Hamlet

A Tragedy

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: HarperPerennial Classics
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781443443296
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

When the king of Denmark suddenly dies, his brother, Claudius, ascends the throne and marries the king's widow, Gertrude, to solidify his reign. Prince Hamlet, sullen after his father's passing and mother's sudden remarriage, soon learns the treacherous truth about his father's death, and swears to take his revenge on the man responsible.

Known as "The Bard of Avon," William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

ACT ONE

SCENE I. Elsinore. The guard-platform of the Castle.

FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

BERNARDO Who’s there?

FRANCISCO Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.

BERNARDO Long live the King!

FRANCISCO Bernardo?

[5]

BERNARDO He.

FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour.

BERNARDO ’Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed,

Francisco.

FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

BERNARDO Have you had quiet guard?

[10]

FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring.

BERNARDO Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

FRANCISCO I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?

HORATIO Friends to this ground.

MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane.

FRANCISCO Give you good night.

MARCELLUS O, farewell, honest soldier!

Who hath reliev’d you?

FRANCISCO Bernardo hath my place.

Give you good night. [Exit.

MARCELLUS Holla, Bernado!

BERNARDO Say --

What, is Horatio there?

HORATIO A piece of him.

[20]

BERNARDO Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good

Marcellus.

HORATIO What, has this thing appear’d again to-night?

BERNARDO I have seen nothing.

MARCELLUS Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy,

[25]

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.

[30]

HORATIO Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.

BERNARDO 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,

[35]

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

BERNARDO 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 then beating one --

Enter Ghost.

[40]

MARCELLUS Peace, break thee off; look where it comes again.

BERNARDO In the same figure, like the King that’s dead.

MARCELLUS Thou art a scholar; speak to it,

Horatio.

BERNARDO Looks ’a not like the King? Mark it,

Horatio.

HORATIO Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

BERNARDO It would be spoke to.

[45]

MARCELLUS Question it, 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.

[50]

BERNARDO See, it stalks away.

HORATIO Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak! [Exit Ghost.

MARCELLUS ’Tis gone, and will not answer.

BERNARDO How now, Horatio! You tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

[55]

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:

[60]

Such was the very armour he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated;

So frown’d he once when, in an angry parle,

He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

’Tis strange.

[65]

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 state.

[70]

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 why such daily cast of brazen cannon,

And foreign mart for implements of war;

[75]

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-labourer with the day:

Who is’t that can inform me?

HORATIO That can I;

[80]

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,

Whose image even but now appear’d to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto prick’d on by a most emulate pride,

Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant

Hamlet --

[85]

For so this side of our known world esteem’d him --

Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal’d compact,

Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands

Which he stood seiz’d of, to the conqueror;

[90]

Against the which a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king; which had retum’d

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same comart

And carriage of the article design’d,

[95]

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,

Shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes,

For food and diet,...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Hamlet
• Dramatis Personae
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five
• About the Author
• About the Series
• Copyright
• About the Publisher