HAMLET.

Did you not speak to it?

HORATIO.

My lord, I did,

But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away
And vanish'd from our sight.

HAMLET.

'Tis very strange.

HORATIO.

As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true,
And we did think it writ down in our duty
To let you know of it.

HAMLET.

Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to-night?

MARCELLUS and BERNARDO.

HORATIO.

O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?

HORATIO.

While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

MARCELLUS and BERNARDO.

Longer, longer.

HORATIO.

Not when I saw 't.

HAMLET.

His beard was grizzled? no?

HORATIO.

It was, as I have seen it in his life,

If it assume my noble father's person,

I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still,
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your loves. So fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

ALL.

Our duty to your honour.

HAMLET.

Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.

(Exeunt all but HAMLET.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: would the night were

come!

Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's

eyes.

(Exit.)

[A room in the house of POLONIUS is shown. LAERTES and OPHELIA enter from the first door at the right of the stage.]

LAERTES.

My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:
And, sister, as the winds give benefit
And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

OPHELIA.

Do you doubt that?

LAERTES.

For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood.
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state.

Then weigh what loss your honour may sus

tain,

If with too credent ear you list his songs.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.

OPHELIA.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart.
But, good my

brother,

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.

LAERTES.

I stay too long: but here

O, fear me not. my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

POLONIUS.

Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing
with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no

tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledged comrade. Be-

ware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear 't, that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg-

ment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell my blessing season this in thee!