breach than the

More honoured in the breach

observance.

This heavy-headed revel east and west

Makes us traduced and taxed of other

nations.

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.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for some vicious mole of nature in

them,

20

As, in their birth-wherein they are not 25 guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his origin―

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of

reason,

Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens The form of plausive manners, that these 30

men,

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,Their virtues else-be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo

Shall in the general censure take corruption 35 From that particular fault. The dram of

eale

Hor.

Doth all the noble substance often dout

To his own scandal.

Look, my lord, it comes! Enter Ghost.

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee.

Hamlet,

I'll call thee

King, father, royal Dane! O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the
sepulchre,

Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete
steel

Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our
souls?

Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should

we do?

[Ghost beckons Hamlet.

Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire.
To you alone.

Mar.

Hor.

Look, with what courteous action 60 It waves you to a more removed ground.

But do not go with it.

No, by no means.

Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it.
Hor. Do not, my lord.

Ham.

Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee,
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?

It waves me forth again. I'll follow it. Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,

Ham.

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form,
Which might deprive your sovereignty of

reason

And draw you into madness?

Think of it.

The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
And hears it roar beneath.

Go on, I'll follow thee.
Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
Ham.

It waves me still.

65

70

75

Hold off your hands. 80

85

Hor. Be ruled; you shall not go.

Ham.

My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body

As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets
me!

I say, away! Go on, I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow. "T is not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after. To what issue will this come?

90 Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Den

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go

no further.

Ghost. Mark me.

Ham.

Ghost.

I will.

My hour is almost come,

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.

Ham.

Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing 5 To what I shall unfold.

Ham.

Speak; I am bound to hear. Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt

hear.

Ham. What?

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, 10
And for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.

forbid

But that I am

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young

blood,

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from
their spheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love-

Ham. O God!

15

20

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural 25 murder.