O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle,
My father’s brother; but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:— O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break my heart,—for I must hold my tongue!
[Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo.]
HOR.
Hail to your lordship!
HAM.
I am glad to see you well:
Horatio,—or I do forget myself.
HOR.
The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
HAM.
Sir, my good friend; I’ll change that name with you:
And what make 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 my 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 prithee 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.
Where, my lord?
HAM.
In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
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 yesternight.
HAM.
Saw who?
HOR.
My lord, the king your father.
HAM.
The King my father!
HOR.
Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
HAM.
For God’s love let me hear.
HOR.
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter’d. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
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 where we watch’d.
HAM.
Did you not speak to it?
HOR.
My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up it 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 honour’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 tonight?
MAR. and BER.
We do, my lord.
HAM.
Arm’d, say you?
Both.
Arm’d, my lord.
HAM.
From top to toe?
Both.
My lord, from head to foot.
HAM.
Then saw you not his face?
HOR.
O, yes, my lord: he wore his beaver up.
HAM.
What, look’d he frowningly?
HOR.
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
HAM.
Pale or red?
HOR.
Nay, very pale.
HAM.