Enter GHOST and HAMLET.

HAMLET         Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I’ll go no further.

GHOST            Mark me.

HAMLET                     I will.

GHOST                                    My hour is almost come

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

HAMLET                     Alas, poor ghost.

GHOST            Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

To what I shall unfold.

HAMLET                     Speak, I am bound to hear.

GHOST            So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.

HAMLET                     What?             (1.5.1-8)

The action’s continuous: enter Ghost and Hamlet, the two of them alone together—where, it’s left uncertain, somewhere else outside the castle, in the open air—just Hamlet and his dad, or rather his ghost. Hamlet wants to know what’s going on, and where they’re going; he’s scared. Whither wilt thou lead me? Where are we going? (Were the others right, that you’re taking me to my death?) Speak! I’ll go no further. Not taking another step until you tell me what’s going on. Sounding a bit teenage there, Hamlet.

Mark me, says the Ghost. Listen. Take note. Take this seriously, and do exactly as I say. Oh, I will, says Hamlet. I promise you I am absolutely paying attention. But first an explanation of a different sort, a terrifying justification of urgency: my hour is almost come when I to sulphurous and tormenting flames must render up myself. I don’t have long, it’s almost time for me to go—back. To the place of dreadful pain, fire and brimstone, heat and stench and agony. Purgatory. I’ve got to give myself up, again, and again and again. Hamlet’s stricken: alas, poor ghost! this is his father, after all, the great warrior, and almost the first thing he says is, it hurts. It HURTS. But the Ghost is immediately more resolute: pity me not—I don’t need your sympathy, boy—but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold. I want you to listen, and listen hard to what I’m going to tell you. (I have many thoughts about unfolding; some of them are here and even more of them are in the final chapter of the book I’m finishing…) Speak, I am bound to hear, replies Hamlet. Of course I’ll listen to you, it’s my duty as your son, your subject—and also, given the circumstances, it’s the least I can do.

So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear. Bound, the Ghost means. When you hear what I have to say, you’ll have to avenge me; you will be compelled, you’ll have no choice; it’ll be your duty as my subject and my son. What? says Hamlet. And it’s what not in the sense of, what will I have to revenge? but what?! WHAT?! what the ACTUAL?