610Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
It is nipping, and an eager air.
What hour now?
I think it lacks of twelve.
No, it is struck.
Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season
610617Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
7.1A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces goes off. 611618What does this mean, my lord?
The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
613620Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels;
614621And as he drains his drafts of Rhenish down
615622The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
616623The triumph of his pledge.
Is it a custom?
Ay, marry, is't,
619626But to my mind, though I am native here
620627And to the manner born, it is a custom
621628More honored in the breach than the observance.
621.1629This heavy-headed revel east and west
621.2630Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.
621.3631They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
621.4632Soil our addition, and indeed it takes
621.5633From our achievements, though performed at height,
621.6634The pith and marrow of our attribute.
621.7635So, oft it chances in particular men,
621.8636That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
621.9637As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty
621.10638(Since nature cannot choose his origin),
621.11639By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
621.12640Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
621.13641Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
621.14642The form of plausive manners, that these men,
621.15643Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect
621.16644(Being Nature's livery, or Fortune's star),
621.17645His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
621.19647Shall in the general censure take corruption
621.20648From that particular fault. The dram of eale
621.21649Doth all the noble substance often dout
Look, my lord, it comes!
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
625654Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
626655Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
627656Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
628657Thou com'st in such a questionable shape
629658That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
630659King, father, royal Dane. Oh, answer me!
631660Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
632661Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,
633662Have burst their cerements? Why the sepulcher
634663Wherein we saw thee quietly interred
635664Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
636665To cast thee up again? What may this mean
637666That thou, dead corse, again in compleat steel
638667Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
639668Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
640669So horridly to shake our disposition
641670With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
642671Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
59.1643[The Ghost] beckons [Hamlet]. It beckons you to go away with it,
645673As if it some impartment did desire
Look with what courteous action
648676It waves you to a more removèd ground.
No, by no means.
It will not speak. Then I will follow it.
Do not, my lord.
Why, what should be the fear?
654682I do not set my life at a pin's fee,
655683And for my soul, what can it do to that,
656684Being a thing immortal as itself?
69.1[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.] 657685It waves me forth again. I'll follow it.
What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
659687Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
660688That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
661689And there assume some other horrible form
662690Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
663691And draw you into madness? Think of it:
663.1692The very place puts toys of desperation,
663.2693Without more motive, into every brain
663.3694That looks so many fathoms to the sea
80.1[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.] It waves me still.--
697Go on, I'll follow thee.
You shall not go, my lord.
82.1[They attempt to restrain him.] Hold off your hands!
Be ruled. You shall not go.
My fate cries out
669702And makes each petty artery in this body
670703As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
85.1[The Ghost beckons Hamlet.] 671704Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen!
672705By heav'n, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.
673706I say, away!--Go on, I'll follow thee.
88.1Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. He waxes desperate with imag[inat]ion.
Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.
Have after. To what issue will this come?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Heaven will direct it.
Nay, let's follow him.