Hamlet

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Hamlet
   1. Act I
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
   2. Act II
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
   3. Act III
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
   4. Act IV
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
      6. Scene VI
      7. Scene VII
   5. Act V
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
5. Endnotes
6. Colophon
7. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

Dramatis Personae

• Claudius, king of Denmark

• Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to the present king

• Polonius, lord chamberlain

• Horatio, friend to Hamlet

• Laertes, son to Polonius

• Voltimand, courtier

• Cornelius, courtier

• Rosencrantz, courtier

• Guildenstern, courtier

• Osric, courtier

• A gentleman, courtier

• A priest

• Marcellus, officer

• Bernardo, officer

• Francisco, a soldier

• Reynaldo, servant to Polonius

• Players

• Two clowns, grave-diggers

• Fortinbras, prince of Norway

• A Captain

• English Ambassadors

• Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet

• Ophelia, daughter to Polonius

• Lords, ladies, officers, soldiers, sailors, messengers, and other attendants

• Ghost of Hamlet’s father

Scene: Denmark.

Hamlet

Act I

Scene I

Elsinore. A 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