SC. I.]
PRINCE OF DENMARK
11
And prologue to the omen[b 1] coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures[b 2] and countrymen.125
Re-enter Ghost.
But, soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.[b 3] Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice.
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done, 130
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily,[b 4] foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak! 135
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you[a 1] spirits oft walk in death,
[The cock crows.[a 2]
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
- ↑ 123. omen] the ominous event, Farmer cites from Heywood's Life of Merlin: "Merlin . . . His country's omen did long since foretell."
- ↑ 125. climatures] regions; in which sense "climate" is commonly found, Dyce reads climature, Clar. Press suggests the inhabitants of our regions.
- ↑ 127. I'll cross it, though it blast me] Blakeway cites from Lodge's Illustrations of British History, iii. 48, a story of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby (who died 1594): on Friday a tall man appeared, who twice crossed him swiftly; and when the bewitched Earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick. Opposite this line Q has the stage direction: "It spreads his armes."
- ↑ 134. happily] haply. See II. ii. 408, and Measure for Measure, IV, ii. 98 (Clar. Press). Hudson explains it "fortunately." Furness writes: "The structure of this solemn appeal is almost identical with that of a very different strain in As You Like It, II. iv. 33-42."
