HAMLET                     This do swear, So grace and mercy at your most need help you. GHOST                        Swear. HAMLET         Rest, rest, perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you, And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do t’express his love and friending to you God willing shall not lack. Let us […]

HORATIO        O day and night, but this is wondrous strange. HAMLET         And therefore as a stranger give it welcome: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come, Here as before: never – so help you mercy, How strange or odd some’er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put […]

HORATIO                    Propose the oath, my lord. HAMLET         Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword. GHOST            Swear. HAMLET         Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen, and lay your hands Again upon my sword. Swear by my sword Never to speak of this that you have heard. GHOST            Swear by his sword. HAMLET         Well said, old mole, canst work i’th’ earth so […]

HORATIO        What is’t, my lord? We will. HAMLET         Never make known what you have seen tonight. HORATIO / MARCELLUS      My lord, we will not. HAMLET         Nay, but swear’t. HORATIO        In faith, my lord, not I. MARCELLUS                           Nor I, my lord, in faith. HAMLET         Upon my sword. MARCELLUS                           We have sworn, my lord, already. HAMLET         Indeed, […]

HORATIO        These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. HAMLET         I am sorry they offend you – heartily, Yes, faith, heartily. HORATIO        There’s no offence, my lord. HAMLET         Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here It is an honest ghost – that let me tell you. For your desire to know what is between us O’ermaster […]

HAMLET         How say you then – would heart of man once think it? – But you’ll be secret? HORATIO / MARCELLUS                  Ay, by heaven. HAMLET         There’s never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he’s an arrant knave. HORATIO        There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this. HAMLET         Why, right, you are in the right! And so without more circumstance at all I […]

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS. HORATIO        My lord, my lord! MARCELLUS                           Lord Hamlet! HORATIO                                            Heavens secure him! HAMLET         So be it. MARCELLUS               Illo, ho, ho, my lord! HAMLET         Hillo, ho, ho, boy, come and come! MARCELLUS   How is’t, my noble lord? HORATIO                                What news, my lord? HAMLET         O, wonderful. HORATIO                                Good my lord, tell it. HAMLET         No, you will reveal it. HORATIO                                Not I, my lord, […]

HAMLET                     Yes, by heaven, O most pernicious woman, O villain, villain, smiling damned villain, My tables! Meet it is I set it down That one may smile and smile and be a villain – At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me.’ I have sworn’t.           […]

HAMLET                     Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past That youth and observation copied there And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain Unmixed with baser matter. […]

GHOST                        Fare thee well at once: The glow-worm shows the matin to be near And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu, remember me. [ Exit.] HAMLET         O all you host of heaven, O earth – what else? – And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart, And you, my sinews, grow not instant old But bear me swiftly up.         (1.5.88-95) Fare thee […]