TEXT:
BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
BERNARDO
Long live the king!
FRANCISCO
Bernardo?
BERNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon your hour.
BERNARDO
'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
FRANCISCO
For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
BERNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.
BERNARDO
Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
FRANCISCO
I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?
[Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]
HORATIO
Friends to this ground.
MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.
FRANCISCO
Give you good night.
MARCELLUS
O, farewell, honest soldier:
Who hath relieved you?
FRANCISCO
Bernardo has my place. Give you good night.
MARCELLUS
Holla! Bernardo!
BERNARDO
Say, what, is Horatio there?
HORATIO
A piece of him.
BERNARDO
Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
NOTES:
QUARTO | FOLIO
Shakespeare's plays were printed in a variety of different printing formats. Some plays (Hamlet included) were first printed as quartos, or books in which the paper is folded in half twice, creating a smaller book. (Quarto because the page was folded into four smaller pages...) In 1623 the plays were edited and published as a folio, in which the pages are folded in half once. This volume, the First Folio, was put together by two actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell. The First Folio contains all of the canonical plays by Shakespeare with the exception of Pericles.
Dominic Dromgoole's book Hamlet: Globe to Globe tells the story of the Shakespeare's Globe production of the play that set out to tour every country on earth. It's a beautiful read.
Peter Brook's play Qui Est Là takes its name from the opening line of Hamlet, but features other texts by several great writers and theorists of the theatre from all over the world. He directed two major productions of Hamlet - one in 1955 with Paul Schofield, and another in 2000 with Adrian Lester.
A Visit from St. Nicholas is a favourite Christmas poem around the world - perhaps the most famous ever to come from the United States. Its authorship has long been contested, but you can click here to explore a beautiful illustrated edition of the poem from 1912.