611What does this meane my Lord?

612Ham. The King doth wake to night, and takes his (rouse,

613Keepes wassels and the swaggering vpspring reeles,

614And as he dreines his draughts of Renish downe,

615The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray out

616The triumph of his Pledge.

617Horat. Is it a custome?

618Ham. I marry ist;

619And to my mind, though I am natiue heere,

620And to the manner borne: It is a Custome

621More honour'd in the breach, then the obseruance.

623Hor. Looke my Lord, it comes.

624Ham. Angels and Ministers of Grace defend vs:

625Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd,

626Bring with thee ayres from Heauen, or blasts from Hell,

627Be thy euents wicked or charitable,

628Thou com'st in such a questionable shape

629That I will speake to thee. Ile call thee Hamlet,

630King, Father, Royall Dane: Oh, oh, answer me,

631Let me not burst in Ignorance; but tell

632Why thy Canoniz'd bones Hearsed in death,

633Haue burst their cerments, why the Sepulcher

634Wherein we saw thee quietly enurn'd,

635Hath op'd his ponderous and Marble iawes,

636To cast thee vp againe? What may this meane?

637That thou dead Coarse againe in compleat steele,

638Reuisits thus the glimpses of the Moone,

639Making Night hidious? And we fooles of Nature,

640So horridly to shake our disposition,

641With thoughts beyond thee; reaches of our Soules,

642Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we doe?

644Hor. It beckons you to goe away with it,

645As if it some impartment did desire

646To you alone.

647Mar. Looke with what courteous action

648It wafts you to a more remoued ground:

649But doe not goe with it.

650Hor. No, by no meanes.

651Ham. It will not speake: then will I follow it.

652Hor. Doe not my Lord.

653Ham. Why, what should be the feare?

654I doe not set my life at a pins fee;

655And for my Soule, what can it doe to that?

656Being a thing immortall as it selfe:

657It waues me forth againe; Ile follow it.

658Hor. What if it tempt you toward the Floud my Lord?

659Or to the dreadfull Sonnet of the Cliffe,

660That beetles o're his base into the Sea,

661And there assumes some other horrible forme,

662Which might depriue your Soueraignty of Reason,

663And draw you into madnesse thinke of it?

664Ham. It wafts me still: goe on, Ile follow thee.

665Mar. You shall not goe my Lord.

666Ham. Hold off your hand.

667Hor. Be rul'd, you shall not goe.

668Ham. My fate cries out,

669And makes each petty Artire in this body,

670As hardy as the Nemian Lions nerue:

671Still am I cal'd? Vnhand me Gentlemen:

672By Heau'n, Ile make a Ghost of him that lets me:

673I say away, goe on, Ile follow thee.

675Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.

676Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.

677Hor. Haue after, to what issue will this come?

678Mar. Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke.

679Hor. Heauen will direct it.

680Mar. Nay, let's follow him. Exeunt.

682Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? speak; Ile go no fur-(ther.

683Gho. Marke me.

684Ham. I will.

685Gho. My hower is almost come,

686When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames

687Must render vp my selfe.

688Ham. Alas poore Ghost.

689Gho. Pitty me not, but lend thy serious hearing

690To what I shall vnfold.

691Ham. Speake, I am bound to heare.

692Gho. So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare.

693Ham. What?

694Gho. I am thy Fathers Spirit,

695Doom'd for a certaine terme to walke the night;

696And for the day confin'd to fast in Fiers,

697Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature

698Are burnt and purg'd away? But that I am forbid

699To tell the secrets of my Prison-House;

700I could a Tale vnfold, whose lightest word

701Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy young blood,

702Make thy two eyes like Starres, start from their Spheres,

703Thy knotty and combined locks to part,

704And each particular haire to stand an end,

705Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine:

706But this eternall blason must not be

707To eares of flesh and bloud; list Hamlet, oh list,

708If thou didst euer thy deare Father loue.

709Ham. Oh Heauen!

710Gho. Reuenge his foule and most vnnaturall Murther.

711Ham. Murther?

712Ghost. Murther most foule, as in the best it is;

713But this most foule, strange, and vnnaturall.

714Ham. Hast, hast me to know it,

715That with wings as swift

716As meditation, or the thoughts of Loue,

717May sweepe to my Reuenge.

718Ghost. I finde thee apt,

719And duller should'st thou be then the fat weede

720That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe,

721Would'st thou not stirre in this. Now Hamlet heare:

722It's giuen out, that sleeping in mine Orchard,

723A Serpent stung me: so the whole eare of Denmarke,

724Is by a forged processe of my death

725Rankly abus'd: But know thou Noble youth,

726The Serpent that did sting thy Fathers life,

727Now weares his Crowne.

728Ham. O my Propheticke soule: mine Vncle?

729Ghost. I that incestuous, that adulterate Beast

730With witchcraft of his wits, hath Traitorous guifts.

731Oh wicked Wit, and Gifts, that haue the power

732So to seduce? Won to to this shamefull Lust

733The will of my most seeming vertuous Queene:

734Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there,

735From me, whose loue was of that dignity,

736That it went hand in hand, euen with the Vow

737I made to her in Marriage; and to decline

738Vpon a wretch, whose Naturall gifts were poore

739To those of mine. But Vertue, as it neuer wil be moued,

740Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of Heauen:

741So Lust, though to a radiant Angell link'd,

742Will sate it selfe in a Celestiallbed, & prey on Garbage.

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