Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. HAMLET
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. HORATIO
It is a nipping and an eager air. HAMLET What hour now? HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve. MARCELLUS No, it is struck. 5 HORATIO
Indeed, I heard it not. It then draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets and two pieces goes off.
What does this mean, my lord? HAMLET
The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring upspring reels; 10
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge. | We're back to the battlement with Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. While waiting for the ghost, Hamlet and Horatio look through the windows of the palace at Claudius, who is carousing drunkenly. Hamlet is disgusted. |
HORATIO Is it a custom? HAMLET Ay, marry, is ’t, 15
But, to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations. 20
They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition. And, indeed, it takes
From our achievements, though performed at
height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute. 25
So oft it chances in particular men
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As in their birth (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin),
By the o’ergrowth of some complexion 30
(Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason),
Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens
The form of plausive manners—that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star, 35
His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of evil
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 40
To his own scandal. | Horatio asks Hamlet if this late night dance party is a custom, and Hamlet admits that it is, but it's not one he's fond of. He says other countries make fun of Denmark for its party vibe, and he thinks all the drinking does take away from their achievements. Plus, it only takes a tiny seed of evil to ruin a man entirely. (You may have noticed: Hamlet's a little bit of a downer.) |
Enter Ghost. HORATIO Look, my lord, it comes. HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from 45
hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee. I’ll call thee “Hamlet,”
“King,” “Father,” “Royal Dane.” O, answer me! 50
Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulcher,
Wherein we saw thee quietly interred,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws 55
To cast thee up again. What may this mean
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition 60
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? | The ghost shows up, and Hamlet is freaked out. He wonders if it's a friendly ghost, or an evil spirit sent from hell. He decides to speak to the ghost, who he believes is his dad, and asks him why he's risen from his grave. What does he want? What should Hamlet do? |
Ghost beckons. HORATIO
It beckons you to go away with it
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone. 65 MARCELLUS Look with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removèd ground.
But do not go with it. HORATIO No, by no means. HAMLET
It will not speak. Then I will follow it. 70 HORATIO
Do not, my lord. HAMLET Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin’s fee.
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself? 75
It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it. HORATIO
What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord?
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form 80
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
And draw you into madness? Think of it.
The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea 85
And hears it roar beneath. | When the ghost beckons to Hamlet, his friends beg him not to follow it. They're worried that the ghost might make him jump into the sea. Or that once Hamlet is off in some deserted place with the ghost, it will change shape and make him go mad. |
HAMLET
It waves me still.—Go on, I’ll follow thee. MARCELLUS
You shall not go, my lord. They hold back Hamlet. HAMLET Hold off your hands. HORATIO
Be ruled. You shall not go. 90 HAMLET My fate cries out
And makes each petty arture 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! 95
I say, away!—Go on. I’ll follow thee. Ghost and Hamlet exit. 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. 100 HORATIO
Heaven will direct it. MARCELLUS Nay, let’s follow him. They exit. | Hamlet is intent on following the ghost—he believes it is his fate—so he goes even when his friends try to hold him back. After Hamlet and the ghost exit, Marcellus then gets to say the really cool line, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." And even though Hamlet told them not to, Marcellus and Horatio decide to follow him. |