ARKCODEX
Act I, Scene 4
1The platform.
2Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
3HamletThe air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
4HoratioIt is a nipping and an eager air.
5HamletWhat hour now?
6HoratioI think it lacks of twelve.
7HamletNo, it is struck.
8HoratioIndeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within.
What does this mean, my lord?
9HamletThe king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
10HoratioIs it a custom?
11HamletAy, 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.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and tax’d of other nations:
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
From our achievements, though perform’d 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,
As, in their birth—wherein they are not 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 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
From that particular fault: the dram of eale
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.
12HoratioLook, my lord, it comes!
13Enter Ghost.
14HamletAngels and ministers of grace defend us!
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 comest 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 canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn’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 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.
15HoratioIt beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
16MarcellusLook, with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground:
But do not go with it.
17HoratioNo, by no means.
18HamletIt will not speak; then I will follow it.
19HoratioDo not, my lord.
20HamletWhy, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life in 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.
21HoratioWhat if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
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.
22HamletIt waves me still.
Go on; I’ll follow thee.
23MarcellusYou shall not go, my lord.
24HamletHold off your hands.
25HoratioBe ruled; you shall not go.
26HamletMy fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
Still am I call’d. 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.
27HoratioHe waxes desperate with imagination.
28MarcellusLet’s follow; ’tis not fit thus to obey him.
29HoratioHave after. To what issue will this come?
30MarcellusSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark.
31HoratioHeaven will direct it.
32MarcellusNay, let’s follow him. Exeunt.