there's something I can do to help you and ourselves, if you know something about Denmark's future, if you have treasure-they say that's usually what ghosts are after-tell us.
the cock crows
Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
HORATIO
Do if it will not stand.
BARNARDO
'Tis here.
HORATIO
'Tis here.
MARCELLUS
'Tis gone. We do it wrong, being so majestical, to offer it the show of violence, for it is as the air, invulnerable, and our vain blows malicious mockery.
BARNARDO
It was about to speak when the cock crew.
HORATIO
And then it started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons. I have heard the cock, that is the trumpet of the morn, doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat awake the god of day, and at his warning, whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, th'extravagent and erring spirit hies to his confine; and of the truth herein this present object made probation.
MARCELLUS
It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, the bird of dawning singeth all night long; and then, they say, no spirit dare strike abroad, the nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, no fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, so halow'd and so gracious is that time.
HORATIO
So have I heard and do in part believe it. But look, the morn in russet mantle clad walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice let us impart what we have seen tonight unto young Hamlet; for upon my life 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?
MARCELLUS
Let's do't, I pray, and I this morning know where we shall find him most convenient.
Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
Should I throw my bayonet at it?
HORATIO
Yes, if it tries to leave.
BARNARDO
It's over there.
HORATIO
No, it's over there.
MARCELLUS
Now it's gone. We were rude to try and hurt such an incredible thing-we can't even touch it.
BARNARDO
When the rooster crowed, it was about to talk.
HORATIO
And then it ran as if caught guilty. They say that, because roosters wake the god of day, their call is a signal for ghosts who've gone off during the night to wherever they're trapped during the day, which we just saw ourselves.
MARCELLUS
They say that in the nights before Christmas roosters crow throughout the night, and no ghosts can come, no spells can take, the stars have no influence, that time is so holy.
HORATIO
I've heard that too, and after tonight I'm ready to believe it. But look, the sun is coming up in the eastern mountains. Let's go and tell prince Hamlet about the ghost. I bet it'll talk to him. Do you agree that we should tell him, because of our friendship and our duty?
MARCELLUS
Yes, and I know exactly where he is this morning.
exeunt
what just happened?
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