Hamlet

Bernardo. Last night of all,

When yond same star that's westward from the pole

Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one- 50

Enter Ghost.

Marcellus. Peace! break thee off! Look where it comes again!

Bernardo. In the same figure, like the King that's dead.

Marcellus. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

Bernardo. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. 55

Horatio. Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

Bernardo. It would be spoke to.

Marcellus. Question it, Horatio.

Horatio. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night

Together with that fair and warlike form 60

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee speak!

Marcellus. It is offended.

Bernardo. See, it stalks away!

Horatio. Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee speak! 65

Exit Ghost.

Marcellus. 'Tis gone and will not answer.

Bernardo. How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on't? 70

Horatio. Before my God, I might not this believe

Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Marcellus. Is it not like the King?

Horatio. As thou art to thyself. 75

Such was the very armour he had on

When he th' ambitious Norway combated.

So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle,

He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

'Tis strange. 80

Marcellus. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Horatio. 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. 85

Marcellus. 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; 90

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? 95