At around this point in the Hallyday's double album, the timeline gets a little tenuous. Songs are, by their nature, not as linearly narrative as drama is, and are closer cousins to the soliloquy. Interior voices, heightened reality. In Hallyday's Hamlet, where does the first Act end and the second begin? I believe the shift from one to the other is represented by the next two songs, Je suis fou (I Am Mad) and On a peur pour lui (We're Afraid for Him). The first is Hamlet's self-acknowledged switch from sanity to madness, the other the reaction his friends have to his change in behavior. As usual, expect a certain amount of doggerel in the translations:

Je suis fou
Je suis fou comm’une tomate
Je ne tiens plus sur mes pattes
Je marche et vais de travers
Je vois rouge et je suis vert

Refrain:
Pardonne-moi, fou du roi
Si je suis plus fou que toi

Je suis fou comme une ficelle
Je me déroule, je m’emmêle
Je me détache, je m’accroche
Je m’use et je m’affiloche

Je suis fou comm’un navire
Et je vogue sur le délire
Plus d’étoiles, une nuit d’encre
Je ne sais où jeter l’ancre

Je suis fou comm’un soleil
Que se soit par la bouteille
Que ce soit par Ophelie
Je couche avec la folie

I Am Mad
I am mad like a tomato
I can't stand on my own paws
I walk and go astray
I see red and I am green

Refrain:
Forgive me, king's jester
If I'm madder than you

I an mad like a string
I unfurl, I get tangled
I detach, I get snagged
I get used and I get frayed

I am mad like a ship
And I float on delirium
No more stars, an inky night
I don't know where to drop anchor

I am mad like a sun
Whether through the bottle
Whether through Ophelia
I sleep with madness

This lament pretty definitely tells us that Hallyday considers Hamlet's madness to be real. This is Hamlet's voice and he doesn't leave any room for ambiguity. He expresses sadness at what he has become, and in the closing parts of the song, starts laughing maniacally as the chorus throws high-pitched "He is mad!" at him and he repeats key lines from the song. Many of the similes used will seem strange in English, but that's because they were chosen for their rhyme schemes in French (a mad tomato?). On the other hand, those nonsense words invoke Hamlet's madness. The mention of madness in a bottle may, in fact, be more about Hallyday's own experiences with the rockstar lifestyle than Hamlet's, given his railing against the king's rouse.

Also note the foreshadowing of Ophelia's madness and Hamlet's relationship with poor Yorick. The latter creates an early link between Hamlet's madness and the king's jester who in part helped raise him. We'll have more cause to talk about Yorick as another father figure in Hamlet's life down the road.

That was Hamlet's interior monologue. Now comes the reaction.

On a peur pour lui
J'ai peur pour son coeur
J'ai peur pour sa tête
Et ses maux de coeur [not sure]
Il se monte la tête [not sure]

J'ai peur pour sa tête
J'ai peur pour son coeur
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
etc.

We're Afraid for Him
I'm afraid for his heart
I'm afraid for his head
And his heartaches [not sure]
Something gets to his head [not sure]

I'm afraid for his head
I'm afraid for his heart
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
etc.

Half this track, about a minute, is just eerie driving music. If the Rock Opera were actually to be staged, we could well imagine some sort of action occurring here. It's noteworthy that while Hamlet's descent into madness is a relatively straightforward lament, Horatio's perception of the same even is creepy and strange. After that minute, the chorus shows up with an altogether too happy sing-along with a couple of undecipherable lines (I've been looking at various sources, but they either don't give lyrics for this track or else don't make any grammatical sense). The mix of concern and fear inspired by Hamlet's behavior takes us into the second Act, from Horatio and Marcellus to the whole of the Court.

The originalThat is all. It's actually surprising that the return of the Ghost isn't included given this adaptations fascination with that supernatural element. There is no conflict between the men that requires ghostly intervention, although the narration is almost oxymoronic. "I won't tell you anything, but I'll swear you to secrecy." And that's the interesting bit, I suppose. Summed up that way, it seems a little absurd, but we do have a scene here in which characters are forced to swear to reveal nothing while also being told nothing. While that's not strictly true, it's not entirely false either.

The Berkley version
The sequence gets the better part of a page, with Hamlet immediately asking his companions to swear. There is no room here for madcap zaniness, and Hamlet seems to remain his same old dour self through the entire first Act. We do not see him change, though he does tell Horatio that he'll affect a madness. In other words, this Hamlet isn't mad or even distraught. His actions will be well planned (presumably). The Ghost appears one last time:
Instead of other the earth, he's above ground. The relevant lines are of course cut. Strangely, though Hamlet proposes the oath, we do not hear the men swear to it. There is a disjointed quality to the comic book form, with things (especially speech) occurring in a single sustained moment within the same panel, and actions and words possibly lost in the space between panels. Sequences can read as a montage in which things must be inferred (mostly movement). As readers of Hamlet, we know the men swear even if that is not depicted here. This is an artifact of the medium (and the difficulties of adaptation) rather than a conscious disjointedness.
At the end, Hamlet and friends go back to Elsinore. As usual, artist Tom Mandrake gives us moody images, though I'm not always sure if they thematically match their scenes. This panel gives the impression of three heroes going boldly into the night. As we know, Hamlet really goes it alone from this point. We have the darkness and uncertainty, but where is Hamlet's isolation and doubt? Again, something may be lost in the frozen moment.

The camera work in this sequence is handheld, giddy, drunk and mad. The floor seems to tip like the deck of a ship. Hamlet comes towards his friends and walks away from them like the tide itself. This is an incredibly visual way to represent his state of mind. It pulsates with Hamlet's own sanity and with his alternating paranoia/trust with Horatio. There's good reason to believe Tennant's Hamlet has gone mad even beyond the way it is staged and shot. His characterization is very different from the grieving boy of the earlier scenes. He has just cut his hand, turning his oath into an even more serious affair. Is he asking the same from his friends? They never shed blood for their oaths, but they might well have thought Hamlet was going to require it of them. Even when he gets the idea of putting an antic disposition on, it doesn't look like he has far to go.
A good case could be made that this Hamlet is mad, but smart enough to know it. He justifies his present and future actions by turning uncontrollable behaviour into a conscious affectation. PR in Elsinore.

Insane or not, it's not all in his head. The Ghost returns, shaking the ground violently, bells ringing. In the stage play, they used sound effects to shake the seats, and mechanical effects to disturb chandeliers and lanterns. In the film version, simple use of shaky cam accomplishes the same trick, though it's not quite as visceral for the audience. Either way, it is quite clear that the director means for us to believe in the Ghost's reality. This is not anyone's point of view but our own. The two men accompanying Hamlet certainly believe in it and terrified, scream out their oath. Hamlet, for his part, is high on energy of the moment. He would hope Horatio could see things like he does and uses the more inclusive "our philosophy", but the sequence otherwise does little to bring Hamlet and Horatio closer together. They have contrasting attitudes, Hamlet's an alienating one. And once they've sworn, the men run out as Hamlet stays behind to say his final couplet to camera. The very last line is omitted. It would certainly have cemented Hamlet's madness for the audience.

A note on "There are more things..." from the director in the audio commentary: He rightly reminds us that this line also stands as an invitation to the audience to accept the weirdness of the play. There are politics and there is family drama, but there is also the supernatural and the more we dig into the play, problems and ambiguities. Shakespeare tells us, through this line, to trust him and go along with him on the journey. I accepted a long time ago.

In this version, Hamlet encounters the Ghost is a sort of waking dream. Horatio (the only one on guard duty with him) startles him out of it. He is confused and paranoid, as people sometimes are when awakened from an intense dream. The actor even fluffs his lines a little. It's important to remember that though she seems to accept the fact that the Ghost was communicating with Hamlet there, she didn't see it. So she really doesn't understand why he's so panicked, nor why he suddenly doesn't trust her to keep his secrets. In turn, this lack of understanding from his best friend makes him angry.

There is a nasty cut from "'faith heartily" to "this is wondrous strange", making it about his behavior rather than the Ghost. At which Hamlet lashes out. He snaps at her, using "YOUR philosophy" as an accusation. He's drawn a line in the sand and pushed her to the other side. Making Horatio a woman allows for a certain additional mirroring with Ophelia, which he also pushes away at the start of the next Act. What follows is an awkward moment. He visibly regrets what he's said, and she is hurt by the comment. There is definitely a certain degree of romantic tension between the two of them (which I won't claim ISN'T there when the characters are both male).
We then move on to the swearing, which he proposes as a sort of apology. He means to draw his friend back into his confidence, but gives his conditions, not just to show how important it is, but because he knows her. This is the first time I've gotten the sense that the description of "ambiguous giving out" refers specifically to Horatio (and Marcellus, if present). If Hamlet knows these men (and this woman, in this version) as well as it seems, wouldn't he use their own tics in that description? Horatio's characterization as a mistress of irony and sarcasm in this film could well come from these lines. Hamlet not only tells her not to cross her arms and shaking her head, he catches her doing it! The turns of phrase he forbids her may well be the ones she tends to use. This Horatio is so noncommittal, Hamlet must earnestly force her to commit.

At the end of the scene (which omits the rhyming couplet), the voice of the Ghost tells her to swear, she reacts, and we fade to black on that spooky moment. The ambiguity of the Ghost's reality is restored.

Hamlet 2000 moves lines around frequently, and in this case, prefaces this section with its actual end lines. The rhyming couplet is spoken over a video montage (presumably one of Hamlet's art films) of people and the city, resolving into the "real" world of the play, the Denmark corporation logo (above). The Ghost is still present, out on a nearby balcony, smoking a cigarette.
As you can see, it's nowhere near morning, so the line about time being out of joint is used here as a preface to that strangeness. Hamlet's friends walk in and see the Ghost there, witnessing not Hamlet's madness, but the Ghost itself. This is an important cut. Hamlet does not appear mad, nor does he warn his friends that he might start acting strangely (at least, not yet). There is no swearing, possibly as his friends are unlikely to tattle on him, and the Ghost does not ask them to. Most of the sequence is thus cut and Horatio jumps right to "this is wondrous strange". Hamlet tells him to "give HIM welcome", a notable change (from "it") showing that he is more accepting of the Ghost's identity. This is his father and not some evil spirit. The character's tangibility goes in the same direction.

Speaking of single words, this Hamlet uses the more inclusive "our philosophy", being just as mystified as Horatio is that the supernatural is real. The cumulative effect of this scene is to create a world where the younger characters are loyal to each other without needing to swear oaths. It is an accepted principle that they won't be talking to Hamlet's parents, the adults who have sold themselves out for money and power. These are two distinct and never overlapping worlds. It will make the betrayal of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz all the more unforgivable.

With couplet come and gone, Hamlet ends the Act on another voice-over line, this one pulled from earlier in the scene (and in the previous sequence from the perspective of these articles): "My fate cries out." Instead of referring to the impulse to follow the Ghost, it now refers to his call to arms against his uncle. It works, as indeed, the original use of the line ultimately invokes that same mission, though Hamlet does not know it.

Kline's version is staged like a play, but that sometimes puts its staging closer to the theatre. At the end of the previous sequence, it is customary for Hamlet to collapse. Kline goes up on structures and lets himself fall back into the void... and into the arms of Horatio and the soldiers (yes, here too, both soldiers appear). A common drama class trust exercise used to good effect as Hamlet falls from the supernatural world of the Ghost and into the embrace of the living world.Kline gives an unironic reading to the word "wonderful" when Horatio asks what news. I'd never really thought about Hamlet's answer, perhaps because it was always thrown glibly and quickly as part of the prince's mad speeches. Here, Hamlet wakes up as if from a dream and answers more honestly. We know the news is pretty far from wonderful, unless he means "filled with wonder", which would be warranted from a brush with the afterlife. We might wonder ourselves if Hamlet actually sees the prospect of getting to kill his uncle as something positive, or if this emotional inversion is an early clue to his madness. In the early part of this sequence, Hamlet does indeed seem mad. His moods change, he sweats profusely and seems deranged. There's even a sense that his friends don't hear the Ghost's voice at first, though there is a reaction the next time it does.

Perhaps we should look at the concept of the Royal Body as an explanation. The King is dead and Denmark grows cold. The new King has broken rightful succession, which relates to time being out of joint and the temporal strangeness of the play. But if Hamlet is the rightful, bypassed, King, should he not also relate to the State? The solution to the problem of the Ghost and Hamlet's madness (is there a Ghost or is he mad?) may be that Hamlet's grief and madness are spreading a new reality in the land. He misses his father so strongly, that his grief manifests as an apparition others can see. In this scene as played, it's like this imposed reality (born of the King-State connection) catches up to the group slightly late. Hamlet imagines it and so it becomes real. But that's as maybe.

An interesting touch from Kline is to include the soldiers at least as much as Horatio. He speaks his lines to one, then the others, keeping up with the giddy energy of the scene. The swearing is done without a sword, upon the ground from which the voice sprang, invoking how the stage play should feel.
As the voice moves, they shift their ground to that place and swear again. On the stage, the audience would be aware of that movement under the floorboards and be caught up in the chase. This is lost on television, but stage directors should do well to remember to play this out if they can. As the oaths proceed, Hamlet gets more and more stable, though the men with him seem amply worried. When he breaks with them to speak his rhyming couplet, as if coming to a sudden and almost cosmic awareness of the state of reality, they hear it all and don't know how to respond. Sometimes he's with them, and sometimes he isn't, and perhaps it's fitting that he would specify they should go in together. In his current state, just being present does not always mean he is "with" them.

Zeffirelli continues to frustrate with important cuts to the lines, which makes it at times difficult to glean some new understanding of the play from his version. As in the Olivier version, there are three men accompanying Hamlet on this journey into the supernatural, and the prince seems ready to tell them what's going on. The bird call seems an earnest invitation to learn the secret. Hamlet quickly changes his mind, fearing they will reveal it, though Gibson doesn't really play the next lines as obfuscation. He's matter of fact when he talks about the errant knave and it's only Horatio's frustration that turns it into a dodge. Hamlet makes sense to himself, but his words don't carry any meaning to his friends who are out of the loop.
Regarding the swearing, the Ghost's voice comes from above, as per its location in the previous sequence, motivating the cut of any line to the contrary. As day breaks, there's no reason it couldn't have returned to the ground, but in this version, the Ghost of woefully unambiguous. There is never any real indication that it might be an evil tempter or in any way dangerous. Making the voice from above makes it heavenly rather than hellish, and removing Hamlet's subsequent mockeries insures a son's respect. They run off to swear on more removed ground, leaving the walls of Elsinore and going outside where it is now light.
Hamlet is exhilarated by this point. The staging makes this new morning an entry into a new world, although one of light rather than darkness. It does not portentously foretell the tragedy to come. I'd call it ironic if it wasn't so wet and overcast. As is, the director's intent isn't clear. Horatio drops to his knees in fear, and the giddy Hamlet has cause to chide him about his philosophy ("your" is used). Gibson doesn't let us in on when he decided to act crazy, which is a shame. There's just not enough insanity in the sequence to warrant his getting the idea from his own behavior. The idea comes out of nowhere.

I feel the next cut most strongly. In this version, Hamlet ends the Act with the rhyming couplet, but does not preface or follow it with an invitation to go in. There's almost a sense that he speaks the couplet to the camera and that we are in a soliloquy-type space at that moment, but that's uncertain. I suppose Horatio and the soldiers hear him, though again, they have little context to make sense of it. By not looking to draw his friends back in - and perhaps he didn't ostracize them enough to warrant such a gesture, which is a problem in and of itself - he makes them unimportant. The cumulative effect of Act I's cuts is to turn these characters into ciphers. Zeffirelli might as well have cut them entirely from the film for all the importance they seem to have for Hamlet. Perhaps someone should stage a Hamlet where Horatio and Marcellus are ghosts themselves. Cut Scene I and it's rather doable. And then you have the whole of hell scheming against the prince of Denmark.

Jacobi's Hamlet puts that "antic disposition" on very early in the play, and one could easily say that this is a mad Hamlet, not a pretending Hamlet. However, Hamlet is self-aware enough to know that he is touched with insanity (or has consciously given in to it in order to rebuild himself for his mission), so he can say he'll act mad, knowing full well he IS mad. Characters who lie to each other breed ambiguity.

The sequence starts with Hamlet's "Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come" played as an actual bird call, immediately setting the tone for the "wild and whirling" nature of his discourse through the rest of the scene. As usual for Jacobi, the character is mercurial and can change tone on a dime, making something different of each line. Though mostly manic through the scene, he comes close to tears when he invokes his "businesses and desires". His grief comes in waves (as I can confirm such things do), usually upon any reminder of his father's death. The Ghost's voice coming from the earth is another such moment. Though the words are mocking ("old mole", "truepenny", and all that), Hamlet is on the verge of breaking down while uttering them. This Hamlet has adopted a "mad speech", but some of his emotions cannot be hidden.

Though he seems lost in his own world, Hamlet shows he is nonetheless alert when he overhears Horatio's "This is wondrous strange" from afar. He says "in your philosophy" in this version, but there's enough tenderness between the two of them that we don't necessarily feel that Hamlet is ostracizing Horatio. Instead, the old school friend seems to be the only person Hamlet is close to (he makes an effort to include Marcellus in "scholars and soldiers", so Horation must already be included). Horatio is so astonished by his friend's turn that he may feel like a complete outsider. He is indeed a stranger to this, where Hamlet is not, and so there is a divide between the characters, though not one Hamlet consciously creates. There is a certain obliviousness to Hamlet in Jacobi's performance that makes us believe he really has gone crazy.
In the Act's final moments, Jacobi throws in an unscripted moment to motivate the "let's go together" repetition. After his rhyming couplet, and as the other men are walking away from him, they stop and look back, as if doubting his sanity. Hamlet looks to them then makes like he sees the Ghost again. They look in that direction and there is nothing, and Hamlet giggles wickedly at them, like a child who has just pranked his friends. "Nay" here becomes a "no, no, I'm just joking". He has shown them what he means by putting an antic disposition on, but has he convinced them that it IS a put-on? This Hamlet is so wild that Horatio and Marcellus may be more motivated by fear than trust.

There are a number of strange choices made here in the Olivier version, including cutting most of the Ghost's part under the floorboards. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, you'll note that Hamlet must force three men to swear, not just two. Horatio and Marcellus and joined by Bernardo who was, after all, present when they went to tell the Prince about the Ghost. Since Bernardo wasn't as trusted a confidant as the others (as infered from the text of Scene 2 itself), it means this Hamlet is even more careful about what he tells them. Olivier makes it very clear that Hamlet was about to tell them the whole story when he caught himself and went for "but he's an errant knave"). There's a long pause of realization there. Though he is distracted and evasive, I wouldn't go so far as to say Olivier's Hamlet becomes manic. The madness is definitely underplayed, leaving the crafting of an "antic disposition" for later. Which makes other choices a bit bizarre.

As the conversation progresses, the characters keep going down from platform to platform, a fine opportunity to signal a descent into madness. That Hamlet doesn't quite give in to it seems a missed opportunity. The move might also have helped motivate the Ghost's voice coming from the ground. Hamlet is initially too high up to do the whole "worthy mole" speech. However, in this version, the Ghost does not manifest itself before the incredulous men, so all of that is cut out. In this version, Horatio "this is wondrous strange" doesn't apply to the Ghost, but to Hamlet's insistence that they swear a second time. If reacting to Hamlet's madness, we're again left to wonder if Hamlet is acting strangely enough to warrant that reaction.
Only when they lay their hands on the sword does the Ghost let out the whisper of a "Swear!!!", accompanied by the trademark heartbeat sound effect. No reaction shot from the three men is edited in, so it might all be in Hamlet's head. If the trio hadn't seen the Ghost in Scenes 1 and 4, there would be no evidence of the spirit's reality and we'd have a completely mad Hamlet. We may still, and though a spirit walked the halls of Elsinore, perhaps their conversation was a fiction. And yet, Olivier is entirely too subtle about Hamlet's madness if indeed he suffers from it.

Time to bring Horatio closer as a confident. The twin lines about leaving the stage are used here to send the soldiers off first. Hamlet then has his asides in front of Horatio. He's including him more than the others into his secret (this despite earlier using "your philosophy", which distances him from Hamlet). When the final line says "let's go together" a second time, it's now for the loitering Horatio. Splitting the group off, though flying ignoring Shakespeare's stage directions, is well motivated by the text itself. Hamlet is last to leave, taking a look back at the tower where he met the Ghost, perhaps nostalgically looking back at the life he leaves behind.

As soon as Horatio and Marcellus come running up, Hamlet goes from quiet to completely hysterical, voice almost comically breaking. Does this mean he's already feigning madness? Well, yes and no. Based on the performance alone, you might think so. Hamlet has just learned about a terrible betrayal from his uncle and mother. It's turned his world upside down, and in the opening moments of this sequence, would not know if he can trust his old friends anymore. Certainly, even if they're not working against him, he wonders if he can trust them with his secrets. The story is so extraordinary that it would be hard for almost anyone not to want to tell it. And so he tries to dismiss them by appearing a little crazy (Horatio did bring it up earlier as a possible effect of talking to the Ghost) and evading their questions. On the commentary track, Branagh describes Hamlet's state of mind as hysteria. He is trying to process the new information and just can't talk about it now. They can't know it's that much of a shocker, so they push him. So Hamlet's mind is rushing (with swirling camera shots of trees to help his POV come across) and he's acting crazy, genuinely, but it's not meant to be taken as if he's falling into madness.

Horatio is soon impatient with him. In their friendship, there's no call for such evasions. Again, he does not realize how big the revelation was. Hamlet's not trying to destroy his friendships, he just needs more time. Once he realizes that they won't let him off without an explanation, he does start giving hints that things aren't right, but as I noted in the last article, he does not reveal anything about the murder here. Horatio is in the know later, so we must assume he had the conversation offstage. At this point, he's trying desperately not to include them, both to make sure they don't blow his secret and to spare them the weight of it. When Horatio mentions offense, he can't hold it in anymore. He sincerely doesn't want to offend Horatio, but is also incredibly offended himself by what the Ghost has told him.

The cat's out of the bag. He doesn't tell all, but will (we just don't need another expository scene at this point). That's why we have the swearing. And neither Horatio nor Marcellus realize how serious it is (quickly sick of this swearing business) until the Ghost once more intervenes with its big, bellowy "SWEAR!", the earth cracking and exploding with smoke, fire and shaking trees. They get a little touch of hell, and if loyalty doesn't keep them silent, fear will.
Hamlet calms down when the Ghost finally leaves. Is there a link between the spirit's presence and Hamlet's mania? Is the swearing cathartic in some way? Is there comfort in the sharing of the secret or the knowledge that one is not mad because the vision has been shared? Or is it simply that once they've sworn, he can show his true face, with no added ambiguity?

Though Horatio planted the seed of feigning madness in Hamlet's mind in the previous scene, the plan to put on an "antic disposition" is probably born even as the prince says those very words. He has seen his friends' reaction to his temporary bout of mania and seen that he could use such behavior as a smokescreen for his revenge activities. Though he proposes to con all of Elsinore, he will have two allies who know the truth (one of which is not seen again). In the closing moments of the Act, Hamlet repairs his friendships with them. "Let's go together" evokes a partnership between the three holders of the secret. Note also the inclusiveness of Hamlet's "in OUR philosophy" where versions of the play use "in YOUR philosophy". In this adaptation, Hamlet and Horatio have a very tight bond, and in this line choice, are made closer still. They have the same kind of education, the same opinions and thought process. Hamlet chooses not to exclude his friends, and the most cynical of us could say he's trying to ensure loyalty, manipulating them. In this version of the play, at least, Hamlet genuinely cares for them and keeps them close without ulterior motives.

The Act will end with a swearing ritual, forcing Hamlet's friends not to reveal what they know of the Ghost's appearance, even as the prince takes on the appearance (whether feigned or not) of a madman. For the play's directors, one of the challenges is the representation of the Ghost moving and speaking from under the stage (meant to represent hell). In a stage presentation, the audience might be aware of the fact the sound comes from the floor, but watching film versions on a television doesn't quite allow for it. Special effects may come in handy, but many choose to simply use voice-over and let Hamlet's words and actions infer that it is coming from the ground. Directors and actors will also have to decide what to make of Hamlet's "wild and whirling words". Is he starting to go mad, or crafting an improvised performance before his friends' eyes (and ours)? One thing is certain. Regardless of whether or not Hamlet is mad or not after seeing the Ghost, the latter must exist. We're reminded once again that Hamlet is not the only one who sees and hears it.

Let's delve deeper into the text itself (in italics):

MARCELLUS HORATIO: [Within] My lord, my lord,--
MARCELLUS: [Within] Lord Hamlet,--
HORATIO: [Within] Heaven secure him!
HAMLET: So be it!
HORATIO: [Within] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!
HAMLET: Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
MARCELLUS: How is't, my noble lord?
HORATIO: What news, my lord?
HAMLET: O, wonderful!
HORATIO: Good my lord, tell it.
HAMLET: No; you'll reveal it.
HORATIO: Not I, my lord, by heaven.
MARCELLUS: Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET: How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
But you'll be secret?
HORATIO MARCELLUS: Ay, by heaven, my lord.
HAMLET: There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
But he's an arrant knave.

I've always felt that there was an ambiguity to these lines. Is the knavish villain Claudius? Or it is Hamlet himself? The Ghost has, in a way, created a new villain in Denmark. Part of why Hamlet delays the murder of his uncle is that (and we've often spoken of his puritanism) murder is a sin. Though he was quick to swear revenge, the whole of the play has Hamlet working out how he can commit such an act (and abase himself to the level of Claudius - smiling and being a villain) in spite of his conscience. Even if we do not subscribe to Hamlet actually being mad, there is a dramatic insanity at work where a character cannot reconcile who he is and what he must do. This is dramatized further in the swearing ritual that is to come.

HORATIO: There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this.
HAMLET: Why, right; you are i' the right;
And so, without more circumstance at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
You, as your business and desire shall point you;
For every man has business and desire,
Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
Look you, I'll go pray.

Hamlet tries to protect his friends from what he is to become, but they will not allow him to leave without more explanation. It is significant that Hamlet talks about praying here, but pray to what?

HORATIO: These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
HAMLET: I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;
Yes, 'faith heartily.
HORATIO: There's no offence, my lord.
HAMLET: Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:

Hamlet at least believes the tale of murder (because it fits his own feelings towards Claudius), but the strange, indecorous way he treats the Ghost in the next lines indicates he does not necessarily trust the Ghost's motives. Hamlet knows that by the action he has sworn to, he has damned his soul. The Ghost is at once his father's spirit AND a goblin damned.

For your desire to know what is between us,
O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends,
As you are friends, scholars and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.
HORATIO: What is't, my lord? we will.
HAMLET: Never make known what you have seen to-night.
HORATIO MARCELLUS: My lord, we will not.
HAMLET: Nay, but swear't.
HORATIO: In faith,
My lord, not I.
MARCELLUS: Nor I, my lord, in faith.
HAMLET: Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS: We have sworn, my lord, already.
HAMLET: Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
GHOST: [Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET: Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there,
truepenny?

As soon as the Ghost makes its voice known and forces Horatio and Marcellus to swear to silence, Hamlet puts its honesty in doubt, calling it "boy" and ironically, "truepenny". Later it is a "fellow in the cellarage", and an "old mole". Hamlet (and the staging) treats the Ghost as the Devil, and the swearing ritual thus becomes a kind of pact with the Devil. Hamlet is to lose his soul in this (compare to Horatio's invocation of angels upon the prince's death). What we're seeing is a kind of Satanic ritual that pledges Hamlet's life to the underworld.

Come on--you hear this fellow in the cellarage--
Consent to swear.
HORATIO: Propose the oath, my lord.
HAMLET: Never to speak of this that you have seen,
Swear by my sword.
GHOST: [Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET: Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground.
Come hither, gentlemen,
And lay your hands again upon my sword:
Never to speak of this that you have heard,
Swear by my sword.
GHOST: [Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET: Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?
A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come;

Some directors prefer "in our philosophy". I've come across both wordings, and we'll have occasion to discuss what difference this makes as we tackle the different adaptations. Horatio is here called a "stranger", which goes with his ignorance of Danish custom in the previous scene. Of course, all of Denmark has now become an alien land, one in which the supernatural is very real, shaking the foundations of Horatio's educated philosophy which denies superstition.

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on,

Does Hamlet tell them his plan to put on a crazy act, or does he warn them that he's going mad?

That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me: this not to do,

It sometimes seems like the play has also sworn this, and will not give a definitive answer. Horatio and Marcellus swear not to tell us the truth of Hamlet (and it's clear that Horatio is told a lot more than what is said in this scene), and so we never really do. If the play is Horatio's telling of it at the very end, there are still missing pieces. He hasn't been freed from his pledge entirely.

So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.
GHOST: [Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET: Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!

They swear.

So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.

Exeunt

In the act's final rhyming couplet, Hamlet fully realizes he is doomed. Time is so out of joint that another line follows the couplet, which breaks Shakespeare's usual form. The next batch of articles will look at how this sequence was adapted for the screen.