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  • Title: Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)
  • Textual editor: Eric Rasmussen
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-434-9

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

    The Tragedie of Hamlet
    But do not go with it.
    650Hor. No, by no meanes my Lord.
    Ham. It will not speake, then will I follow it.
    Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood my Lord.
    660That beckles ore his bace, into the sea,
    And there assume some other horrible shape,
    Which might depriue your soueraigntie of reason,
    And driue you into madnesse: thinke of it.
    Ham. Still am I called, go on, ile follow thee.
    665Hor. My Lord, you shall not go.
    Ham. Why what should be the feare?
    I do not set my life at a pinnes fee,
    655And for my soule, what can it do to that?
    Being a thing immortall, like it selfe,
    Go on, ile follow thee.
    Mar. My Lord be rulde, you shall not goe.
    Ham. My fate cries out, and makes each pety Artiue
    670As hardy as the Nemeon Lyons nerue,
    Still am I cald, vnhand me gentlemen;
    By heauen ile make a ghost of him that lets me,
    Away I say, go on, ile follow thee.
    675Hor. He waxeth desperate with imagination.
    Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmarke.
    Hor. Haue after; to what issue will this sort?
    Mar. Lets follow, tis not fit thus to obey him.
    exit.
    Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
    Ham. Ile go no farther, whither wilt thou leade me?
    Ghost Marke me.
    Ham. I will.
    Ghost I am thy fathers spirit, doomd for a time
    695To walke the night, and all the day
    Confinde in flaming fire,
    Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature
    Are purged and burnt away.
    Ham. Alas poore Ghost.
    Ghost Nay pitty me not, but to my vnfolding
    Lend