Act 1, Scene 1, 1-72 TLNs 1-85 [1]
2 Enter two sentinels, Francisco [above] and [after a pause] Barnardo [below] 3-4 Barnardo Who's there? [2] 5-6 Francisco Nay -- answer me. Stand and unfold yourself. [3] 7 Bar Long live the king! [4] 8 Fran Barnardo. [5] 9 Bar He. [6] 10 Fran You come most carefully upon your hour. [7] 11 Bar 'Tis now struck twelve, get thee to bed, Francisco. [8] 12 Fran For this relief much thanks. [9] 'Tis bitter cold 13 And I am sick at heart. [10] 14 Bar Have you had quiet guard? 15 Fran Not a mouse stirring. 16 Bar Well, good night -- 16-7 If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 17 The rivals [11] of my watch, bid them make haste. 18 Enter Horatio, and Marcellus 19 Fran I think I hear them. Stand ho, who's there? 20 Horatio Friends to this ground. [12] 21 Marcellus And liegemen [13] to the Dane. 22 Fran Give you good night. 23 Mar O farewell honest soldier. Who hath relieved you? 24-5 Fran Barnardo has my place. Give you good night.[14] Exit Francisco [15] 26 Mar Holla, Barnardo. 27 Bar Say, what is Horatio there? 28 Hor A piece of him. [16] 29 Bar Welcome Horatio, [17] welcome good Marcellus. 30 Hor What, has this thing appeared again tonight? 31 Bar I have seen nothing. 32 Mar Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, 33 And will not let belief take hold of him 34 Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us. 35 Therefore I have entreated him along 36 With us, to watch the minutes of this night, 37 That if again this apparition come, 38 He may approve [18] our eyes and speak to it. 39 Hor Tush, tush, 'twill not appear. 40 Bar Sit down awhile, 41 And let us once again assail your ears 42 That are so fortified against our story, 43 What we have two nights seen. 44 Hor Well, sit we down 45 And let us hear Barnardo speak of this. 46 Bar Last night of all, [19] 47 When yon same star that's westward from the pole [20] 48 Had made his course to illumine that part of heaven 49 Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, 50 The bell then beating one -- 51 Enter Ghost 51-2 Mar Peace, break thee off -- look where it comes again! 53 Bar In the same figure like the king that's dead. 54 Mar Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. 55 Bar Looks it not like the king? Mark it, Horatio. 56 Hor Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder. [21] 57 Bar It would be spoke to. 58 Mar Question it, Horatio. 59 Hor What art thou that usurp'st [22] this time of night, 60 Together with that fair and warlike form 61 In which the majesty of buried Denmark 62 Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee -- speak! 63 Mar It is offended. 64 Bar See -- it stalks away. 65-66 Hor Stay, speak! Speak, I charge thee -- speak! Exit the Ghost 67 Mar 'Tis gone and will not answer. 68 Bar How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale. 69 Is not this something more than fantasy? 70 What think you on't? 71 Hor Before my God I might not this believe 72 Without the sensible and true avouch [23] 73 Of mine own eyes. 74 Mar Is it not like the king? 75 Hor As thou [24] art to thyself. 76 Such was the very armor he had on 77 When he the ambitious Norway combated. [25] 78 So frowned he once, when in an angry parley 79 He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. [26] 80 'Tis strange. [27] 81 Mar Thus, twice before, and just at this dead hour, 82 With martial stalk [28] hath he gone by our watch. 83 Hor In what particular thought to work [29] I know not, 84 But in the gross and scope of my opinion, [30] 85 This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
| [1] TLNs (Through Line Numbers) are based on the Folio and run consecutively to the end of the play. Endnotes also are keyed to the TLNs.
[2] Barnardo, sensitized by his experience of the last two nights, is impulsive and fearful of what he's about to find. And he is alerting Francisco that any noise he might hear is friend, not foe.
[3] I'm the sentry, who are you? Francisco doesn't know whether to be irritated at the other's breach of protocol or amused.
[4] the watchword for this change of the guard
[5] Amused at Barnardo's jumpiness (having himself had a quiet watch, with no surprises), he's pulled out of his own melancholy, and takes a stance of kindly superiority. His mocking inflection of "Barnardo" could be something like "B'naaaar - doh."
[6] Sheepish?
[7] Not just careful, but surprisingly prompt for someone having to come out on a cold midnight watch.
[8] Almost as if he doesn't want Francisco hanging around, wants him out of the way (before Horatio arrives?) or is he just protective, perhaps he's been mentoring Francisco? But if he's older or senior, why is he keeping the later watch?
[9] "Much thanks" is now proverbial but this is the first known instance of its use.
[10] While Barnardo is scared, Francisco is melancholy -- whether from the cold, his long watch, some personal matter, or the impending war with Norway, we don't know. But his heart-sickness is another line in this sketch of a country with a disease of the soul.
[11] companions
[12] Horatio does not say he is Danish, merely a friend. He acts more like a frequent and welcome visitor, see TLNs 363, 375, 611, and 617.
[13] "Loyal subjects" -- while Marcellus may be including Horatio in "liegeman" status, he may also be adding to or or clarifying Horatio's status, which might be natural at a change of the guard.
[14] God give you good night.
[15] Never to appear again in the play.
[16] Brittle as a broken icicle: Witty and mysterious, this line characterizes Horatio, as a philosopher, for instance. Has he been studying Aristotle? The "accidental" properties of his body could be here but his "essence" elsewhere?
[17] Horatio: H- as in Hamlet, -oratio, as in the Latin word for speech, eloquent speech at that. The audience hears his name three times in twelve lines and subliminally knows that he is a central character -- and it all seems perfectly natural.
[18] confirm
[19] "Why, only last night" is a reading that's been around since the 19th century. This captures the way a major event only hours before seems much earlier -- the world seems to have changed. But perhaps a better reading is, "Last night, of all nights. . . ." This captures the singularity of the event.
[20] westward from the North Star, Polaris
[21] It rakes me over? This, by the way, is the first of many of the x + y constructions that both Hamlet and Horatio are so addicted to. "...fear and wonder" "fair and warlike" will be next.
[22] takes over (Underpainting: the first mention of usurpation.)
[23] concrete and accurate testimony, again x + y, not just "sensible" but also "true" avouch
[24] intimate pronoun
[25] This fight with the King of Norway was thirty years ago, see TLN 3333-3352.
[26] Poles on ice sleds
[27] Most strange -- we're going to learn that Hamlet sees Horatio as inexperienced in the drinking habits of Denmark (TLN 363), that Horatio saw the late king but once (TLN 375), and that he is unfamiliar with the customs of Denmark relative to revelry (TLN 617). Yet he just described details of the late king's physical appearance in two different battles and, in the next line, refers to Denmark as "our state." If indeed he is an expatriate, he has certainly gone native and done a lot of research on his adopted land.
[28] with warlike gait and purposefulness
[29] Exactly how to think I do not know. [30] in both the general and specific aspects of my opinion -- again x+ y construction Note on the text: The primary source here is the Enfolded Hamlet of Bernice W. Kliman, ©1996, a conflation of the 1604/05 Second Quarto and the First Folio of 1623. (at www.leoyan.com/global-language.com/ENFOLDED/) Through Line Numbers (TLNs) are based on the Folio. Depending on what readings seem most sensible and accessible to the modern ear, textual choices have been made on a line-by-line, within-line, and word-by-word basis from the melded version. The First Quarto of 1603 has been consulted where possible in an attempt to resolve conflicts in meaning between the Folio and Second Quarto. Spelling is updated to US English, and each line has been repunctuated in accordance with my understanding of the text -- JG |
