Horatio's Speech to Fortinbras in Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Hamlet: Horatio's Speech to Fortinbras

Sir Fortinbras and noble knights of the army of Norway, I stand before you today to tell a tale of a martyred hero to whom we must remember. Hamlet be thy name. He was a friend and a leader. About eight months ago Hamlet was distraught, I'd never seen him like this before. He had a good excuse, I mean his father had just died, his mom, god rest her soul, remarried not even a month afterwards. Hamlet's affair with Ophilia was dwindling in his giant fire of emotions. Ophilia was the kings' servant's daughter. The king's servant was Polonious. Polonious did not want Ophilia with Hamlet, nor did Ophilia's brother Laertes. Hamlet was under a lot of pressure, but it wasn't until a few of the guards and myself saw a ghost whom we believed was Hamlet's deceased father. This was the point of all of our lives were you either take one path or the other each leading you in a total different direction. Hamlet went to the guard tower with us the next night and reasoned to our favor that the ghost did in fact perpetuate the look of King Hamlet. The ghost made a follow me motion to Hamlet and we grabbed him. Please do not follow Sir Hamlet, I pleaded. The spirit was insistent and Hamlets gut instinct drove him to follow the floating omen. I know not the exact words that the ghost spoke that night but from what I understand, he was back from the dead to inform his son that he had not died from the rumorous snake bite which had been presumed. King Hamlet's brother, the current King Claudius, had murdered him while he lay in the garden by pouring poison in his ear. The ghost also informed Hamlet of an affair that his mother had been having with Claudius. This bit of information stunned and enraged if you will Hamlet. Hamlet knew not what to believe. After all the ghost could have just as easily been the devil himself for all we knew.

After that night Hamlet had many problems keeping sain or so it looked to me. He hurt Ophilia just because the king and Polonious set Hamlet up using the willing, beautiful daughter as bait. I found out later that the cunning little rascal was just acting to show incompetence to the revenge plot taking place in his head.

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