1 Enter Fortinbras and Forces marching.
2 The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
3 Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors and others.
4 Tell him that by his license, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march Over his kingdom.
5 Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.
6 The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy th'election lights On Fortinbras.
7 Now follows, that you know young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother's death Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother.
8 Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle, hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in't; which is no other, As it doth well appear unto our state, But to recover of us by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands So by his father lost.