HAMLET         Did you not speak to it?

HORATIO                                My lord, I did,

But answer made it none. Yet once methought

It lifted up it head and did address

Itself to motion like as it would speak.

But even then the morning cock crew loud

And at the sound it shrunk in haste away

And vanished from our sight.

HAMLET                                 ’Tis very strange.

HORATIO        As I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true,

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.             (1.2.213-222)

Hamlet’s almost thinking out loud, but saying disconcertingly little, as he attempts to process this amazing thing he’s just been told: his father’s ghost? Did you not speak to it? he asks Horatio, although, heck, what difference does it make at this stage if it’s a talking ghost? (Quite a lot. It makes the audience remember Horatio’s impassioned address to the Ghost; it makes them imagine that the ghost might yet return and speak. Top playwrighting.) Horatio’s eager to confirm, perhaps even slightly offended that Hamlet thinks he might not have attempted it: my lord, I did speak to the Ghost, but answer made it none. No reply. Then a good vivid ‘memory’ for the audience, who might not have been as aware of this in the moment: yet once methought it lifted up it head and did address itself to motion like as it would speak. It looked like it was about to! It was going to speak! But even then the morning cock crew loud and at the sound it shrunk in haste away and vanished from our sight. Again Horatio makes the Ghost vanish in the mind’s eye of the audience, and in their recollections of the previous scene: yes, there was that sudden cockcrow—and then it vanished! to nothing! (It walked off, but in this description, this retelling, the Ghost vanished.) ’Tis very strange, muses Hamlet, with not a little bathos, and mostly to himself. Horatio’s perhaps concerned that Hamlet’s not believing him: as I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true. I swear I’m telling the truth, I swear that this is what we saw. And, moreover, we did think it writ down in our duty to let you know of it. We all—including these honest soldiers here, bound to serve—considered ourselves honour-bound to let you know. We had to tell you.