BARNARDO    It was about to speak when the cock crew.

HORATIO        And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock that is the trumpet to the morn

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat

Awake the god of day and, at his warning,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

Th’extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine – and of the truth herein

This present object made probation.          (1.1.146-155)

A note for the Ghost—it was about to speak when the cock crew—but also for Barnardo; he has perhaps been the one of the three most closely observing the Ghost. Almost, almost, it was going to say something, but then the spell was broken: and then it started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons. Another note for the Ghost: perhaps having taken a deep breath, it has to jump at the sound of the cock crowing, look offstage, shift focus, move.  And, as Horatio adds, it looks frightened, full of dread—of what it’s being called (back) to?

Horatio (the academic) has a theory as to what’s just happened: I have heard the cock that is the trumpet to the morn doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat  awake the god of day (it’s as if Horatio is being so unnecessarily verbose to calm himself down, and the others too, giving them something to listen to and follow; after all, he’s just saying, the sound of the cock crowing means it’s daybreak) and, at his warning, whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, th’extravagant and erring spirit hies to his confine. More pertinent to our situation, gentlemen, is that cockcrow is the signal for ghosts to go back to where they came from, wherever they’ve wandered. Horatio cites the four elements as the possible arenas for such wanderings, suggesting the unconfined nature of night-walking spirits, able to move through water and earth, air and even fire, and these spirits are extravagant and erring, literally wandering (errare, wander, but here the negative sense of error is also implicitly present) and out of bounds. It has been summoned back to its confine, to which it hies, hurries—but confine suggests imprisonment rather than a peaceful resting place. This is a restless, unquiet ghost, but also one that is not entirely in control of its own actions.

And yes, that’s what we’ve just seen, Horatio concludes, just a little lamely, downbeat; he has a tendency to do this, in a scholarly fashion, laying out the facts but shying away from a flourishing conclusion. QED, says Horatio the philosopher, stiffly, with little emotion. Of the truth herein this present object made probation. He’s stunned, perhaps—an actual ghost! walking at night! fleeing at cockcrow! I knew the theory, of course, I’ve read about things like this—but now we’ve seen it proved, for real.