Oph. My lord, he hath importuned me with love, In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to:

Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of Heaven.

Pol. Aye, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows.

This is for all,

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment's leisure,

As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.

Look to't, I charge you; [Crosses to R.] come your

ways..

Oph. (R) I shall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV.-The Platform.

[Excunt

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS, R. U. E.

Hum. (R.) The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. (c.) Hor. (R.) It is a nipping and an eager air.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor. (c.) I think, it lacks of twelve.

Mar. (R. c.) No, it is struck.

Hor. I heard it not; it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[Flourish of Trumpets and Drums, and Ordnance shot off, within.

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. (L.) The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse;

And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,'
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Hor. Is it a custom ?

Ham. Ay, marry, is't:

But to my mind-though I am native here,

And to the manner born-it is a custom

More honour'd in the breach, than the observance.

Enter. GHOST, L.

Hor. (R) Look, my lord, it comes!

C

fend us!

Ham. (R. C.) [HOR. stands about two yards from the back of HAM.; MAR. about the same distance from MAR. up the stage.] Angels and ministers of grace de[GHOST stops L. C. Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee! I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father!-Royal Dane; O, answer me !
Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,
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 us 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,

Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,

As if it some impartment did desire

To you alone.

Mar. Look with what courteous action

It waves you to a more removed ground:
But do not go with it.

Hor. No, by no means.

Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it.'
Hor. [Taking HAMLET's arm.] 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 ?

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,

And there assume some other horrible form,

And draw you into madness?

Ham. (c.) It waves me still;

Go on, I'll follow thee.

[Breaks away, and crosses to L. C.

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.

[Both hold him again.

Ham. (c.) Hold off your hands.

Horn. (c.) Be ruled ;-you shall not go.
Ham. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body

As hardy as the Némean lion's nerve.. [GHOST beckons. Still am I call'd-unhand me, gentlemen ;

By Heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.

[Breaks away from them. I say away:-Go on-I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt GHOST and HAMLET, L.-HORATio and MARCELLUS slowly follow.

SCENE V. A remote part of the Platform.

Re-enter GHOST and HAMLET, from L. U. E. to L. C.

Ham. (c.) Whither wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go no further.

Ghost. (L. c.) Mark me.

Ham. (R. C.) I will.

Ghost. My hour is almost come,

When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

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;

Doom'd, for a certain term, to walk the night;

And for the day, confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,

Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
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 porcupine:
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood :-List, list, O list!—
If thou did'st ever thy dear father love--

Ham. O Heaven!.

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Ham. Murder!

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is;

But this most foul, strange, and unnatural,

Ham. Haste me to know it, that I, with wings as swift As meditation, or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost. I find thee apt.

Now, Hamlet, hear:

"Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard,

A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent, that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. O my prophetic soul! my uncle?

Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,
Won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen :
O, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!-

But, soft, methinks I scent the morning air-
Brief let me be-sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoou,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment: whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
So it did mine.

'Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd!
Cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.

Ham. O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!
Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to Heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To goad and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his ineffectual fire.-
Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me!

[GHOST vanishes, L. C. Ham. (R.) Hold, hold, my heart;

And you my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up!-(c.)-Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all forms, all pressures past,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter; yes, by Heaven,
I have sworn it.

Hor. [Within, L.] My lord, my lord!—
Mar. Within.] Lord Hamlet!-

Hor. [Within.] Heaven secure him!

Ham. So be it!

Hor. [Within.] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!

Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come!

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS, L. U. E.

Mar. (R. c.) How is't, my noble lord?

Hor. (L. C.) What news, my lord?

Ham. (c.) O, wonderful!

Hor. Good, my lord, tell it.

Ham. No; you will reveal it.

Hor. Not I, my lord, by Heaven!

Ham. How say you then; would heart of man once

think it ?

But you'll be secret?

Hor. Ay, by Heaven, my lord.

Ham. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Den

mark,

But he's an arrant knave.