Hamlet - Act 1 Scene 1
The play begins with confusion. By rights, the guard on duty should be asking questions and challenging the newcomer, but here we have the reverse, resulting in a brief struggle for authority. This moment establishes ideas of confusion, paranoia, and unease which will become clearer and more justified later in the play.
Elsinore. The battlements of 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!
FRANCISCO
Bernardo?
BERNARDO
He.
Though the original performance would have taken place in stark daylight on the Globe stage, the confusion also tells us that it is night-time, which we are now told explicitly. The soldiers would likely be carrying torches or lanterns, which would also tell the audience that the scene takes place outdoors.
FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon your hour.
BERNARDO
Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
BERNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
BERNARDO
Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Francisco and Bernardo are now far enough apart that Francisco can greet Horatio and Marcellus before Bernardo can see them. Once again, the darkness and confusion are underscored.
FRANCISCO
I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
HORATIO
Friends to this ground.
Like Bernardo's earlier "Long live the King," this comment becomes ambiguous and contentious in hindsight, as it could refer to Claudius, Old Hamlet, or young Hamlet.
MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO
Give you good night.
MARCELLUS
O, farewell, honest soldier:
Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO
Bernardo has my place.
Give you good night.
Exit
MARCELLUS
Holla! Bernardo!
BERNARDO
Say,
What, is Horatio there?
Horatio's response is ambiguous, though it may be a joking reference to the discomfort of being out late at night on the cold battlements. His sardonic tone also helps to create a distinction between the scholar Horatio and the soldiers Bernardo and Marcellus. This distinction would presumably be reinforced through their costumes, props, and physical stance.'
It was a folk tradition in Shakepseare's day that ghosts could not speak until they were addressed. The two guards have brought Horatio in as a witness to their encounter, but also to intercede and speak on their behalf.
HORATIO
A piece of him.
BERNARDO
Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
What, has this thing appeared again tonight?
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.
HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
The invitation to sit is somewhat odd; there may be a bench or some stools available, but sitting down seems to shift the mood from the tension and attention of being 'on guard' to discussion of the Ghost.
BERNARDO
Sit down awhile;
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story
What we have two nights seen.
HORATIO
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
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 –
The Ghost's entrance and appearance vary greatly between productions. The script calls for the Ghost to enter in full armor, which would be both impressive and archaic. His entrance may be accompanied by smoke or other visual or sound effects, or he may enter quietly and calmly.
Enter Ghost
MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
BERNARDO
In the same figure, like the King that's dead.
MARCELLUS
Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
BERNARDO
Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
There is a great deal of dialogue here, which suggests that the Ghost enters at some distance, or that he's moving quite slowly, or both.
HORATIO
Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
BERNARDO
It would be spoke to.
MARCELLUS
Question it, Horatio.
Bernardo and Marcellus are armed guards, and professional soldiers. Their inability to act here makes Horatio (presumably unarmed, probably less physically imposing) seem more capable and confident: he acts, despite his fear.
HORATIO
What art thou that usurp'st 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!
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.
Horatio's earlier disbelief and confidence are now reversed, and Bernardo's upbraiding of Horatio can be angry or teasing, a release of tension after the terrifying encounter.
BERNARDO
How now, Horatio! You tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't?
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?
The Ghost's armor creates the image of Old Hamlet as a warrior-king, and Horatio's description here reinforces that idea, which will serve to distinguish Old Hamlet from both Claudius and young Hamlet.
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 Polacks on the ice.
'Tis strange.
MARCELLUS
Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
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.
Once again, the act of sitting shifts the mood and action from tense waiting to thoughtful discussion.
Marcellus lists some of the background to the discomfort and tension: Denmark is clearly preparing for war, and nervous about sudden attack, though there is (at least for these guards) no sense of who the enemy might be.
Horatio evokes an image of Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras as warrior-kings, leaders, and men of honour, very much unlike both Claudius and young Hamlet.
This speech invites the audience to compare young Hamlet and young Fortinbras: both are sons of slain kings, both young and untested, both finding their way in a kingdom ruled by a controlling uncle.
Horatio here establishes the external threat to Denmark: young Fortinbras is raising an army to avenge his father's death by conquering or attacking Denmark.
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 toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
Who is't that can inform me?
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 gagèd 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 unimprovèd 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't; 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.
BERNARDO
I think it be no other but e'en so:
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armèd through our watch; so like the King
That was and is the question of these wars.
Horatio's discussion of Rome supports the characterization of the scholar, as he draws examples from antiquity. More importantly, he introduces the notion that human actions can resonate through the natural and supernatural realm, an idea that Shakespeare explores in his own Julius Caesar, as well as Macbeth, King Lear, and Richard II.
As we will learn in 1.5, both Horatio and Marcellus are wrong, in that the Ghost comes to redress a past wrong, not to warn about future calamities.
"Cross it" suggests that Horatio now puts himself in the Ghost's path in order to speak to it. When the Ghost leaves, it may change path, or Horatio may be intimidated into stepping aside, or else some stage trick may allow the Ghost to "disappear."
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 climatures and countrymen. –
But soft, behold! Lo, where it comes again!
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.
Cock crows
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,
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
This moment provides another opportunity for stage effects: how does the Ghost appear in several places? Modern productions may use projections here, while older ones may have employed trapdoors, or costumed doubles.
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.
The Ghost will later reiterate his inability to stay out in daylight, which was a conventional aspect of ghost-stories and folk-beliefs, as Horatio explains here.
BERNARDO
It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
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' discussion of Christmas folk-lore is odd, as it doesn't relate immediately to the scene, except perhaps to contrast Horatio's educated Roman anecdote with Marcellus' folk-belief. It might be wistful, wishing for the peace of Christmas-time rather than the current situation. Thematically, it introduces the idea that Christian belief can oppose and overcome supernatural malice.
Horatio's description of morning is perhaps overly poetic, once again emphasizing his intellectual nature.
This is the first mention of young Hamlet so far, and we are told virtually nothing about him. Old Hamlet's death, too, has barely been alluded to. Despite the substantial exposition, the scene leaves the audience with more questions than answers.
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 dares 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.
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?
MARCELLUS
Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most conveniently.
Exeunt