Hamlet

William Shakespeare, Robert Icke

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786822253
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A murdered King. A usurped Prince. A promise of revenge. Returning to court to find his father murdered and his mother married to the murderer, Hamlet faces a terrible dilemma. This is Shakespeare's great tragedy of passion, corruption and revenge.

ONE

FRANCISCO¹ who’s there?

nay answer me / stand and unfold yourself

BARNARDO long live the king

FRANCISCO barnardo?

BARNARDO he

FRANCISCOyou come most carefully upon your hour

BARNARDO’tis now struck twelve / get thee to bed francisco

FRANCISCOfor this relief much thanks / ’tis bitter cold
and i am sick at heart

BARNARDO have you had quiet guard?

FRANCISCOnot a mouse stirring

BARNARDOwell good night

if you do meet horatio and marcellus
the rival² of my watch bid them make haste

FRANCISCO i think i hear them

BARNARDO³ stand ho who’s there⁴?

HORATIO friends to this ground

MARCELLUS and liegemen to the king⁵

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS

FRANCISCO give you good night

MARCELLUS o farewell honest soldier⁶

who hath relieved you?

FRANCISCO barnardo has⁷ my place

give you good night

Exit FRANCISCO

MARCELLUS holla barnardo

BARNARDO say what is horatio there?

HORATIOa piece of him

BARNARDOwelcome horatio welcome good marcellus

MARCELLUS⁸ what has this thing appeared again tonight?

BARNARDOi have seen nothing

MARCELLUS horatio says ’tis but our fantasy
and will not let belief take hold of him
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

BARNARDOsit down awhile

and let us once again assail your ears
that are so fortified against our story
what we have two nights seen / last night of all
when yond same star that’s westward from the pole
had made his course to illume that part of heaven
where now it burns marcellus and myself
the bell then beating one

Enter GHOST

MARCELLUS⁹ peace break thee off / look where it comes again
in the same figure like the king that’s dead

BARNARDO¹⁰ thou art a scholar / speak to it horatio

MARCELLUS¹¹ looks it not¹² like the king? mark it horatio

HORATIO most like

BARNARDOit would be spoke to

MARCELLUS question it¹³ horatio

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

HORATIO stay / speak speak / i charge thee speak

Exit GHOST

MARCELLUS ’tis gone

BARNARDOhow now horatio?

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 my own eyes¹⁴

MARCELLUS is it not like the king?

HORATIO as thou art to thyself

MARCELLUS¹⁵ such was the very clothing¹⁶ he had on
when he the ambitious norway combated
’tis strange

BARNARDO¹⁷ thus twice before and just at this dead hour¹⁸

HORATIO in what particular thought to work i know not
but in the gross and scope of my opinion¹⁹
this bodes some strange eruption to our state

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 why²⁰ such daily cast²¹ of brazen weapons²²
and foreign trade²³ for implements of war?
what might be toward that this sweaty haste
doth make the night joint-labourer with the day
who is’t that can inform me?

HORATIO tha...