ff
∵ SCENE. Elsinore. →
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| Kronborg castle (built 1577) in Helsingør, Denmark |
ACT I. →
Division into acts and scenes is post-WS
Scene I. Elsinore. A platform before the Castle. →
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| cite |
[Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo.] →
the Castle was built to guard a strait and enforce a tax on passing ships, but there's a new threat as well from Fortinbras of Norway
Quarto 2 has 'Barnardo'
the names are Italian not Scandinavian
Bernardo: Who's there? →
∵ Francisco: Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself. →
F is on duty, B is the newcomer, so B has no business challenging F instead of announcing himself first...?
"stand, and unfold yourself" would make better sense if B was seated: maybe B arrives first and sits to wait, then F returns from patrolling
Bernardo: Long live the king! →
Francisco: Bernardo? →
(how dark is it?? no moon?)
Bernardo: He. →
Francisco: You come most carefully upon your hour. →
(F was expecting him, but took some time recognising him!? arriving on time is maybe uncharacteristic)
Bernardo: 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. →
(so the play begins at midnight)
Francisco: For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, →
And I am sick at heart. →
(though the night is cold, Ophelia's flowers demand it be late spring)
Elsinore is at 56° N, vs London's 51°30, Stratford's 52°, and Dublin's 53°
"sick at heart" dreading the Ghost?
(these are very minor characters: F appears only in this scene, and B only briefly in scene 2)
Bernardo: Have you had quiet guard? →
Francisco: ...Not a mouse stirring. →
STIRring has an extra syllable
ff
∵ Bernardo: Well, good-night. →
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, →
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. →
B expects them, and hopes they won't be late
"rivals" = partners, complements (cf 'rive' = riverbank)
Horatio is odd man out, here, not an official sentinel but a curious visitor
Francisco: I think I hear them. —Stand, ho! Who is there? →
(B should do the challenging?)
[Enter Horatio and Marcellus.] →
Horatio: Friends to this ground... →
(ie, not enemies)
Marcellus: ...And liegemen to the Dane. →
(cf declaring oneself eg 'loyal subjects of the Englishman' meaning King Edward)
Francisco: Give you good-night. →
Marcellus: O farewell, honest soldier; →
∵ Who hath relieved you? →
"honest soldier" implies M recognises F
(M has obviously come at B's invitation, so the question is odd?)
Francisco: ...Bernardo has my place. →
Give you good-night... →
[Exit.] →
Marcellus: ...Holla! Bernardo! →
Bernardo: ...Say, →
What, is Horatio there? →
Horatio: ...A piece of him. →
(there are various theories why not all of him: his heart isn't in it, he wishes he were elsewhere, he's half-asleep, he's only physically present not spiritually, or maybe he's just offering his hand...?)
(the tone is drily witty like SD's "We were only thinking about it" p130)
Bernardo: Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus. →
(nuance: "good")
Marcellus: What, has this thing appeared again tonight? →
(finally, the story begins to show some shape)
(Horatio can say this instead)
∵ Bernardo: I have seen nothing. →
Marcellus: Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, →
And will not let belief take hold of him →
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us. →
Therefore I have entreated him along →
With us, to watch the minutes of this night, →
That if again this apparition come →
He may approve our eyes and speak to it. →
M is explaining H's presence to B, but B was already expecting him??
"twice seen of us" M and B have seen it twice each, F probably not (it must always come after midnight?)
"With us" awkward rhythm
Horatio: Tush-tush, 'twill not appear! →
cf 'bosh'
Bernardo: ...Sit down awhile, →
And let us once again assail your ears, →
That are so fortified against our story, →
What we two nights have seen. →
"once again" (B and M already told H once)
fortified ears
∵ Horatio: ...Well, sit we down, →
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. →
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Bernardo: Last night of all, →
When yond same star that's westward from the pole →
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven →
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, →
The bell then beating one... →
in June, probably Vega
Marcellus: Peace, break thee off; look where it comes again! →
[Enter Ghost, armed.] →
∵ Bernardo: In the same figure, like the king that's dead. →
(so, the ghost looks like a ?recently dead king)
Marcellus: Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. →
maybe from the superstition that spirits spoke Latin (eg priests' exorcisms), or just more skillful at speaking
Horatio is fellow-student of Hamlet's at Wittenberg University
Bernardo: Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. →
Horatio: Most like— it harrows me with fear and wonder. →
cf 'harrowing'
Bernardo: It would be spoke to. →
Marcellus: ...Question it, Horatio. →
Horatio: What art thou, that usurps this time of night, →
Together with that fair and warlike form →
In which the majesty of buried Denmark →
∵ Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee, speak! →
(recently buried?)
U181: "in the vesture of buried Denmark"
a skeptic might still worry that a demon is impersonating the king
Marcellus: It is offended. →
Bernardo: See, it stalks away! →
Horatio: Stay! Speak! Speak! I charge thee, speak! →
[Exit Ghost.] →
Marcellus: 'Tis gone, and will not answer. →
Bernardo: How now, Horatio! You tremble and look pale: →
Is not this something more than fantasy? →
What think you on it? →
Horatio: Before my God, I might not this believe →
Without the sensible and true avouch →
Of mine own eyes. →
Marcellus: ...Is it not like the King? →
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Horatio: As thou art to thyself: →
Such was the very armour he had on →
When he the ambitious Norway combated; →
So frowned he once, when in an angry parle →
∵ He smote the sledded Pollacks on the ice. →
'Tis strange. →
(so Horatio knew the dead king)
U181: "A player comes on under the shadow, made up in the castoff mail of a court buck"
U180: "wielding the sledded poleaxe"
∵ Marcellus: Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, →
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. →
cf U14 "it jumped with a project of his own"
"gone by" passed by
Horatio: In what particular thought to work I know not, →
∵ But, in the gross and scope of my opinion, →
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. →
the ghost seems to intend a warning of an upheaval
"gross and scope" = hendiadys (adj-conjunction-noun)
Marcellus: Good, now. Sit down and tell me, he that knows, →
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; →
What might be to-ward, that this sweaty haste →
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day: →
Who is it that can inform me? →
why is Denmark preparing for war?
Horatio: ...That can I; →
At least, the whisper goes so: our last king, →
Whose image even but now appeared to us, →
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, →
Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, →
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet— →
For so this side of our known world esteemed him— →
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a sealed compact, →
Well ratified by law and heraldry, →
∵ Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, →
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror: →
Against the which, a moiety competent →
Was gaged by our king; which had returned →
To the inheritance of Fortinbras, →
Had he been vanquisher; as by the same covenant, →
And carriage of the article designed, →
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, →
Of unproved mettle hot and full, →
∵ Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, →
Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes, →
For food and diet, to some enterprise →
That hath a stomach in it; which is no other,— →
As it doth well appear unto our state,— →
But to recover of us, by strong hand, →
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands →
∵ So by his father lost: and this, I take it, →
Is the main motive of our preparations, →
The source of this our watch, and the chief head →
Of this post-haste and romage in the land. →
ff
the soldiers seem to be learning for the first time from the student Horatio who it is they're on guard against!? Norway's Fortinbras (jr) is arming for attack.
(historically, Denmark and Norway had shared a king since 1397. Fortinbras sr is not called 'king' here but will be in scene 2)
'Fortinbras' = strong-arm
"Hamlet" is first mentioned as the dead king's name
Bernardo: I think it be no other but even so: →
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. →
"sort" = suit, accord
Horatio: A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. →
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; →
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: →
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 climature and countrymen.— →
But, soft, behold! Lo, where it comes again! →
ff
in ancient Rome similar portents occurred before Julius Caesar was killed
[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! →
∵ 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, →
[The cock crows.] →
Speak of it: —stay, and speak!— Stop it, Marcellus! →
Marcellus: Shall I strike at it with my partisan? →
Horatio: Do, if it will not stand. →
Bernardo: 'Tis here! →
Horatio: 'Tis here! →
Marcellus: 'Tis gone! →
[Exit Ghost.] →
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. →
Bernardo: It was about to speak, when the cock crew. →
ff
Horatio: And then it started, like a guilty thing →
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard →
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, →
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat →
Awake the god of day; and at his warning, →
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, →
The extravagant and erring spirit hies →
∵ To his confine: and of the truth herein →
This present object made probation. →
Marcellus: It faded on the crowing of the cock. →
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes →
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, →
The bird of dawning singeth all night long; →
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; →
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, →
∵ No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; →
So hallowed and so gracious is the time. →
FW192.21 "till Paraskivee and the cockcock crows for Danmark."
Horatio: So have I heard, and do in part believe it. →
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, →
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill: →
Break we our watch up: and by my advice, →
Let us impart what we have seen tonight →
∵ Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, →
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: →
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, →
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? →
(now we finally learn there's a jr Hamlet too)
cf?? U121: "He forgot Hamlet."
Marcellus: Let's do it, I pray; and I this morning know →
Where we shall find him most conveniently. →
[Exeunt.] →
videos: [BBC 7min]
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