SCENE IV.
A Camp, on the Frontiers of Denmark.
Enter Fortinbras, with an Army.
For.
Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish King,
Tell him, that, by his license, Fortinbras
Claims the conveyance of a promis'd March
Over his Realm. You know the rendezvous.
If that his Majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye,
And let him know so.
Capt.
I will do't, my Lord.
For.
Go softly on.
[Exit Fortinbras, with the Army.
Enter Hamlet, Rosincrantz, Guildenstern, &c.
Ham.
Good Sir, whose Powers are these?
Capt.
They are of Norway, Sir.
Ham.
How purpos'd, Sir, I pray you?
Capt.
Against some part of Poland.
Ham.
Who commands them, Sir?
Capt.
The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham.
Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir,
Or for some frontier?
-- 255 --
Capt.
Truly to speak it, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
Ham.
Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Capt.
Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.
Ham.
Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,
Will not debate the question of this straw;
This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shews no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, Sir.
Capt.
God b'w'ye, Sir.
Ros.
Will't please you go, my Lord?
Ham.
I'll be with you strait. Go a little before.
[Exeunt.
Manet Hamlet.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge? What is a man,
If his 4 notechief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such 5 notelarge discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unus'd. Now whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'event,
A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom,
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
-- 256 --
Why yet I live to say this thing's to do;
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me;
Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender Prince,
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puft,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Ev'n for an egg-shell. 6 note
Rightly to be great,
Is not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When Honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
7 noteExcitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their Graves like beds; fight for a Plot,
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, then, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.
[Exit.
-- 257 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
