HORATIO                    And this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source of this our watch, and the chief head

Of this post-haste and rummage in the land.

BARNARDO    I think it be no other but e’en so.

Well may it sort that this portentous figure

Comes armed through our watch so like the King

That was and is the question of these wars.           (1.1.103-110)

Horatio finally draws to a conclusion: and this, I take it—all of this exhaustive backstory, about the fight between Old Fortinbras and Old Hamlet, the latter’s victory, and therefore Young Fortinbras’s intention to take revenge and win back his father’s lands—is the main motive of our preparations. That’s why there’s all this preparation of weapons, this arms race, this building of ships and procurement of cannon, the pressing of men, the huge expenditure—and it’s also the source of this our watch, the reason why there’s extra patrols, why we’re out here freezing ourselves in the dead of night. It’s the chief head of this post-haste and rummage in the land, the main source of all this urgency and panic, the busy-ness and tumult in Denmark.

Barnardo agrees: I think it be no other but e’en so. Yep, you’ve nailed it. Well may it sort—and so it’s also entirely consistent with our current state of crisis—that this portentous figure, this foreboding Thing, comes armed through our watch so like the King that was and is the question of these wars. It’s completely logical that we’d see an apparition exactly like the old King, battle-ready; after all, his actions were central to the first war, a generation ago—and that conflict is again the motive behind this war that’s rumbling now.