Hamlet Notes ~ Act I Scene I

• Bernardo relieves Fernando of his guard position; Horatio & Marcellus are also guards this night
• Bernardo & Marcellus have seen a ghost the last 2 nights, Horatio doesn't believe, ghost that resembles a king reappears, Horatio believes now that he has seen it for himself
• ghost looks like old Hamlet
• Fortinbras of Norway- murdered by old Hamlet and forfeited lands and his life; Fortinbras' son formed an army of irregulars, so that he can win back the lands that his father lost.
• Allusion to Julius Caesar's death ~ ghost is a reminder of the warning signs seen in Rome before his murder

"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.."

• ghost returns, men think it is a bad omen for Denmark > decide to tell Hamlet of what they have seen, and figure that the ghost will speak to Hamlet as well