Hamlet Act 1 Scene 1 - Today’s English
ACT I SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
FRANCISCO at his post. BERNARDO enters.
BERNARDO Who's there?
FRANCISCO No. You answer first. Halt and show yourself.
BERNARDO Long live the king!
FRANCISCO Bernardo?
BERNARDO Yes. 5
FRANCISCO You're right on time for standing guard tonight.
BERNARDO Yip. Midnight sharp. Francisco, go to bed.
FRANCISCO Thanks for being punctual. It's bitter cold And I'm fed up.
BERNARDO Has your beat been quiet?
FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring.
BERNARDO Well okay, good night. 10 And if you see Horatio and Marcellus, Tell them to hurry. They stand guard with me.
FRANCISCO I think they're here. Halt! Who goes there?
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
HORATIO Friends of Denmark.
MARCELLUS And loyal to the King.
FRANCISCO Good night to you.
MARCELLUS Oh, go well, good soldier. 15 So, who's on guard?
FRANCISCO Bernardo's in my place. Good night to you.
Exit
MARCELLUS Hello! Bernardo!
BERNARDO Say, Hi, is Horatio there?
HORATIO Yes, here I am.
BERNARDO Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS And? Has that thing appeared again tonight? 20
BERNARDO I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS Horatio says we're only dreaming things And flatly does not buy a single word About this horror that we've now seen twice. And so I have invited him to come 25 With us to be on guard the whole night through. Then, if the ghost appears to us again He may believe us then, and speak to it.
HORATIO Oh bosh. It will not come.
BERNARDO Hold on a bit And give us time to tell you once again, 30 While you so strongly doubt the thing we say For two nights we have seen.
HORATIO Well then I'll wait And let Bernardo tell it once again.
BERNARDO Only last night, When that star over there, just west of north 35 Had moved along the sky to that same spot Where it shines now, Marcellus and myself, Just as the bell struck one, –
Enter GHOST
MARCELLUS Hush. Quiet now. Look, there it comes again! 40
BERNARDO Our late king's spitting image, once again!
MARCELLUS Horatio, you know Latin. Speak to it.
BERNARDO It does look like the king, Horatio?
HORATIO Indeed. It frightens and amazes me.
BERNARDO It wants to talk.
MARCELLUS Ask it, Horatio. 45
HORATIO Why do you barge in here, this time of night, And in the selfsame shining battle dress The sovereign of Denmark, who has died, Would wear to war? I order you to speak!
MARCELLUS It is displeased.
BERNARDO Yes, it's leaving quickly! 50
HORATIO Stop! Speak to me! I order you to speak!
Exit GHOST
MARCELLUS It's gone. It will not answer you.
BERNARDO Horatio, what now? You're trembling and pale: Is this imagination, or much more? What d'you say now?
HORATIO God knows, I would not have believed this thing, 55 Without my having seen it plain and clear With my own eyes.
MARCELLUS It resembles the king?
HORATIO As you do you: It's clothed exactly as the king for war Against that king of Norway with his claims. 60 It glares like him when in a hot dispute He killed the Polack soldiers on the ice. So strange!
MARCELLUS So twice before, precisely at this time, While we were standing guard he has marched by.
HORATIO What all this means I can't begin to think. 65 Perhaps, but this may be a guess of mine, It means great danger threatens our land.
MARCELLUS Please stay a while and tell me, if you know The reason why we are on high alert With all our citizens on night patrols, 70 And why they're making cannons all day long And buying armaments from foreign lands; Call-ups swarm to come build ships; then they slave For seven days a week without a break; What's going on with all the stressful haste, 75 That everybody works by day and night – Can you explain the setup here?
HORATIO I can, At least, this is what I've heard. Our last king, Whose ghostly lookalike we saw just now, Got, as you know, from Norway's Fortinbras – 80 Whose pushy ego drove him to the brink – A challenge to a duel. Heroic Hamlet – As all the nations known to us name him – Killed King Fortinbras, who had made a deal, A lawful one, signed, sealed and delivered, 85 Which cost him, with his life, all territory He owned. The winner in the duel took all. Of course, a tract of land as large as his Our own king wagered on his part, to go To Fortinbras, totally to be his, 90 Should he win the showdown, as in the end, According to the guidelines of the deal, Hamlet got his land. But now young Fortinbras, Who is a hothead with no discipline, In outlying parts of Norway, here and there, 95 Has gathered bands of hell-bent criminals, Feeding and training them to undertake A venture needing all their skill; which is – According to the best reports we have – To invade our land and take back, by force 100 And terrorism, all the land I've told of That his father lost. This, I understand, Is mainly why we are so vigilant, The reason we're on guard, the key idea Behind this hurry scurry in the land. 105
BERNARDO I daresay it's exactly as you think: It then makes sense that such a doomy ghost Comes past our watch, armed so much like the king Who was and is the reason for these wars.
HORATIO My mind is stuck on something very small: 110 When Rome was prosperous and at its height, And just before the greatest Caesar died, The dead rose from the graves and in their shrouds Wandered through Rome, shrieking and babbling. Then fiery comets came, and dew like blood. 115 The star-signs spelled calamity. The moon, That causes all the oceans' ebbs and tides, Was almost wiped out in a great eclipse: And selfsame pointers to calamities, Like delegates of doomsday bringing news, 120 Or countdowns to a looming cataclysm, Have on the earth and in the sky been seen In our regions by our compatriots – Hold it, look sharp! See there, it comes again!
Re-enter GHOST
Come what may, I'll challenge it. Stop, false thing! 125 If you can make a sound or use your voice, Speak to me: If there is any good thing I can do To give you rest, while not incurring guilt, Then tell me:
A cock crows
Or if you know our land is under threat, 130 Which we may stop if warned in time, then speak! Or maybe when you lived you hoarded up In caves treasure that did not belong to you And which, they say, can agitate a ghost, Then say so. Stop, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus. 135
MARCELLUS D'you think that I can stab it with my spear?
HORATIO Yes, if it does not stop.
BERNARDO It's here!
HORATIO It's here!
MARCELLUS It's gone!
Exit GHOST
This is not right. It is so dignified That we should not be violent with it. 140 And we can just as well attack the air, Than try to sham a silly fight with ghosts.
BERNARDO It almost spoke, but then it heard the cock.
HORATIO And then it flinched, just as a culprit does When someone calls his name. For I have heard 145 That cocks, who always know when daybreak comes, When they crow long so everyone can hear, Awake the god of light; and, at the sound, No matter where they're wandering about, The ghosts, who roam where they should not, rush back 150 Into their prison. So then it must be true For we have seen the proof of it just now.
MARCELLUS It vanished at the crowing of the cock. When Christmas Eve comes round, some people say, While we are celebrating Jesus' birth, 155 The cock crows all night long, not just at dawn: And then, they say, no spirits dare to haunt; So safe's that night that star signs do no harm, Fairies can't steal babies, witches are weak – God's goodness leaves no room for evil things. 160
HORATIO I've heard it too, and partly I believe it. But, look, daybreak is here. Its soft red light Shines on the dew of that high, eastward hill: We can stop standing guard. And I think, now, Let us go tell what we have seen to-night 165 To young Prince Hamlet. Of this I am sure, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you agree that we should fill him in, Because we're friends with him, and as we must?
MARCELLUS Let's do it, please. I also know, today, 170 Where we can find him very easily.
Exeunt
