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 again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

(Flourish. Exeunt all but HAMLET.)

HAMLET.

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nat-

ure

Possess it merely. (Rising.) That it should come

to this!

But two months dead! nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother, That he might not beteem 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 monthLet 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 God! 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!

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

HAMLET.

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

you:

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?

My good lord?

MARCELLUS.

HAMLET.

I am very glad to see you. (To BERNARDO.) Good even, sir.

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

HORATIO.

A truant disposition, good my lord.

HAMLET.

I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do my 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.
HORATIO.

My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

I

HAMLET.

pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student; I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

HORATIO.

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

HAMLET.

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked-meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father! methinks I see my father.

O where, my lord?

HORATIO.

HAMLET.

In my mind's eye, Horatio. HORATIO.

I saw him once; he was a goodly king.

HAMLET.

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

HORATIO.

My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

Saw? Who?

HAMLET.

HORATIO.

My lord, the king your father.

HAMLET.

The king my father!

HORATIO.

Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

HAMLET.

For God's love, let me hear.

HORATIO.

Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,

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, dis
till'd

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I with them the third night kept the watch : Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,

The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

HAMLET.

But where was this?

MARCELLUS.

My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.