Andrew Williams - Textausgabe + Lektüreschlüssel. William Shakespeare - Hamlet

Give you good night.

Exit.

MARCELLUS. Holla, Bernardo!

BERNARDO. Say –

What, is Horatio there?

HORATIO. [Gives his hand.] A piece of him.

BERNARDO. Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellus.

HORATIO. What, has this thing appeared again to-night? 3

BERNARDO. I have seen nothing.

MARCELLUS. Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy,

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touchingthis dreadedsight twice seen of us;

Therefore I have entreatedhim along

With us to watch the minutes of this night,

That, if again this apparition come,

He may approveour eyes and speak to it. 4

HORATIO. Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.

BERNARDO. Sit down awhile,

[7] And let us once again assailyour ears,

That are so fortifiedagainst our story,

What we have two nights seen.

HORATIO. Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

BERNARDO. Last night of all,

When yondsame star that’s westward from the pole

Had made his 5course t’illumethat part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one …

Enter Ghost, in armour and bearing a marshal’s truncheon.

MARCELLUS. Peace, break theeoff, look where it comes again!

[They start up.]

BERNARDO. In the same figure like the King that’s dead.

MARCELLUS. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.

BERNARDO. Looks ’anot like the King? Markit, Horatio.

HORATIO. Most like, it harrowsme with fear and wonder.

BERNARDO. It would be spoke to.

MARCELLUS. Speak to it, Horatio.

HORATIO. What art thou that usurp’stthis time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

[8] In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimesmarch? By heaven, I charge thee, speak.

MARCELLUS. It is offended.

BERNARDO. See, it stalksaway.

HORATIO. Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee, speak!

Exit Ghost.

MARCELLUS. ’Tis gone and will not answer.

BERNARDO. How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale,

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on’t?

HORATIO. Before my God, I mightnot this believe

Without the sensibleand true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

MARCELLUS. Is it not like the King?

HORATIO. As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armour he had on 6

When he the ambitious Norway combated,

So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle,

He smotethe sledded Polackson the ice.

’Tis strange.

[9] MARCELLUS. Thus twice before, and jumpat this dead hour,

With martial stalkhath he gone by our watch.

HORATIO. In what particular thought 7to work I know not,

But in the gross and scopeof mine opinion

This bodessome strange eruptionto our state.

MARCELLUS. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observantwatch

So nightly toilsthe subjectof the land,

And why such daily castof brazencannon

And foreign martfor implementsof war,

Why such impressof shipwrightswhose soretask

Does not divide the Sunday from the week –

What might be towardthat this sweatyhaste

Doth make the night joint-labourerwith the day:

Who is’t that can inform me?

HORATIO. That can I,

[10] At least the whispergoes so: Our last King,

Whose image even but nowappeared to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto prickedon by a most emulatepride,

Daredto the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet

(For so this side of our known world esteemedhim)

Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact,

Well ratifiedby law and heraldy,

Did forfeit(with his life) all those his lands 8

Which he stood seizedof, to the conqueror,

Against the which a moiety competent

Was gagèdby our King, which had returned

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher, as by the same co-mart,

[11] And carriageof the article designed,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimprovèd mettlehot and full,

Hath in the skirtsof Norway here and there

Sharked upa listof lawless resolutes,

For food and diet, 9to some enterprise

That hath a stomachin’t, which is no other –

As it doth well appear unto our state –

Butto recover ofus by strong hand

And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands

So by his father lost; and this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source of this our watch, and the chief head

Of this post-hasteand rummagein the land.

BERNARDO. I think it be no other but e’en so;

Well may it sortthat this portentousfigure

[12] Comes armèd through our watch so like the King

That was and is the questionof these wars.

HORATIO. A moteit is to trouble the mind’s eye. 10

In the most high and palmystate of Rome,

A little erethe mightiest Juliusfell, 11

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeteddead

Did squeakand gibberin the Roman streets …

As 12stars with trainsof fire, and dews of blood,

Disastersin the sun; and the moist star

Upon whose influence Neptune’sempire stands,

Was sick almost to doomsdaywith eclipse. 13

And even the like precurseof fierce events,

As harbingerspreceding stillthe fates

And prologue to the omencoming on,

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

[13] Unto our climaturesand countrymen.

Re-enter Ghost.

But soft, behold, lo where it comes again!

[They start up.]

I’ll crossit though it blastme.

He spreads his arms.

– Stay, illusion!

If thou hast any sound or use of voice,

Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done

That may to thee do ease, 14and grace to me,

Speak to me.

If thou art privyto thy country’s fate

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,

O, speak!

Or if thou hast uphoardedin thy life

Extortedtreasure in the wombof earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

Speak of it –

The cock crows

stay and speak – stop it, Marcellus!

MARCELLUS. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

HORATIO. Do, if it will not stand.

BERNARDO. ’Tis here!

HORATIO. ’Tis here!

Exit Ghost.

[14] MARCELLUS. ’Tis gone …

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence,

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

BERNARDO. It was about to speak when the cock crew.

HORATIO. And then it startedlike a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,

The cock, that is the trumpetto the morn,

Doth with his loftyand shrill-sounding throat

Awake the god of day, and at his warning,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 15

Th’ extravagantand erringspirit hies

To his confine; and of the truth herein

This present objectmade probation.

MARCELLUS. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever ’gainstthat season comes

Wherein our Saviour’sbirth is celebrated,

This bird of dawning singeth all night long;

[15] And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,

The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, 16

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallowedand so graciousis that time.

HORATIO. So have I heard and do in part believe it. –

But look, the morn in russetmantle clad

Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastwardhill.

Break we our watch up; and by my advice

Let us impartwhat we have seen to-night

Unto young Hamlet, for upon my life,

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.