Hamlet: Act 1, Scene 4
Enter HAMLET, HORATIO,
and MARCELLUS.
HAMLET
1. shrewdly: wickedly.
1 The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
HORATIO
2. eager: sharp.
2 It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET
3 What hour now?
HORATIO
3 I think it lacks of twelve.
HAMLET
4 No, it is struck.
HORATIO
5 Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
6 Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets,
pieces: cannon.
and two pieces go off [within].
7 What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET
8. doth . . . rouse: stays up and holds revels far into the night. 9. wassail: carousal. the swaggering up-spring reels: i.e., dances boisterously. 10. Rhenish: Rhine wine.12. The triumph of his pledge: the celebration of his feat of draining his cup at a single gulp.
8 The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
9 Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
10 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
11 The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
12 The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO
12 Is it a custom?
HAMLET
13 Ay, marry, is't:
14 But to my mind, though I am native here
15-16. manner: custom (of carousing). a custom / More honor'd in the breach than the observance: a custom which it is more honorable to break than to observe.
15 And to the manner born, it is a custom
16 More honor'd in the breach than the observance.
17 This heavy-headed revel east and west
18. traduced and tax'd of: maligned and censured by.
18 Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:
19-20. clepe: call. with swinish phrase / Soil our addition: by calling us swine, they stain our reputation.
19 They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
20 Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
21. at height: most excellently.
21 From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
22. attribute: reputation.
22 The pith and marrow of our attribute.
23. So, oft it chances in particular men: in a similar way, it often happens in individual men. 24. vicious mole of nature: small natural blemish. 25. birth: i.e., family origins.
23 So, oft it chances in particular men,
24 That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
25 As, in their birth—wherein they are not guilty,
26. his: its.
26 Since nature cannot choose his origin—
27. By the o'ergrowth of some complexion: by the excess of some natural disposition. 28. pales: fences.
27 By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
28 Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
29. o'er-leavens: i.e., spreads throughout and changes everything, as yeast (leavening) works in bread dough. 30. plausive: pleasing.
29 Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
30 The form of plausive manners, that these men,
31 Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
32. Being nature's livery, or fortune's star: i.e., whether they were born with it, or got it by misfortune. 33. Their virtues else: all their other virtues. 34. undergo: carry, have.
32 Being nature's livery, or fortune's star—
33 Their virtues else—be they as pure as grace,
34 As infinite as man may undergo—
35. general censure: popular opinion.
35 Shall in the general censure take corruption
36. dram: very small amount. 36-38. The dram of eale / Doth all the noble substance often dout / To his own scandal: This is a "crux," a passage which is open to various interpretations. ...more
36 From that particular fault. The dram of eale
37 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
38 To his own scandal.
HORATIO
38 Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter GHOST.
HAMLET
39 Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
40. spirit of health: wholesome spirit.
40 Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
41 Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
42 Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
43. questionable: inviting questions.
43 Thou comest in such a questionable shape
44 That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
45 King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
46 Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
47. canoniz'd: buried with the rites authorized by the church. hearsed: entombed. 48. cerements: grave-clothes, winding sheet (as on a mummy).
47 Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
48 Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
49 Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
50 Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
51 To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
52. corse: corpse. complete steel: full armor. 53. Revisit'st: revisits. glimpses . . . moon: i.e., the earth by night. 54. fools of nature: i.e., mere men, limited to natural knowledge; baffled by the supernatural. 55. disposition: nature.
52 That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
53 Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
54 Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
55 So horridly to shake our disposition
56 With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
57 Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
[Ghost] beckons [HAMLET].
HORATIO
58 It beckons you to go away with it,
59. As if it some impartment did desire / To you alone: as if it desired to impart something to you in private.
59 As if it some impartment did desire
60 To you alone.
MARCELLUS
60 Look, with what courteous action
61. more removed ground: i.e., more isolated, private place.
61 It waves you to a more removed ground:
62 But do not go with it.
HORATIO
62 No, by no means.
HAMLET
63 It will not speak; then I will follow it.
HORATIO
64 Do not, my lord.
HAMLET
64 Why, what should be the fear?
65. fee: value, worth.
65 I do not set my life at a pin's fee;
66 And for my soul, what can it do to that,
67 Being a thing immortal as itself?
68 It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.
HORATIO
69. the flood: the sea.
69 What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
70 Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
71. beetles o'er his base into the sea: threateningly overhangs its base, above the sea. 72. assume . . . form: 73. deprive . . . reason: deprive reason of the rule over your mind.
71 That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
72 And there assume some other horrible form,
73 Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
74 And draw you into madness? think of it:
75. The very place: just the place [i.e., a cliff overhanging the sea]. toys of desperation: mental images of a desperate act. In other words, just looking down into the sea from a high cliff makes a person think about jumping.
75 The very place puts toys of desperation,
76 Without more motive, into every brain
77 That looks so many fathoms to the sea
78 And hears it roar beneath.
HAMLET
78 It waves me still.
79 Go on; I'll follow thee.
MARCELLUS
80 You shall not go, my lord.
HAMLET
80 Hold off your hands.
HORATIO
81 Be ruled; you shall not go.
HAMLET
81 My fate cries out,
82 And makes each petty artery in this body
83 As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
84 Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
85 By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
86 I say, away! [To the Ghost.] Go on; I'll follow thee.
Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.
HORATIO
87. He waxes desperate with imagination: he grows desperate because of wild ideas.
87 He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS
88. 'tis not fit thus to obey him: i.e., in these circumstances, it is not fitting to obey him. Marcellus thinks of Hamlet's "away!" (line 86) as an order to stay away from him.
88 Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO
89. Have after: i.e., go ahead, follow him. To what issue will this come?: What will be the outcome of this?
89 Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS
90 Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HORATIO
89. Heaven will direct it: i.e., Heaven will determine how this all turns out. —Perhaps Horatio is afraid to follow Hamlet into the terrifying presence of the Ghost.
91 Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS
91 Nay, let's follow him.
Exeunt.