Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Hamlet: Act I, Scene 5

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Hamlet
Act I, Scene 5

Elsinore. Another part of the platform before Elsinore castle., Later the same night

Ghost and Hamlet

Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.

Ghost and Hamlet

Johann Heinrich Ramberg, 1829

  1. Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Hamlet

1
  1. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.

Ghost

2
  1. Mark me.

Hamlet

3
  1.          I will.

Ghost

4 - 6
  1.         My hour is almost come
  2. When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames
  3. Must render up myself.

Hamlet

7
  1.                        Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost

8 - 9
  1. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
  2. To what I shall unfold.

Hamlet

10
  1.                         Speak, I am bound to hear.

Ghost

11
  1. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Hamlet

12
  1. What?

Ghost

13 - 27
  1. I am thy father’s spirit,
  2. Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
  3. And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
  4. Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
  5. Are burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbid
  6. To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
  7. I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
  8. Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
  9. Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
  10. Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
  11. And each particular hair to stand an end,
  12. Like quills upon the fearful porcupine.
  13. But this eternal blazon must not be
  14. To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
  15. If thou didst ever thy dear father love—

Hamlet

28
  1. O God!

Ghost

29
  1. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

Hamlet

30
  1. Murder!

Ghost

31 - 32
  1. Murder most foul, as in the best it is,
  2. But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Hamlet

33 - 35
  1. Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift
  2. As meditation, or the thoughts of love,
  3. May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost

36 - 45
  1.                          I find thee apt,
  2. And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
  3. That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
  4. Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
  5. ’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
  6. A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark
  7. Is by a forged process of my death
  8. Rankly abus’d; but know, thou noble youth,
  9. The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
  10. Now wears his crown.

Hamlet

46 - 47
  1.                      O my prophetic soul!
  2. My uncle?

Ghost

48 - 97
  1. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
  2. With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts—
  3. O wicked wit and gifts that have the power
  4. So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
  5. The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.
  6. O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there
  7. From me, whose love was of that dignity
  8. That it went hand in hand even with the vow
  9. I made to her in marriage, and to decline
  10. Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
  11. To those of mine!
  12. But virtue, as it never will be moved,
  13. Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
  14. So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d,
  15. Will sate itself in a celestial bed
  16. And prey on garbage.
  17. But soft, methinks I scent the morning air,
  18. Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
  19. My custom always of the afternoon,
  20. Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
  21. With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,
  22. And in the porches of my ears did pour
  23. The leperous distillment, whose effect
  24. Holds such an enmity with blood of man
  25. That swift as quicksilver it courses through
  26. The natural gates and alleys of the body,
  27. And with a sudden vigor it doth posset
  28. And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
  29. The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine,
  30. And a most instant tetter bark’d about,
  31. Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
  32. All my smooth body.
  33. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand
  34. Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d,
  35. Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
  36. Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d,
  37. No reck’ning made, but sent to my account
  38. With all my imperfections on my head.
  39. O, horrible, O, horrible, most horrible!
  40. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not,
  41. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
  42. A couch for luxury and damned incest.
  43. But howsomever thou pursues this act,
  44. Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
  45. Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,
  46. And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
  47. To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
  48. The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
  49. And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
  50. Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.
  1. Exit.
Costume design for Ghost of Hamlet's father

Costume design for Ghost of Hamlet's father

19th century

Hamlet

98 - 118
  1. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
  2. And shall I couple hell? O fie, hold, hold, my heart,
  3. And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
  4. But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
  5. Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
  6. In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
  7. Yea, from the table of my memory
  8. I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
  9. All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
  10. That youth and observation copied there,
  11. And thy commandment all alone shall live
  12. Within the book and volume of my brain,
  13. Unmix’d with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
  14. O most pernicious woman!
  15. O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
  16. My tables—meet it is I set it down
  17. That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!
  18. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
  19. He writes.
  20. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:
  21. It is “Adieu, adieu! Remember me.”
  22. I have sworn’t.

Horatio

119
  1. Within.
  2.                 My lord, my lord!

Marcellus

120
  1. Within.
  2.                   Lord Hamlet!
  1. Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
Scene design for Hamlet at the Princess's Theatre

Scene design for Hamlet at the Princess's Theatre

John K. Chapman and Co., 1859

Horatio

121
  1.              Heavens secure him!

Hamlet

122
  1. So be it!

Marcellus

123
  1. Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

Hamlet

124
  1. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.

Marcellus

125
  1. How is’t, my noble lord?

Horatio

126
  1.                          What news, my lord?

Hamlet

127
  1. O, wonderful!

Horatio

128
  1. Good my lord, tell it.

Hamlet

129
  1.                        No, you will reveal it.

Horatio

130
  1. Not I, my lord, by heaven.

Marcellus

131
  1.                            Nor I, my lord.

Hamlet

132 - 133
  1. How say you then, would heart of man once think it?—
  2. But you’ll be secret?

Both Barnardo and Marcellus

134
  1.                       Ay, by heaven, my lord.

Hamlet

135 - 136
  1. There’s never a villain dwelling in all Denmark
  2. But he’s an arrant knave.

Horatio

137 - 138
  1. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
  2. To tell us this.

Hamlet

139 - 145
  1.                  Why, right, you are in the right,
  2. And so, without more circumstance at all,
  3. I hold it fit that we shake hands and part,
  4. You, as your business and desire shall point you,
  5. For every man hath business and desire,
  6. Such as it is, and for my own poor part,
  7. I will go pray.

Horatio

146
  1. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

Hamlet

147 - 148
  1. I am sorry they offend you, heartily,
  2. Yes, faith, heartily.

Horatio

149
  1.                       There’s no offense, my lord.

Hamlet

150 - 156
  1. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
  2. And much offense too. Touching this vision here,
  3. It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
  4. For your desire to know what is between us,
  5. O’ermaster’t as you may. And now, good friends,
  6. As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
  7. Give me one poor request.

Horatio

157
  1. What is’t, my lord, we will.

Hamlet

158
  1. Never make known what you have seen tonight.

Both Barnardo and Marcellus

159
  1. My lord, we will not.

Hamlet

160
  1.                       Nay, but swear’t.

Horatio

161 - 162
  1.                   In faith,
  2. My lord, not I.

Marcellus

163
  1.                 Nor I, my lord, in faith.

Hamlet

164
  1. Upon my sword.

Marcellus

165
  1.                We have sworn, my lord, already.
Theatrical design for Hamlet

Theatrical design for Hamlet

Dimitri Tavadze, 1974

Hamlet

166
  1. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
  1. Ghost cries under the stage.

Ghost

167
  1. Swear.

Hamlet

168 - 170
  1. Ha, ha, boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?
  2. Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage,
  3. Consent to swear.

Horatio

171
  1.                   Propose the oath, my lord.

Hamlet

172 - 173
  1. Never to speak of this that you have seen,
  2. Swear by my sword.

Ghost

174
  1. Beneath.
  2. Swear.

Hamlet

175 - 179
  1. Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.
  2. Come hither, gentlemen,
  3. And lay your hands again upon my sword.
  4. Swear by my sword
  5. Never to speak of this that you have heard.

Ghost

180
  1. Beneath.
  2. Swear by his sword.

Hamlet

181 - 182
  1. Well said, old mole, canst work i’ th’ earth so fast?
  2. A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.

Horatio

183
  1. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Hamlet

184 - 199
  1. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
  2. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
  3. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
  4. But come—
  5. Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
  6. How strange or odd some’er I bear myself—
  7. As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
  8. To put an antic disposition on—
  9. That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
  10. With arms encumb’red thus, or this headshake,
  11. Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
  12. As “Well, well, we know,”or “We could, and if we would,”
  13. Or “If we list to speak,” or “There be, and if they might,”
  14. Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
  15. That you know aught of me—this do swear,
  16. So grace and mercy at your most need help you.

Ghost

200
  1. Beneath.
  2. Swear.
  1. They swear.

Hamlet

201 - 209
  1. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen,
  2. With all my love I do commend me to you,
  3. And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
  4. May do t’ express his love and friending to you,
  5. God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
  6. And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
  7. The time is out of joint—O cursed spite,
  8. That ever I was born to set it right!
  9. Nay, come, let’s go together.
  1. Exeunt.
Hamlet and his Father's Ghost

Hamlet and his Father's Ghost

William Blake, 1806

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons