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