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Home > Hamlet > ACT IV - SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.

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ACT IV - SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.
Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching

PRINCE FORTINBRAS
1    Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
2    Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
3    Craves the conveyance of a promised march
4    Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
5    If that his majesty would aught with us,
6    We shall express our duty in his eye;
7    And let him know so.
Captain
8    I will do't, my lord.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
9    Go softly on.
Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

HAMLET
10   Good sir, whose powers are these?
Captain
11   They are of Norway, sir.
HAMLET
12   How purposed, sir, I pray you?
Captain
13   Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET
14   Who commands them, sir?
Captain
15   The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET
16   Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
17   Or for some frontier?
Captain
18   Truly to speak, and with no addition,
19   We go to gain a little patch of ground
20   That hath in it no profit but the name.
21   To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
22   Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
23   A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAMLET
24   Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Captain
25   Yes, it is already garrison'd.
HAMLET
26   Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
27   Will not debate the question of this straw:
28   This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
29   That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
30   Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
Captain
31   God be wi' you, sir.
Exit

ROSENCRANTZ
32   Wilt please you go, my lord?
HAMLET
33   I'll be with you straight go a little before.
Exeunt all except HAMLET
34   How all occasions do inform against me,
35   And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
36   If his chief good and market of his time
37   Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
38   Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
39   Looking before and after, gave us not
40   That capability and god-like reason
41   To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
42   Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
43   Of thinking too precisely on the event,
44   A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
45   And ever three parts coward, I do not know
46   Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
47   Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
48   To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
49   Witness this army of such mass and charge
50   Led by a delicate and tender prince,
51   Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
52   Makes mouths at the invisible event,
53   Exposing what is mortal and unsure
54   To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
55   Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
56   Is not to stir without great argument,
57   But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
58   When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
59   That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
60   Excitements of my reason and my blood,
61   And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
62   The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
63   That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
64   Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
65   Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
66   Which is not tomb enough and continent
67   To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
68   My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
Exit

< (Previous) ACT IV, SCENE IIIACT IV, V (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II

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