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Translated Text |
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels. BARNARDO Who’s there? FRANCISCO Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself. BARNARDO Long live the King! FRANCISCO Barnardo. BARNARDO He. 5 FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour. BARNARDO ’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. BARNARDO Have you had quiet guard? 10 FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring. BARNARDO Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. | Long ago in a kingdom far away—specifically, in Elsinore, Denmark—some guys named Bernardo and Francisco are hanging out on the castle battlements. Francisco is done with his shift and gets ready to head out. |
Enter Horatio and Marcellus. FRANCISCO I think I hear them.—Stand ho! Who is there? 15 HORATIO Friends to this ground. MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane. FRANCISCO Give you good night. MARCELLUS O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved you? 20 FRANCISCO Barnardo hath my place. Give you good night. Francisco exits. MARCELLUS Holla, Barnardo. BARNARDO Say, what, is Horatio there? HORATIO A piece of him. BARNARDO Welcome, Horatio.—Welcome, good Marcellus. 25 | Marcellus, yet another watchman, shows up with a man named Horatio. Because it's dark outside, no one can see anything, much less each other, so there's a lot of "who's there?" and "what?" and, in one very interesting case, "Holla." |
HORATIO What, has this thing appeared again tonight? BARNARDO I have seen nothing. MARCELLUS Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. 30 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. 35 BARNARDO 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, 40 And let us hear Barnardo speak of this. | Everyone starts talking about a mysterious "thing" that's been appearing lately, and by lately, we mean the last two nights. |
BARNARDO 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, 45 The bell then beating one— Enter Ghost. MARCELLUS Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again. | Bernardo starts to explain what he saw. It was a... Right on cue, a ghost shows up. |
BARNARDO In the same figure like the King that’s dead. MARCELLUS, to Horatio Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio. BARNARDO Looks he not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. 50 HORATIO Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder. BARNARDO It would be spoke to. MARCELLUS Speak to it, Horatio. | The guards all think the ghost looks suspiciously like the recently deceased King of Denmark, especially around the eyes. Everyone tells Horatio to talk to the ghost, since he's the scholar in the group (turns out, he's not a guard). |
HORATIO What art thou that usurp’st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form 55 In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee, speak. MARCELLUS It is offended. BARNARDO See, it stalks away. 60 HORATIO Stay! speak! speak! I charge thee, speak! Ghost exits. MARCELLUS ’Tis gone and will not answer. BARNARDO How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on ’t? 65 | Horatio asks the ghost a few questions which are apparently offensive, as the ghost walks off without answering. (But not without seriously freaking everyone out.) |
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. 70 Such was the very armor he had on When he the ambitious Norway combated. So frowned he once when, in an angry parle, He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. ’Tis strange. 75 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. 80 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, 85 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 laborer with the day? Who is ’t that can inform me? 90 | To further confirm that the ghost is the image of the dead King, Horatio remarks that it was wearing the same armor the King wore when fighting Norway. Everyone's got a bad feeling about this, and to try to make sense of it, Marcellus asks Horatio for a little history lesson. |
HORATIO That can I. At least the whisper goes so: our last king, Whose image even but now appeared to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, 95 Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteemed him) Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands 100 Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror. Against the which a moiety competent Was gagèd by our king, which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same comart 105 And carriage of the article designed, His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimprovèd mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes 110 For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in ’t; which is no other (As it doth well appear unto our state) But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands 115 So by his father lost. And this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this posthaste and rummage in the land. | We learn that, a while back, Old King Hamlet made a little wager with the King of Norway about who could kill the other person first in combat. Gee, that sounds safe. Old King Hamlet won so he got to take a bunch of Norway's land. The king of Norway's son, young Fortinbras, has raised an army to get his family's land back. He also wants revenge for his dad's death, naturally. (Hm, we're already sensing a theme.) |
BARNARDO I think it be no other but e’en so. 120 Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armèd through our watch so like the king That was and is the question of these wars. HORATIO A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 125 A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star, 130 Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of feared events, As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on, 135 Have heaven and Earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen. Enter Ghost. But soft, behold! Lo, where it comes again! I’ll cross it though it blast me.—Stay, illusion! It spreads his arms. If thou hast any sound or use of voice, 140 Speak to me. If there be any good thing to be done That may to thee do ease and grace to me, Speak to me. If thou art privy to thy country’s fate, 145 Which happily foreknowing may avoid, O, speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, 150 Speak of it. The cock crows. Stay and speak!—Stop it, Marcellus. | Because the kingdom of Denmark is preparing for war with Norway, Horatio's number one concern is that a dead man walking about in ghost form might be a sign that Denmark is going to lose. Horatio is busy detailing just how bad an omen this is, with many references to Julius Caesar's death and all the nasty things that came before it, when the ghost comes back. |
MARCELLUS Shall I strike it with my partisan? HORATIO Do, if it will not stand. BARNARDO ’Tis here. 155 HORATIO ’Tis here. Ghost exits. | The guards want the ghost to stay and speak, so they try to hit it to make it stand still. Unfortunately, they can't really keep it in their sights long enough to land any blows. |
MARCELLUS ’Tis gone. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence, For it is as the air, invulnerable, 160 And our vain blows malicious mockery. BARNARDO It was about to speak when the cock crew. HORATIO And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 165 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day, and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Th’ extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine, and of the truth herein 170 This present object made probation. MARCELLUS It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long; 175 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is that time. | Then they rehash events: (1) they were silly for trying to strike at the ghost, and (2) the ghost was probably going to say something, except the cock crowed and scared it off. |
HORATIO So have I heard and do in part believe it. 180 But look, the morn in russet mantle clad Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, 185 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? MARCELLUS Let’s do ’t, I pray, and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. 190 They exit. | Horatio suggests they tell Prince Hamlet about the ghost that looks an awful lot like his father. Maybe Hamlet will know what to do, because these guys sure don't. |