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    Hamlet
    Hamlet
    Hamlet
    Ebook167 pages2 hours

    Hamlet

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    Many consider the tragedy of "Hamlet" to be Shakespeare's masterpiece and one of the greatest plays of all time. It has entertained audiences for centuries and the role of Hamlet is one of the most sought after by actors. It is the story of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder. "Hamlet" is a work of great complexity and as such has drawn many different critical interpretations. Hamlet has been seen as a victim of circumstance, as an impractical idealist, as the sufferer of an Oedipus complex, as an opportunist wishing to kill his Uncle not for revenge but to ascend to the throne, as the sufferer of a great melancholy, and as a man blinded by his desire for revenge. The true motivations of Hamlet are complex and enigmatic and have been debated for centuries. Read this classic tragedy and decide for yourself where Hamlet's true motivations lie and how they influence his ultimate demise.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596250284
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. The date of his birth is not known but is traditionally 23 April, St George's Day. Aged 18, he married a Stratford farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway. They had three children. Around 1585 William joined an acting troupe on tour in Stratford from London, and thereafter spent much of his life in the capital. A member of the leading theatre group in London, the Chamberlain's Men, which built the Globe Theatre and frequently performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare wrote 36 plays and much poetry besides. He died in 1616.

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    Reviews for Hamlet

    4/5

    6,485 ratings91 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Classic Shakespeare tragedy.
    • 4/5
      Who am I to review Shakespeare?!
    • 4/5
      The only Shakespeare plays I had read before this were Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, Macbeth being my favorite. Having now read Hamlet, I can honestly say that Macbeth is still my favorite.

      Let's discuss.

      So, Hamlet himself is an emo icon, and also a misogynist, who basically goes crazy, murders someone, and essentially ruins everything.

      The ending came a little too quickly for me, tbh. There wasn't enough time to really develop any other characters. It was pretty quotable, though. Really, it gave me more Romeo and Juliet feels than Macbeth feels.
    • 5/5
      The Penguin edition remains the best edition for highschool students, undergrad students and actors. Not as dense as the Arden nor as casual as the RSC, but the perfect in-between for people in those categories.
    • 3/5
      This is one of the best Shakespeare plays. The soliloquies of Hamlet give us a real insight into his mind as he tortures himself with the way he is treating Ophelia, yet slowly descends himself into the madness he has forced upon her. I always say that Shakespeare cannot be understood by simply reading the text, you have to see it performed the way it was intended to be enjoyed, and Samuel West's portrayal of Hamlet at the theatre was superb.
    • 5/5
      This is probably the most famous play in the world. It is so well-known that I don't think I need to outline the plot.I can see why this play, and Shakespeare, have wowed audiences and readers through the ages.I find my reactions to the bard's work quite interesting. I don't know if I've gained in literary maturity, or if his writing is so uneven. In either case, while I've certainly enjoyed his works in the past, it isn't until I read Richard III recently that I understood why Shakespeare has been considered so great, so far above any other playwright since his time. I've certianly enjoyed his work, previously, but I had thought him slightly over-rated. Now I know that I was so wrong!In any case, I'm now a confirmed fan of The Bard, and look forward to reading more of his work!
    • 3/5
      Classic. I did enjoy reading this and I still have all my original underlines and footnotes on the page. The perfect definition of tragedy!
    • 4/5
      It amazes me how many people like Hamlet, no exception here, when it's really hard to relate to, but yet it's just one of those plays once you get into it, you come to love it. I read it for the first time in 12th grade and everyone would talk about it even when they didn't have to. The characters in Hamlet are amazingly complex and it doesn't just state how they are, you learn it through their actions and what they say. It's just so unique, I know everytime I read it I get a different opinion of the characters and the overall play.
    • 5/5
      There: you can all stop nagging me, I've finally read it. The plot was mostly as expected, though I think whatever version I read as a child was less kind to Ophelia, as I had a rather different image of her in mind. I had a whole book of Shakespeare retellings, now I think about it: I can't really remember many of them, but I suppose they haunt me a little in my vague ideas of what the plays are like before I read them...

      Anyway, Hamlet: justly famous, and full of phrases and quotations that even people who've never read a Shakespeare play can quote. It's always interesting coming to those in situ at last.

      Still terribly glad I don't have to study Shakespeare now. If I end up somehow forced to read Shakespeare in my MA, I may scream. Much happier to come to his plays now, in my own good time.
    • 5/5
      I have loved this play since I first read it in high school. I find it both very tragic (but in a heroic kind of way) and very funny. I remember laughing at the fishwife dialogue in the library and my class mate thinking I was terribly odd. It doesn't matter, I still think this book is beautiful to read and very funny.
    • 5/5
      One of the best things I've ever read. Hamlet's got it all. Shakespeare at his best, filling so few pages with so much story.
    • 5/5
      My favorite of Shakespeare's plays. It just gets better with every reading, and this time I started with Marjorie Garber's excellent chapter on the play (in her Shakespeare After All), which helped me appreciate the themes of “playing” – of dramas within dramas, “staged” events, audiences being observed, etc. – and of borders...”In suggesting that these three worlds – the world of Hamlet's mind and the imagination; the physical, political, and “historical” world of Denmark; and the world of dramatic fiction and play – are parallel to and superimposed upon one another, I am suggesting, also, that the play is about the whole question of boundaries, thresholds, and liminality or border crossing; boundary disputes between Norway and Denmark, boundaries between youth and age, boundaries between reality and imagination, between audience and actor. And these boundaries seem to be constantly shifting.”Also, of course, fathers and sons, words and meanings, just so much in this one, which, I suppose, is why I enjoy new things about it each time I read it. And I do love Hamlet. He treats Ophelia terribly, and Laertes at her grave, but his indecision, his anxiety, his sincerity, his hopefulness are all so... relatable! Really, I love it all. The relationships, the humor, the wordplay, the poetry. Happy sigh.
    • 5/5
      Hamlet's an amazingly dynamic and complex play about the lure of death and the struggle against inaction. Wonderful and dark and always a pleasure to read
    • 5/5
      I like other Shakespeare plays better, but I admit that this is Shakespeare's zenith.
    • 5/5
      Who wants to read Hamlet? Ew. Ew Hamlet.But I enjoyed it. Despite being long long long and so thick, the pase was acutally quite brisk, and the language gorgeous, and I have fond memories of Hamlet. Compare Hamlet to Phaedra - Phaedra is a much shorter play, but the titular heroine spends the entirety of the play basically in the throes of the same emotion. Hamlet's issues, although they drag out through the whole play, keep changing and morphing, and corresponding to the action in the play.All in all, I am happy I read it.
    • 5/5
      I’ve seen quite a few Shakespeare productions and have read several other works. Surprisingly, in all my years, Hamlet has escaped me. Don’t ask me how—despite never missing a day of high school, and attaining a degree in English and a Master’s in writing, and being alive—I have never read or seen a production of Hamlet. I decided to remedy that.No surprises here. It’s typical Shakespeare. Betrayal, mistaken identities, honor, incest, duels, poison, death, death, and death. The story itself didn’t make much of an impact on me, but what did was the language. Of all of Shakespeare I am familiar with, this one stood out as having the most memorable lines. Sure, I knew the whole “To be or not to be” monologue was present, but there are so many others that were not only familiar, but memorable with reason. An obvious classic despite being very run-of-the-mill in terms of Shakespeare’s work.
    • 5/5
      My favorite Shakespearean play. Though there is one that may end up taking it's place.
    • 4/5
      Good solid Shakespeare read. A bit too much of a "he did, she did" plot at times.
    • 4/5
      Last time I read Hamlet, I was in school and I remember having some difficulty with the language... This time I found the language easier (although still hard to follow in places -- "The canker galls the infants of the spring
      Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd,
      And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
      Contagious blastments are most imminent." Laertes to Ophelia; I have read this over & over and still don't understand it).
    • 4/5
      One of the bard's all time classics, so frequently performed that it occasionally needs to be re-read to experience it the way he wrote it, without all the directorial impulses to pretty it up or modernize it. It had been a long time since my last read, and I was somewhat surprised to realize that this play comes with very few stage directions outside of entrances and exits; there are so many things that directors do exactly the same, you forget they weren't mentioned in the stage directions, and have simply become habit. Anyway, this play, about ambition and revenge, still holds up well through the centuries, though many of the actions seem outdated to us now. The poetry of the language and the rich texturing of the characters, even the most minor of characters, creates a complex story that successfully holds many balls in the air at once. Shakespeare's frequent use of ghosts is noteworthy, since that is something that modern day playwrights are told to be very careful about, and avoid if at all possible. A satisfying story, and a satisfying re-read.
    • 3/5
      Story:
      Everyone knows Hamlet. Okay, maybe not everyone, but most people do. Now, if you were to ask me if I liked Hamlet, my short answer would probably be 'no.' Really, though, it's not fair for me to encapsulate my feelings on Hamlet into such a simple answer. If Hamlet and I were in a relationship on facebook (assuming he it could ever decide whether to be in one...punned!), it would most definitely be complicated.

      Here's the thing: Hamlet is a great play. There's no denying it. When I think about the play objectively, there's a lot of amazing stuff in there. Shakespeare's wit is fantastic; gotta love all of those dirty jokes he makes in here. And, of course, the language is completely gorgeous.

      The characters I have never been particularly tied to, which is one reason Hamlet does not rank among my favorite plays; the tragedies often lack the sassy heroines you can find in the comedies. Hamlet's indecisiveness frustrates me endlessly. Whine, whine, whine, think about doing something, wimp out, wine more. Cry moar, anon. Yoda judges you. Hamlet's uncle father and his aunt mother are not especially likable, even if you don't think they're guilty of what Hamlet's ghosty father accused them of (namely, turning him into a ghost). Ophelia isn't the brightest; plus, her end does not for admiration make. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are probably my favorites, and that's only because of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.

      Truly though, the reason that I don't really like Hamlet is how prevalent it is. I just get so tired of always hearing this same play over and over. I mean, who didn't have to read this in high school, and again in college?

      Performance:
      This audiobook is the recording of a stage version of the play, performed by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival cast. They do a good job, and I imagine it was quite a fun performance that they did. It sounds like they did some interesting things with the characters, such as changing gender in some cases and some modernizing (thus the leather jacket Hamlet's wearing).

      Unfortunately, listening to a play and watching it just aren't the same. Had I not already been very familiar with Hamlet, I have little doubt that I would at time have been confused by some of the quick scene changes or by which voice belonged to which character. Some of the actors did have rather similar sounding voices.

      Between scenes, there is creepy dramatic music, which definitely set a mood, but I don't think I liked. Nor did I care for the fact that the players rapped everything. That was kind of weird. At least Ophelia didn't rap her crazyface songs. Speaking of Ophelia, she was my favorite part of the performance. Her voice and manner definitely reminded me of River Tam (Summer Glau's character in Firefly, who has a couple of screws loose). What an awesome way to portray Ophelia. Now I kind of want to try to write some fan fiction with the characters from Firefly performing Hamlet. Maybe not.
    • 4/5
      Ghosts, murder, madness, revenge, suicide, incest, spiced with a little bit of black humor – Hamlet has it all. Once again I was struck by the number of “cliches” that originated with Hamlet: “too solid flesh”, “reserve thy judgment”, “the apparel oft proclaims the man”, “to thine own self be true”, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, “the time is out of joint”, and “not a mouse was stirring” (which, sad to say, does not apply to my house since I've been trying unsuccessfully to catch one for the last week). I'm in that generation that can't hear Polonius's monologue without thinking of the song from the Gilligan's Island episode where the castaways staged a musical version of Hamlet. (Sorry if I've given anyone an earworm by mentioning it!)I was a little disappointed with the LA. Theatre Works audio version. Most of the performers were OK, but the audio effects were a bit odd and seemed too modern to suit the setting. I had trouble buying Stephen Collins as Claudius after his decade spent playing a minister on Seventh Heaven. Josh Stamberg played Hamlet, and his voice quality is similar enough to Stephen Collins that I sometimes had trouble telling which one of them was speaking. On the other hand, I thought Alan Mandell's Polonius was outstanding.This is one of Shakespeare's works that should be on everyone's reading list. Listening to an audio version can enhance modern readers' understanding of archaic language without interrupting the narrative flow like an annotated reading copy would do. There are probably better audio versions than this one to be found, though.
    • 5/5
      Read it in Sixth Form and it spoiled me for Julius Ceaser.It is a wonderful complex read. And trying to discover all the layers is part of the fun.At its base, Hamlet is a prince called to avenge his late father the murdered King of Denmark. Yet it's not as simple as that. Hamlet's birthright has him in turmoil with himself, and then there is the issue of his mother and her new husband, the King's brother.A modern version would be tacky and full of soap opera bachannal...but Shakesphere's play is a serious psychological study of a young man who should be King.
    • 4/5
      BBC Audiobook performed by Michael Sheen (Hamlet), Kenneth Cranham (Claudius), Juliet Stevenson (Gertrude) and Ellie Beaven (Ophelia), and a full castI’ll dispense with the summary for this classic tragedy by William Shakespeare, but as I’ve said before, I really dislike reading plays. I much prefer to see them performed live by talented actors, the medium for which they are written. The next best thing to a live performance, however, must be an audio such as this one, with talented actors taking on the roles and really bringing the play to life for the listener. There are hundreds of editions of this work, and I recommend that readers get one that is annotated. The text copy I had as an accompaniment to the audio was published by the Oxford University Press, and included several scholarly articles, appendices and footnotes to help the modern-day reader understand Shakespeare’s Elizabethan terms and use of language, as well as historical references. One appendix even includes the music to accompany the songs!
    • 4/5
      Me gusto mucho lo tragico que es el drama. Hamlet que engañaba con padecer de locura para poder vengar la muerte de su padre termino por generar esa enfermedad en la mujer que amaba. La codicia y traición del Rey Claudio a su hermano, refleja algunos de los 10 mandamientos.
    • 3/5
      I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, so I won't rate any of his works very high
    • 5/5
      This is the tragedy of Shakespeare.But this story don't contain love.This story is a man whose father was killed.So he tried to revenge.Can he accomplish it?
    • 5/5
      Hamlet is a phenomenal play. Just spectacular.
    • 1/5
      Forced reading from high school - I hated every moment of this.
    • 4/5
      It's difficult to critique a work that is widely considered to be the best piece produced by the greatest author who ever lived. To put it in simple terms, I did enjoy Hamlet for the most part. Once I got used to the language and re-familiarized myself with reading a script, the story flowed very well. My only real complaint was that the format took a bit out of the climactic finale for me. I feel that it would have read much better in a novel format.Shakespeare has written one of the most compelling tragedies ever in Hamlet, and his plot and character development are topnotch. Hamlet's downward spiral into madness is classically done. All said, a must read.

    Book preview

    Hamlet - William Shakespeare

    HAMLET

    By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

    A Digireads.com Book

    Digireads.com Publishing

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2253-0

    Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-028-4

    This edition copyright © 2012

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    ACT I.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. A guard-platform before the Castle.

    SCENE II. Elsinore. The Castle.

    SCENE III. Elsinore. The house of Polonius.

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

    SCENE V. Elsinore. The battlements of the Castle.

    ACT II.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. The house of Polonius.

    SCENE II. Elsinore. The castle.

    ACT III.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. The castle.

    SCENE II. Elsinore. The castle.

    SCENE III. Elsinore. The castle.

    SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.

    ACT IV.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. The castle.

    SCENE II. Elsinore. The Castle.

    SCENE III. Elsinore. The Castle.

    SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.

    SCENE V. Elsinore. The castle.

    SCENE VI. Elsinore. The Castle.

    SCENE VII. Elsinore. The Castle.

    ACT V.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. A churchyard.

    SCENE II. Elsinore. The Castle.

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark

    HAMLET, son to the former and nephew to the present King

    POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain

    HORATIO, friend to Hamlet

    LAERTES, son to Polonius

    VOLTEMAND, CORNELIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, OSRIC, A Gentleman courtiers

    A Gentleman

    A Priest

    MARCELLUS, BERNARDO, officers

    FRANCISCO, a soldier

    REYNALDO, servant to Polonius

    Players

    Two Clowns, grave-diggers

    FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway

    A Norwegian Captain

    English Ambassadors

    GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, mother to Hamlet

    OPHELIA, daughter to Polonius

    Ghost of Hamlet's Father

    Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and Attendants.

    THE SCENE: DENMARK.

    ACT I.

    SCENE I. Elsinore. A guard-platform before 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?

    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?

    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.

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

    [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.]

    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?

    FRANCISCO. Bernardo has my place.

    Give you good night. [Exit.]

    MARCELLUS. Holla! Bernardo!

    BERNARDO. Say,

    What, is Horatio there?

    HORATIO A. piece of him.

    BERNARDO. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.

    MARCELLUS. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

    BERNARDO. 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:

    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.

    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,

    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 to illume that part of heaven

    Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

    The bell then beating one—

    [Enter Ghost.]

    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 it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

    HORATIO. Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.

    BERNARDO. It would be spoke to.

    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.

    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?

    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:

    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.

    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 my opinion,

    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 why such daily cast of brazen cannon,

    And foreign mart for implements of war;

    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;

    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,

    Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet—

    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 seized of, to the conqueror:

    Against the which, a moiety competent

    Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

    To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

    Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,

    And carriage of the article design'd,

    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, 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

    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 post-haste and rummage in the land.

    BERNARDO. I think it be no other but e'en so:

    Well may it sort that this portentous figure

    Comes armed 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,

    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

    Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands

    Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:

    And even the like precurse of fierce events,

    As harbingers preceding still the fates

    And prologue to the omen coming on,

    Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

    Unto our climatures and countrymen.

    But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

    [Re-enter Ghost.]

    I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!

    [Ghost spreads its arms.]

    If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

    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,

    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,

    [The cock crows.]

    Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.

    MARCELLUS. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

    HORATIO. Do, if it will not stand.

    BERNARDO. 'Tis here!

    HORATIO. 'Tis here!

    MARCELLUS. 'Tis gone!

    [Exit Ghost.]

    We do it wrong, being so majestical,

    To offer it the show of violence;

    For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

    And our vain blows malicious mockery.

    BERNARDO. 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,

    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,

    The extravagant and erring spirit hies

    To his confine: and of the truth herein

    This present object made probation.

    MARCELLUS. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

    Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes

    Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

    The bird of dawning singeth all night long:

    And then, they say, no spirit dares 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 the time.

    HORATIO. So have I heard and do in part believe it.

    But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

    Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:

    Break we our watch up;

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