It is most retrograde to our desire:

And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

I

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:

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 rouse1 the heaven shall bruit? again,

Respeaking earthly thunder.-Come away.

[Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. Polonius, and Laertes.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve 3 itself into a dew;

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

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,

1 Jovial draught.
⚫ Dissolve.

2 Report.

4 Law.

Possess it merely.1

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 beteeme3 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 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,

father

My father's brother; but no more like my
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!

1 Intirely.

2 Apollo.

3 Suffer.

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.

Ho. Hail to your lordship!

Ham.

I am glad to see you well.

Horatio, or I do forget myself.

Ho. 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 ?
Ho. 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.

Ho. 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.

Ho. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked

meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my dearest 1 foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio !—
My father;--methinks, I see my father.
Ho. O, where, my lord?

Ham.
In my mind's eye, Horatio.
Ho. 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.

Ho. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw, who?

Ho. My lord, the king your father.

The king my father?

Ham.
Ho. Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent2 ear; till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear.

Ho. 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

1 Most inveterate.

2 For attentive.

In dreadful secresy 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.

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.

Ho. 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?