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Ber. Have you had quiet Guard ?
Fran. Not a moufe ftirring.
Ber. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my Watch, bid them make hafte.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Fran. I think, I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?

Ilor. Friends to this ground.

Mar. And liege-men to the Dane.

Fran. Give you good night.

.

Mar. Oh, farewel, honeft foldier. Who hath re

Fran. Bernardo has my place.

liev'd you?

place.

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night.

Mer. Holla! Bernardo.

Ber. Say, what, is Horatio there?

2 Hor. A piece of him.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appeared again to night?

Ber. I have feen nothing.

Mar. Horatio fays, 'tis but our phantafy,
And will not let belief take hold of him,

Touching this dreadful fight, twice feen of us;
Therefore I have intreated him along.

With us, to watch the minutes of this night,

The rivals of my Watch,-] Rivals, for partners. WARB. By Rivals of the Watch are meant thofe who were to watch on the next adjoining ground. Rivals, in the original fenfe of the word, were proprietors of

neighbouring lands, parted only by a brook, which belonged equally to both. HANMER.

2 Hor. A piece of him] But why a piece? He fays this as he gives his hand. Which direction thould be marked. WARB.

That

That if again this apparition come,

He may 3 approve our eyes, and fpeak to it.
Hor. Tulh! tufh! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down a while,

And let us once again affail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
* What we two nights have seen.-
Hor. Well, fit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Laft night of all,

When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole, Had made his courfe t'illume that part of heav'n Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off;

Enter the Ghoft.

Look, where it comes again.

Ber. In the fame figure; like the King that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Moft like. It harrows me with fear and
wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'ft this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form,

In which the Majefty of buried Denmark

Did fometime march? By Heav'n, I charge thee, fpeak.

3

Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it ftalks away.

approve our eyes,] Add a new teftimony to that of our eyesé

4 What we two nights have Jeen.] This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without neceffity.

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Hor. Stay; fpeak; I charge thee, fpeak.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

[Exit Ghoft.

Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble and look

pale,

Is not this fomething more than phantafy?
What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the fenfible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the King?
Hor. As thou art to thyfelf.

Such was the very armour he had on,

When he th' ambitious Norway combated;

So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, • He fmote the fleaded Polack on the ice.

'Tis ftrange

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

With martial ftalk, he hath gone by our Watch,
Ilor. In what particular thought to work, I know

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But, in the grofs fcope of my opinion,

This bodes fome ftrange eruption to our State.

Mar. Good now fit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this fame ftrict and moft obfervant Watch
So nightly toils the Subjects of the Land?
And why fuch daily caft of brazen Cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why fuch imprefs of fhipwrights, whofe fore 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?

Hor. That can I;

At least, the whisper goes fo. Our laft King,
Whofe image but even now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prickt on by a moft emulate pride,
Dar'd to the fight: In which our valiant Hamlet
(For fo this fide of our known world esteem'd him)
Did flay this Fortinbras, who by feal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

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Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his Lands,
Which he stood feiz'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,

8

Had he been vanquisher; as by that cov❜nant,
And carriage of the articles defign'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now young

Fortinbras,
'Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the fkirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a lift of landless refolutes,

For food and diet, to fome enterprize

That hath a ftomach it; which is no other,
As it doth well appear unto our State,
But to recover of us by ftrong hand,
3 And terms compulfative, thofe forefaid Lands
So by his father loft: and this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,
The fource of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this poft-hafte and romage in the Land.

I conclude Shakespear wrote, who by fear'd compact Well ratified by law of be. raldry.

i. e. the execution of the civil compact was ratified by the law of arms; which in our author's time, was called the law of he raldry. So the best and exactest fpeaker of that age: In the third kind, [i. e. of the Fus gentium]

the LAW OF HERALDRY in war

is pofitive, &c. Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity. WARB.

as by THAT COV'NANT, And carriage of the articles defign'd,] The old quarto reads,

the articles, the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology. WARB, 9 And carriage of the articles

defign'd.] Carriage, is import: defigned, is formed, drawn гар between them.

Of unimproved mettle] Unimproved, for unrefined. WAR.

Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.

2 That bath a ftomach in't. -}· Stomach, in the time of our authour, was used for conftancy, reJolution.

3 And terms compulfative,-] The old quarto, better, compulWARBURTON.

as by the fame COMART; and this is right. Comart fignifies a bargain, and Carriage of fatory.

Ber.

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