Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 5
Elsinore. The Castle. Another part of the fortifications.
Hamlet : Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I'll go no further.
Father's Ghost : Mark me.
Hamlet : I will.
Father's Ghost : My hour is almost come,
[p]When I to sulph'rous and tormenting
flames
[p]Must render up myself.
Hamlet : Alas, poor ghost!
Father's Ghost : Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
[p]To what I shall unfold.
Hamlet : Speak. I am bound to hear.
Father's Ghost : So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
Hamlet : What?
Father's Ghost : I am thy father's spirit,
[p]Doom'd for a certain term to walk the
night,
[p]And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,
[p]Till the foul
crimes done in my days of nature
[p]Are burnt and purg'd away. But
that I am forbid
[p]To tell the secrets of my prison house,
[p]I
could a tale unfold whose lightest word
[p]Would harrow up thy soul,
freeze thy young blood,
[p]Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from
their spheres,
[p]Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
[p]And each
particular hair to stand on end
[p]Like quills upon the fretful
porcupine.
[p]But this eternal blazon must not be
[p]To ears of flesh
and blood. List, list, O, list!
[p]If thou didst ever thy dear father
love-
Hamlet : O God!
Father's Ghost : Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther.
Hamlet : Murther?
Father's Ghost : Murther most foul, as in the best it is;
[p]But this most foul,
strange, and unnatural.
Hamlet : Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
[p]As meditation or
the thoughts of love,
[p]May sweep to my revenge.
Father's Ghost : I find thee apt;
[p]And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
[p]That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
[p]Wouldst thou not stir
in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
[p]'Tis given out that, sleeping in my
orchard,
[p]A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
[p]Is by a
forged process of my death
[p]Rankly abus'd. But know, thou noble
youth,
[p]The serpent that did sting thy father's life
[p]Now wears
his crown.
Hamlet : O my prophetic soul!
[p]My uncle?
Father's Ghost : Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
[p]With witchcraft of his
wit, with traitorous gifts-
[p]O wicked wit and gifts, that have the
power
[p]So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust
[p]The will of my
most seeming-virtuous queen.
[p]O Hamlet, what a falling-off was
there,
[p]From me, whose love was of that dignity
[p]That it went hand
in hand even with the vow
[p]I made to her in marriage, and to
decline
[p]Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
[p]To those of
mine!
[p]But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,
[p]Though lewdness
court it in a shape of heaven,
[p]So lust, though to a radiant angel
link'd,
[p]Will sate itself in a celestial bed
[p]And prey on
garbage.
[p]But soft! methinks I scent the morning air.
[p]Brief let
me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
[p]My custom always of the
afternoon,
[p]Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
[p]With juice of
cursed hebona in a vial,
[p]And in the porches of my ears did
pour
[p]The leperous distilment; whose effect
[p]Holds such an enmity
with blood of man
[p]That swift as quicksilver it courses
through
[p]The natural gates and alleys of the body,
[p]And with a
sudden vigour it doth posset
[p]And curd, like eager droppings into
milk,
[p]The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;
[p]And a most
instant tetter bark'd about,
[p]Most lazar-like, with vile and
loathsome crust
[p]All my smooth body.
[p]Thus was I, sleeping, by a
brother's hand
[p]Of life, of crown, of queen, at once
dispatch'd;
[p]Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
[p]Unhous'led,
disappointed, unanel'd,
[p]No reckoning made, but sent to my
account
[p]With all my imperfections on my head.
Hamlet : O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
Father's Ghost : If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
[p]Let not the royal bed of
Denmark be
[p]A couch for luxury and damned incest.
[p]But, howsoever
thou pursuest this act,
[p]Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul
contrive
[p]Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,
[p]And to
those thorns that in her bosom lodge
[p]To prick and sting her. Fare
thee well at once.
[p]The glowworm shows the matin to be near
[p]And
gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
[p]Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember
me. Exit.
Hamlet : O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
[p]And shall I couple
hell? Hold, hold, my heart!
[p]And you, my sinews, grow not instant
old,
[p]But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
[p]Ay, thou poor ghost,
while memory holds a seat
[p]In this distracted globe. Remember
thee?
[p]Yea, from the table of my memory
[p]I'll wipe away all
trivial fond records,
[p]All saws of books, all forms, all pressures
past
[p]That youth and observation copied there,
[p]And thy
commandment all alone shall live
[p]Within the book and volume of my
brain,
[p]Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
[p]O most
pernicious woman!
[p]O villain, villain, smiling, damned
villain!
[p]My tables! Meet it is I set it down
[p]That one may smile,
and smile, and be a villain;
[p]At least I am sure it may be so in
Denmark. [Writes.]
[p]So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:
[p]It
is 'Adieu, adieu! Remember me.'
[p]I have sworn't.
Horatio : [within] My lord, my lord!
Marcellus : Lord Hamlet!
Horatio : Heaven secure him!
Hamlet : So be it!
Marcellus : Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
Hamlet : Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.
Marcellus : How is't, my noble lord?
Horatio : What news, my lord?
Marcellus : O, wonderful!
Horatio : Good my lord, tell it.
Hamlet : No, you will reveal it.
Horatio : Not I, my lord, by heaven!
Marcellus : Nor I, my lord.
Hamlet : How say you then? Would heart of man once think it?
[p]But you'll be
secret?
Marcellus : [with Horatio] Ay, by heaven, my lord.
Hamlet : There's neer a villain dwelling in all Denmark
[p]But he's an arrant
knave.
Horatio : There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
[p]To tell us
this.
Hamlet : Why, right! You are in the right!
[p]And so, without more circumstance
at all,
[p]I hold it fit that we shake hands and part;
[p]You, as your
business and desires shall point you,
[p]For every man hath business
and desire,
[p]Such as it is; and for my own poor part,
[p]Look you,
I'll go pray.
Horatio : These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
Hamlet : I am sorry they offend you, heartily;
[p]Yes, faith, heartily.
Horatio : There's no offence, my lord.
Hamlet : Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
[p]And much offence too.
Touching this vision here,
[p]It is an honest ghost, that let me tell
you.
[p]For your desire to know what is between us,
[p]O'ermaster't as
you may. And now, good friends,
[p]As you are friends, scholars, and
soldiers,
[p]Give me one poor request.
Horatio : What is't, my lord? We will.
Hamlet : Never make known what you have seen to-night.
Marcellus : [with Horatio] My lord, we will not.
Hamlet : Nay, but swear't.
Horatio : In faith,
[p]My lord, not I.
Marcellus : Nor I, my lord- in faith.
Hamlet : Upon my sword.
Marcellus : We have sworn, my lord, already.
Hamlet : Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
Father's Ghost : Swear.
Hamlet : Aha boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?
[p]Come on! You
hear this fellow in the cellarage.
[p]Consent to swear.
Horatio : Propose the oath, my lord.
Hamlet : Never to speak of this that you have seen.
[p]Swear by my sword.
Father's Ghost : [beneath] Swear.
Hamlet : Hic et ubique? Then we'll shift our ground.
[p]Come hither,
gentlemen,
[p]And lay your hands again upon my sword.
[p]Never to
speak of this that you have heard:
[p]Swear by my sword.
Father's Ghost : [beneath] Swear by his sword.
Hamlet : Well said, old mole! Canst work i' th' earth so fast?
[p]A worthy
pioner! Once more remove, good friends."
Horatio : O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
Hamlet : And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
[p]There are more things
in heaven and earth, Horatio,
[p]Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy.
[p]But come!
[p]Here, as before, never, so help you
mercy,
[p]How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself
[p](As I perchance
hereafter shall think meet
[p]To put an antic disposition on),
[p]That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
[p]With arms
encumb'red thus, or this head-shake,
[p]Or by pronouncing of some
doubtful phrase,
[p]As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we
would,'
[p]Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they
might,'
[p]Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
[p]That you know
aught of me- this is not to do,
[p]So grace and mercy at your most
need help you,
[p]Swear.
Father's Ghost : [beneath] Swear.
Hamlet : Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen,
[p]With all my love I do
commend me to you;
[p]And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
[p]May do t'
express his love and friending to you,
[p]God willing, shall not lack.
Let us go in together;
[p]And still your fingers on your lips, I
pray.
[p]The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
[p]That ever I was
born to set it right!
[p]Nay, come, let's go together.
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 1
