Hamlet · William Shakespeare
[A]
_Ham._ It wafts me still; goe on, Ile follow thee. [Sidenote: waues] _Mar._ You shall not goe my Lord. _Ham._ Hold off your hand. [Sidenote: hands] _Hor._ Be rul'd, you shall not goe. _Ham._ My fate cries out, And makes each petty Artire[4] in this body, [Sidenote: arture[4]] As hardy as the Nemian Lions nerue: Still am I cal'd? Vnhand me Gentlemen: By Heau'n, Ile make a Ghost of him that lets me: I say away, goe on, Ile follow thee. _Exeunt Ghost & Hamlet._ _Hor._ He waxes desperate with imagination.[5] [Sidenote: imagion] _Mar._ Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. _Hor._ Haue after, to what issue will this come? _Mar._ Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke. _Hor._ Heauen will direct it. _Mar._ Nay, let's follow him. _Exeunt._ _Enter Ghost and Hamlet._ _Ham._ Where wilt thou lead me? speak; Ile go no further. [Sidenote: Whether] _Gho._ Marke me. _Ham._ I will. [Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:-- The very place puts toyes of desperation Without more motiue, into euery braine That lookes so many fadoms to the sea And heares it rore beneath.] [Footnote 3: sovereignty--_soul_: so in _Romeo and Juliet_, act v. sc. 1, l. 3:-- My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne.]
Since writing as above, a friend informs me that _arture_ is the exact equivalent of the [Greek: haphae] of Colossians ii. 19, as interpreted by Bishop Lightfoot--'the relation between contiguous limbs, not the parts of the limbs themselves in the neighbourhood of contact,'--for which relation 'there is no word in our language in common use.'] [Page 50] _Gho._ My hower is almost come,[1] When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames Must render vp my selfe. _Ham._ Alas poore Ghost. _Gho._ Pitty me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall vnfold. _Ham._ Speake, I am bound to heare. _Gho._ So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare. _Ham._ What? _Gho._ I am thy Fathers Spirit, Doom'd for a certaine terme to walke the night;[2] And for the day confin'd to fast in Fiers,[3] Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature Are burnt and purg'd away? But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my Prison-House; I could a Tale vnfold, whose lightest word[4] Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like Starres, start from their Spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, [Sidenote: knotted] And each particular haire to stand an end,[5] Like Quilles vpon the fretfull[6] Porpentine [Sidenote: fearefull[6]] But this eternall blason[7] must not be To eares of flesh and bloud; list _Hamlet_, oh list, [Sidenote: blood, list, ô list;] If thou didst euer thy deare Father loue.
_Ham._ Oh all you host of Heauen! Oh Earth: what els? And shall I couple Hell?[9] Oh fie[10]: hold my heart; [Sidenote: hold, hold my] And you my sinnewes, grow not instant Old; [Page 56] But beare me stiffely vp: Remember thee?[1] [Sidenote: swiftly vp] I, thou poore Ghost, while memory holds a seate [Sidenote: whiles] In this distracted Globe[2]: Remember thee? Yea, from the Table of my Memory,[3] Ile wipe away all triuiall fond Records, All sawes[4] of Bookes, all formes, all presures past, That youth and obseruation coppied there; And thy Commandment all alone shall liue Within the Booke and Volume of my Braine, Vnmixt with baser matter; yes, yes, by Heauen: [Sidenote: matter, yes by] [Sidenote: 168] Oh most pernicious woman![5] Oh Villaine, Villaine, smiling damned Villaine! My Tables, my Tables; meet it is I set it downe,[6] [Sidenote: My tables, meet] That one may smile, and smile and be a Villaine; At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmarke; [Sidenote: I am] So Vnckle there you are: now to my word;[7] It is; Adue, Adue, Remember me:[8] I haue sworn't. [Sidenote: _Enter Horatio, and Marcellus_] _Hor. and Mar. within_. My Lord, my Lord. [Sidenote: _Hora._ My] _Enter Horatio and Marcellus._ _Mar_. Lord _Hamlet_. _Hor_. Heauen secure him. [Sidenote: Heauens] _Mar_. So be it. _Hor_. Illo, ho, ho, my Lord.
_Ham_. Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come bird, come.[9] [Sidenote: boy come, and come.] _Mar_. How ist't my Noble Lord? _Hor_. What newes, my Lord? _Ham_. Oh wonderfull![10] _Hor_. Good my Lord tell it. _Ham_. No you'l reueale it. [Sidenote: you will] _Hor_. Not I, my Lord, by Heauen. _Mar_. Nor I, my Lord. _Ham_. How say you then, would heart of man once think it? But you'l be secret? [Footnote 6: It may well seem odd that Hamlet should be represented as, at such a moment, making a note in his tablets; but without further allusion to the student-habit, I would remark that, in cases where strongest passion is roused, the intellect has yet sometimes an automatic trick of working independently. For instance from Shakspere, see Constance in _King John_--how, in her agony over the loss of her son, both her fancy, playing with words, and her imagination, playing with forms, are busy. Note the glimpse of Hamlet's character here given: he had been something of an optimist; at least had known villainy only from books; at thirty years of age it is to him a discovery that a man may smile and be a villain! Then think of the shock of such discoveries as are here forced upon him! Villainy is no longer a mere idea, but a fact! and of all villainous deeds those of his own mother and uncle are the worst! But note also his honesty, his justice to humanity, his philosophic temperament, in the qualification he sets to the memorandum, '--at least in Denmark!']
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.