That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, Have burst their cearments? why the sepulchre, 660 Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Mar. Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground: Hor. No, by no means. Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. Hor. Do not, my lord. Ham. Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; 670 680 And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again ;—I'll follow it. Hor. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord? Or Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles o'er his base into the sea ? And there assume some other horrible form, Ham. It waves me still :- Mar. You shall not go, my lord. Ham. Hold off your hands. Hor. Be rul'd, you shall not go. Ham. My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.- 6go 700 [Breaking from them. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me :I say, away :-Go on,— -I'll follow thee. [Exeunt Ghost, and HAMLET. Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Mar. Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt. SCENE SCENE V. A more remote Part of the Platform. Re-enter Ghost, and HAMLET. Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go no further. Ghost. Mark me. Ham. I will. Ghost. My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself. Ham. Alas, poor ghost! 711 Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold. Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear. 720 Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. Ham. What ? Ghost. I am thy father's spirit; Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night; And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires, 'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 729 I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porcupine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood :—List, list, O list!— Ham. O heaven ! Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural mur der. Ham, Murder? Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Ham. Haste me to know it; 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 should'st thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard, 750 A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Rankly abus'd: but knów, thou noble youth, Ham. O, my prophetick soul! my uncle? 760 O, Hamlet, O, Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven; And prey on garbage. But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air- Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, 770 780 789 Unhousell'd, |