Kings & rulers > Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

H A M L E T.
S
Mar, Pray, tell me he that knows,
Why this fame ftrift and moft obfervant watch
So nightly toils the fubjeftsofthe land,
And makes the night joint-labourer with the day *
Who is't that can inform me f
Her. That can I;
Our bft king,
Whofe image but even now appear’d to us.
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Dat’d to the combat in which our valiant Hamlet
Did flay this Fortinbras, who by a feal’d compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry.
Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his lands.
Which he flood feis’d off, to the conqueror ;
Now, Sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the fkirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark’d up a lift of landlefs refolutes.
To recover thofe forefaid lands.
So by his father loft : and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
Ber. I think it be no other, but even fo.
yi.Cfl Enter Ghoft again.
But foft; behold ! lo, where it comes again !
I’ll crofs it, though blaft me.—Stay, illufion !
. [Spreading bis Arms.
If thou haft any found, or ufe of voice,
’ Speak to me.
If there be any good thing to be done.
That may to thee do eafe, and grace to me.
Speak to me.
If thou art privy to thy country’s fate.
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid.
Oh fpeak !
Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life /v
Extorted treafure in the womb of£au*f,
For which, they fay, you fpirits oft walk in death,
[Cod erews.
Speak of it- Stay, and fpeak—Stop it, Marcellus.-—
’Tis gone ! [Ex,t Qhoji.
We do it wrong, being fomajeftical,
To offer it the (hew of violence ;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable.