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Enter GHOST and
HAMLET
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The GHOST and HAMLET
enter.
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HAMLET Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no
further.
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HAMLET Where are you taking me? Speak. I’m not going any
farther.
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GHOST Mark me.
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GHOST Listen to me.
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HAMLET I will.
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HAMLET I will.
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GHOST My hour is almost come
When I to sulfurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
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GHOST The hour has almost come when I have to return to the horrible
flames of purgatory.
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HAMLET Alas, poor ghost!
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HAMLET Ah, poor ghost!
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GHOST
5Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold.
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GHOST Don’t pity me. Just listen carefully to what I have to
tell you.
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HAMLET Speak. I am bound to
hear.
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HAMLET Speak. I’m ready to hear you.
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GHOST So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.
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GHOST You must be ready for revenge, too, when you hear me out.
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HAMLET What?
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HAMLET What?
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GHOST I am thy father’s spirit,
10Doomed 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,
15I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
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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
purgatoryAccording to Catholic doctrine, purgatory is a place where souls go to be punished for their sins before going to heaven. purgatory , I could tell you stories that would slice through your soul, freeze your blood, |
