HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK

Act 1 Scene 4

(Enter Prince Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus)
l1l	Hamlet	 The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.
l2l	Horatio	It is a nipping and an eager air.
l3l	Hamlet	What hour now?
l4l	Horatio	I think it lacks of twelve.
l5l	Marcellus	No, it is struck.
l6l	Horatio	Indeed? I heard it not. Then it draws near the season
l7l		Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
		(A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces of ordnance goes off)
l8l		What does this mean, my lord?
l9l	Hamlet	The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
l10l		Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels,
l11l		And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down
l12l		The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
l13l		The triumph of his pledge.
l14l	Horatio	Is it a custom?
l15l	Hamlet	Ay, marry is ’t,
l16l		And to my mind, though I am native here
l17l		And to the manner born, it is a custom
l18l		More honoured in the breach than the observance.
		(Enter the Ghost, as before)
l19l	Horatio	 Look, my lord, it comes.
l20l	Hamlet	Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
l21l		Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
l22l		Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
l23l		Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
l24l		Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
l25l		That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,
l26l		King, father, royal Dane. O answer me!
l27l		Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
l28l		Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,
l29l		Have burst their cerements, why the sepulchre
l30l		Wherein we saw thee quietly enurned
l31l		Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
l32l		To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
l33l		That thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel,
l34l		Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon,
l35l		Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
l36l		So horridly to shake our disposition
l37l		With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
l38l		Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
		(The Ghost beckons Hamlet)
l39l	Horatio	 It beckons you to go away with it
l40l		As if it some impartment did desire
l41l		To you alone.
	Marcellus	
		(to Hamlet)
		 Look with what courteous action
l42l		It wafts you to a more removèd ground.
l43l		But do not go with it.
	Horatio	
		(to Hamlet)
		 No, by no means.
l44l	Hamlet	It will not speak. Then will I follow it.
l45l	Horatio	Do not, my lord.
	Hamlet	Why, what should be the fear?
l46l		I do not set my life at a pin’s fee,
l47l		And for my soul, what can it do to that,
l48l		Being a thing immortal as itself?
		(The Ghost beckons Hamlet)
l49l		It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.
l50l	Horatio	What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
l51l		Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
l52l		That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
l53l		And there assume some other horrible form
l54l		Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
l55l		And draw you into madness? Think of it.
		(The Ghost beckons Hamlet)
l56l	Hamlet	 It wafts me still.
		(To the Ghost)
		Go on, I’ll follow thee.
l57l	Marcellus	You shall not go, my lord.
	Hamlet	Hold off your hand.
l58l	Horatio	Be ruled. You shall not go.
	Hamlet	My fate cries out,
l59l		And makes each petty artere in this body
l60l		As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.
		(The Ghost beckons Hamlet)
l61l		Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
l62l		By heav’n, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me.
l63l		I say, away!
		(To the Ghost)
		 Go on, I’ll follow thee.
		(Exeunt the Ghost and Hamlet)
l64l	Horatio	 He waxes desperate with imagination.
l65l	Marcellus	Let’s follow. ’Tis not fit thus to obey him.
l66l	Horatio	Have after. To what issue will this come?
l67l	Marcellus	Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
l68l	Horatio	Heaven will direct it.
	Marcellus	Nay, let’s follow him.
		(Exeunt)