ACT 4
[Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching]
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
Go greet the Danish king for me now, Captain.
Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
Say that, with his permission, Fortinbras
Craves the conveyance of a promised march
Desires to march his men, as he had promised,
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
Across his land. You know the meeting-point.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
And If his majesty has some concerns,
We shall express our duty in his eye;
I’ll meet him face-to-face to share intentions
And let him know so.
And let him know my plans.
CAPTAIN
I will do't, my lord.
I’ll do it, sir.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
Go softly on.
Off you go.
[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers]
[Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others]
HAMLET
Good sir, whose powers are these?
Good sir, whose troops are these?
CAPTAIN
They are of Norway, sir.
The King of Norway’s, sir.
HAMLET
How purposed, sir, I pray you?
What are they doing here, I ask?
CAPTAIN
Against some part of Poland.
Out to fight with Poland.
HAMLET
Who commands them, sir?
Who’s in charge then, sir?
CAPTAIN
The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.
The King of Norway’s nephew, Fortinbras.
HAMLET
Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
Will they attack the heart of Poland, sir,
Or for some frontier?
Or at some other border?
CAPTAIN
Truly to speak, and with no addition,
In truth, without any embellishment,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
We’re targeting a tiny patch of land
That hath in it no profit but the name.
That’s worthless, yet it has a worthy name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
I wouldn’t farm it if it cost five gold coins;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
And it won’t reap for Poland or for Norway
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
A higher rate, if it would sell at all.
HAMLET
Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Well, then the Polish won’t try to defend it.
CAPTAIN
Yes, it is already garrisoned.
They will; their troops are stationed there already.
HAMLET
Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
Two thousand men and twenty golden coins
Will not debate the question of this straw:
Will not resolve this trivial piece of land.
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
It’s like an abscess, caused with wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
That bursts inside a man without revealing
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
The cause of death. I humbly thank you, sir.
CAPTAIN
God be wi' you, sir.
God be with you, sir.
[Exit]
ROSENCRANTZ
Wilt please you go, my lord?
Will you come now, my lord?
HAMLET
I'll be with you straight go a little before.
I’ll be there soon with you. Go on ahead.
[Exeunt all except HAMLET]
How all occasions do inform against me,
All these events denounce my own inaction
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
And spur me to revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
If all he ever did throughout his life
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Was sleep and eat? For then, he’s just a beast.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
For when God gave us thoughts to speak our mind,
Looking before and after, gave us not
To plan based on the past, he didn’t grant us
That capability and god-like reason
These capabilities and godly thoughts
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
To rot in us, unused. Perhaps it’s caused
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
By beast-like mindlessness, or cowardly
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
Over-contemplating what to do—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
A thought, which cut in four, is one-part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
And three-part cowardice—I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Why I’m still here without the task completed,
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
Because I have the will, the strength and means
To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
To do it. I’m urged on by clear example:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Look at this massive and expensive army
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
That’s led by such a young and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Who’s driven by his own pretentious ego,
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Just laughing in face of unseen danger,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
And risking life through serendipity
To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
By taking massive risk in face of danger
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
For reasons egg-shell thin. But being great
Is not to stir without great argument,
Does not require a monumental reason
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
To fight, but finding nothing much to fight for
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
When honour is at stake. How can I stand here
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
After my father’s killed, and mother tarnished,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
My reasoning excited by my blood,
And let all sleep? While, to my shame, I see
And then do nothing? While I shamefully watch
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
That through the empty hope of gallantry,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Go to their graves like beds, fighting for land
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Not big enough to house all of the troops,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
And even not as big to dig the graves
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
Of those who’ll die? Now, from this moment on
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
My thoughts will all be violent, or be gone!
[Exit]
