Hamlet - Act 1 Scene 4
The battlements
Between 1.2 and 1.4, Bernardo seems to have disappeared, and is never seen again in the play.
Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS
HAMLET
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
HORATIO
It is a nipping and an eager air.
This initial dialogue seems both casual and forced, dwelling on trivialities so as not to discuss the troubling matter of the Ghost.
HAMLET
What hour now?
HORATIO
I think it lacks of twelve.
HAMLET
No, it is struck.
HORATIO
Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
The sound effect, indicating Claudius' celebration, may recur throughout the scene, providing an occasional soundtrack.
A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within
What does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET
The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO
Is it a custom?
Hamlet complains about the Danes' tendency toward drunkenness, a common stereotype in Shakespeare's time. Rather than mocking, however, Hamlet expounds on the injustice of labeling a nation or a person based on one negative attribute, overlooking all their better features.
The final line is perplexing, and may be corrupt, but the general sense is clear: a small amount of evil (bad qualities) ruins or overrules all the good (qualities).
HAMLET
Ay, marry, is't:
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations:
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
From our achievements, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.
So, oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth – wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin –
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners, that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or Fortune's star –
Their virtues else – be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo –
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault: the dram of eale
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter Ghost
Hamlet again raises the idea that the Ghost may be demonic or angelic, and is taking on the form of Old Hamlet, rather than actually being his father's spirit.
The list is repetitive, but emphasizes the notion of confusion and wrongness: the Ghost is disturbing less because of special effects and more because of the profoundly disquieting idea of seeing one's dead and buried relative walking about.
HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?
Ghost beckons HAMLET
HORATIO
It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
Horatio and Marcellus take on their role as voices of reason, as Hamlet is torn between their advice and his need to follow the Ghost.
MARCELLUS
Look, with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removèd ground;
But do not go with it.
HORATIO
No, by no means.
HAMLET
It will not speak; then I will follow it.
HORATIO
Do not, my lord.
HAMLET
Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?
It waves me forth again; I'll follow it.
In this exchange, Hamlet and Horatio lay out the dangers and the stakes for the entire play: death and damnation had already been hinted at, and now Horatio adds the fear of madness. The challenge for Hamlet throughout the play will be to fulfill his mission while preserving his life, his soul, and his sanity.
HORATIO
What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form,
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
And draw you into madness? Think of it:
The very place puts toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain
That looks so many fathoms to the sea
And hears it roar beneath.
HAMLET
It waves me still.
Go on; I'll follow thee.
The lines here call for some kind of physical confrontation: Horatio and Marcellus may be grappling with Hamlet, or may be blocking his path with their weapons (Marcellus, at least, has his guard's partisan). Hamlet may fight them off or else intimidate them into submission.
MARCELLUS
You shall not go, my lord.
HAMLET
Hold off your hands.
HORATIO
Be ruled; you shall not go.
HAMLET
My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee.
Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET
HORATIO
He waxes desperate with imagination.
MARCELLUS
Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
HORATIO
Have after. To what issue will this come?
MARCELLUS
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Horatio appears to have a moment of doubt here, wishing for heaven to intercede, rather than taking part himself. He may begin to leave, prompting Marcellus to contradict and prompt him to follow Hamlet.
HORATIO
Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS
Nay, let's follow him.
Exeunt