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 term

To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
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 the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to Heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse, till he that died to-day,
This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing' woe, and think of us

As of a father; for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And, with no less nobility of love,

Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,

1 For unavailing.

It is most retrograde to our desire:

And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

I

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet :

pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply: Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit 2 again,

Respeaking earthly thunder.-Come away.

[Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. Polonius, and

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve 3 itself into a dew;

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on 't! O, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in

nature,

1 Jovial draught.

s Dissolve.

2 Report.

4 Law.

Possess it merely.1 That it should come to this! But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two:

So excellent a king, that was, to this,

2

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,

That he might not beteeme 3 the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,-
Let me not think on 't:-Frailty, thy name is
woman!

A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears;-why she, even she,—

(O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer) married with my

uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married.-O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue!

Intirely.

2 Apollo.

Suffer.

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.

Ho. Hail to your lordship!

Ham.

I am glad to see you well.

Horatio, or I do forget myself.

Ho. The same, my lord, and your poor servant

ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you.

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ?—
Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord,

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even,

sir.

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
Ho. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so;
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know, you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore ?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Ho. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;

I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

Ho. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked

meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my dearest 1 foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!—
My father;--methinks, I see my father.
Ho. O, where, my lord?

Ham.
In my mind's eye, Horatio.
Ho. I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Ho. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw, who?

Ho. My lord, the king your father.

Ham.

The king my father? Ho. Season your admiration for awhile With an attent 2 ear; till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham.

For God's love, let me hear.

Ho. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,

father.

Appears before them, and, with solemn march, Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd, By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me

1 Most inveterate.

2 For attentive.