Hamlet
_Ham._ How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
But you'll be secret?--
_Hor._}
} Ay, by heaven, my lord.
_Mar._}
_Ham._ There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark--
But he's an arrant knave.[118]
_Hor._ There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this.
_Ham._ Why, right; you are in the right;
And so, without more circumstance at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part:
You as your business and desire shall point you,
For every man hath business and desire,
Such as it is;--and, for my own poor part,
Look you, I will go pray.
_Hor._ These are but wild and whirling words,[119] my lord.
_Ham._ I am sorry they offend you, heartily.
_Hor._ There's no offence, my lord.
_Ham._ Yes, by Saint Patrick,[120] but there is, Horatio,
And much offence, too. Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
For your desire to know what is between us,
O'er-master it[121] as you may. And now, good friends,
As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.
_Hor._ What is't, my lord?
We will.
_Ham._ Never make known what you have seen to-night.
_Hor._}
} My lord, we will not.
_Mar._}
_Ham._ Nay, but swear't.
_Hor._ Propose the oath, my lord.
_Ham._ Never to speak of this that you have seen.
Swear by my sword.
[HORATIO _and_ MARCELLUS _place each their right
hand on_ HAMLET'S _sword._]
_Ghost._ (_Beneath._) Swear.
_Hor._ O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
_Ham._ And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.[122]
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
But come;--
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet
To put an antick disposition[123] on,--
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus,[124] or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As, _Well, we know_; or, _We could, an if we would_; or, _If
we list to speak_;--or, _There be, an if they might_;--
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me:--This do you swear,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you!
[HORATIO _and_ MARCELLUS _again place their hands on_ HAMLET'S
_sword._]
_Ghost._ (_Beneath._) Swear.
_Ham._ Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
Heaven willing, shall not lack.[125] Let us go in together;
[_Crosses to_ L.]
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint;--O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.
[_Exeunt_ L.H.]
END OF ACT FIRST.
Notes
Act I
[Footnote I.1: _Me:_] _i.e., me_ who am already on the watch, and
have a right to demand the watch-word.]
[Footnote I.2: _Unfold_] Announce, make known.]
[Footnote I.3: _Long live the King._] The watch-word.]
[Footnote I.4: _The rivals of my watch_,] _Rivals_, for partners
or associates.]
[Footnote I.5: _And liegemen to the Dane._] _i.e._, owing
allegiance to Denmark.]
[Footnote I.6: _A piece of him._] Probably a cant expression.]
[Footnote I.7: _To watch the minutes of this night_; This seems
to have been an expression common in Shakespeare's time.]
[Footnote I.8: _Approve our eyes_,] To _approve_, in
Shakespeare's age, signified to make good or establish.]
[Footnote I.9: _What we have seen._] We must here supply "with,"
or "by relating" before "what we have seen."]
[Footnote I.10: _It harrows me with fear and wonder._] _i.e._, it
confounds and overwhelms me.]
[Footnote I.11: _Usurp'st this time of night_,] _i.e._, abuses,
uses against right, and the order of things.]
[Footnote I.12: _I might not this believe, &c._] I _could_ not:
it had not been permitted me, &c., without the full and perfect
evidence, &c.]
[Footnote I.13: _Jump at this dead hour_,] _Jump_ and _just_ were
synonymous in Shakespeare's time.]
[Footnote I.14: _In what particular thought to work_,] In what
particular course to set my thoughts at work: in what particular
train to direct the mind and exercise it in conjecture.]
[Footnote I.15: _Gross and scope_] Upon the whole, and in a
general view.]
[Footnote I.16: _Bodes some strange eruption to our state_,]
_i.e._, some political distemper, which will break out in
dangerous consequences.]
[Footnote I.17: _Palmy state_] Outspread, flourishing. Palm
branches were the emblem of victory.]
[Footnote I.18: _Sound, or use of voice_,] Articulation.]
[Footnote I.19:
_Uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth_,]
So in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. "If any of them had bound
the spirit of gold by any charmes _in cares_, or in iron fetters,
_under the ground_, they should, _for their own soule's quiet
(which, questionless, else would whine up and down_,) not for the
good of their children, release it."]
[Footnote I.20:
_And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons._]
Apparitions were supposed to fly from the crowing of the cock,
because it indicated the approach of day.]
[Footnote I.21: _Lofty_] High and loud.]
[Footnote I.22: _The extravagant and erring spirit_]
_Extravagant_ is, got out of his bounds. _Erring_ is here used in
the sense of wandering.]
[Footnote I.23: Laertes is unknown in the original story, being
an introduction of Shakespeare's.]
[Footnote I.24: _Green_;] Fresh.]
[Footnote I.25: _Wisest sorrow_] Sober grief, passion discreetly
reined.]
[Footnote I.26: _With a defeated joy_,] _i.e._, with joy baffled;
with joy interrupted by grief.]
[Footnote I.27: _Barr'd_] Excluded--acted without the concurrence
of.]
[Footnote I.28: _Your leave and favour_] The favour of your leave
granted, the kind permission. Two substantives with a copulative
being here, as is the frequent practice of our author, used for
an adjective and substantive: an adjective sense is given to a
substantive.]
[Footnote I.29: _Upon his will I sealed my hard consent:_] At or
upon his earnest and importunate suit, I gave my full and final,
though hardly obtained and reluctant, consent.]
[Footnote I.30:
_Take thy fair hour! time be thine;
And thy best graces spend it at thy will!_]
Catch the auspicious moment! be time thine own! and may the
exercise of thy fairest virtue fill up those hours, that are
wholly at your command!]
[Footnote I.31: _A little more than kin, and less than kind._]
Dr. Johnson says that _kind_ is the Teutonic word for _child_.
Hamlet, therefore, answers to the titles of _cousin_ and _son_,
which the king had given him, that he was somewhat more than
_cousin_, and less than _son_. Steevens remarks, that it seems to
have been another proverbial phrase: "The nearer we are in blood,
the further we must be from love; the greater the _kindred_ is,
the less the _kindness_ must be." _Kin_ is still used in the
Midland Counties for _cousin_, and _kind_ signifies _nature_.
Hamlet may, therefore, mean that the relationship between them
had become _unnatural_.]
[Footnote I.32: _I am too much i'the sun._] Meaning, probably,
his being sent for from his studies to be exposed at his uncle's
marriage as his _chiefest courtier_, and being thereby placed too
much in the radiance of the king's presence; or, perhaps, an
allusion to the proverb, "_Out of Heaven's blessing, into the
warm sun:_" but it is not unlikely that a quibble is meant
between _son_ and _sun_.]
[Footnote I.33: _Nighted colour_] Black--night-like.]
[Footnote I.34: _Vailed lids_] Cast down.]
[Footnote I.35: _Which passeth show_;] _i.e._, "external manners
of lament."]
[Footnote I.36: _Trappings_] _Trappings_ are "furnishings."]
[Footnote I.37: _That father lost, lost his_;] "That lost father
(of your father, _i.e._, your grandfather), or father so lost,
lost his.]"
[Footnote I.38: _Do obsequious sorrow:_] Follow with becoming and
ceremonious observance the memory of the deceased.]
[Footnote I.39: _But to perséver_] This word was anciently
accented on the second syllable.]
[Footnote I.40: _Obstinate condolement_,] Ceaseless and
unremitted expression of grief.]
[Footnote I.41: _Incorrect to Heaven._] Contumacious towards
Heaven.]
[Footnote I.42: _Unprevailing_] Fruitless, unprofitable.]
[Footnote I.43: _Sits smiling to my heart:_] _To_ is _at_:
gladdens my heart.]
[Footnote I.44: _In grace whereof_,] _i.e._, respectful regard or
honour of which.]
[Footnote I.45: _No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day_,]
Dr. Johnson remarks, that the king's intemperance is very
strongly impressed; everything that happens to him gives him
occasion to drink. The Danes were supposed to be hard drinkers.]
[Footnote I.46: _Resolve itself_] _To resolve_ is an old word
signifying _to dissolve_.]
[Footnote I.47: _His canon_] _i.e._, his rule or law].
[Footnote I.48: _The uses of this world!_] _i.e._, the habitudes
and usages of life.]
[Footnote I.49: _Merely._] Wholly--entirely.]
[Footnote I.50: _Hyperion to a satyr:_] An allusion to the
exquisite beauty of Apollo, compared with the deformity of a
satyr; that satyr, perhaps, being Pan, the brother of Apollo. Our
great poet is here guilty of a false quantity, by calling
Hypĕrīon, Hypērĭon, a mistake not unusual among our English
poets.]
[Footnote I.51: _Might not beteem_] _i.e._, might not allow,
permit.]
[Footnote I.52: _I'll change that name with you._] _i.e._, do not
call yourself my _servant_, you are my _friend_; so I shall call
you, and so I would have you call me.]
[Footnote I.53: _In faith._] Faithfully, in pure and simple
verity.]
[Footnote I.54: _But what make you_] What is your object? What
are you doing?]
[Footnote I.55: _What, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?_] In
Shakespeare's time there was a university at Wittenberg; but as
it was not founded till 1502, it consequently did not exist in
the time to which this play refers.]
[Footnote I.56: _My dearest foe_] _i.e._, my direst or most
important foe. This epithet was commonly used to denote the
strongest and liveliest interest in any thing or person, for or
against.]
[Footnote I.57: _Goodly king._] _i.e._, a good king.]
[Footnote I.58:
_Season your admiration for a while
with an attent ear_;]
_i.e._, suppress your astonishment for a short time, that you may
be the better able to give your attention to what we will
relate.]
[Footnote I.59: _In the dead waste and middle of the night_,]
_i.e._, in the dark and desolate vast, or vacant space and middle
of the night. It was supposed that spirits had permission to
range the earth by night alone.]
[Footnote I.60: _With the act of fear_,] _i.e._, by the influence
or power of fear.]
[Footnote I.61: _Address_] _i.e._, make ready.]