1 I will receive it with all diligence of spirit.
2 It then draws near the season Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
3 My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep.
4 The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
5 The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy th'election lights On Fortinbras.
6 Break we our watch up, and by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
7 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.
8 The single and peculiar life is bound With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many.'
9 The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T'assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me.
10 The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T'assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me.
11 I have heard The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Th'extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine.
12 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 eggshell.
13 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.'