ACT I
SCENE II. A room of state in the castle.
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[Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants]
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
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The memory be green, and that it us befitted
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To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
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To be contracted in one brow of woe,
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Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
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That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
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Together with remembrance of ourselves.
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Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
[164]
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The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
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Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
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With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
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With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
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In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
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Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
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Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
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With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
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Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
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Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
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Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
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Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
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Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
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He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
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Importing the surrender of those lands
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Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
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To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
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Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
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Thus much the business is: we have here writ
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To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
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Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
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Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
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His further gait herein; in that the levies,
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The lists and full proportions, are all made
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Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
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You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
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For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
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Giving to you no further personal power
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To business with the king, more than the scope
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Of these delated articles allow.
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Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
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CORNELIUS.
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In that and all things will we show our duty.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
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[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
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And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
[165]
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You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
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You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
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And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
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That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
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The head is not more native to the heart,
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The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
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Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
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What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
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LAERTES.
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My dread lord,
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Your leave and favour to return to France;
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From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
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To show my duty in your coronation,
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Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
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My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
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And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
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He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
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By laboursome petition, and at last
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Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
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I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
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And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
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But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
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HAMLET.
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[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
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HAMLET.
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Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE.
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Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
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And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
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Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
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Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
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Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
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Passing through nature to eternity.
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HAMLET.
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Ay, madam, it is common.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE.
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If it be,
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Why seems it so particular with thee?
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HAMLET.
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Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
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'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
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Nor customary suits of solemn black,
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Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
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No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
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Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
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Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
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That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
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For they are actions that a man might play:
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But I have that within which passeth show;
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These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
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To give these mourning duties to your father:
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But, you must know, your father lost a father;
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That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
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In filial obligation for some term
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To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
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In obstinate condolement is a course
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Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
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It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
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A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
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An understanding simple and unschool'd:
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For what we know must be and is as common
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As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
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Why should we in our peevish opposition
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Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
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A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
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To reason most absurd: whose common theme
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Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
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From the first corse till he that died to-day,
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'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
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This unprevailing woe, and think of us
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As of a father: for let the world take note,
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You are the most immediate to our throne;
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And with no less nobility of love
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Than that which dearest father bears his son,
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Do I impart toward you. For your intent
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In going back to school in Wittenberg,
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It is most retrograde to our desire:
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And we beseech you, bend you to remain
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Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
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Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
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QUEEN GERTRUDE.
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Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
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I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
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HAMLET.
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I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
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KING CLAUDIUS.
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Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
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Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
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This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
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Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
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No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
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But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
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And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
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Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
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[Exeunt all but HAMLET]
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HAMLET.
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O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
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Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
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Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
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His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
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How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
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Seem to me all the uses of this world!
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Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
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That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
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Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
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But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
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So excellent a king; that was, to this,
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Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
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That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
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Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
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Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
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As if increase of appetite had grown
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By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
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Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
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A little month, or ere those shoes were old
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With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
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Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
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O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
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Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
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My father's brother, but no more like my father
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Than I to Hercules: within a month:
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Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
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Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
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She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
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With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
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It is not nor it cannot come to good:
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But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
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[Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO]
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HORATIO.
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Hail to your lordship!
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HAMLET.
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I am glad to see you well:
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Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
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HORATIO.
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The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
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HAMLET.
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Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
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And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
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MARCELLUS.
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My good lord--
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HAMLET.
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I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
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But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
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HORATIO.
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A truant disposition, good my lord.
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HAMLET.
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I would not hear your enemy say so,
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Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
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To make it truster of your own report
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Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
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But what is your affair in Elsinore?
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We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
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HORATIO.
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My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
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HAMLET.
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I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
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I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
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HORATIO.
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Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
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HAMLET.
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Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
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Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
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Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
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Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
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My father!--methinks I see my father.
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HORATIO.
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Where, my lord?
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HAMLET.
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In my mind's eye, Horatio.
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HORATIO.
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I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
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HAMLET.
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He was a man, take him for all in all,
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I shall not look upon his like again.
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HORATIO.
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My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
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HAMLET.
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Saw? who?
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HORATIO.
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My lord, the king your father.
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HAMLET.
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The king my father!
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HORATIO.
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Season your admiration for awhile
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With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
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Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
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This marvel to you.
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HAMLET.
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For God's love, let me hear.
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HORATIO.
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Two nights together had these gentlemen,
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Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
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In the dead vast and middle of the night,
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Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
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Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
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Appears before them, and with solemn march
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Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
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By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
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Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
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Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
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Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
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In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
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And I with them the third night kept the watch;
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Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
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Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
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The apparition comes: I knew your father;
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These hands are not more like.
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HAMLET.
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But where was this?
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MARCELLUS.
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My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
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HAMLET.
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Did you not speak to it?
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HORATIO.
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My lord, I did;
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But answer made it none: yet once methought
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It lifted up its head and did address
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Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
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But even then the morning cock crew loud,
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And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
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And vanish'd from our sight.
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HAMLET.
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'Tis very strange.
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HORATIO.
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As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
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And we did think it writ down in our duty
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To let you know of it.
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HAMLET.
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Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
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Hold you the watch to-night?
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MARCELLUS.
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BERNARDO.
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We do, my lord.
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HAMLET.
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Arm'd, say you?
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MARCELLUS.
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BERNARDO.
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Arm'd, my lord.
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HAMLET.
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From top to toe?
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MARCELLUS.
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BERNARDO.
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My lord, from head to foot.
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HAMLET.
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Then saw you not his face?
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HORATIO.
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O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
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HAMLET.
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What, look'd he frowningly?
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HORATIO.
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A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
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HAMLET.
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Pale or red?
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HORATIO.
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Nay, very pale.
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HAMLET.
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And fix'd his eyes upon you?
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HORATIO.
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Most constantly.
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HAMLET.
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I would I had been there.
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HORATIO.
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It would have much amazed you.
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HAMLET.
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Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
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HORATIO.
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While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
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MARCELLUS.
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BERNARDO.
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Longer, longer.
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HORATIO.
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Not when I saw't.
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HAMLET.
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His beard was grizzled--no?
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HORATIO.
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It was, as I have seen it in his life,
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A sable silver'd.
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HAMLET.
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I will watch to-night;
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Perchance 'twill walk again.
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HORATIO.
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I warrant it will.
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HAMLET.
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If it assume my noble father's person,
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I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
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And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
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If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
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Let it be tenable in your silence still;
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And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
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Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
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I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
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Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
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I'll visit you.
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ALL.
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Our duty to your honour.
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HAMLET.
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Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
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[Exeunt all but HAMLET]
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My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
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I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
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Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
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Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
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[Exit]