Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed

Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

The Tragedy of Hamlet
Hor. A trowant disposition, my good Lord.
Ham. Nor shall you make mee truster
360Of your owne report against your selfe:
Sir, I know you are no trowant:
But what is your affaire in Elsenoure?
Hor. My good Lord, I came to see your fathers funerall.
365Ham. O I pre thee do not mocke mee fellow studient,
I thinke it was to see my mothers wedding.
Hor. Indeede my Lord, it followed hard vpon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funerall bak't meates
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables,
370Would I had met my deerest foe in heauen
Ere euer I had seene that day Horatio;
O my father, my father, me thinks I see my father.
Hor. Where my Lord?
Ham. Why, in my mindes eye Horatio.
375Hor. I saw him once, he was a gallant King.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not looke vpon his like againe.
Hor. My Lord, I thinke I saw him yesternight,
Ham. Saw, who?
380Hor. My Lord, the King your father.
Ham. Ha, ha, the King my father ke you.
Hor. Ceasen your admiration for a while
With an attentiue eare, till I may deliuer,
Vpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen
385This wonder to you.
Ham. For Gods loue let me heare it.
Hor. Two nights together had these Gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night.
390Beene thus incountered by a figure like your father,
Armed to poynt, exactly Capapea
Appeeres before them thrise, he walkes
Before their weake and feare oppressed eies
395Within his tronchions length,
While