ACT IV. | |
Scene IV. A plain in Denmark. | |
| [Enter Fortinbras, and Forces marching.] |
For. | |
| Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king: |
| Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras |
| Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march |
| Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. |
| If that his majesty would aught with us, |
| We shall express our duty in his eye; |
| And let him know so. |
Capt. | |
| I will do't, my lord. |
For. | |
| Go softly on. |
| [Exeunt all For. and Forces.] |
| [Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, &c.] |
Ham. | |
| Good sir, whose powers are these? |
Capt. | |
| They are of Norway, sir. |
Ham. | |
| How purpos'd, sir, I pray you? |
Capt. | |
| Against some part of Poland. |
Ham. | |
| Who commands them, sir? |
Capt. | |
| The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. |
Ham. | |
| Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, |
| Or for some frontier? |
Capt. | |
| Truly to speak, and with no addition, |
| We go to gain a little patch of ground |
| That hath in it no profit but the name. |
| To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; |
| Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole |
| A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. |
Ham. | |
| Why, then the Polack never will defend it. |
Capt. | |
| Yes, it is already garrison'd. |
Ham. | |
| Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats |
| Will not debate the question of this straw: |
| This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, |
| That inward breaks, and shows no cause without |
| Why the man dies.--I humbly thank you, sir. |
Capt. | |
| God b' wi' you, sir. |
| [Exit.] |
Ros. | |
| Will't please you go, my lord? |
Ham. | |
| I'll be with you straight. Go a little before. |
| [Exeunt all but Hamlet.] |
| How all occasions do inform against me |
| And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, |
| If his chief good and market of his time |
| Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. |
| Sure he that made us with such large discourse, |
| Looking before and after, gave us not |
| That capability and godlike reason |
| To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be |
| Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple |
| Of thinking too precisely on the event,-- |
| A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom |
| And ever three parts coward,--I do not know |
| Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' |
| Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means |
| To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me: |
| Witness this army, of such mass and charge, |
| Led by a delicate and tender prince; |
| Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd, |
| Makes mouths at the invisible event; |
| Exposing what is mortal and unsure |
| To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, |
| Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great |
| Is not to stir without great argument, |
| But greatly to find quarrel in a straw |
| When honour's at the stake. How stand I, then, |
| That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, |
| Excitements of my reason and my blood, |
| And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see |
| The imminent death of twenty thousand men |
| That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, |
| Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot |
| Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, |
| Which is not tomb enough and continent |
| To hide the slain?--O, from this time forth, |
| My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! |
| [Exit.] |