Hamlet Act I, Scene 5

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Hamlet: Where wilt thou lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further.

Ghost: Mark me!

Hamlet: I will.

Ghost: My hour is almost come,

When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

Hamlet: Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost: So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

I am thy father’s spirit,

Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purg’d away.

If thou didst ever thy dear father love –

Hamlet: O God!

Ghost: Revenge his most foul and unnatural murder.

Hamlet: Murder!

Ghost: Now Hamlet hear!

‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,

A serpent stung me;

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown.

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

Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d;

With all my imperfections on my head.

O, horrible, O horrible! Most horrible!

Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.

Hamlet: Remember thee!

So Uncle, there you are. Now to my word;

It is ‘Adieu, adieu! remember me.’

I have sworn it!