SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO
BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO
Long live the king!
BERNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
Stand, ho! Who's there?
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
HORATIO
Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.
MARCELLUS
What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
BERNARDO
I have seen nothing.
MARCELLUS
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
HORATIO
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
BERNARDO
Last night of all...
Enter Ghost
MARCELLUS
look, it comes again!
BERNARDO
In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
MARCELLUS
Question it, Horatio.
HORATIO
What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
with
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
BERNARDO
Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
Exit Ghost
MARCELLUS
'Tis gone, and will not answer.
Is it not like the king?
HORATIO
As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
'Tis strange.
MARCELLUS
Good now, sit down, and tell me,
Who is't that can inform me?
HORATIO
That can I; Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--
Did slay this Fortinbras;
WHo did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Tries to recover of us, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
BERNARDO
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet;
MARCELLUS
Let's do't,
Exeunt