HORATIO / BARNARDO / MARCELLUS      Our duty to your honour.

HAMLET         Your loves, as mine to you, farewell. (Exeunt [all but Hamlet].)

My father’s spirit – in arms! All is not well;

I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come.

Till then sit still my soul – foul deeds will rise

Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.        Exit.    (1.2.251-6)

Our duty to your honour: it’s a soldiers’ formal leave-taking, a salute, a bow, a heel-click, and although there’s no separate line for Horatio maybe it might make more sense for him to part from Hamlet with a long look full of affection and concern, a pat on the shoulder. Or he could join in, observing the proprieties, being properly deferential and courteous to his friend the prince. Hamlet’s reply sounds equally formal, initially seeming perhaps a bit automatic, formulaic: your loves, as mine to you, farewell. But he’s suggesting that what they’ve done for him, in bringing this news of the Ghost, has been a sign not of duty, but of love. He’s properly grateful for this kind and loyal act; I reciprocate what you’ve shown me, he says, and I think what you’ve shown me is more than duty; it’s a kind of love. Thank you.

Then once again Hamlet is alone, in a whirlwind of emotions. My father’s spirit—in arms! His ghost, in armour, battle-ready! All is not well. It doesn’t look good… I doubt some foul play; something untoward, underhand has been going on, I suspect. Would the night would come! He’s got hours to wait yet, until he goes to meet the guards again. And so he tries to calm himself: till then sit still my soul; got to relax, stay calm, breathe. He manages that for the space of a dash, a breath: foul deeds will rise though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes! There may have been a cover-up, but truth will out. Murder will out.

And that’s the end of an absolutely epic first scene for Hamlet.