Scene 1.5
Scene 1.5 – On the Night Watch,
Outside the Royal Castle at Elsinore
Imploring the
ghost to speak, Hamlet refuses to go any further.
The ghost, alone with Hamlet for the first time, breaks his silence at
long last. Claiming to be his
father’s spirit, the ghost is permitted to roam at night but is confined to
flames (most likely in purgatory) during the day.
The ghost commands Hamlet, if he ever loved his father, to revenge his
“foul and most unnatural murder.” That
his father was murdered is news to Hamlet, so he is understandably shocked to
hear these words. Continuing to
reveal the murder mystery, the ghost even discloses the murderer:
he who presently wears the King’s crown is the guilty party!
None other than Claudius himself. All
of Denmark, the ghost maintains, is currently deceived with a fabricated version
of his death. The ghost bemoans the
“wicked wit” of Claudius who so swiftly won over Gertrude, his “most
seeming-virtuous” wife.
With time running
short as morning breaks, the ghost must rapidly recount how Claudius poured
poison in Hamlet’s ears while the latter was sound asleep.
The poison promptly curdled Hamlet’s blood, killing him before he could
make a final confession or receive the last Sacrament.
He was stripped of life, crown and Queen in an instant.
Before vanishing, the ghost again commands Hamlet to revenge – “Let
not the royal bed of Denmark be / A couch for luxury and damned incest” –
but not without also charging him to spare his mother and keep a clean
conscience in everything. Gertrude’s
punishment, the ghost says, is to be left to the heavens and whatever thorns (of
conscience) might presently prick her
Hamlet, briefly
alone on stage, swears to revenge his father’s murder.
He vows not to be distracted by anything – especially not his studies
– in this pursuit of vengeance. Moments
later Horatio and Marcellus enter. Hamlet
speaks strange things to them, “wild and whirling words” they do not
understand, but he refuses to divulge the specifics of his exchange with the
ghost. Instead, Hamlet insists
Horatio and Marcellus swear on his sword that they will never speak of what they
have seen or heard this very night. The
ghost’s repeated cries in the distance likewise urge Horatio and Marcellus to
swear their secrecy. Hamlet tells
his compatriots that he must now put on an “antic disposition” – that he
will at times play the madman – but that they will know he is not what he
seems. Bewildered but eager to
please their friend, Horatio and Marcellus swear to keep silent.
The first act ends with Hamlet embracing his fate, albeit reluctantly:
“The time is out of joint: O cursèd spite, / That ever I was born to
set it right.”
