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Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
Francisco at his post. Enter BERNARDO.

BERNARDO:  Who’s there?  
FRANCISCO:  Nay, answer me; stand, and unfold [identify] yourself.
BERNARDO:  Long live the king!            5
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,            10
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,            15
The rivals [partners] 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 [Friends to Elsinore].
MARCELLUS:  And liegemen to the Dane [loyal subjects of the king].            20
FRANCISCO:  Give you good-night.  
MARCELLUS:  O! farewell, honest soldier:  
Who hath reliev’d you?  
FRANCISCO:  Bernardo has my place.  
Give you good-night.  [Exit.            25
MARCELLUS:  Holla! [Hello!] Bernardo!
BERNARDO:  Say,  
What! is Horatio there?  
HORATIO:  A piece of him.
[piece of him: Horatio is only half-awake.]  
BERNARDO:  Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.            30
MARCELLUS:  What! has this thing appear’d again to-night?  
BERNARDO:  I have seen nothing.  
MARCELLUS:  Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy,  
And will not let belief take hold of him  
Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us:            35
Therefore I have entreated him along  
With us to watch the minutes of this night;  
That if again this apparition come,  
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.  
HORATIO:  Tush, tush! ’twill not appear.            40
BERNARDO:  Sit down a while,  
And let us once again assail your ears,
[assail . . . ears: Tell you; fill your ears] 
That are so fortified against our story,  
What we two nights have seen.  
HORATIO:  Well, sit we down,            45
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.  
BERNARDO:  Last night of all,  
When yond same star that’s westward from the pole
[yond: Yonder; star: North Star, on the outer edge of the Little Dipper.] 
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven  
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,            50
The bell then beating one,—  
MARCELLUS:  Peace! break thee off; look, where it comes again!  
 
Enter Ghost.