ACT 1
[Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS]
HAMLET
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
The air is biting; it’s a bitter cold.
HORATIO
It is a nipping and an eager air.
It’s cold enough to take your breath away.
HAMLET
What hour now?
What is the time?
HORATIO
I think it lacks of twelve.
I think it’s almost twelve.
HAMLET
No, it is struck.
No, it’s passed twelve.
HORATIO
Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
I didn’t hear the chime. It’s almost time
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
Whereby the ghost has previously appeared.
[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within]
What does this mean, my lord?
What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET
The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
The king’s awake tonight and he’s excited,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
Awash with booze and dancing like a drunk,
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
And, as he drinks his copious German wine,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The trumpet and the timpani blare out
The triumph of his pledge.
To celebrate each drink.
HORATIO
Is it a custom?
Is that tradition?
HAMLET
Ay, marry, is't:
Indeed, it is.
But to my mind, though I am native here
But, if you ask me, though I’m from these parts
And to the manner born, it is a custom
And raised that way, I feel it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
More honourable to miss than to observe.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
This vulgar countrywide debauchery
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations:
Makes other nations scour and demonise us.
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
They call us drunkards, using boorish words
Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
To soil our reputation. It erodes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
From our achievements, even though they’re great,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.
The heart and soul of everything we’ve done.
So, oft it chances in particular men,
So often is the case in certain men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
Where nature gives them nasty blemishes
As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty,
From when they’re born—through no fault of their own,
Since nature cannot choose his origin--
As one can’t choose the nature of their birth—
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
And through deformity in their complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
And often contradicting sense of reason,
Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
Or maybe out of habit overstating
The form of plausive manners, that these men,
A basic plausibility, these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Marked by, I’d say, one abnormality,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
Which nature gave or was an accident,
Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace,
Means all their other strengths—which might be great
As infinite as man may undergo--
And numerous as any man may have—
Shall in the general censure take corruption
Will in public opinion still be blighted
From that particular fault: the dram of eale
For that particular fault. A drop of evil
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
Usurps the better qualities of man
To his own scandal.
To his own detriment.
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it comes!
Look, lord, it’s here!
[Enter Ghost]
HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Angels and saintly clergymen: defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Whether you’re a friendly ghost or demon,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Bring heaven’s air or blow the fire from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Or come with positive or foul intentions,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
Your image is so curious to me
That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
That I will talk to you: I’ll call you Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
King, father, royal Dane. Please, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Don’t let me die in ignorance! Explain
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Why your entombed and consecrated bones
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Have burst out of their coffin; why your crypt,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Where we all saw you peacefully interred,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
Has swung its heavy marble doors wide open
To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
To set you loose again. What might this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
That you, a corpse, redressed in armoured steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Revisits us beside a flickering moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
To make night terrifying; we, mere mortals,
So horridly to shake our disposition
Have had our old assumptions deeply shaken
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
With thoughts that are impossible to fathom.
Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
So, tell us why, and what we now must do.
[Ghost beckons HAMLET]
HORATIO
It beckons you to go away with it,
It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
As if it’s got a message to impart
To you alone.
To you alone.
MARCELLUS
Look, with what courteous action
Look, with a courteous gesture
It waves you to a more removed ground:
It waves you on to some place further off.
But do not go with it.
But do not go with it.
HORATIO
No, by no means.
No, really don’t.
HAMLET
It will not speak; then I will follow it.
It won’t speak here, so I will follow it.
HORATIO
Do not, my lord.
Do not, my lord.
HAMLET
Why, what should be the fear?
Why? What’s to be afraid of?
I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
A pin has greater value than my life,
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
And what can it do to hurt my very soul
Being a thing immortal as itself?
When this thing is immortal by itself?
It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.
It’s waving me again; I’ll follow it.
HORATIO
What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
What if it tempts you onward to the ocean,
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
Or to the summit of a massive cliff
That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
That teeters on its base over the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form,
And then mutates into a wretched thing
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
Which might prevent you thinking reasonably
And draw you into madness? Think of it:
And drag you into madness? Think about it:
The very place puts toys of desperation,
For such a place can make you suicidal,
Without more motive, into every brain
Devoid of reason, all consider this
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
When looking at the deep and massive ocean
And hears it roar beneath.
And hear the waves below.
HAMLET
It waves me still.
It waves again.
Go on; I'll follow thee.
Go on: I’ll follow you.
MARCELLUS
You shall not go, my lord.
You cannot go, my lord.
HAMLET
Hold off your hands.
Let go of me.
HORATIO
Be ruled; you shall not go.
No way; I will not let you.
HAMLET
My fate cries out,
It’s my fate,
And makes each petty artery in this body
Converting every feeble part of me
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
To be ferocious like an ancient lion.
Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
And still it calls me. Let me go now, gents.
By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
By God, I’ll make a ghost of him who stops me!
I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee.
Clear off now! Carry on; I’ll follow you.
[Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET]
HORATIO
He waxes desperate with imagination.
He’s turning desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS
Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
We have to follow him; we can’t obey him.
HORATIO
Have after. To what issue will this come?
Yes, let’s go after him. How will this end?
MARCELLUS
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO
Heaven will direct it.
It’s in God’s hands.
MARCELLUS
Nay, let's follow him.
No, come—let’s follow him.
[Exeunt]
