Ber.
Who's there? ^note

Fra.
Nay, answer me; stand, and unfold
Yourself.

Ber.
Long live the king!

Fra.
Bernardo?

Ber.
He.

Fra.
You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber.
'Tis now strook ^note twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

Fra.
For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

Ber.
Have you had quiet guard?

Fra.
Not a mouse stirring.

Ber.
Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Enter Horatio, and Marcellus.

Fra.
I think, I hear them:—Stand, ho! ^note who is there?

Hor.
Friends to this ground:

Mar.
And liegemen to the Dane.

Fra.
Give you good night.

Mar.
O, farewel, honest soldier: ^note
Who hath reliev'd you?

Fra.
Bernardo hath my ^note place:
Give you good night. [Exit Francisco.

Mar.
Hola! Bernardo!

Ber.
Say,
What, is Horatio there?

Hor.
A piece of him.

Ber.
Welcome, Horatio;—welcome, good Marcellus.

Hor.
What, ^note has14Q1413 this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber.
I have seen nothing.

Mar.
Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; ^note
And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have intreated him along,
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That, if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.

Hor.
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

Ber.
Sit down a while;
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortify'd against our story,
What we have two nights ^note seen.

Hor.
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber.
Last night of all,
When yon' same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made his course t'illume ^{note note} that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,
The bell then beating one,— Enter Ghost.

Mar.
Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!

Ber.
In the same figure, like the king that's dead.

Mar.
Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.

Ber.
Looks it not ^note like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor.
Most like: it harrows ^note me with fear, and wonder.

Ber.
It would be spoke to.

Mar.
Speak to it ^note, Horatio.

Hor.
What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of bury'd Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak.

Mar.
It is offended.

Ber.
See, it stalks away.

Hor.
Stay; speak ^note; I charge thee, speak. [Exit Ghost.

Mar.
'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Ber.
How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale:
Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't? ^note

Hor.
Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.

Mar.
Is it not like the king?

Hor.
As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very ^note armour he had on,
When he ^note the ambitious Norway combated:
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote ^note the sledded ^note Polack ^note on the ice.
'Tis strange.

Mar.
Thus, twice before, and jump at ^note this dead hour, ^note
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor.
In what particular thought to work, I know not;
But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, ^note
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Mar.
Good now sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land;
And why such daily cast ^note of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of ship-wrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the sunday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with ^note the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?

Hor.
That can I;
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which, our valiant Hamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras: who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratify'd by law, and heraldry14Q1414,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those ^note his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd of, ^note to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return ^note
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; ^note as, by the same comart ^note,
And carriage of the article ^note design'd ^note,
His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of lawless ^note resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
That hath a stomack in't; which is ^note no other,
(As it ^note doth well appear unto our state)
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsatory, ^note those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

Ber.
I think, it be no other, but even so: ^note
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was, and is the question of these wars.

Hor.
A mote ^note it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars shone14Q1415 with trains of fire; dews of blood fell;
Disasters dim'd the ^note sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce ^note events,—
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen ^note coming on,—
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen. Re-enter Ghost.
But, soft; behold; lo, where it comes again!

I'll cross it, though it blast me.—Stay, illusion;
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, hapily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak:
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits ^note oft walk in death,
Speak of it; [Cock crows.] stay, and speak.—Stop it, Marcellus.

Mar.
Shall I strike at ^note it with my partizan?

Hor.
Do, if it will not stand.

Ber.
'Tis here.

Hor.
'Tis here.

Mar.
'Tis gone. [Exit Ghost.
We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show ^note of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber.
It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

Hor.
And then it started, like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, ^note
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar.
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, ^note that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird ^note of dawning singeth all night long:
And then ^note, they say, no spirit dares ^note stir abroad ^note;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes ^note, no witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. ^note

Hor.
So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon' high eastward ^note hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar.
Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most convenient. ^note [Exeunt.

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