Faculty of English

HAMLET         I would I had been there. HORATIO        It would have much amazed you. HAMLET                                 Very like. Stayed it long? HORATIO        While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. BARNARDO / MARCELLUS  Longer, longer. HORATIO        Not when I saw’t. HAMLET                                 His beard was grizzled, no? HORATIO        It was as I have seen it in his life: A sable […]

HAMLET         Indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch tonight? HORATIO / BARNARDO / MARCELLUS      We do, my lord. HAMLET         Armed, say you? HORATIO / BARNARDO / MARCELLUS      Armed, my lord. HAMLET         From top to toe? HORATIO / BARNARDO / MARCELLUS      My lord, from head to foot. HAMLET         Then saw you not his face. […]

HAMLET         Did you not speak to it? HORATIO                                My lord, I did, But answer made it none. Yet once methought It lifted up it head and did address Itself to motion like as it would speak. But even then the morning cock crew loud And at the sound it shrunk in haste away And vanished from our sight. […]

HORATIO                    This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did, And I with them the third night kept the watch Where, as they had delivered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes. I knew your father, These hands are not more like. HAMLET                     But where was this? MARCELLUS   My lord, upon […]

HORATIO        Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch In the dead waste and middle of the night Been thus encountered: a figure like your father Armed at point, exactly cap-à-pie, Appears before them and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them; thrice he walked By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes Within his truncheon’s length whilst they, distilled Almost to jelly with the act of fear, […]

HORATIO        My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. HAMLET         Saw, who? HORATIO                                My lord, the King your father. HAMLET         The King my father? HORATIO        Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear till I may deliver Upon the witness of these gentlemen This marvel to you. HAMLET                     For God’s love let me hear!   (1.2.188-194) Horatio steels himself, deep breath, maybe a […]

HAMLET         Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio. My father, methinks I see my father. HORATIO        Where, my lord? HAMLET                                 In my mind’s eye, Horatio. HORATIO        I saw him once – ’a was a goodly king. HAMLET         ’A was a man, take him […]

HAMLET         I would not hear your enemy say so, Nor shall you do my ear that violence To make it truster of your own report Against yourself. I know you are no truant; But what is your affair in Elsinore? We’ll teach you for to drink ere you depart. HORATIO        My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral. HAMLET         I prithee do not mock […]

Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS and Barnardo. HORATIO        Hail to your lordship. HAMLET                                 I am glad to see you well – Horatio, or I do forget myself. HORATIO        The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. HAMLET         Sir, my good friend, I’ll change that name with you. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus! MARCELLUS   My good lord. HAMLET         I am very glad […]

HAMLET                     Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O most wicked speed! To post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets, It is not, nor it cannot come to good; But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.    (1.2.153-9) Within a month: Hamlet keeps coming back to this again and again; it’s a […]