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He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber.

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,

What we two nights have seen.

Hor.

Sit down awh

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes a

Enter Ghost.

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear, and wonde
Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar

Speak to it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak

Mar. It is offended.

Ber.

See! it stalks away.

Hor. Stay; speak: speak,I charge thee, speak.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pal

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you of it?

Hor.

I might not this believe.

[graphic]

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started like

Upon a fearful summons

a guilty thing

I hayo h

[graphic]

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to harm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill :
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most convenient.

Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, Lord's, and

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted

o bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

o be contracted in one brow of woe;

et so far hath discretion fought with nature, hat we with wisest sorrow think on him, ogether with remembrance of ourselves. herefore our sometime sister, now our queen, ne imperial jointress of this warlike state, ave we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy, ken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd ur better wisdoms, which have freely gone th this affair along:- For all, our thanks. d now, Laertes, what's the news with you? u told us of some suit? What is't, Laertes ? Laertes. My dread lord,

ur leave and favor to return to France;

[graphic]

Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly: These, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play :
But I have that within, which passeth show;
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.

King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound,
In filial obligation, for some tern.

To do obsequious sorrow: But to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient:

An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what, we know, must be ; and is as common
As any of the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish onposition
Take it to honut

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