Understanding Shakespeare: Hamlet Act I Scene II

Summary: The king and queen chastise Hamlet for being so depressed all the time and tell him to get over the death of his father and get on with life. Then they leave and the guards who saw the ghost come in and tell Hamlet about it. He decides to go see it for himself that night.

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Act I
SCENE II. A room of state in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants




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ACT 1
SCENE 1: A public room in the castle with lots of noble people wandering around doing business with eachother

BACKGROUND: King Claudius has been King about a year since his brother was killed at war (or so everyone thinks). He has married the king's wife, Hamlet's mom and Hamlet is not happy about it. Hamlet is young, maybe in his late teens, and struggling with depression and anger at his mother for re-marrying so quickly.

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KING CLAUDIUS
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

CORNELIUS VOLTIMAND
In that and all things will we show our duty.

KING CLAUDIUS
We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

LAERTES
My dread lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation,
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

KING CLAUDIUS
Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

LORD POLONIUS
He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
By laboursome petition, and at last
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

KING CLAUDIUS
Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--

HAMLET
[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.

KING CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is common.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?

HAMLET
Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

KING CLAUDIUS
'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.

HAMLET
I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

KING CLAUDIUS
Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
Exeunt all but HAMLET

HAMLET
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO

HORATIO
Hail to your lordship!

HAMLET
I am glad to see you well:
Horatio,--or I do forget myself.

HORATIO
The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

HAMLET
Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?

MARCELLUS
My good lord--

HAMLET
I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

HORATIO
A truant disposition, good my lord.

HAMLET
I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

HORATIO
My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

HAMLET
I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

HORATIO
Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

HAMLET
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father!--methinks I see my father.

HORATIO
Where, my lord?

HAMLET
In my mind's eye, Horatio.

HORATIO
I saw him once; he was a goodly king.

HAMLET
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

HORATIO
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

HAMLET
Saw? who?

HORATIO
My lord, the king your father.

HAMLET
The king my father!

HORATIO
Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

HAMLET
For God's love, let me hear.

HORATIO
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

HAMLET
But where was this?

MARCELLUS
My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

HAMLET
Did you not speak to it?

HORATIO
My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

HAMLET
'Tis very strange.

HORATIO
As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
And we did think it writ down in our duty
To let you know of it.

HAMLET
Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
Hold you the watch to-night?

MARCELLUS BERNARDO
We do, my lord.

HAMLET
Arm'd, say you?

MARCELLUS BERNARDO
Arm'd, my lord.

HAMLET
From top to toe?

MARCELLUS BERNARDO
My lord, from head to foot.

HAMLET
Then saw you not his face?

HORATIO
O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

HAMLET
What, look'd he frowningly?

HORATIO
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

HAMLET
Pale or red?

HORATIO
Nay, very pale.

HAMLET
And fix'd his eyes upon you?

HORATIO
Most constantly.

HAMLET
I would I had been there.

HORATIO
It would have much amazed you.

HAMLET
Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?

HORATIO
While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

MARCELLUS BERNARDO
Longer, longer.

HORATIO
Not when I saw't.

HAMLET
His beard was grizzled--no?

HORATIO
It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd.

HAMLET
I will watch to-night;
Perchance 'twill walk again.

HORATIO
I warrant it will.

HAMLET
If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All
Our duty to your honour.

HAMLET
Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
Exeunt all but HAMLET
My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Exit

King Claudius:
Now Hamlet. We were all crushed by the death of your father, my brother. Its right that we morn him and that the whole kingdom grieves his death. 
But sometimes for some of us that sorry is tempered.
I think about my sister in law, now my wife, whom I love and would not have loved if your father had not died, and about that I am very happy. 
And so I find myself both happy beyond measure and grieving beyond measure at the same time. 
I know this has been hard for you but we hope sometime soon you can find the wisdom to be happy for us and supportive of us. 


And now, we must discuss affairs of state. The son of the man who killed your father (the son being also named Fortinbras), whom you killed in revenge, is trying to go back on our deal and keep some of our lands for himself. He things we are too weak to stop him. He thinks our country is in disarray because of your father's death. 

Because of this he has sent us messages demanding we turn back over to him the lands his father lost. 

So, what we have done is written to Fortinbras's uncle, who is the rightful king of Norway about this matter. The problem is that the king is bed ridden and doesn't know what his nephew is doing. 

We have written to the king of Norway and are sending Voltimand and Cornelius to the king of Norway to tell him what is going on. Listen up, you two - you have only the rights granted you in these papers. You can't do anything not outlined here. So go now and hurry.

Cornelius and Voltimand:
In that and all things we will be true to you.






King Claudius:
I don't doubt it.
CORNELIUS AND VOLTIMAND LEAVE
and now, on to other things! Laertes! what do you need?
Tell us your needs
we will listen
don't be shy
I will grant you anything you ask!
We know your father is our most faithful servant.
What is it you need from us?



Laertes:
I'd like to return to France. I came here happily for your coronation and have enjoyed my stay.
But my mind keeps returning to home now and I find I want to go home.

I ask you to allow it.


King Claudius:
What does your father, Pleonius say about this?

Lord Polonius:
Well, sire, it took a while for me to agree. 
But he has convinced me it is time for him to go
and I have given my blessing for him to return to France.


King Claudius:
Then so be it! Go when you wish, Laertes!

Now, Hamlet, who is both my son and my cousin,

Hamlet:
(MUTTERING TO SOMEONE NEXT TO HIM)
Yes, so I am in multiple ways related to him and yet still I am not his.

King Claudius:
Why are you still so mopey all the time??

Hamlet:
I'm not moping around, sir, just got too much sun today is all.

Queen Gertrude:
Hamlet, please can't you stop wearing all that black and constant thinking of your dead father? He was a great man but everyone has to die sometime and his time came. He is gone.


Hamlet:
Yes, mom, I know everyone dies.

Queen Gertrude:
If you know it then why can't you let this go and be happy again?

Hamlet:
Well, it seems to me - no, not seems! It IS that it is normal to wear black and morn for one you love.
And to cry and moan and whatever else grief brings.
I am not just putting this on, I am truly grieving!







King Claudius:
And that is noble of you, Hamlet, that you feel so strongly for your father.
But you must know that your father lost his father and he lost his father and he his. Everyone looses their father sometime. 

Its noble to grieve for a while but to keep at it for this long is just stubbornness! Its time to move on! This is unmanly of you!

For death is a fact of life. You have to accept that. Your grief is no longer honorable but shameful!

Everyone's father dies! Get over it!

Its time to forget your father and think of ME as your father now. You are my heir and my son now. And I love you like a son. So forget your dead father and embrace your living one!

Now, I know you want to go back to school in Wittenberg. We don't want you to do that. We want you to remain here with us and let us enjoy the joy of your presence.












Queen Gertrude:
Don't go to Wittenberg, Hamlet. I pray that you stay with us.


Hamlet:
Whatever you say, mom. I'll stay.

King Claudius:
Well, you say that you agree. We shall see if you mean it. Come on, my Queen, let's get going. 
It does me good to hear Hamlet agree so readily to our wishes. Let's get going.





EXIT ALL BUT HAMLET

Hamlet:
Oh, I wish I could just die. Or that God did not consider suiside so evil.
I wish I could just die.
Oh God! Oh God!
Living just doesn't seem worth it! There is no point to life!

Everything in life is evil. 
Everything is full of sorrow. 
Why live at all?

And how can my mother forget my father so quickly? It wasn't two months after his death that my Uncle started to court her. 
And she hung on him like a love sick puppy. 
- Frailty, thy name is woman! - 
Women are weak and unfaithful. 

The shoes she wore to his funeral were not even scuffed yet!

An animal would have taken longer to morn than my mother did!

​She married his brother, yes, but he is no more like him than I am to superman. Within a month of courting she was married to him and he to her and she says she loves him but he is as different from my father as can be. 

They were brother and sister (in law) and now they sleep together! It's incest. But, though it breaks my heart not to say what I think, I have to hold my tongue. 


HORATIO, MARCELLUS AND BERNARDO ENTER THE ROOM

Horatio:
Prince! Hello!

Hamlet:
Its good to see you. 
You are Horatio, yes?

Horatio:
Yes, sir, and I serve you as always.

Hamlet:
Yes, we went to school together in Wittenberg. What are you doing here? And you too, Marcellus?

Marcellus:
Sir...

Hamlet:
It's good to see you but what brings you here from Wittenberg where we went to school together?

Horatio:
I wanted to get away for a while, sir. And they wanted me gone.

Hamlet: 
No! I wouldn't let even your enemy say such a thing about you! I will not let you say it either!
Now what really brings you to Elsinore? We will take you out drinking before you go back!


Horatio:
Sir, I came for your father's funeral.

Hamlet:
Right. Don't lie to me. I think you came for my mother's wedding.

Horatio:
Yes, well, they were very close together.

Hamlet:
The food from the funeral feast wasn't even cold before it was used for the wedding feast. 
I would not have believed I would ever see a thing like this, a betrayal like this.
And sometimes I think I see my father!

Horatio:
Where, sir?

Hamlet:
Just in my own mind, Horatio.

Horatio:
I met him once. He was a good king.

Hamlet:
Though he was just a man, he was the greatest of men. I will never meet another better.

Horatio:
I think I saw him yesterday, sir.

Hamlet:
Saw who yesterday?

Horatio:
The king, your father

Hamlet:
My father??

Horatio:
Let me tell you what happened. 
These others saw it too. we all did. 
You will not believe it.


Hamlet:
Tell me!!

Horatio:
For two nights in a row, Marcellus and Bernardo, while on watch in the middle of the night, have seen this thing. It was a ghost that looked to be your father. He was armed in your father's armor and cape. 
He appeared before them and walked slowly by them.
They were in shock and afraid.
They were so afraid they were frozen and they just stood there and stared at him, not speaking to him. 

They came to me and told me about this. I didn't believe them so I went with them the next night to see.

I saw your father and that everything they said was true. I know it was your father. It looked just like him.



Hamlet:
But where did this happen?


Marcellus:
On the platform where we stand our watch.

Hamlet:
You did not speak to it?

Horatio:
I did, sir, but it didn't answer me. Once I thought it was about to answer me but then the rooster crowed and it ran away and vanished from our site.





Hamlet:
that is very strange.

Horatio:
As I live and on my honor it is the truth, sir. 
We feel like it is important that you know about this.

Hamlet:
Yes, but this really upsets me. 
Do you have the late watch tonight?


Marcellus and Bernardo:
We do, sir.

Hamlet:
He was armed

Marcellus and Bernardo:
He was, sir.

Hamlet:
All his weapons and his armor?

Marcellus and Bernardo:
Yes, all of it, sir.

Hamlet:
Then you couldn't have seen his face.

Horatio:
That's right sir, he had his helmet on.

Hamlet:
And he looked angry to you?


Horatio:
more like sad than angry

Hamlet:
was his skin pale or was it flushed?

Horatio:
very pale

Hamlet:
and he looked at you?

Horatio:
right at us

Hamlet:
I wish I had been there.

Horatio:
It would have amazed you.

Hamlet:
For sure. Did it stay around long?

Horatio:
Maybe to a count of one hundred.

Marcellus and bernardo:
no, longer than that

Horatio:
not when I saw it.

Hamlet:
His beard was grizzled?

Horatio:
Just as  it looked in life, sir. 
And white.

Hamlet:
I will watch tonight
Maybe it will come again.

Horatio:
I'll bet it will.

Hamlet:
If a ghost comes that looks like my father
I will speak to it
no matter who tries to stop me, I will speak to it.
Now, don't tell anyone about this. But watch and tell me anything relevant.
I will see you on the platform between eleven and twelve. 
I'll come to you.

All:
Anything you want of us, sir.

Hamlet:
I honor you. Farewell.

EXIT ALL BUT HAMLET

My father's spirit! And all dressed up in his armor!
This is not good. 
Something is clearly wrong.
I wish it were night already.
I can hardly wait but I must be still and not let on that anything is amiss. 

​EXIT

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On to Act I Scene III

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