TEXT:
HAMLET (continued)
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father! - methinks I see my father.
HORATIO
Where, my lord?
HAMLET
In my mind's eye, Horatio.
HORATIO
I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
HAMLET
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET
Saw? who?
HORATIO
My lord, the king your father.
HAMLET
The king my father!
HORATIO
Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
HAMLET
For God's love, let me hear.
HORATIO
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him.
NOTES:
Cap-a-pe
Variously rendered as cap-a-pe or cap-a-pie, this phrase comes from medieval French, and means head to foot. (It can be traced even further back to Latin, where caput = head and pedem = food. Cap a pe, indeed.)
The noblest Roman of them all
Despite the fact that he organises the assassination of Julius Caesar (and so famously strikes the final blow) Brutus is eulogised very beautifully in Shakespeare's version of the story. His nobility is mentioned in Marc Antony's final comments, as well as the segment mentioned in this episode:
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world 'This was a man!'
(Julius Caesar, Act 5 Scene 5)