_Mar._ Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,[45] 70 Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land,[46] And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,[47] And foreign mart for implements of war; Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 75 Does not divide the Sunday from the week;[48] What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:[49] Who is't that can inform me? _Hor._ That can I; At least the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,[50] Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--[51] For so this side of our known world esteem'd him-- 85 Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,[52] Well ratified by law and heraldry,[53] Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands[54] Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:[55] Against the which, a moiety competent 90 Was gaged by our king; which had return'd[56] To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant[57] And carriage of the article design'd,[58] His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,[59] 95 Of unimproved mettle hot and full,[60] Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,[61][62] For food and diet, to some enterprise[62] That hath a stomach in't: which is no other--[63] 100 As it doth well appear unto our state--[64] But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands[65] So by his father lost: and this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, 105 The source of this our watch and the chief head Of this post-haste and romage in the land. _Ber._ I think it be no other but e'en so:[66][67] Well may it sort, that this portentous figure[66] Comes armed through our watch, so like the king[66] 110 That was and is the question of these wars.[66]