SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark  Shakespeare homepage  |  Hamlet  | Act 4, Scene 4 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark. 

 Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching  PRINCE FORTINBRAS  Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; 

 Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras 

 Craves the conveyance of a promised march 

 Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. 

 If that his majesty would aught with us, 

 We shall express our duty in his eye; 

 And let him know so. 

 Captain  I will do't, my lord. 

 PRINCE FORTINBRAS  Go softly on. 



 Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers 

 Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others  HAMLET  Good sir, whose powers are these? 

 Captain  They are of Norway, sir. 

 HAMLET  How purposed, sir, I pray you? 

 Captain  Against some part of Poland. 

 HAMLET  Who commands them, sir? 

 Captain  The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras. 

 HAMLET  Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, 

 Or for some frontier? 

 Captain  Truly to speak, and with no addition, 

 We go to gain a little patch of ground 

 That hath in it no profit but the name. 

 To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; 

 Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole 

 A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. 

 HAMLET  Why, then the Polack never will defend it. 

 Captain  Yes, it is already garrison'd. 

 HAMLET  Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats 

 Will not debate the question of this straw: 

 This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, 

 That inward breaks, and shows no cause without 

 Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. 

 Captain  God be wi' you, sir. 



 Exit  ROSENCRANTZ  Wilt please you go, my lord? 

 HAMLET  I'll be with you straight go a little before. 



 Exeunt all except HAMLET  How all occasions do inform against me, 

 And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, 

 If his chief good and market of his time 

 Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 

 Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 

 Looking before and after, gave us not 

 That capability and god-like reason 

 To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be 

 Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple 

 Of thinking too precisely on the event, 

 A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom 

 And ever three parts coward, I do not know 

 Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' 

 Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 

 To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me: 

 Witness this army of such mass and charge 

 Led by a delicate and tender prince, 

 Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd 

 Makes mouths at the invisible event, 

 Exposing what is mortal and unsure 

 To all that fortune, death and danger dare, 

 Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great 

 Is not to stir without great argument, 

 But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 

 When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, 

 That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, 

 Excitements of my reason and my blood, 

 And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see 

 The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 

 That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, 

 Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot 

 Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, 

 Which is not tomb enough and continent 

 To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, 

 My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! 



 Exit  Shakespeare homepage  |  Hamlet  | Act 4, Scene 4 

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