Horatio

Family: Denmark · Role: watchman and scholar · First appears: Hamlet · Act I, Scene I

Life events

• A ghost appears before the watchmen in the likeness of the dead King.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene I)
  • With: Barnardo Marcellus
  • “Enter Ghost. BARNARDO. In the same figure, like the King that’s dead. MARCELLUS. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.”
• Hamlet killed Fortinbras and gained his lands under their ratified combat compact.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene I)
  • With: Hamlet Fortinbras
  • “Our last King, 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, Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet, For so this side of our known world esteem’d him, Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal’d compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands Which he stood seiz’d of, to the conqueror;”
• The apparition vanishes when the cock crows.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene I)
  • With: Barnardo Marcellus
  • “It was about to speak, when the cock crew. HORATIO. And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons.”
• The watchmen decide to tell Hamlet about the spirit they witnessed.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene I)
  • With: Marcellus Hamlet
  • “Break we our watch up, and by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, as needful in our loves, fitting our duty? MARCELLUS. Let’s do’t, I pray”
• Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo reveal to Hamlet that his father’s apparition has appeared on watch.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene II · 📍 Elsinore)
  • With: Hamlet Marcellus Barnardo
  • “Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch In the dead waste and middle of the night, Been thus encounter’d. A figure like your father, Armed at point exactly, cap-à-pie, Appears before them”
• Horatio and Marcellus swear not to reveal what they witnessed.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene V)
  • With: Hamlet Marcellus
  • “My lord, we will not.”
• Hamlet requires Horatio and Marcellus to conceal his planned antic disposition.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene V)
  • With: Hamlet Marcellus
  • “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on— That you, at such times seeing me, never shall”
• Hamlet stages a play depicting a poisoning to test the King’s reaction to his father’s murder.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene II)
  • With: Hamlet Claudius
  • “There is a play tonight before the King. One scene of it comes near the circumstance Which I have told thee, of my father’s death.”
• Horatio confirms the King’s reaction to the poisoning, validating Hamlet’s suspicion.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene II)
  • With: Hamlet Claudius
  • “HAMLET. O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? HORATIO. Very well, my lord. HAMLET. Upon the talk of the poisoning? HORATIO. I did very well note him.”

Hamlet · Act I, Scene I

• allies with Marcellus “Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night, That if again this apparition come He may approve our eyes and speak to it.”
• friends with Hamlet “Let us impart what we have seen tonight Unto young Hamlet; for upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?”

Hamlet · Act I, Scene II

• friends with Hamlet “Sir, my good friend; / I’ll change that name with you”
• liege: Hamlet “The same, my lord, / And your poor servant ever.”

Hamlet · Act I, Scene V

• friends with Hamlet “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.”

Hamlet · Act III, Scene II

• friends with Hamlet “Give me that man / That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him / In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, / As I do thee.”

Hamlet · Act IV, Scene VI

• friends with Hamlet (Hamlet's affectionate address indicates an established personal friendship with Horatio.) “He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.”

Hamlet · Act V, Scene I

• friends with Hamlet “Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.”

Hamlet · Act V, Scene II

• friends with Hamlet “If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, / Absent thee from felicity awhile, / And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, / To tell my story.”

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Extracted from the original text of Shakespeare's Tragedies. Made with Rho MD.