Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
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 unforced 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;
And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! O fie! '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,

120

130

140 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? Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on; 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 followed my poor father's body,

Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she, 150 O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourned 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 gallèd 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!

160 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. — [To Bernardo.]
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 followed hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked

meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

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180

190

Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! —

My father, methinks I see my father.

Hor. O, where, my lord?

Ham. İn 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 a while
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,

200 Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, Armed at all points, exactly, cap-à-pé,

Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walked
By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes,

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled

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 delivered, 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 watched.
Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

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 vanished from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honored 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?

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220

Mar., Ber.

We do, my lord.