[Ghost beckons Hamlet.]
Hor.
It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
Mar.
Look with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground:
But do not go with it!
Hor.
No, by no means.
Ham.
It will not speak; then will I follow it.
Hor.
Do not, my lord.
Ham.
Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin’s fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?
It waves me forth again;—I’ll follow
it.
Hor.
What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,
And draw you into madness? think of it:
The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fadoms to the sea
And hears it roar beneath.
Ham.
It waves me still.—
Go on; I’ll follow thee.
Mar.
You shall not go, my lord.
Ham.
Hold off your hands.
Hor.
Be rul’d; you shall not go.
Ham.
My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.—
[Ghost beckons.]
Still am I call’d;—unhand me, gentlemen;—
[Breaking free from them.]
By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets
me!—
I say, away!—Go on; I’ll follow thee.
[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.]
Hor.
He waxes desperate with imagination.
Mar.
Let’s follow; ’tis not fit thus to obey
him.
Hor.
Have after.—To what issue will this come?
Mar.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Hor.
Heaven will direct it.
Mar.
Nay, let’s follow him.
[Exeunt.]
Scene V. A more remote part of the Castle.
[Enter Ghost and Hamlet.]
Ham.
Whither wilt thou lead me? speak! I’ll
go no further.
Ghost.
Mark me.
Ham.
I will.
Ghost.
My hour is almost come,
When I to sulph’uous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
Ham.
Alas, poor ghost!
Ghost.
Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold.
Ham.
Speak;I am bound to hear.
Ghost.
So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
Ham.
What?
Ghost.
I am thy father’s spirit;
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin’d to wastein fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purg’d away. But that I am
forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,