Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I can- On mine own sword? whiles I see lives, the not fly,

[They fight and Young SIWARD is slain.
Macb.
Thou wast born of woman:
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. 13

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

[Exit.

gashes

Do better upon them.

Macd.

Re-enter MACDUFF.

Macd.
Turn, hell-hound, turn! 32
Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back, my soul is too much charg`d
With blood of thine already.
I have no words;
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain 36
Than terms can give thee out! [They fight.
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.

Macb.

40

Macd.
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast serv`d
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

45

Macb. Accursed te that tongue that tells me
So,

For it hath cow'd my better part of man:
And be these juggling fiends no more believ❜d, 43
That palter with us in a dout le sense;

Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show That keep the word of promise to our ear,
thy face:

And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

52

If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me And live to be the show and gaze o' the time: still. 16 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he! 76 We will perform in measure, time, and place: Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

The bell then beating one,—

What might be toward, that this sweaty haste

Mar. Peace! break thee off; look, where it Doth make the night joint-labourer with the comeз again!

Enter Ghost.

40

Is it not like the king?
Hor. 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.

56

day:

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80
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,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant
Hamlet-
84

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 seiz'd of, to the conqueror;
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

88

92

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

96

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 compulsative, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost. And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,

ΙΟΥ

104

60 The source of this our watch and the chief head Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

64

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work I
know not;

But in the gross and scope of my opinion, 68
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he
that knows,

72

Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so; 108
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.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. 112
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; 116
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; 120
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.
76 But, soft! behold! lo! where it comes again.

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;

125

Re-enter Ghost.

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

128

132

136

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,
[Cock crows.
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Mar-
cellus.
139
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber.

Hor.

Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-A Room of State in the Castle. Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole king-
dom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,

'Tis here! [Exit Ghost. The imperial jointress of this war-like state, 9
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,

'Tis here!

Mar. 'Tis gone!

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.

144 With mirth in funeral and with dirge in mar

riage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole,

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd

12

16

20

24

28

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along: for all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made 32
Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.
Farewell and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. In that and all things will we show
Vol. our duty.
King. We doubt it nothing: heartily fare-
well.

36

40

[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.