Andrew Williams - Textausgabe + Lektüreschlüssel. William Shakespeare - Hamlet

Revisitsthus the glimpsesof the moon,

Making night hideous, and wefools of nature

So horridly to shake our disposition

With thoughts beyond the reachesof our souls?

Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?

Ghost beckons Hamlet.

HORATIO. It beckons you to go away with it,

[42] As if it some impartmentdid desire

To you alone.

MARCELLUS. Look with what courteous action

It wavesyou to a more removèdground,

But do not go with it.

HORATIO. No, by no means.

HAMLET. It will not speak, then I will follow it.

HORATIO. Do not, my lord.

HAMLET. Why, what should be the fear?

I do not set my life at a pin’s 39 fee,

And for my soul, what can it do to that,

Being a thing immortal as itself;

It waves me forth again, I’ll follow it.

HORATIO. What if it temptyou toward the flood, my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff

That beetleso’er his base into the sea,

And there assume some other horrible form

Which might depriveyour sovereigntyof reason,

And draw you into madness? Think of it –

The very place puts toys of desperation,

Without more motive, into every brain

That looks so many fathomsto the sea

And hears it roar beneath.

HAMLET. It waves me still. –

Go on, I’ll follow thee.

MARCELLUS. You shall not go, my lord.

[Grips him.]

HAMLET. Hold off your hands.

[43] HORATIO. Be ruled, you shall not go.

[Helps Marcellus.]

HAMLET. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty arteryin this body

As hardyas the Nemean lion’s nerve;

Still am I called, unhandme, gentlemen,

[He breaks from them, drawing his sword]

By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that letsme!

I say, away! – Go on, I’ll follow thee.

Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.

HORATIO. He waxesdesperate with imagination.

MARCELLUS. Let’s follow, ’tis not fit thus to obey him.

HORATIO. Haveafter … to what issuewill this come?

MARCELLUS. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

HORATIO. Heaven will direct it.

MARCELLUS. Nay, let’s follow him!

Exit Marcellus, Horatio after him.

[44] Scene 5

[A remote part of the fortifications]

Enter Ghost, and Hamlet.

HAMLET. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.

GHOST. [Turns.] Mark me.

HAMLET. I will.

GHOST. My hour is almost come,

When I to sulph’rousand tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

HAMLET. Alas, poor ghost!

GHOST. Pity me not, but lend thy serioushearing

To what I shall unfold.

HAMLET. Speak, I am bound to hear.

GHOST. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

HAMLET. What?

GHOST. I am thy father’s spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fastin fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purgedaway; butthat I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, 40

[45] Thy knotted and combinèd locksto part,

And each particular hair to stand an end,

Like quillsupon the fearful porpentine.

But this eternal blazonmust not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love …

HAMLET. O God!

GHOST. Revenge his foul and most unnaturalmurder.

HAMLET. Murder?

GHOST. Murder most foul, as in the bestit is,

But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET. Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift

As meditationor the thoughts of love,

May sweepto my revenge.

GHOST. I find thee apt,

And duller shouldstthou be than the fatweed

That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,

Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:

[46] ’Tis givenout that, sleeping in my orchard,

A serpent stungme; so the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a forged processof my death

Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown.

HAMLET. O my propheticsoul!

My uncle?

GHOST. Ay, that incestuous, that adulteratebeast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorousgifts –

O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce– won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.

O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there

From me, whose love was of that dignity

That it went hand in hand even with the vow

I made to her in marriage; and to decline

Upon a wretchwhose natural gifts were poor

To those of mine.

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

[47] Though lewdness courtit in a shape of heaven,

So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

Will sateitself in a celestialbed

And preyon garbage.

But soft, methinks I scent the morning air,

Brief let me be: sleeping within my orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my securehour thy uncle stole

With juice of cursèd hebonain a vial,

And in the porchesof my ears did pour

The leprous distilment, whose effect

Holds such an enmity with blood of man

That swift as quicksilver it courses through

The natural gates and alleysof the body,

And with a sudden vigour it doth posset

And curd, like eager droppingsinto milk,

The thin and wholesome blood; 41so did it mine,

And a most instant tetter barked about,

[48] Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsomecrust

All my smooth body …

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand

Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled,

No reck’ningmade, but sent to my account

With all my imperfectionson my head.

HAMLET. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible! 42

GHOST. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not,

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couchfor luxuryand damned incest.

But howsomeverthou pursuesthis act,

Taintnot thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive

Against thy mother aught, leave her to heaven,

And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge

To prickand sting her. Fare thee well at once,

[49] The glow-worm shows the matinto be near,

And ’gins to palehis uneffectualfire.

Adieu, adieu, adieu, remember me.

Exit.

HAMLET. O all you hostof heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I couplehell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,

And you, my sinews, grow not instantold,

But bearme stifflyup … Remember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat

In this distracted globe. Remember thee?

Yea, from the tableof my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial fondrecords,

All sawsof books, all forms, all pressurespast

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandmentall alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

Unmixed with baser matter – yes, by heaven!

[50] O most perniciouswoman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!

My tables, meetit is I setit down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain,

[Writes]

At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark …

So, uncle, there you are. Now, to my Word,

It is “Adieu, adieu, remember me” …

[Lays his hand upon the hiltof his sword.]

I have sworn’t. 43

[Kneels and prays.]

HORATIO. My lord, my lord!

[From afar.]

MARCELLUS. [From afar.] Lord Hamlet!

HORATIO. [From afar.] Heavens securehim!