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Home : Hamlet : Act 1, scene v Read the Study Guide: Hamlet
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Hamlet
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Enter GHOST and HAMLET
The GHOST and HAMLET enter.
 HAMLET
  Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further.
HAMLET
Where are you taking me? Speak. I'm not going any farther.
 GHOST
  Mark me.
GHOST
Listen to me.
 HAMLET
          I will.
HAMLET
I will.
 GHOST
                  My hour is almost come
  When I to sulfurous and tormenting flames
  Must render up myself.
GHOST
The hour has almost come when I have to return to the horrible flames of purgatory.
 HAMLET
                          Alas, poor ghost!
HAMLET
Ah, poor ghost!
 GHOST
5 Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
  To what I shall unfold.
GHOST
Don't pity me. Just listen carefully to what I have to tell you.
 HAMLET
                          Speak. I am bound to hear.
HAMLET
Speak. I'm ready to hear you.
 GHOST
  So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.
GHOST
You must be ready for revenge, too, when you hear me out.
 HAMLET
  What?
HAMLET
What?
 GHOST
  I am thy father's spirit,
10 Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
  And for the day confined to fast in fires,
  Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
  Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
  To tell the secrets of my prison house,
15 I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
  Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
GHOST
I'm the ghost of your father, doomed for a certain period of time to walk the earth at night, while during the day I'm trapped in the fires of purgatory until I've done penance for my past sins. If I weren't forbidden to tell you the secrets of purgatory , I could tell you stories that would slice through your soul, freeze your blood,

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