Scene 5
Enter Ghost and Hamlet
Hamlet To where are you leading me? Speak, I’ll go no further.
Ghost Listen to me.
Hamlet I will.
Ghost The hour is almost upon us when I must return to the tormenting fires of the spirit realm in which I dwell.
Hamlet Alas, poor ghost.
Ghost Do not pity me, but listen with intent to what I am about to impart.
Hamlet Speak, I am bound (by a sense of duty as a son) to listen.
Ghost I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day, confined to fast in fires until the sins committed during my life are burnt and purged away. But though I am forbidden to tell the secrets of my prison-house, I can relate a tale, the slightest suspicion of which would inflict great distress upon your soul, freeze your young blood, make your eyes burst from their sockets and your hair stand on end like the quills of a frightened porcupine. But no word of the immortal form you see before you in this coat of arms is to reach the ears of mortal men. Now listen, listen, you must listen. If you did ever love your dear father…..
Hamlet O God!
Ghost Revenge his foul and most unnatural (violates a natural bond) murder.
Hamlet Murder!
Ghost Murder most foul, at best that is what it is, this most foul and unnatural crime.
Hamlet Tell me of it at once, that I as swift as thought, the thought of love, may sweep to my revenge.
Ghost I find you to be suited to the task. Yet you will be slower than the overgrowing weed that flourishes on Lethe (in Greek mythology, a river in the underworld from which the spirits of the dead drank to forget their earthly life) wharf since you will not act without much hesitation. Now, Hamlet, hear. While I was sleeping in my orchard, a serpent took my life - the whole of Denmark has been disgracefully deceived over my death - but you are to know, my noble son, the serpent that did take thy father’s life now wears his crown.
Hamlet O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
Ghost Yes, that incestuous, that adulterate beast; with his guileful wit, his traitorous gifts - wit so predisposed to wickedness, and such natural ability to charm and to seduce - won to satisfy his shameful lust the will of my most seemingly virtuous queen. O Hamlet, what despair and dismay this caused me. My love for her was of such worth that it went hand in hand with the dignity of the vows I made to her in marriage, and for her to lower herself so far as to marry a wretch whose natural qualities are so poor in comparison to my own. But good will never be undermined despite the efforts of evil seeking to entice people into wicked ways. I think I sense the morning air. I must be brief. I was sleeping in my orchard; something I always did in the afternoon; and while I was quite oblivious to his actions, your uncle stole into the garden with poison in a vial and into my ear did pour the liquid, a poison so lethal that, swift as quicksilver, it courses through the veins of the body and with a sudden vigour, like acid in milk, it thickens and curdles the blood. So did it mine. Instantly it ravaged my body turning my skin like that of a leper. And so was I, while sleeping, by my own brother’s hand, deprived of my life, of my crown, of my queen; taken from this life without having confessed and received absolution for my sins, dispatched from this world unprepared and sent before God for judgement with all of my sins, my imperfections, still on my head. O Horrible! Horrible! Most horrible! If you have any sense of justice do not condone it. Do not stand by and allow the royal bed of Denmark to be a bed of lust and damned incest. But however you pursue or respond to this, do not castigate or harbour any evil intent towards your mother. Leave her to the judgement of Heaven, and to the torment of her own conscience. Farewell then, I must leave at once. The glow-worm shows the morning to be near; the glow of its body, so noticeable in darkness, is beginning to fade in the light. Adieu, adieu. Remember me.
Exit Ghost
Hamlet My God, am I to become an instrument of evil? Am I to lend myself to Hell? What am I to do to that I may right this injustice? I must calm myself and not become overwhelmed. I must remain strong and collected. Remember you (recalls the ghost’s last words)? Yes, you poor ghost, for as long as your memory has a place in my distracted mind. I’ll rid my mind of all its trivial and foolish memories, all the quotations from books, all the ideas, all of the impressions that the observations of my youth have placed there, and your commandment shall occupy my mind exclusively, undiluted by matters of lesser importance. It shall become my sole purpose. Yes, by Heaven! O most pernicious woman! The King a villain; a smiling, damned villain! One may put on an outward show of respectability, a façade behind which they are a villain. At least I’m sure this is so in Denmark, a place contaminated by corruption. So, uncle, there you are. I am charged with redressing your treachery and wickedness. I have sworn it.
Enter Horatio and Marcellus
Horatio My lord, my lord (calling out).
Marcellus Lord Hamlet.
Horatio Heaven protect him.
Hamlet So be it (aside).
Marcellus Hello; my lord.
Hamlet I’m over here.
Horatio What news, my lord?
Hamlet O, wonderful!
Horatio Good my lord, tell us.
Hamlet No, you will reveal it.
Horatio I swear I will not.
Marcellus Nor I, my lord.
Hamlet People are naturally inclined to divulge secrets. But you will not?
Horatio and Marcellus We swear it.
Hamlet Never has there been such a villain dwelling in all Denmark; an arrant knave.
Horatio Why should a ghost return from the grave to tell us this?
Hamlet Why, right, you are in the right. And so without any further explanation at all I believe it fitting that we shake hands and part. You may go wherever your business or desire takes you, for every man has business and desire, such as it is. And as for me, I will go and pray.
Horatio You’re not making any sense, my lord.
Hamlet I am sorry you are offended; heartily, yes, heartily.
Horatio There’s no offence, my lord.
Hamlet Yes, by Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland, reputed to have experienced visions of Purgatory, Hell and the end of the world) there is, Horatio, and much offence too. Regarding this vision we have encountered, it is a genuine ghost (it is what it appears to be and not, as feared, an evil spirit in the guise of the dead King), let me tell you that. You must disregard any desire to know what transpired between us. And now, good friends, as you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, grant me one simple request.
Horatio What is it, my lord? We will.
Hamlet Never make known what you have seen tonight.
Horatio and Marcellus My lord, we will not.
Hamlet Swear it.
Horatio I swear by my faith, my lord.
Marcellus As do I, my lord, on my faith.
Hamlet Upon my sword.
Marcellus We have already sworn, my lord.
Hamlet This sword’s guard forms a cross, sworn upon which the oath will be indisputable. Swear the oath upon my sword.
Ghost’s voice Swear.
Hamlet Come on, you hear its voice? Consent to swear.
Horatio Propose the oath, my lord.
Hamlet Never to speak of this that you have seen. Swear by my sword.
They clasp their hands around the hilt of the sword
Horatio and Marcellus I swear.
Hamlet Here and everywhere you go, you are bound by this oath. We’ll move away from here. Come over here, gentlemen, and lay your hands again upon my sword.
They comply
Swear by my sword never to speak of this that you have heard.
Ghost’s voice Swear by his sword
Horatio and Marcellus I swear.
Hamlet Once more, let us move, good friends.
Horatio O day and night, this is w
ondrously strange.
Hamlet And as a stranger you must welcome it (in accordance with biblical teaching - Mathew: 25: 36: I was a stranger, and you brought me home). There are more things in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of by your philosophers. But come, here, again.
They follow
Regardless of how strange or odd my behaviour may become - as I will perhaps assume an eccentric disposition - you must swear that you shall never, by some gesture or in pronouncing some curious phrase or ambiguous expression, suggest or intimate that you know anything whatsoever about it.
Horatio and Marcellus We swear, my lord.
Hamlet Rest perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen, I entrust myself to you; and as poor a man as I am I do it to express to you my love and friendship which, God willing, will not be found to be lacking. Let us go in together. And I pray that your lips remain sealed. This has all come at the wrong time. O damn this state of affairs, that it is my duty, my fate, to set it right. Come, let’s leave this place.