OED
Line by Line: Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 9-11
BARNARDO: Well, goodnight. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Barnardo wraps up a very modern-feeling exchange with Francisco by offering the most modern of all farewells: “goodnight,” a phrase so understated in this heavily fraught context that it might almost draw a laugh from the…
Line by Line: Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 4-5
FRANCISCO: You come most carefully upon your hour. BARNARDO: ‘Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. With the intensified confusion and fear of the first 3 lines diffused, Francisco speaks the first line which could be considered casual, or at least professional. It is also Shakespeare’s first expository line, unless we feel that…