Who s there Nay answer me stand and unfold yourself Long live the king Bernardo He You come most carefully upon your hour Tis now struck twelve Get thee to bed Francisco For this relief much thanks tis bitter cold And I am sick at heart Have you had quiet guard Not a mouse stirring Well good night If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus The rivals of my watch bid them make haste I think I hear them Stand ho Who is there Enter Horatio and Marcellus Friends to this ground And liegemen to the Dane Give you good night O farewell honest soldier Who hath reliev d you Bernardo has my place Give you good night Exit Holla Bernardo Say What is Horatio there A piece of him Welcome Horatio Welcome good Marcellus What has this thing appear d again to night I have seen nothing Horatio says tis but our fantasy And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night That if again this apparition come He may approve our eyes and speak to it Tush tush twill not appear Sit down awhile And let us once again assail your ears That are so fortified against our story What we two nights have seen Well sit we down And let us hear Bernardo speak of this Last night of all When yond 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  Peace break thee off look where it comes again Enter Ghost armed In the same figure like the king that s dead Thou art a scholar speak to it Horatio Looks it not like the King mark it Horatio Most like it harrows me with fear and wonder It would be spoke to Question it Horatio 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 It is offended See it stalks away Stay speak speak I charge thee speak Exit Ghost Tis gone and will not answer How now Horatio You tremble and look pale Is not this something more than fantasy What think you on t Before my God I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes Is it not like the King As thou art to thyself Such was the very armour he had on When he the ambitious Norway combated So frown d he once when in an angry parle He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice Tis strange Thus twice before and jump at this dead hour With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch In what particular thought to work I know not But in the gross and scope of my opinion This bodes some strange eruption to our state Good now sit down and tell me he that knows Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land And why such daily cast of brazen cannon And foreign mart for implements of war Why such impress of shipwrights whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week What might be toward that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint labourer with the day Who is t that can inform me That can I At least the whisper goes so Our last king Whose image even but now appear d to us Was as you know by Fortinbras of Norway Thereto prick d on by a most emulate pride Dar d to the combat in which our valiant Hamlet  For so this side of our known world esteem d him  Did slay this Fortinbras who by a seal d compact Well ratified by law and heraldry Did forfeit with his life all those his lands Which he stood seiz d of to the conqueror Against the which a moiety competent Was gaged by our king which had return d To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher as by the same cov nant And carriage of the article design d His fell to Hamlet Now sir young Fortinbras Of unimproved mettle hot and full Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Shark d up a list of lawless resolutes For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in t which is no other  As it doth well appear unto our state  But to recover of us by strong hand And terms compulsatory those foresaid lands So by his father lost and this I take it Is the main motive of our preparations The source of this our watch and the chief head Of this post haste and romage in the land I think it be no other but e en so Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the king That was and is the question of these wars A mote it is to trouble the mind s eye In the most high and palmy state of Rome A little ere the mightiest Julius fell The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood Disasters in the sun and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune s empire stands Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse And even the like precurse of fierce events  As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on  Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climature and countrymen  But soft behold lo where it comes again Re enter Ghost I ll cross it though it blast me Stay illusion If thou hast any sound or use of voice Speak to me If there be any good thing to be done That may to thee do ease and race to me Speak to me If thou art privy to thy country s fate Which happily foreknowing may avoid O speak Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth For which they say you spirits oft walk in death The cock crows Speak of it stay and speak Stop it Marcellus Shall I strike at it with my partisan Do if it will not stand Tis here Tis here Tis gone Exit Ghost We do it wrong being so majestical To offer it the show of violence For it is as the air invulnerable And our vain blows malicious mockery It was about to speak when the cock crew And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons I have heard 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 It faded on the crowing of the cock Some say that ever gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour s birth is celebrated The bird of dawning singeth all night long And then they say no spirit dare stir abroad The nights are wholesome then no planets strike No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm So hallow d and so gracious is the time 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 eastward 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 Let s do t I pray and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently