Page 29 of Hamlet

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HAMLET What?

GHOST I am thy father's spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purged away. But17 that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up20 thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres21,

Thy knotty and combined locks22 to part

And each particular hair to stand on end

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine24.

But this eternal blazon25 must not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List26, Hamlet, O, list!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love--

HAMLET O heaven!

GHOST Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET Murder?

GHOST Murder most foul, as in the best31 it is,

But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET Haste, haste me to know it, that I with wings as swift

As meditation34 or the thoughts of love

May sweep35 to my revenge.

GHOST I find thee apt36,

And duller shouldst thou be37 than the fat weed

That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf38,

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

It's given out that, sleeping in mine orchard40,

A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark

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