TPTT The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
SCENE I. A room in the castle.
SCENE II. Another room in the castle.
SCENE III. Another room in the castle.
SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.
SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the castle.
SCENE VI. Another room in the castle.
SCENE VII. Another room in the castle.
ACT V
About the Play
Feedback
  Search:   
for:

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.
Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
      Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
      Craves the conveyance of a promised march
      Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
5     If that his majesty would aught with us,
      We shall express our duty in his eye;
      And let him know so.
Captain
      I will do't, my lord.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
      Go softly on.
Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers
Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others
HAMLET
10    Good sir, whose powers are these?
Captain
      They are of Norway, sir.
HAMLET
      How purposed, sir, I pray you?
Captain
      Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET
      Who commands them, sir?
Captain
15    The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET
      Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
      Or for some frontier?
Captain
      Truly to speak, and with no addition,
      We go to gain a little patch of ground
20    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.
HAMLET
      Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Captain
25    Yes, it is already garrison'd.
HAMLET
      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
30    Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
Captain
      God be wi' you, sir.
Exit
ROSENCRANTZ
      Wilt please you go, my lord?
HAMLET
      I'll be with you straight go a little before.

Exeunt all except HAMLET

      How all occasions do inform against me,
35    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
40    That capability and god-like reason
      To fust in us unused. 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
45    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
50    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,
55    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,
60    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
65    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
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene