Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed

Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

The Tragedie of Hamlet
For your desires to know what is betweene vs,
Or'emaister it as you may:
And now kind frends, as yon are frends,
Schollers and gentlmen,
835Grant mee one poore request.
Both. What i'st my Lord?
Ham. Neuer make known what you haue seene to night
Both. My lord, we will not.
Ham. Nay but sweare.
840Hor. In faith my Lord not I.
Mar. Nor I my Lord in faith.
Ham. Nay vpon my sword, indeed vpon my sword.
845Gho. Sweare.
The Gost vnder the stage.
Ham. Ha, ha, come you here, this fellow in the sellerige,
Here consent to sweare.
Hor. Propose the oth my Lord.
850Ham. Neuer to speake what you haue seene to night,
Sweare by my sword.
Gost. Sweare.
Ham. Hic & vbique; nay then weele shift our ground:
Come hither Gentlemen, and lay your handes
855Againe vpon this sword, neuer to speake
Of that which you haue seene, sweare by my sword.
Ghost Sweare.
Ham. Well said old Mole, can'st worke in the earth?
so fast, a worthy Pioner, once more remoue.
Hor. Day and night but this is wondrous strange.
Ham. And therefore as a stranger giue it welcome,
There are more things in heauen and earth Horatio,
Then are Dream't of, in your philosophie,
But come here, as before you neuer shall
How strange or odde soere I beare my selfe,
As I perchance hereafter shall thinke meet,
To put an Anticke disposition on,
That you at such times seeing me, neuer shall
With