Faculty of English

GHOST                        So did it mine And a most instant tetter barked about Most lazar-like with vile and loathsome crust All my smooth body. Thus was I sleeping by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled, No reckoning made but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head.      (1.5.70-79) […]

GHOST            But soft, methinks I scent the morning air. Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard – My custom always of the afternoon – Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body […]

GHOST            O Hamlet, what a falling off was there, From me whose love was of that dignity That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved Though lewdness court it in […]

HAMLET         O my prophetic soul! My uncle! GHOST            Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts – O wicked wit and gifts that have the power So to seduce – won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.       (1.5.40-46) O my prophetic soul! My uncle! I knew it! says Hamlet, I knew it in my very bones. (He has given […]

GHOST                        I find thee apt. And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: ’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s […]

GHOST            List, list, O list, If thou didst ever thy dear father love – HAMLET         O God! GHOST            – Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder! HAMLET         Murder! GHOST            Murder most foul – as in the best it is – But this most foul, strange and unnatural. HAMLET         Haste me to know’t that I with wings as swift As meditation or […]

GHOST            I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze […]

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 […]

HORATIO       He waxes desperate with imagination. MARCELLUS  Let’s follow. ’Tis not fit thus to obey him. HORATIO       Have after. To what issue will this come? MARCELLUS  Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. HORATIO       Heaven will direct it. MARCELLUS                          Nay, let’s follow him. (Exeunt.)        (1.4.87-91) Just rounding off the scene, a brief exchange between Horatio and Marcellus to give Hamlet and the Ghost time […]

HAMLET         It waves me still. Go on, I’ll follow thee. MARCELLUS   You shall not go, my lord. HAMLET                                 Hold off your hands. HORATIO        Be ruled, you shall not go. HAMLET                                 My fate cries out And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. Still am I called – unhand me, gentlemen – By heaven I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me! I say […]