And I with them the third night kept the watch: 
     Where, as they had deliver’d, both in time,
     Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
     The apparition comes:  I knew your father;
     These hands are not more like.

Ham.  But where was this?

Mar.  My lord, upon the platform where we watch’d.

Ham.  Did you speak to it?

Hor.  My lord, I did;
     But answer made it none:  yet once methought
     It lifted up its head and did address
     Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
     But even then the morning cock crew loud,
     And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
     And vanish’d from our sight.

Ham.  ’T is very strange.

Hor.  As I do live, my honor’d lord, ’t is true;
     And we did think it writ down in our duty
     To let you know of it.

Ham.  Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me,
     Hold you the watch to-night?

Mar.  Ber.  We do, my lord.

Ham.  Arm’d, say you?

Mar.  Ber.  Arm’d, my lord.

Ham.  From top to toe?

Mar.  Ber.  My lord, from head to foot.

Ham.  Then saw you not his face?

Hor.  Oh, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

Ham.  What, look’d he frowningly?

Hor.  A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Ham.  Pale or red?

Hor.  Nay, very pale.

Ham.  And fix’d his eyes upon you?

Hor.  Most constantly.

Ham.  I would I had been there.

Hor.  It would have much amazed you.

Ham.  Very like, very like.  Stay’d it long?

Hor.  While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

Mar.  Ber.  Longer, longer.

Hor.  Not when I saw’t.

Ham.  His beard was grizzled,—­no?

Hor.  It was, as I have seen it in his life,
     A sable silver’d.

Ham.  I will watch to-night;
     Perchance ’t will walk again.

Hor.  I warrant it will.

Ham.  If it assume my noble father’s person,
     I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
     And bid me hold my peace.  I pray you all,
     If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight,
     Let it be tenable in your silence still;
     And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
     Give it an understanding, but no tongue: 
     I will requite your loves.  So, fare you well: 
     Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve,
     I’ll visit you.

Definitions.—­Tru’ant, wandering from business, loitering.  Trust’er, a believer.  At-tent’, attentive, heedful.  De-liv’er, to communicate, to utter.  Cap-a-pie’ (from the French, pro. kap-a-pee’), from head to foot.  Trun’cheon (pro. trun’shun), a short staff, a baton.  Bea’ver, a part of the helmet covering the face, so constructed that the wearer could raise or lower it.  Ten’a-ble, capable of being held.