HORATIO        Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle, hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in’t, which is no other, As it doth well appear unto our state, But to recover of us by strong hand And terms compulsatory those foresaid lands So by his father lost.              (1.1.94-103) Horatio’s still going […]

HORATIO Against the which a moiety competent Was gaged by our King, which had return To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher, as by the same co-mart And carriage of the article design His fell to Hamlet. (1.1.89-94) This is complicated stuff, and in very long sentences (this is actually beginning mid sentence) as Horatio sets out the backstory of historical conflict with […]

HORATIO                                That can I. At least the whisper goes so. Our last King, Whose image even but now appeared to us, Was as you know by Fortinbras of Norway – Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride – Dared to the combat, in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteemed him) Did slay this Fortinbras, who […]

MARCELLUS   Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land, And with such daily cost of brazen cannon And foreign mart for implements of war, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week. What might be toward that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint […]

HORATIO        Such was the very armour he had on When he the ambitious Norway combated. So frowned he once, when in an angry parle He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. ’Tis strange. MARCELLUS   Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. HORATIO        In what particular thought to work, I know not, But in the gross and scope of mine opinion This bodes some strange eruption to our […]

BARNARDO    How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on’t? HORATIO        Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. MARCELLUS                           Is it not like the King? HORATIO        As thou art to thyself.            (1.1.52-7) How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale: […]

HORATIO        What art thou that usurp’st this time of night Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee speak. MARCELLUS   It is offended. BARNARDO                            See, it stalks away. HORATIO        Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak. (Exit Ghost.) MARCELLUS   ’Tis gone and will not answer.          (1.1.45-51) Horatio makes a brave […]

MARCELLUS   Peace, break thee off, look where it comes again. BARNARDO    In the same figure like the King that’s dead. MARCELLUS   Thou art a scholar – speak to it, Horatio. BARNARDO    Looks ’a not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. HORATIO        Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder. BARNARDO    It would be spoke to. MARCELLUS                                       Speak to it, Horatio.   (1.1.39-44)   So, Enter Ghost—from […]

BARNARDO                            Sit down awhile, And let us once again assail your ears That are so fortified against our story What we have two nights seen. HORATIO        Well, sit we down, And let us hear Barnardo speak of this. BARNARDO    Last night of all, When yond same star that’s westward from the pole Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell […]

MARCELLUS   Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night That, if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes and speak to it. HORATIO        Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.             (1.1.21-28) […]