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Hamlet First Reads Script

Introduction:

Lue will welcome everyone to first reads and will give opening remarks.

Lue will introduce Taylor and Kelsey

(lue, video / audio offTaylor and kelsey, video / audio on)

Taylor: Thanks Lue! Kelsey and I will be running things behind the scenes today. For all you live-streamers we hope you'll participate in the live chat function on YouTube!

Kelsey: We will be keeping an eye on the chat and bringing your questions and comments into the discussion portions of today, so let us know what is coming up for you and what questions you may have and we will bring them into the live discussions with our artists.

Taylor: Thanks to the generosity of the Hitz Foundation, we are proud to provide an honorarium to everyone involved in first reads. If you would like to contribute to the well-being and payment of artists in these unprecedented times, we have a couple of suggestions for you:

Kelsey: The Dramatists Guild Foundation provides emergency financial assistance to individual playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters in dire need of funds due to severe hardship or unexpected illness. Their requests for grants has spiked due to covid-19. They depend heavily on contributions from individuals like you so they may continue to provide immediate relief to writers.

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Taylor: And The Actor's Fund. Since March 18, 2020, The Actors Fund has distributed $8.2 Million in emergency financial assistance to more than 6,900 people in our industry. This money is helping people cover basic living expenses, such as food, essential medications, utilities and more. To make donations, we are putting the links to these organizations in the description on YouTube and they can also be found at playonshakespeare.org/firstreads. Thanks everyone!

(Taylor and Kelsey audio / video off)

Lue will talk a bit more and then introduce director Avital Shira

(Lue – audio / video off Avital – audio video on)

Avital Shira gives remarks. Afterward, introduces playwright Lisa Peterson

(Avital – audio / video off (Lisa – audio video on)

Lisa Peterson gives remarks. Afterward, introduces Dramaturge Luan Schooler

(Lisa – audio / video off (Luan– audio video on)

Luan Schooler gives remarks. Afterward, gives it back to Lue.

(Luan – audio / video off (Lue – audio video on)

Hamlet [L. Peterson] First Reads Draft May 29, 2020

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Lue may say more here, then will ask the readers to introduce themselves in the following order:

Lue audio video off. Readers will take turns turning on their audio and video and introducing themselves. Once they ’ re done, they will stay on the screen until ALL introductions are complete.

Angel Desai – states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Benjamin Bonenfant – states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

David Ryan Smith- states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Demetra Pittman - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Ellen McLaughlin - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Jimmon Cole - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Kat Griffin - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Michael Gabriel Goodfriend - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)


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Ronald Peet - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Stephen Michael Spencer - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Tala Ashe - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Zo Tipp - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. (don’t turn off video)

Jeremy Peter Johnson - states name, pronouns if desired, location, and roles they are reading. Then she says:

Jeremy: As the stringer, I will be jumping in and taking over for folks if they begin having connection issues with zoom, so you may see me pop in as any of the characters today.

Director rejoins the screen to ask if anyone has any last questions or observations before the reading begins. Now is the time for actors to ask about pronunciations, how they should handle certain moments over zoom, etc. Once this conversation is complete, Director will tell stringer to start the reading.

Everyone but stringer: audio and video off.

Stringer begins reading the following title page.


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HAMLET

Written byWilliam Shakespeare

In a modern verse translation byLisa Peterson

Dramaturg:Luan Schooler

FIRST READS DRAFT


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ACT I, SCENE I

Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two Guards, from different sides of the stage.

BARNARDO Who's there?

FRANCISCONo, answer me. Stand and reveal yourself.

BARNARDO Long live the King.

FRANCISCOBarnardo?

BARNARDO It’s me.

FRANCISCOYou’ve come without a minute to spare.

BARNARDO I know, the clock has just struck twelve.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

FRANCISCOReport yourself, who’s there?

HORATIOFriends to this land.

MARCELLUSWith full allegiance to Denmark!


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FRANCISCOI’ll say goodnight.

MARCELLUSFarewell, honest soldier; who has relieved you?

FRANCISCOBarnardo takes my place. Again, goodnight.

Exit Franciso.

MARCELLUSHello, Barnardo!

BARNARDOWait—is that Horatio there?

HORATIOSome part of him.

BARNARDOWelcome Horatio, welcome good Marcellus.

HORATIOWell, has this thing appeared again tonight?

BARNARDOI have seen nothing.

MARCELLUSHoratio says it’s just our fantasyAnd he will not believe what we have saidAbout this dreaded thing, seen twice by us.Therefore I have entreated him alongWith us to watch the minutes of this nightThat, if this apparition comes again,He may confirm this sight and speak to it.


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HORATIOBut it will not appear.

BARNARDOYet just last night,When that bright orb that's west of the North StarHad made its way here, lighting up the heavensWhere now it burns, Marcellus and myself,The bell having struck one—

Enter Ghost.

MARCELLUSSh! Quiet now - look where it comes again.

BARNARDOLooking exactly like the King that's dead.

MARCELLUSYou are a scholar — speak to it, Horatio.

BARNARDOLooks it not like the King? Watch it, Horatio.

HORATIOJust like him. It fills me with fear and wonder.

BARNARDOIt would be spoken to.

MARCELLUSSpeak to it, Horatio.

HORATIOWhat are you, that usurps this time of nightTaking on the fair and warlike formOf our dead King, mocking the stride and figureOf buried majesty? By heaven, I charge you speak.


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MARCELLUSIt is offended.

BARNARDOSee, it stalks away.

HORATIOStay, speak, speak, I charge you speak!

Exit Ghost.

MARCELLUSIt’s gone and will not answer.

BARNARDOHow now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale.Is not this something more than fantasy?What do you think?

HORATIOBefore my God, I might not believe thisWithout the sensible and true witnessOf my own eyes.

MARCELLUSIs it not like the King?

HORATIOAs you are like yourself.

MARCELLUSAnd twice before, exactly at this dead hour,This ghost stalked past our watch with martial steps.

HORATIOIt bodes some strange eruption in our state.


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MARCELLUSCome now, sit down, and tell me (he that knows)Why this new state of vigilance rules the land,Forcing its subjects to toil all night,Forging the metal for brazen cannon,Or buying implements of war from foreign markets?What might be coming, that this sweaty hasteMakes the night a co-worker with the day?Who is it that can inform me?

HORATIOI can try—At least to share the rumor: Our last King,Whose image even just now appeared to us,Was (as you know) once dared to single combatBy Fortinbras the Elder—Norway’s king.Our Valiant Hamlet (for so the whole world called him)Did slay this Fortinbras, who’d made a solemn oath,To forfeit, if he lost, not just his life, But all the land he owned, to our fierce King;Now, sir, young Fortinbras,With yet untested courage, hot and full,Has in the wilds of Norway here and thereAmassed a troop of lawless fighting menTo take back from us those foresaid landsSo by his father lost. And this, I take it,Is the main motive of our preparations,The source of this our watch.

BARNARDOThat must be why this ominous, dark figureComes armed through our watch so like the KingThat was and is the focus of these wars.

Enter Ghost.


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HORATIOBut soft, behold, look where it comes again.I'll stop it though it hurt me. Stay, illusion:If you have any sound or use of voice,Speak to me.If there be any good thing to be doneThat might bring grace to me by helping you, Speak to me.If you are privy to your country's fateWhich by knowing now we might avoid,O, speak.

The cock crows.

Stop it, Marcellus!

MARCELLUSShould I strike at it with my sword?

HORATIODo, if it will not stay.

BARNARDOIt’s here.

HORATIOIt’s here.

Exit Ghost.

MARCELLUSIt’s gone.We do it wrong, since it is so majestic,To offer it this show of violence,For it is as the air, invulnerable,And our vain blows malicious mockery.


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BARNARDOIt was about to speak when the cock crew.

HORATIOAnd then it started like a guilty thingThat hears a fearful summons.

MARCELLUSThis bird of morning sings out all night long,And then, they say, no spirit dares to stir.

HORATIOBut look, the morning tiptoes up that eastern hill,Dressed in a cloak of brilliant red and gold.Break up our watch, and then when we get back,Let us impart what we have seen tonightUnto young Hamlet, for upon my lifeThis spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.

Exeunt. ACT 1, SCENE 2

Flourish. Enter Hamlet, Claudius (King of Denmark), Gertrude (the Queen), Polonius (their Counselor) and his son Laertes, with other Courtiers, including Voltemand and Cornelius.

CLAUDIUSThough our dear brother Hamlet’s death remainsA wound still fresh, and it is fitting that weAll bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdomShould bind together in one brow of woe,Yet we have thought to balance our great sorrowWith care for this our state, and think on himTogether with remembrance of ourselves.Therefore our one-time sister, now our Queen,The imperial partner to this warlike state,


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Have we taken to wife. Nor have we neglected to hearYour better wisdoms, which have encouragedThis affair in full. For this, our thanks.Now, here’s something you should know: young Fortinbras,Thinking that the death of my dear brotherHas thrown our beloved country into chaos,Assaults me with demands that I surrenderThe lands his father gambled and then lostTo my most valiant brother. So much for him.Now for ourselves, and for this meeting’s business,Here is the main outline: we have writtenTo Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras. (handing a letter to the messengers) We here dispatchYou, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,As bearers of this message to old Norway.Farewell, and prove your loyalty with your haste.

CORNELIUS/VOLTEMAND In that, and all things, we will be loyal.

CLAUDIUSWe are certain that you will. Farewell!

Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?You told us of some wish — what is it, Laertes?You cannot speak with reason to this KingAnd waste your breath. What could you need, Laertes?The head is not more native to the heart,The hand more instrumental to the mouth,Than is your father to the throne of Denmark.What do you need, Laertes?


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LAERTESMy dear lord, your permission to return to France,From where – though willingly – I came to DenmarkTo show my duty in your coronation,Yet now I must confess, that duty done,My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France—Though first I beg your gracious leave and pardon.

CLAUDIUSYour father will allow it? What says Polonius?

POLONIUSHe has, my lord, squeezed permission from meBy laborious petition, and at lastFor this, his plan, I gave him my consent.I do request you give him leave to go.

CLAUDIUSI give you leave, Laertes. The time is yours,To use it as you will – your grace will guide you.But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—

HAMLETA little more than kin, but much less kind.

CLAUDIUSHow is it that the clouds still hang on you?

HAMLETNot so, my lord, I am too much in the ‘son’.

GERTRUDEGood Hamlet, cast this gloomy color offAnd let yourself look like a friend on Denmark.Do not look forever with downcast eyes To find your noble father in the dust.You know it’s common: all that lives must die,Passing through nature to eternity.


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HAMLETYes, madam, it is common.

GERTRUDEIf that’s true,Why seems it so particular with you?

HAMLET‘Seems’, madam — no, it is – I know not 'seems'.It’s not only my inky cloak, dear mother,Nor customary suits of solemn black,Nor windy flowing of forced breath,No, nor the flowing river in the eye, Nor the deep crease of sorrow in the brow,Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,That can express me truly. These indeed ‘seem’,For they are actions that a man might play;But I have thoughts within, stronger than a ‘show’,These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

CLAUDIUSIt’s sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,To pay respect this fully to your father,But you must know your father lost a father,That father lost, lost his, and every child is bound In filial obligation for awhileTo show obsequious sorrow; but to persevereIn obstinate condolence is a showOf impious stubbornness. It’s unmanly grief,It shows a disobedience to heaven,A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,An understanding simple and unschooled.We want you to cast asideThis ineffectual woe, and think of usAs of a father, for let the world take noteYou are the most immediate to our throne,And with no less nobility of loveThan that which dearest father bears his son


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Do I impart toward you. For your intentIn going back to school in WittenbergIt is most contrary to our desire,And we insist you promise to remainHere in the cheer and comfort of our eye,Our favorite courtier, cousin, and our son.

GERTRUDELet not your mother waste her prayers, Hamlet.I pray you stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.

HAMLETI’ll do my best to obey you, madam.

CLAUDIUSWhy, that’s a loving and a fair reply.Son: you belong in Denmark. Madam, come—This gentle and unforced accord of HamletSits smiling in my heart. Come, away!

Trumpets. Exit all but Hamlet.

HAMLETO that this too too solid flesh would melt,Thaw and dissolve itself into a dew,Or that the Everlasting had not madeHis laws against self-slaughter. O God, God,How weary, stale, flat and unprofitableSeem to me all the uses of this world!Fie on it, ah, fie! It’s an unweeded gardenThat grows to seed, choked with every foul diseaseThat nature breeds. That it should come to this:But two months dead— no, not so much, not two— So excellent a king, as unlike this monsterAs a god is to a goat, so loving to my motherThat he might not permit the winds of heavenVisit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him


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As if her hunger for him just increasedThe more she fed it. And yet within a month (Let me not think of it — Frailty, thy name is Woman), A little month, before those shoes were oldWith which she followed my poor father's body,Like Niobe, all tears -- she married with my uncle,My father's brother (but no more like my fatherThan I to Hercules). Within a month,Before the salt of most unrighteous tearsHad finished rubbing raw her red-rimmed eyes,She married. O most wicked speed! To rushWith such agility to incestuous sheets!It is not, nor it cannot come to good;But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo.

HORATIOHail to your lordship.

HAMLETI am glad to see you well—(suddenly recognizing him)Horatio—?! Or indeed I’ve lost my mind.

HORATIOThe same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

HAMLETSir, my good friend—yes, that is what I’ll call you.And what brings you from Wittenberg, Horatio?(taking Marcellus’ hand) Marcellus!

MARCELLUSMy good lord.


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HAMLETI am very glad to see you. (to Barnardo) Good evening, sir.— But tell me why you’ve come from Wittenberg?

HORATIOA lazy disposition, good my lord.

HAMLETI would not hear your enemy say so.I know you are not lazy;But what is your affair in Elsinore?

HORATIOMy lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

HAMLETI beg you do not mock me, fellow student,I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

HORATIOIndeed, my lord, it happened very fast.

HAMLETThrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats,Served cold, did fortify the marriage tables.Would I had met my dearest foe in heavenRather than see that day, Horatio.My father, I think I see my father.

HORATIOWhere, my lord?

HAMLETIn my mind's eye, Horatio.

HORATIOI saw him once — he was a very fine king.


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HAMLETHe was a man, take him for all in all,I shall not look upon his like again.

HORATIOMy lord, I think I saw him just last night.

HAMLETSaw, who?

HORATIOMy lord, the King your father.

HAMLETThe King my father?

HORATIOHold off your astonishment awhileWith an open mind till I may deliverUpon the witness of these gentlemenThis marvel to you.

HAMLETFor God's love let me hear!

HORATIOTwo nights in a row had these gentlemen,Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watchBeen thus encountered: a figure like your fatherAppears before them.They told me this in dreadful secrecy,And I with them the third night kept the watch,Where, as they had told me, at the hour,The apparition comes.

HAMLETBut where was this?


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MARCELLUSMy lord, upon the platform where we watch.

HAMLETDid you speak to it?

HORATIOYes, my lord, I did,But answer made it none.

HAMLETIt’s very strange.

HORATIOAs I do live, my honored lord, it’s true.

HAMLETIndeed, friends, but this troubles me.Hold you the watch tonight?

HORATIO/MARCELLUS/BARNARDOWe do, my lord.

HAMLETHow did he look – was he frowning?

HORATIOA countenance more of sorrow than of anger.

HAMLETAnd did he fix his eyes on you?

HORATIOMost constantly.

HAMLETI would I had been there.


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HORATIOIt would have much amazed you.

HAMLETYes it would.Stayed it long?

HORATIONot when I saw it.

HAMLETHis beard was grizzled, no?

HORATIOIt was as I have seen it in his life:Both dark and silvered.

HAMLETI will watch tonight.Perhaps it will walk again.

HORATIOI think that it will.

HAMLETIf it puts on my noble father's person,I'll speak to it though hell itself should gapeAnd bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,If you have until now concealed this sight,Let it stay hidden by your silence stillAnd whatsoever else happens tonightPay it attention, but do not speak of it.

HORATIO/MARCELLUS/BARNARDOOur duty to your honor.

Exit all but Hamlet.


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HAMLETMy father's spirit! All is not well;I fear some foul play. Would the night were come.Till then: sit still my soul.

Exit.

ACT 1, SCENE 3

Enter Laertes and Ophelia his sister.

LAERTESMy bag and baggage are onboard; farewell.And sister, as the winds give breathAnd make conveyance hopeful, do not restBut let me hear from you.

OPHELIADo you doubt that?

LAERTESFor Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,Think it a fashion and a toy in blood,A violet blooming too early in the spring; Flighty, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,The perfume and enjoyment of a minute,No more.

OPHELIANo more than that?

LAERTESThink it no more. Perhaps he loves you now but you must fear,In his position, his will is not his own.For he himself is subject to his birth:He may not, as the common people do,Choose for himself, for on his choice depends


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The safety and the welfare of this whole state.So if he says he loves you,It fits your wisdom to believe it onlySo far as his position in our stateAllows him scope to do as he has promised,Which the King’s voice in Denmark may deny.Then weigh what loss your honor may sustainIf you too blithely listen to his songsOr lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his undisciplined pursuit.Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,And so stay in the rear guard of your affectionOut of the shot and danger of desire.Be wary then: best safety lies in fear,Youth by itself rebels, even with no one near.

OPHELIAI will keep the main points of this good lessonAs watchmen to my heart. But, good my brother,Do not as some ungracious pastors do,Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,While like a puffed and reckless libertine,Himself the primrose path of dalliance treadsAnd hears not his own sermon.

LAERTESO fear me not. I stay too long.

Enter Polonius.

But here comes my father.

POLONIUSStill here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard for shame!The wind sits in the shoulder of your sailAnd waits for you. There, my blessing on you—And these few precepts in your memory


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Look you, scribble deep: Keep your thoughts to yourself,Act not on them if they’re unconsidered.Be you familiar, but by no means vulgar; Those friends you have, and their credentials checked,Grapple them unto your soul with hoops of steel,But do not dull your palm by grabbing the handOf each new-hatched, untried comrade. BewareOf entrance to a quarrel but, being in,Fight so that th'opposed may beware of you.Give every man your ear but few your voice;Take each man's censure but reserve your judgment.Dress in the fashion that your purse can buyBut do not get too fancy — rich, not gaudy; For the apparel can proclaim the man,And they in France of the best rank and stationAre most tasteful chiefly when it comes to clothes.Neither a borrower nor a lender be,For a loan can lose both itself and a friend,And borrowing’s never a good way to proceed.This above all, to your own self be trueAnd it must follow as the night the dayYou cannot then be false to any man.Farewell, my careful blessing take with you.

LAERTESMost humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

POLONIUSDon’t miss your exit. Go, your servants wait.

LAERTESFarewell, Ophelia, and remember wellWhat I have said to you.

OPHELIAIt’s in my memory lockedAnd you yourself shall keep the key of it.


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LAERTESFarewell.

Exit Laertes.

POLONIUSWhat is it, Ophelia, he has said to you?

OPHELIAWell, something on the subject of Lord Hamlet.

POLONIUSBy god, worthy thought:I’m told that lately, he has very oftenGiven private time to you, and you yourselfHave with your audience been most free and bounteous.If it be so — as so it was told me,And as a sort of warning — I must tell youYou do not understand yourself so clearlyAs it behooves my daughter and your honor.What is between you? Give me up the truth.

OPHELIAHe has, my lord, lately made many tendersOf his affection to me.

POLONIUSAffection? Pooh, you speak like a green girl,Unpracticed in such perilous circumstance.Do you believe his ‘tenders’, as you call them?

OPHELIAI do not know, my lord, what I should think.

POLONIUSWell then, I will teach you:Tender yourself more dearlyOr you'll tender me a fool.


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OPHELIAMy lord, he has entreated me with loveIn honorable fashion.

POLONIUSYes, ‘fashion’ you may call it. Go on, go on.

OPHELIAAnd has added value to his speech, my lord,With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

POLONIUSYes, lures to catch a pigeon! I do knowWhen the blood burns how easily the soulMakes the tongue vow. These blazes, daughter,Giving more light than heat, lacking in bothEven as the promise is being made,You must not take for fire. For Lord Hamlet,Believe so much in him that he is youngAnd with a longer tether may he walkThan may be given you. In few, Ophelia,Do not believe his vows. This is my point: I would not in plain terms from this time forthHave you so waste any moment’s leisureAs to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.Do as I say, my child. Now come along.

OPHELIAI shall obey, my lord.

Exit all.


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ACT 1, SCENE 4

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

HAMLETWhat hour now?

MARCELLUSI think it has struck twelve.HORATIOIndeed, I heard it not.It then draws near the hourWherein the spirit has been known to walk.

A flourish of trumpets, and two cannon are fired.

What does this mean, my lord?

HAMLETThe King stays up tonight and celebrates,And as he drains his draughts of liquor down The kettledrum and trumpet both bray outThe triumph of his boast.

HORATIOIs it a custom?

HAMLETOh yes it is.But to my mind, though I am native hereAnd to these manners born, it is a customMore honored in the breach than the observance.

Enter the Ghost.

HORATIOLook, my lord, it comes.


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HAMLETAngels and ministers of grace defend us!Whether a friendly spirit or a goblin damned, Bring with you airs from heaven or blasts from hell,Be your intentions foul or charitable,You come in such a questionable shapeThat I will speak to you. I'll call you Hamlet,King, father, royal Dane. O answer me,Let me not burst in ignorance but tellWhy the sepulcherWherein we saw you quietly interredHas opened its ponderous and marble jaws To cast you up again. What may this mean?

The Ghost beckons.

HORATIOIt beckons you to go away with it.

MARCELLUSBut do not go.

HORATIONo, by no means.

HAMLETIt will not speak: then I will follow it.

HORATIODo not, my lord.

HAMLETWhy, what should be the fear?My life’s not worth the value of a pin.And for my soul — what can it do to that,Being a thing immortal as itself?It waves me forth again. I'll follow it.


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MARCELLUSYou shall not go, my lord.

HAMLETHold off your hands.

HORATIOListen, you shall not go.

HAMLETMy fate cries out!By heaven I'll make a ghost of him that stops me!I say away! (to the Ghost) Go on! I'll follow you.

Exit the Ghost and Hamlet.

HORATIOHis brain grows desperate with imagination.

MARCELLUSLet's follow. It’s not right thus to obey him.

HORATIOAfter him! What’s going to come of this?

MARCELLUSSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Exit all.

ACT 1, SCENE 5

Enter the Ghost and Hamlet.

HAMLETWhere are you leading me? Speak! I'll go no further.


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GHOSTMark me.

HAMLETI will.

GHOSTMy hour is almost comeWhen I to sulphurous and tormenting flamesMust render up myself.

HAMLETSpeak, I am bound to hear.

GHOSTSo are you to revenge when you hear this:

HAMLETWhat?

GHOSTI am your father's spirit,Doomed for a certain time to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in firesTill the foul crimes done in my days of natureAre burnt and purged away. If I were not forbidTo tell the secrets of my prison-houseI could a tale unfold whose lightest wordWould tear apart your soul, freeze your young blood,Make your two eyes like stars start from their spheres.Hear me, O please, If you did ever love your dear father—

HAMLETO God!

GHOSTRevenge his foul and most unnatural murder!


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HAMLETMurder!

GHOSTMurder most foul — as murder always is—But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLETHelp me to know it, that I with wings as swiftAs meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge.

GHOSTNow, Hamlet, hear:The tale is told that, sleeping in my orchard,A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of DenmarkIs rankly abused by an untrue account Of my death. But know, oh noble youth,The serpent that did steal your father's lifeNow wears his crown.

HAMLETO my prophetic soul—my uncle!

GHOSTAy, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts— O wicked wit and gifts that have the powerSo to seduce — won to his shameful lustThe will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.But wait, I think I sense the morning air.Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard—My custom always in the afternoon—In my unguarded hour, your uncle stole With juice of cursed hemlock in a vialAnd poured into the porches of my ears The leprous elixir.Thus while I slept, I was deprived


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Of life, of crown, of queen by my brother’s hand,Cut off even in the blossom of my sin,With all my imperfections on my head.O horrible, O horrible, most horrible! If you have nature in you, bear it not;Let not the royal bed of Denmark beA couch for luxury and damned incest.But howsoever you pursue this actTaint not your mind nor let your soul contriveAgainst your mother. No, leave her to heavenAnd to those thorns that lodge within her heartTo prick and sting her. Fare you well at once:Adieu, adieu, adieu, remember me.

Exit Ghost

HAMLETO all you host of heaven, O earth — what else?—And should I cry to hell? O god! Hold, hold, my heart,And you, my sinews, do not grow so weak,But bear me stiffly up. Remember you?!O yes, poor ghost, while memory holds a seatIn this distracted globe. Remember you?Yes, from the table of my memoryI'll wipe away all trivial favorite thingsThat youth and observation copied there,And your commandment shall live by itselfWithin the book and volume of my brain,Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven,O most pernicious woman,O villain, villain, smiling damned villain,My notebook! I have to write it down:That one may smile and smile and be a villain— At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. It is 'Adieu, adieu, remember me.'I have sworn it.


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Enter Horatio and Marcellus

HORATIOMy lord, my lord!

MARCELLUSLord Hamlet!

HORATIOHeavens protect him!

HAMLETSo be it.

MARCELLUSHow are you, my noble lord?

HORATIOWhat news, my lord?

HAMLETO, wonderful.

HORATIOGood my lord, tell it.

HAMLETNo, you will reveal it.

HORATIONot I, my lord, by heaven.

MARCELLUSNor I, my lord.

HAMLETWhat say you then — could anyone imagine?—You'll keep a secret?


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HORATIO/MARCELLUSAy, by heaven.

HAMLETThere's not a villain dwelling in all DenmarkBut he's an actual fiend.

HORATIOThere needs no ghost, my lord, come from the graveTo tell us this.

HAMLETWhy, right, you are in the right!And so without more circumstance at allI think it best that we shake hands and part—You as your business and desire shall point you(For every man has business and desireSuch as it is) and for my own poor part I will go pray.

HORATIOThese are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

HAMLETI am sorry they offend you — heartily,Yes, I mean it, heartily.

HORATIOThere's no offence, my lord.

HAMLETYes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,And much offence too. As for this vision here:It is an honest ghost — that, I can tell you.For your desire to know what is between us,Restrain it—if you can. And now, good friends,As you are friends, scholars and soldiers, Give me one poor request.


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HORATIOWhat is it, my lord? We will.

HAMLETNever make known what you have seen tonight.

HORATIO/MARCELLUSMy lord, we will not.

HAMLETNo, but swear it.

HORATIOIn faith, my lord, not I.

MARCELLUSNor I, my lord, in faith.

HAMLETUpon my sword.

MARCELLUSWe have sworn, my lord, already.

HAMLETIndeed, upon my sword, indeed.

The GHOST’s voice is heard from down below.

GHOSTSwear!

HAMLETHa, ha, boy, say you so? Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellar?Consent to swear.


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HORATIOPropose the oath, my lord.

HAMLETNever to speak of this that you have seen,Swear by my sword.

GHOSTSwear.

HORATIOO day and night, but this is wondrous strange.

HAMLETAnd therefore as a stranger give it welcome:There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come,Here as before: never — so help you mercy,How strange or odd sometimes I bear myself(As I perhaps hereafter shall decideTo put on a manic disposition )— That you at such times seeing me never shall With arms crossed tightly thus, or this headshake,Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phraseAs 'Well, well, we know', or 'We would if only we could”,Or such ambiguous statement to implyThat you know anything. Now swear,So grace and mercy likewise come to you.

GHOSTSwear.

HAMLETRest, rest, perturbed spirit. So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you,And though as poor a man as Hamlet is,He’ll find a way, God willing, to express How rich he is in friends. Let’s go in together


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And keep your fingers on your lips, will you?The time is out of joint; O cursed spiteThat ever I was born to set it right.

Exit all.

ACT 2, SCENE 1

Enter Polonius, with his man, Reynaldo.

POLONIUS-- and findingBy this roundabout and drift of questionThat they do know my son, Pretend, as it were, some distant knowledge of him,As thus, 'I know his father and his friends, But if it’s he, I mean he's very wild,Addicted so and so', and there put on himWhat forgeries you please. Although, none so foulAs may dishonor him.

REYNALDO As gambling, my lord?

POLONIUSAy, or drinking, fencing, swearing,Quarrelling, whoring — you may go so far.

REYNALDO But my good lord—

POLONIUSWhy, though, should you do this?

REYNALDO Ay, my lord, I would know that.


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POLONIUSVery well, sir, here's my drift:You laying these slight sullies on my sonAs 'twere a thing a little soiled with working,Mark you, your partner in this scene (him you would probe)Having ever seen in the aforementioned crimesMy son Laertes guilty, be assuredHe starts his confidential speech like this:'I know the gentleman,I saw him yesterday', or 'th'other day',Or then, or then, with such or such, and as you say, There was a gaming, or perhaps'I saw him enter such a house of sale',That is to say a brothel, or so forth. See you now,Your bait of falsehood hooks this carp of truth,And thus do we By indirections find directions out.

REYNALDO I shall, my lord.

POLONIUSFarewell.

Exit Reynaldo. Enter Ophelia.

How now, Ophelia, what's the matter?

OPHELIAO my lord, my lord, I have been so frightened.

POLONIUSBy what, in the name of God?


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OPHELIAMy lord, as I was sewing in my bedroom,Lord Hamlet, comes before me, doublet undone, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,And with a look so piteous that it seemedAs if he had been shot out of hellTo speak of horrors.

POLONIUSMad for your love?

OPHELIAMy lord, I do not know,But truly I do fear it.

POLONIUSWhat did he say?

OPHELIAHe took me by the wrist and held me hard,Then falls to staring at my faceAs if he would draw it. Long stayed he so;At last, a little shaking of my armAnd thrice his head thus waving up and down,He raised a sigh so piteous and profoundThat it did seem to shatter all his bulkAnd end his being. That done, he lets me goAnd with his head over his shoulder turnedHe seemed to find his way without his eyes.

POLONIUSCome, go with me: I will go seek the King.This is the very ecstasy of love,Whose violent property threatens itselfAnd leads the will to desperate undertakings.What, have you given him any hard words of late?


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OPHELIANo, my good lord, but as you did command I did repel his letters and denied His access to me.

POLONIUSThat has made him mad.I’m sorry that I did not measure himWith better judgment. I feared he did but trifle,And meant to wreck you. But beshrew my jealousy—By heaven it is as proper to my ageTo invent distress when really there is none,As it is common for the younger sortTo lack discretion. Come.

Exit all.

ACT 2, SCENE 2

Flourish. Enter Claudius and the Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and other Courtiers.

CLAUDIUSWelcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Not only did we much desire to see you,But the need we have to use you did provokeOur hasty sending. You have heard, I think, Of Hamlet's transformation — so I call it,Since neither th'exterior nor the inward manResembles what it was. What it might beThat has transformed him so completelyFrom what he was (other than his father’s death),I cannot dream of. I entreat you both:Since you were brought up here, together,Spend time with him, and gather Whether some hidden trouble afflicts him thusThat we might remedy if we only knew its cause.


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GERTRUDEGood gentlemen, he has much talked of youAnd I am sure there are not two men livingWith whom he shares as much. If it will please youTo spend some time with us awhileFor the success and profit of our hope,Your visitation shall receive such thanksAs fits a king's remembrance.

ROSENCRANTZBoth your majestiesMight by the sovereign power you hold over us,Put your dread pleasures more into commandThan to entreaty.

GUILDENSTERNBut we both obeyAnd here give up ourselves in every wayTo lay our service freely at your feetTo be commanded.

CLAUDIUSThanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern.

GERTRUDEThanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz.And I beseech you: visit right away My too much changed son.

GUILDENSTERNHeavens make our presence and our practicesPleasant and helpful to him.

GERTRUDEAy, amen.

Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Enter Polonius.


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POLONIUSThe ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,Are joyfully returned.

CLAUDIUSYou’ve always been the father of good news.

POLONIUSHave I, my lord? I can assure you, sir,I hold my duty as I hold my soul,Both to my God and to my gracious King; And I do think that I have foundThe very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

CLAUDIUSO, speak of that, that do I long to hear.

POLONIUSFirst, give admittance to the ambassadors.My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

CLAUDIUSHe tells me, my dear Gertrude, that he has foundThe head and source of all your son's derangement.

GERTRUDEI doubt it is no other but the main—His father's death and our o’er-hasty marriage.

CLAUDIUSWell, we shall ask him.

Enter Voltemand and Cornelius.

Welcome, my good friends.Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?


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VOLTEMANDMost fair return of greetings and desires.Fortinbras vows to his uncle that he’ll never moreTake up arms against your majesty.Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,Gives him permission to employ those soldiersSo raised (as we all know) to attack Poland,

Voltemand hands the King a sealed document.

With a request which you may see enclosed, That it might please you to allow their passageThrough your dominions for this enterprise

CLAUDIUSWe are agreed.And thank you for your well-took labor.

Exit Voltemand and Cornelius.

POLONIUSThis business is well ended. My lord and madam, to expostulateWhat majesty should be, what duty is,Why day is day, night night, and time is time,Were nothing but to waste night, day and time;Therefore, brevity is the soul of witAnd tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes.I will be brief: your noble son is mad.I call it mad, for to define true madness,What is it but to be nothing else but mad?But let that go.

GERTRUDEMore matter with less art.


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POLONIUSMadam, I swear I use no art at all.That he’s mad, 'tis true, 'tis true 'tis pity,And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish flourish!But farewell it, for I will use no art.Mad let us grant him then, and now remainsThat we find out the cause of this effect—Or rather say the cause of this defect,For this effect defective has a cause.Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Look you,I have a daughter — have while she is mine— Who in her duty and obedience, look,Has given me this. Now gather and surmise.(Reads) “To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia”— that's an ill phrase, a vile phrase, 'beautified' is a vile phrase, but you shall hear— “thus in her excellent white bosom”, etc…

GERTRUDEThis came to her from Hamlet?

POLONIUSGood madam, wait a bit: I will be thorough.(reads) “Doubt that the stars are fire,Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar,But never doubt I love.O dear Ophelia, I am clumsy at these verses. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love you best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Yours evermore, most dear lady, while this machine belongs to me. Hamlet.”This in obedience has my daughter shown me.

CLAUDIUSBut how has she received his love?

POLONIUSWhat do you think of me?


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CLAUDIUSAs of a man faithful and honorable.

POLONIUSI’d like to prove it so. But what might you thinkWhen I had seen this hot love on the wing— If I had winked at my heart, telling it to stay mute,Or looked upon this love with idle sight, What might you think? No, I went round to workAnd this is what I said to my young girl:'Lord Hamlet is a prince beyond your reach.This must not be.' And then I gave her orders:That she should lock herself from his approach,Admit no messengers, receive no tokens;Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,And he, repelled, a short tale to make,Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,Then to no sleep, then into a weakness, Then to a lightness, and by this declensionInto the madness wherein now he raves,And all we mourn for.

CLAUDIUSDo you think this?

GERTRUDEIt may be, very like.

POLONIUSHas there been such a time — I would wish to know that— That I have positively said 'tis soWhen it proved otherwise?

CLAUDIUSNot that I know.

POLONIUSTake this from this if this be otherwise.


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CLAUDIUSHow may we test it further?

POLONIUSYou know sometimes he walks four hours unceasingHere in the lobby?

GERTRUDESo he does, indeed.

POLONIUSAt such a time I'll send my daughter to him.Then you and I will hide behind a curtain;Watch the encounter: if he love her not,And has not lost his reason due to this,Let me be no assistant for a state.

CLAUDIUSWe will try it.

Enter Hamlet.

GERTRUDEBut look where the poor wretch comes reading, sadly.

POLONIUSAway, I do beseech you both, away.I'll hail him presently. O, give me leave.

Exit Claudius and the Queen.

How does my good lord Hamlet?

HAMLETWell, God have mercy.

POLONIUSDo you know me, my lord?


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HAMLETExcellent well, you are a fishmonger.

POLONIUSNot I, my lord.

HAMLETThen I wish you were that honest a man.

POLONIUSHonest, my lord?

HAMLETYes, sir, to be honest as this world goes is to be one manpicked out of ten thousand.

POLONIUSThat's very true, my lord.

HAMLETFor if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a good Fertile dead thing - have you a daughter?

POLONIUSI have, my lord.

HAMLETLet her not walk in the sun: conception is a blessing but as yourdaughter may conceive, friend — look to it.

POLONIUS(aside) How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first, he said I was a fishmonger! He is far gone; and truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very much like this. I'll speak to him again. — What do you read, my lord?


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HAMLETWords, words, words.

POLONIUSWhat is the matter, my lord?

HAMLETBetween who?

POLONIUSI mean the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLETSlanders, sir. For the satirical author says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit — all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not generous to have it set down so. You yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am— if, like a crab, you could go backward.

POLONIUS(aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

HAMLETInto my grave.

POLONIUS(aside) Indeed, that's out of the air. How cogent sometimes his replies are. My lord, I will take my leave of you.

HAMLETYou cannot take from me anything that I will not more willingly part with — except my life, except my life, except my life.

POLONIUSFare you well, my lord.


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HAMLETThese tedious old fools.

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

POLONIUSYou go to seek the Lord Hamlet? There he is.

ROSENCRANTZ(to Polonius) God save you, sir.

Exit Polonius.

GUILDENSTERNMy honored lord.

ROSENCRANTZMy most dear lord.

HAMLETMy excellent good friends. How are you, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both?

ROSENCRANTZAs the ordinary children of the earth.

GUILDENSTERNHappy, in that we are not over-happy. On Fortune's cap we are not the top-most button.

HAMLETWhat news?

ROSENCRANTZNone, my lord, except that the world's grown honest.


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HAMLETThat would mean doomsday’s near — but your news is not true. Let me question you more specifically. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you here to prison?

GUILDENSTERNPrison, my lord?

HAMLETDenmark’s a prison.

ROSENCRANTZThen is the world one.

HAMLETA mighty one, in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons – Denmark being one of the worst.

ROSENCRANTZWe think not so, my lord.

HAMLETWhy, then, it isn’t one to you; for there is nothing neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

ROSENCRANTZWhy, then your ambition makes it one: it is too narrow for your mind.

HAMLETO God, I could live inside a nutshell and consider myself a king of infinite space – were it not that I have bad dreams.

GUILDENSTERNPerhaps those dreams themselves demonstrate ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is nothing more than the shadow of a dream.


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HAMLETA dream itself is but a shadow.

ROSENCRANTZYes, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.

HAMLETThen only beggars have bodies, and our monarchs and fallen heroes are only those beggars’ shadows. Shall we head to the Court? For, by my soul, I cannot reason.

ROSENCRANTZ/ GUILDENSTERNWe’ll wait upon you.

HAMLETNo. I will not include you with the rest of my servants, for, to be honest, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the well-trod path of friendship, why are you here, in Elsinore?

ROSENCRANTZTo visit you, my lord, no other occasion.

HAMLETWere you not sent for? Is it your own idea? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come, now speak.

GUILDENSTERNWhat can we say, my lord?

HAMLETApparently, you’ll say anything but the truth. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your decency has not skill enough to hide. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.


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ROSENCRANTZTo what end, my lord?

HAMLETThat, you must teach me. But let me ask you, by the rights of our fellowship, tell me straight whether you were sent for or no.

ROSENCRANTZ(aside to Guildenstern) What should we say?

HAMLETAh, now I see what you’re up to. If you love me, tell me the truth.

GUILDENSTERNMy lord, we were sent for.

HAMLETI will tell you why: I have of late, but why I do not know, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it weighs so heavily upon my disposition that this fine expanse, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof threaded with golden fire, why it appears as nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man: how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel; in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals – and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me — nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

ROSENCRANTZMy lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.


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HAMLETWhy did you laugh then, when I said man delights not me?

ROSENCRANTZTo think, my lord, if you delight not in man what a meager welcome the players shall receive from you; we passed them on the way and they are coming here to offer you service.

HAMLETWhat players are they?

ROSENCRANTZWhy, those you used to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.

HAMLETGentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come then. You are welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

GUILDENSTERNIn what, my dear lord?

HAMLETI am but mad north-north-west. When the wind blows southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Enter Polonius.

POLONIUSGod be with you, gentlemen. HAMLETI will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.

POLONIUSMy lord, I have news to tell you.The actors are coming here, my lord.


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HAMLETBuzz, buzz.

POLONIUSThe best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, scene indivisible, or poem unlimited.

Enter the Players.

You are welcome, masters, welcome all. I am glad to see you well. Welcome, good friends. We'll have a speech immediately. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.

PLAYERWhat speech, my good lord?

HAMLETI heard you speak a speech once — but it was never acted, or if it was, not more than once, for the play I remember did not please the groundlings, though it was caviar to the elite. But it was, as I received it, an excellent play. One part of it I really loved — it was Aeneas' speech to Dido, and especially where he tells of Priam's slaughter in Troy. If you still remember it, begin at this line — let me see, let me see—

“The rugged Pyrrhus like a ferocious beast…”—'Tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus. “The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons—"So proceed you.

POLONIUS'Fore God, my lord, well spoken — with good accent and good discretion.


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PLAYERJust then comes Priam,Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,Refusing to obey. Unequal matched,Pyrrhus drives at Priam, in rage swings wide,But with the whiff and wind of his fierce swordTh’unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,Seeming to feel this blow, distracts the mighty PyrrhusWith a frightening sound! For lo, his sword Which was descending on the aging headOf reverend Priam seemed to stick in the air;So as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stoodAnd did nothing.But as we often see against some stormA silence in the heavens, As quiet as death, and then the dreadful thunderDoes end the stillness, so after Pyrrhus' pause With roused vengeance he sets to work again,And never did the Cyclops' hammers fallWith less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding swordNow falls on Priam.

POLONIUSThis is too long.

HAMLETIt shall to the barber's with your beard. I pray you, keep going — he's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba.

PLAYERBut who — ah woe — had seen th’ignobled queen—

HAMLET'Th’ignobled queen'!


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POLONIUSThat's good. ‘Th’ignobled queen’ is good.

PLAYERRun barefoot up and down, threatening the flamesWith blinding tears, a rag upon that headWhere late the crown had stood and, for a robe, A blanket, in the rush of fear clutched tight.But if the gods themselves did see her then,When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sportBy mincing her husband's limbs with his sharp sword,The instant burst of clamour that she made(Unless things mortal move them not at all)Would have made weep the burning eyes of heaven And roused fierce passion in the gods.

HAMLETAll’s well. (to Polonius) Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well treated, for they are the universal and brief chroniclers of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.

POLONIUSMy lord, I will treat them as they deserve.

HAMLETFor God’s sake, man, much better! Use every man as he deserves, and who shall escape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity — the less they deserve, the more merit is in your kindness. Take them in.

POLONIUSCome, sirs.


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HAMLETFollow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow. (aside to First Player) May I ask you, old friend: can you play The Murder of Gonzago?

PLAYERAy, my lord.

HAMLETWe'll have it tomorrow night. You could, if we need, study a speech of some dozen, or sixteen lines, which I would write down and insert in it, could you not?

PLAYERAy, my lord.

HAMLETVery well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. (To other Players) My good friends, I'll leave you until tonight. You are welcome to Elsinore.

ROSENCRANTZGood my lord—

HAMLETAh yes, goodbye to you as well.


Now I am alone.O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!Is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul’s belief in this pretense,So that his face went pale, imagining it—Tears in his eyes, distraction in his manner,A broken voice, and his whole being alteredTo embody this conceit — and all for nothing—


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For Hecuba?What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her? What would he doHad he the motive and the cue for passionThat I have? He would drown the stage with tearsAnd stab through every ear with horrid speech,Make mad the guilty and appall the free,Confound the ignorant and amaze indeedThe very faculties of eyes and ears. Am I a coward?Who calls me villain, slaps me across the head,Tweaks me by the nose, proves that I lie in my throat,As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this,Ha? My god, I should take it. For it can only beThat I am lily-livered and lack the prideTo make oppression bitter. Bloody, bawdy villain,Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, thoughtless villain.God, what an ass I am: this is most brave,That I, the son of a dear father murdered,Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,Must like a whore unpack my heart with wordsAnd fall a-cursing like a very bawd,A hustler! I’m sick of all this! Awake, my brains! Hm….I have heardThat guilty creatures sitting at a playHave, by the very cunning of the scene,Been struck so to the soul that presentlyThey have confessed their own foul sins.For murder, though it has no tongue, can speakWith a tremendous force. I'll have these playersPlay something like the murder of my fatherBefore my uncle. I'll observe his looks,I'll probe him to the core. If he turns pale,I know my course. The spirit that I have seenMay be a devil, and the devil has powerTo assume a pleasing shape. Yes, and perhaps,Out of my weakness and my melancholy,Abuses me to damn me! I'll have proof


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More absolute than this. The play's the thingWherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

Exit.

END OF ACT 2: We will now pause for a discussion and a 10 minute Break


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ACT 3, SCENE 1

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Lords.

CLAUDIUSAnd can you by no artful inquiryGet from him why he puts on this confusion,With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

ROSENCRANTZHe does confess he feels himself distracted,But from what cause he will by no means say.

GUILDENSTERNNor do we find him willing to be questionedBut with a crafty madness keeps aloof.

GERTRUDEDid you tempt him to any pastime?

ROSENCRANTZMadam, it so happened that we passed by A band of players on our way here. We told him so,And there did seem in him a kind of joyTo hear of it. They are here about the CourtAnd, as I think, they have already plansThis night to play before him.

POLONIUS'Tis most true,And he beseeched me to entreat your majestiesTo hear and see the pastime.


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CLAUDIUSGood gentlemen, give him a further pushAnd drive his interest into these delights.

ROSENCRANTZWe shall, my lord.

Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and Lords.

CLAUDIUSSweet Gertrude, leave us two.For we have summoned Hamlet to this placeThat he, as if by accident, may hereApproach Ophelia. Her father and myself Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,We may then frankly judge by their encounter,If it be th'affliction of his love or not, For which he suffers so.

GERTRUDEI shall obey you.And for your part, Ophelia, I do hopeThat your good beauties are the happy causeOf Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtuesWill bring him to his usual way again,For both your sakes.

OPHELIAMadam, I wish it may.

Exit Queen.


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POLONIUSOphelia, walk you here. (To Claudius) My Grace, if you please,We will now hide ourselves. (To Ophelia) Read on this book,That show of such an exercise may explainYour solitude. I hear him coming — withdraw, my lord.

Claudius and Polonius hide behind a curtain.Enter Hamlet.

HAMLETTo be, or not to be — that is the question; Whether it’s nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortuneOr to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them; to die: to sleep—No more, and with a sleep to think we endThe heartache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to: it’s a consummationDevoutly to be wished — to die: to sleep—To sleep, perhaps to dream — ay, there's the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coilMust give us pause: there's the aspectThat makes calamity of a long life.For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's impudence,The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,The insolence of office and the blowsThat patient ones must endure from the unworthy,When they themselves could close their own accountsWith a ready blade. Who would bear the weight To grunt and sweat under a weary lifeBut that the dread of something after death—The undiscovered country from whose land


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No traveler returns— puzzles the willAnd makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of.Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.And thus the natural health of resolutionIs sicklied o'er with the pale look of fear,And enterprises of great weight and moment,In this way, watch their impulse turn awryAnd lose the force of action. Look, she comes,The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy holy prayersBe all my sins remembered.

OPHELIAMy lord, I have remembrances of yoursThat I have meant to give you back in time.I pray you now receive them.

HAMLETNo, not I. I never gave you these.

OPHELIAMy honored lord, you know very well you did,And with them words composed of such sweet breath, It made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,Take these again, for to the noble mindRich gifts turn poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.

HAMLETHa! Ha! Are you honest?

OPHELIAMy lord?

HAMLETAre you fair?


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OPHELIAWhat do you mean?

HAMLETThat if you be honest and fair you should allow no discourse on your beauty.

OPHELIACould Beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with Honesty?

HAMLETYes, truly. For the power of Beauty will sooner transform Honesty from what it is into a whore than the force of Honesty can translate Beauty into a true thing. This was once a paradox, but now the time proves it true. I did love you once.

OPHELIAIndeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLETYou should not have believed me. For virtue cannot so inoculate against an old disease, but we shall retain some taste of the infection. I loved you not.

OPHELIAI was the more deceived.

HAMLETGet you to a nunnery! Why would you be a breeder of sinners? I am myself just barely honest, but yet I could accuse myself of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck and call than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling


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between earth and heaven? We are utter villains — believe none of us. Go straight to a nunnery. Where's your father?

OPHELIAAt home, my lord.

HAMLETLet the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in his own house. Farewell.

OPHELIA(aside) O help him, you sweet heavens.

HAMLETGet you to a nunnery. Farewell. Or, if you must marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.

OPHELIA(aside) Heavenly powers restore him.

HAMLETI have heard of your fakeries well enough. God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble and you tease, you nickname God's creatures and pretend ignorance of your own wantonness. No, no, I can’t take this anymore. It has made me mad. To a nunnery, go!

Exit Hamlet.

OPHELIAO, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword,The expectation and hope of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the perfect form,


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The height of all enchantment, quite, quite down.And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,That sucked the honey of his dulcet vows— Now see what noble and most sovereign reasonLike sweet bells jangled out of time and harsh—That unmatched form and stature of bright youthBlasted with ecstasy. O woe is meTo have seen what I have seen, see what I see.

Claudius and Polonius step forward from behind the curtain.

CLAUDIUSLove! His affections do not lean that way.And what he spoke, though it lacked form a little,Was not like madness. There's something in his soulAnd I do fear the hatching and the birthWill mean some danger — which in order to preventI have in quick determinationThus made a plan. With speed, he’s sent to England.What do you think?

POLONIUSIt shall do well. But still I do believeThe origin and commencement of his griefSprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia?You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said—We heard it all. My lord, do as you please,But if you think it right: after the playLet his Queen-mother all alone entreat himTo show his grief. Let her be frank with himAnd I will hide myself within earshotOf all their conference. If she learns nothing,To England send him.

CLAUDIUSIt shall be so.Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.


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Exit.

ACT 3, SCENE 2

Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.

HAMLETSpeak the speech, I beg you, as I pronounced it to you — trippingly on the tongue. And do not saw the air too much with your hand, like this, but move more gently.

PLAYERI certainly will try.

HAMLETNow don’t be too tame either, but let your own discretion be your guide. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. The purpose of acting was and is to hold, in a way, the mirror up to Nature to show Virtue her feature, Scorn her own image, and the very age and body of this time its form and impression. Go, get ready.

Exit the Players.Enter Polonius, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

And now, my lord, will the King hear this piece of work?

POLONIUSAnd the Queen too, and that presently.

HAMLETTell the players to make haste.

ROSENCRANTZAy, my lord.

Exit Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.


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HAMLETWhere are you, Horatio?!

Enter Horatio.

HORATIOHere, sweet lord, at your service.

HAMLETHoratio, you are the most judicious manThat ever I’ve had the honor of knowing well.

HORATIOO my dear lord—

HAMLETNo, do not think I flatter,For what repayment could I hope from you?Give me that manThat is not passion's slave and I will keep himIn my heart's core — ay, in my heart of hearts—As I do you. But that’s enough of that.There is a play tonight before the King—One scene of it comes near the circumstanceWhich I have told you of my father's death.I ask you, when you see that act occur,Observe my uncle. If his hidden guiltDoes not expose itself in one speechIt is a damned ghost that we have seen.Watch him carefully,For I will rivet my eyes to his faceAnd after we will both our judgments joinTo unmask his pretense.

HORATIOWell, my lordIf he reveals anything while this play’s playing,And I don’t notice, you may take my eyes!


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Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums, King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

HAMLET (to Horatio)They are coming to the play. I must seem antic.Get you a place.

CLAUDIUSHow fares our cousin Hamlet?

HAMLETWhy, excellent!! With a chameleon's appetite — I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed piglets so well.

CLAUDIUSI learn nothing from this answer, Hamlet. These words mean nothing to me.

HAMLETNo, nor to me now, my lord. — (To Polonius) You played once at university, you say?

POLONIUSThat did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLETWhat did you enact?

POLONIUSI did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed in the Capitol. Brutus killed me.

HAMLETIt was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Are the players ready?


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ROSENCRANTZYes, my lord, they are waiting for you.

GERTRUDECome here, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAMLETNo, good mother, here's metal more magnetic.

POLONIUS(to King)O ho, do you mark that!

HAMLETLady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPHELIANo, my lord.

HAMLETDo you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIAI think nothing, my lord.

HAMLETThat's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIAWhat is, my lord?

HAMLETNothing.

OPHELIAYou are merry, my lord.


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HAMLETWho, I?

OPHELIAAy, my lord.

HAMLETWhat should a man do but be merry, for look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours!

OPHELIANo, it has been more than two months, my lord.

HAMLETSo long? O heavens — died two months ago and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year!

The trumpets sound. Enter a Player, speaking the Prologue.

PLAYER/PROLOGUEFor us and for our tragedy,Here stooping to your charity,We beg your hearing patiently.

Exit

HAMLETIs this a prologue or a ring-around-the-rosy?

OPHELIAIt’s brief, my lord.

HAMLETAs woman's love.


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Enter Player King and Player Queen.

PLAYER KINGFull thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone roundSince love our hearts and Hymen did our handsUnite together in most sacred bands.

PLAYER QUEENSo many journeys may the sun and moonMake us again count before our love be done.

PLAYER KINGFaith, I must leave thee, love, and quickly too,And thou shalt live in this fair world behindHonored, beloved, and hopefully you will findAnother husband who—

PLAYER QUEENO, confound the rest!Such love must needs be treason in my breast.In second husband let me be cursed:None wed the second but who killed the first.

HAMLETThat's poison!

PLAYER QUEENA second time I kill my husband deadWhen second husband kisses me in bed.

PLAYER KINGI do believe you think what now you speak.But what we do intend often we break.This world is not forever. 'Tis not strangeThat even our loves should with our fortunes change,So think thou wilt no second husband wedBut die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.


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PLAYER QUEENBoth here and hence pursue me lasting strifeIf once a widow ever I be a wife.

HAMLETIf she should break it now!

PLAYER KING'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile. My spirits grow dull, and so I would beguileThe tedious day with sleep.

PLAYER QUEENSleep rock thy brain,And never come mischance between us again.

Exit. The Player King sleeps.

HAMLETMadam, how do you like this play?

GERTRUDEThe lady doth protest too much, I think.

HAMLETO, but she'll keep her word.

CLAUDIUSHave you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it?

HAMLETNo, no, they do but jest. No offence in the world.

CLAUDIUSWhat do you call the play?


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HAMLETThe Mousetrap. This play is the story of a murder done in Vienna. It’s a knavish piece of work, but what of that? Your majesty and we that have pure souls — it touches us not.

Enter Lucianus.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.

OPHELIAYou are as good as a chorus, my lord.

HAMLETI could interpret between you and your love.Begin, murderer: stop making those damnable faces and begin.

LUCIANUS Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,Felicitous moment with no creature seeing,Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,With Hecate's curse thrice blasted, thrice infected,Thy natural magic and dire propertyA wholesome life defeats immediately.He pours the poison in the Player King’s ear.

HAMLETHe poisons him in the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago. You shall see in a moment how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

OPHELIAThe King rises.

GERTRUDEHow fares my lord?


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POLONIUSStop the play.

CLAUDIUSGive me some light, away.

POLONIUSLights! Lights! Lights!

Exit all but Hamlet and Horatio.

HAMLETO good Horatio, I'll take the ghost’s word,It’s worth a thousand pounds! Did you see that?

HORATIOVery well, my lord.

HAMLETUpon the talk of the poisoning.

HORATIOI did very well note him.

HAMLETAh ha! Come, some music!

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

GUILDENSTERNGood my lord, allow me a word with you.

HAMLETSir, a whole history.

GUILDENSTERNThe King, sir—


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HAMLETYes, sir, what of him?

GUILDENSTERN—has gone to his room, much inflamed.

HAMLETWith drink, sir?

GUILDENSTERNNo, my lord, with rage.The Queen your mother in most great affliction of spirit has sent me to you. Your behavior has struck her into dismay and amazement.

HAMLETO wonderful son that can so astonish a mother!

ROSENCRANTZShe desires to speak with you in her chamber before you go to bed.

HAMLETWe would obey, if she were ten times our mother.Have you any further trade with us?

ROSENCRANTZMy lord, you once did love me.

HAMLETAnd do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Hamlet wiggles his fingers.

ROSENCRANTZGood my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely lock yourself away from help, if you hide your griefs from your friend.


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HAMLETSir, I have no future.

ROSENCRANTZHow can that be, when the King of Denmark himself has said that you will succeed him?

Hamlet picks up one of the Player’s recorders.

HAMLETWill you play upon this pipe?

GUILDENSTERNMy lord, I cannot.

HAMLETI pray you.

GUILDENSTERNBelieve me, I cannot.

HAMLETI do beseech you.

GUILDENSTERNI know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLETIt is as easy as lying. Look, these are the stops.

GUILDENSTERNBut I cannot command these to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.


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HAMLETWhy, look you now how unworthy a thing you make of me: you would play upon me! You would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would play me from my lowest note to the top of my range. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ. Yet you cannot make it speak. Good god! Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you fret me you cannot play upon me.

Enter Polonius

HAMLETGod bless you, sir.

POLONIUSMy lord, the Queen would speak with you, immediately.

HAMLETDo you see that cloud up there that's almost the shape of a camel?

POLONIUSWell by god, it is like a camel indeed.

HAMLETI think it is like a weasel.

POLONIUSIt is backed like a weasel.

HAMLETOr like a whale?

POLONIUSVery like a whale.


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HAMLETThen I will come to my mother, by and by. Leave me, friends.


'Tis now the very witching time of nightWhen churchyards yawn and hell itself spews outContagion to this world. Now could I drink hot bloodAnd do such business as the bitter dayWould quake to look on. Hush, now to my mother.

Exit.

ACT 3, SCENE 3

Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

CLAUDIUSI like him not; nor seems it wise to usTo let his madness rage. Therefore prepare you.I shall compose your orders presently,And he shall go with you to England shortly.

GUILDENSTERNWe will prepare ourselves.

CLAUDIUSArm well, I pray you, for this speedy voyageFor we will clamp shackles around this threatWhich now goes too free-footed.

ROSENCRANTZWe will act swiftly.

Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Enter Polonius.


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POLONIUSMy lord, he's going to his mother's chamber.Behind the curtain I will hide myselfTo hear the process. Fare you well, my liege,I'll visit you before you go to bedAnd tell you what I know.

CLAUDIUSThanks, dear my lord.

Exit Polonius.

O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven;It has the oldest, primal curse upon it— A brother's murder. I cannot pray;Though inclination be as sharp as will,My stronger guilt defeats my strong intentAnd like a man who’s bound in two directions,I pause to think where I shall first beginAnd so do nothing. What if this cursed handWere thicker than itself with brother's blood?Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? What’s mercy forBut to confront the hidden face of guilt?And what's in prayer but this twofold hope—To be stopped short before we come to fallOr pardoned, once we’re down? Then I'll look up:My fault is past. But O, what form of prayerCan serve my turn: 'Forgive me my foul murder?'That cannot be, since I am still possessedOf those prizes for which I did the murder:My crown, my own ambition and my Queen. May one be pardoned and retain the prize?What then? What’s left?Try what repentance can — what can it not?— Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?O wretched state, O bosom black as death,


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O tangled soul that struggling to be freeIs more enmeshed. Help, angels, help us try.Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steelBe soft as sinews of the new-born babe.All may be well.

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLETNow might I do it. See: now he is praying.And now I'll do it (Draws sword) —and so he goes to heaven,And so am I revenged! Let’s think this through: A villain kills my father, and for thatI, his only son, do this same villain sendTo heaven.Why, this is reckless folly, not revenge.He took my father when his soul was not prepared,With all his crimes full-blown, as ripe as May;And how his reck’ning stands who knows—save heaven?And am I then revengedTo take him in the purging of his soulWhen he is fit and ready for his passage?No. [Sheathes sword.]Up sword, and wait for a more horrid timeWhen he is drunk, asleep or in his rage,Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed,or about some actThat has no inkling of salvation in it.Then trip him that his heels may kick at heavenAnd that his soul may be as damned and blackAs hell, where it is headed. My mother waits; False prayer helps not, but sin perpetuates.

Hamlet exits.


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CLAUDIUSMy words fly up, my thoughts remain below.Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Claudius exits.

ACT 3, SCENE 4

Enter Gertrude and Polonius.

POLONIUSHe’s coming. Please now, be firm.

GERTRUDEI promise you, fear me not.Withdraw, I hear him coming.

Polonius hides behind the curtain.Enter Hamlet.

HAMLETNow mother, what's the matter?

GERTRUDEHamlet, you have your father much offended.

HAMLETMother, you have my father much offended.

GERTRUDECome, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

HAMLETGo, go, you question with a wicked tongue.


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GERTRUDEHave you forgotton who I am?

HAMLETOh no.You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,And, would it were not so, you are my mother.

GERTRUDEWell then, I'll call someone that you’ll obey.

HAMLETCome, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge.You’ll stay until I set you up a glassWhere you may see the inmost part of you.

GERTRUDEWhat will you do? You will not murder me—Help, ho!

POLONIUS(behind the curtain) What ho! Help!

HAMLETWhat’s this?! A rat! There—dead I’ll reckon, dead!

Kills Polonius.

POLONIUSO, I am slain!

GERTRUDEO me, what have you done?

HAMLETNay, I know not. Is it the King?


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GERTRUDEO, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

HAMLETA bloody deed. Almost as bad, good mother,As kill a king and marry with his brother.

GERTRUDEAs kill a king?

HAMLETYes, lady, that’s what I said.

(Uncovers the body of Polonius.) —You wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell:—Stop wringing your hands. Peace, sit down nowAnd let me wring your heart. For so I shallIf it be made of penetrable stuff.

GERTRUDEWhat have I done that you dare wag your tongueIn noise so rude against me?

HAMLETSuch an actThat blurs the grace and blush of modesty,Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the roseFrom the fair forehead of an innocent loveAnd sets a blister there, makes marriage vowsAs false as gamblers’ oaths.

GERTRUDEAy me, what act?


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HAMLETLook here upon this picture, and on this,The artfully made depiction of two brothers:See what a grace was seated on this brow,A combination and a form indeedWhere every god did seem to lend a handTo give the world the image of a man;This was your husband. Look you now what follows:Here is your husband like a mildewed earBlasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?You cannot call it love, for at your ageThe heyday in the blood is tame, it's humbleAnd waits upon the judgment, and what judgmentWould step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have—

GERTRUDEO Hamlet, speak no more.You turn my eyes into my very soulAnd there I see such black and grievous spotsAs there will leave their stain.

HAMLETNay, but to liveIn the rank sweat of a lust-soaked bedStewed in corruption, honeying and making loveOver the nasty sty—

GERTRUDEO speak to me no more!These words like daggers enter in my ears.No more.

HAMLETA murderer and a villain,Pickpocket of the empire and the rule,That from a shelf the precious diadem stoleAnd put it in his pocket—


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GERTRUDENo more!

HAMLET—a king of shreds and patches—

Enter Ghost.

Save me and hover over me with your wings,You heavenly guards! What needs your gracious figure?

GERTRUDEAlas, he's mad!

GHOSTDo not forget! This visitationMeans to sharpen your almost blunted purpose.But look, how in your mother amazement sits!O step between her and her fighting soul.Dark thoughts in weakest bodies grow most strong.Speak to her, Hamlet.

HAMLETHow is it with you, lady?

GERTRUDEAlas, how is it with you,That you do turn your eye on vacancyAnd with the empty air do seem to speak?O gentle son,Upon the heat and flame of your distemperSprinkle cool patience. What are you looking at?

HAMLETAt him, at him! Look you how pale he glares. (to Ghost) Do not look upon me.


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GERTRUDETo whom do you speak this?

HAMLETDo you see nothing there?

GERTRUDENothing at all, yet I see all that is.

HAMLETNor did you nothing hear?

GERTRUDENo, nothing but ourselves.

HAMLETWhy, look you there! Look how it steals away—My father, looking as he did in life.Look where he goes!

Exit Ghost.

GERTRUDEThis is the wild invention of your brain.This bodiless creation, lunacy,Is cunning in its making.

HAMLETMother, for love of grace,Lay not that soothing falsehood on your soulThat not your trespass but my madness speaks.Confess yourself to heaven,Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,And do not spread the compost on the weedsTo make them ranker.

GERTRUDEO Hamlet, you have split my heart in two.


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HAMLETO throw away the worser part of itAnd live the purer with the other half.Goodnight, but go not to my uncle's bed;Pretend a virtue if you have it not.Refrain tonightAnd that shall lend a kind of easinessTo the next abstinence, the next more easy.For practice can quite change the stamp of natureAnd either shame the devil or throw him outWith wondrous potency. Once more goodnight,And when you are desirous to be blessedI'll kneel to beg of you. For this same lordI do repent, but heaven has pleased it soTo punish me with this, and this with me,That I must be both scourge and minister.I will bestow him and will answer wellThe death I gave him. So again goodnight. I must be cruel only to be kind.Thus bad begins, with worse not far behind.

GERTRUDEWhat shall I do?

HAMLETNot this, by no means, that I bid you do—Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed,Pinch lewdly at your cheek, call you his mouseAnd let him for a pair of grubby kisses,Or stroking of your neck with his damned fingers,Make you reveal to him this hidden truth:That I essentially am not in madness,But mad in craft.

GERTRUDEBe you assured, if words be made of breathAnd breath of life, I have no life to breatheWhat you have said to me.


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HAMLETI’m being sent to England — you know that.

GERTRUDEAlas, I had forgot; that was the plan.

HAMLETThere's letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows—Whom I will trust as I would venomous snakes — They bear the mandate. Let it work.For it is sport to have the bomb-makerBlown up by his own device.This man shall set me packing;I'll lug the guts into the room next door.Mother, goodnight indeed. This counselorIs now most still, most secret and most grave,Who was in life a foolish, jabbering knave.Come, sir, let’s draw toward an end with you.Goodnight, mother.

Exit Hamlet, dragging out Polonius’ body.

ACT 4, SCENE 1

Enter King.

CLAUDIUSWhere is your son?

GERTRUDEAh, mine own lord, what I have seen tonight!

CLAUDIUSWhat, Gertrude? How is Hamlet?


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GERTRUDEMad as the sea and wind when both contestWhich is the mightier. In his savage fit,Behind the curtain, hearing something stir,Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!'And in this fanciful delusion killsThe unseen good old man.

CLAUDIUSO heavy deed!It had been so with us had we been there.At liberty, he’s full of threats to all,To you yourself, to me, to everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?It will be blamed on us whose governmentShould have kept this mad young manRestrained and out of sight. Where is he gone?

GERTRUDETo take away the body he has killed. He weeps for what is done.

CLAUDIUSThe sun no sooner shall the mountains touchBut we will ship him hence, and this vile deedWe must with all our majesty and skillBoth tolerate and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet in madness has Polonius slain.Go seek him out, calm him, and bring the bodyInto the chapel. I beg you, do it quickly.

Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.


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Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friendsAnd let them know both what we mean to doAnd what's untimely done.

Exit all.

ACT 4, SCENE 2

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLETSafely stowed.

ROSECRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN(from offstage) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

HAMLETO, here they come!

Enter Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Guards.

ROSENCRANTZWhat have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

HAMLETCompounded it with dust, its closest kin.

ROSENCRANTZTell us where it is, that we may take it away and bear it to the chapel.

HAMLETDo not believe it.

ROSENCRANTZBelieve what?


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HAMLETThat I can keep your counsel and not my own. Besides, to be commanded by a sponge! What rejoinder should be made by the son of a king?

ROSENCRANTZYou take me for a sponge, my lord?

HAMLETOh yes — that soaks up the King's desires, his rewards, his authorities. When he needs what you have absorbed, he only needs to squeeze you, sponge, and then you shall be dry again!

ROSENCRANTZMy lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.

HAMLETThe body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.The King is a thing.

GUILDENSTERNA thing, my lord?

HAMLETOf nothing.

Enter Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

CLAUDIUS(running in) Where is he?(Seeing Hamlet) Now Hamlet, where's Polonius?

HAMLETAt supper.


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CLAUDIUSAt supper! Where?

HAMLETNot where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are enjoying him. The worm is the only true emperor where eating is concerned. We fatten all other creatures to fatten us, and we fatten ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar are but separate courses, two dishes served at a worm’s table. That's the end.

CLAUDIUSWhere is Polonius?

HAMLETIn heaven. Send there to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him in the other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall smell him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

CLAUDIUS(to some Attendants) Go, seek him there!

HAMLETHe will stay until you come.

Exit Attendants.

CLAUDIUSHamlet—we do care deeply for your safety,Just as we dearly grieve for what you’ve done; This deed of yours requires we send you off.Therefore prepare yourself:The ship is ready and everything is boundFor England.


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HAMLETFor England?

CLAUDIUSYes, Hamlet.

HAMLETGood.

CLAUDIUSSo it is, if you knew our purposes.

HAMLETI see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England. Farewell, dear mother.

CLAUDIUSYour loving father, Hamlet.

HAMLETMy mother. Father and mother is man and wife. Man and wife is one flesh. So — my mother. Come, for England!

Hamlet exits.

CLAUDIUSFollow him closely. Convince him to get onboard swiftly.Delay it not — I'll have him gone tonight.

Exit all but the King.

And England, if my love is still of value,As my great power proclaims it would be wise,Pay homage to us. Do not disregardOur sovereign order, laid out in fullBy letters meant for you, which do command


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The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England!For he rages like a fever in my blood,And you must cure me. Till I know it’s done,Whatever my luck, no happiness will be mine.

Claudius hands a packet of letters to Rosencrantz.Exit all.

ACT 4, SCENE 3

Enter Horatio, Gertrude and a Gentleman.

GERTRUDEI will not speak with her.

GENTLEMAN She is persistent — indeed, lunatic.I cannot help but pity her.

GERTRUDEWhat does she want?

GENTLEMAN She speaks much of her father, says she hearsThere's tricks in the world, and sighs and beats her heart,Spins wildly at nothing, speaks things in doubtThat carry but half sense.

HORATIOIt would be good to speak with her, for she may plantDangerous conjectures in suspicious minds. Let her come in.

Exit Gentleman.


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GERTRUDE(aside) To my sick soul, polluted by my sins,Each slip seems prologue to some greater plunge,So full of artless jealousy is guiltIt spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Enter Ophelia.

OPHELIAWhere is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

GERTRUDEHow now, Ophelia?

OPHELIA(sings) How should I your true love knowFrom another one?

GERTRUDEAlas, sweet lady, what means this song?

OPHELIAYou don’t know? Then, I pray you, listen:(sings) He is dead and gone, lady,He is dead and gone.At his head a heap of grassAt his heels a stone.

GERTRUDENay, but Ophelia—

OPHELIAPray you listen. (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow—

Enter Claudius.


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GERTRUDEAlas, look here, my lord.

CLAUDIUSHow are you, pretty lady?

OPHELIAThey say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be.

CLAUDIUSDreaming of her father—

OPHELIAPray, let's have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this:(sings) Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day,All at the morn’s first sign, And I a maid at your windowTo be your valentine.

CLAUDIUSPretty Ophelia—

OPHELIAShe said, 'Before you tumbled meYou promised me to wed.'He answers:'So would I have done by yonder sun If you had not come to my bed.'

CLAUDIUSHow long has she been like this?


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OPHELIAI hope all will be well. We must be patient. But I can only weep to think they would lay him in the cold ground. Goodnight, ladies, goodnight. Sweet ladies, goodnight, goodnight.

Ophelia exits.

CLAUDIUSFollow her closely. Watch her carefully.

Exit Horatio.

O, this is the poison of deep grief. It springsAll from her father's death, and now behold— O Gertrude, Gertrude,When sorrows come they come not single spiesBut in battalions: first, her father slain;Next, your son gone, and he the violent authorOf his own banishment; the people muddied,Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispersOf good Polonius' death, and we have acted foolishly,Burying him with speed and secrecy; poor OpheliaDivided from herself and her fair judgment, Without which we are statues or mere beasts;

Last, and as important as all these,Her brother has in secret come from France.

A noise within. Enter a Messenger.

What is the matter?

MESSENGERSave yourself, my lord.The young Laertes in a riotous chargeDefeats your officers.


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Enter Laertes.

LAERTESO you vile King, Give me my father.

GERTRUDECalmly, good Laertes.

LAERTESThat drop of blood that's calm calls me a bastard,Cries 'Cuckold!' to my father, imprints HARLOTRight here between the chaste unsmirched browsOf my true mother.

CLAUDIUSWhat is the cause, Laertes,That your rebellion looks so giant-like?—Let him go, Gertrude.

LAERTESWhere is my father?

CLAUDIUSDead.

GERTRUDEBut not by him.

CLAUDIUSLet him ask everything.

LAERTESHow came he dead? I'll not be juggled with.I will be revenged most thoroughly for my father!


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CLAUDIUSI am guiltless of your father's deathAnd am most sensibly in grief for it—

Enter Ophelia, muddy and bedraggled.

LAERTESO rose of May,Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia,O heavens, is it possible a young maid's witsShould be as mortal as a poor man's life?

OPHELIA(sings) They bore him bare-faced on the bier,And in his grave rain’d many a tear—

Fare you well, my dove.

LAERTESIf you had your wits and did persuade revengeYou could not move me more than this.This nothing is more than matter.

OPHELIAThere's rosemary: that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies: that's for thoughts.

LAERTESA perfect show of madness — thoughts and remembrance muddled!

OPHELIAThere's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. You may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they all withered when my father died. They say he made a good end.


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(sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.And will he not come again?And will he not come again?No, no, he is dead,Go to your deathbed. He will never come again.

He is gone, he is gone,God have mercy on his soul.And of all Christian souls. God bless you.

She exits.

LAERTESDo you see this, O God?

CLAUDIUSLaertes, I must share this grief with you.If by direct or by collateral handYou find us guilty, we will our kingdom give—Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours—To you in satisfaction. But if not,Then be content to use your patience with usAnd we shall jointly labor with your soulTo give you recompense.

LAERTESLet this be so.His means of death, his obscure funeral—Cry to be heard as if from heaven to earthAnd I must call it in question.

CLAUDIUSSo you shall,And where the offence is: let the great axe fall.

Exit all.


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ACT 4, SCENE 4

Enter Fortinbras and a Captain with his army.

FORTINBRASGo, Captain, greet the Danish King from me:Tell him that by his license FortinbrasCraves the allowance of a promised marchAcross his kingdom.

CAPTAINI will do it, my lord.

FORTINBRAS(to his men) Advance, quietly.

Exit all but Captain.Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and others.

HAMLETGood sir, whose armies are these?

CAPTAINThey are of Norway, sir.

HAMLETHow purposed, sir, I pray you?

CAPTAINAgainst some part of Poland.

HAMLETWho commands them, sir?

CAPTAINThe nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.


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HAMLETHe goes against the whole of Poland, sir,Or for some frontier?

CAPTAINTo tell you the truth, plainly and with no art,We go to gain a little patch of groundThat has in it no profit but the name.I would not pay five ducats — five — to farm it.

HAMLETWhy then the Poles never will defend it.

CAPTAINYes, it is already garrisoned.

HAMLETTwo thousand souls and twenty thousand ducatsWill now decide the question of this trifle.I humbly thank you, sir.

Captain exits.

HAMLETHow everything conspires against me now,And spurs my dull revenge. What is a manIf the chief good and reason for his lifeBe but to sleep and feed? A beast — no more.I do not knowWhy yet I live to say ‘I’ll do this thing’,Since I have cause and will and strength and meansTo do it. Examples clear as day exhort me—Witness this army of such mass and charge,Led by a delicate and tender princeWhose spirit, puffed up by brave ambition Stares at the Great Unknown, and with no fear,Exposing what is mortal and unsureTo all that fortune, death and danger dare—


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Even for an eggshell. To be truly greatIs not to fight without great argumentBut even to find quarrel in a strawWhen honor is at stake. How stand I thenThat have a father killed, a mother stained,Excitements of my reason and my blood,And let all sleep; while to my shame I seeThe imminent death of twenty thousand menThat go to their graves like beds, fight for a plotWhich is not tomb enough or earth enoughTo hide the slain?

ROSENCRANTZAre you ready to go, my lord?

HAMLETO, from this time forthMy thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth.

Exit all.

ACT 4, SCENE 5

Enter Claudius and Laertes.

LAERTESBut tell me Why you did not proceed against these acts?

CLAUDIUSO, for two mighty reasons:The Queen his motherLives only for her son; and for myself,My virtue or my plague, one or the other, She is so vital to my life and soulThat as a star moves only in its sphereI could but orbit her. The other reasonIs the great love the common people bear him.


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LAERTESAnd so have I a noble father lost,A sister driven into desperate terms.But my revenge will come.

CLAUDIUSI loved your father and we love ourselves,And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—

Enter a Messenger with letters.

MESSENGERThese to your majesty, this to the Queen.

CLAUDIUSFrom Hamlet! Who brought them?

MESSENGERSailors, my lord—

CLAUDIUSLaertes, you shall hear them.(to Messenger) Leave us.

Exit Messenger.

CLAUDIUS(reads) High and mighty. You should know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow I shall beg leave to see your kingly eyes. When (first asking your pardon) I shall recount to you the occasion of my sudden return.

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

LAERTESKnow you the hand?


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CLAUDIUSIt’s Hamlet’s penmanship: ’Naked’.And in a postscript here he says 'alone'.

LAERTESLet him come.It warms the very sickness in my heartThat I shall live and tell him to his teeth‘You did this’.

CLAUDIUSIf it be so, Laertes,Will you be ruled by me?

LAERTESYes, my lord,If you’ll not overrule me, making peace.

CLAUDIUSJust your own peace. If he is now returned,I will hit himWith an exploit, which I am now devising,Under the which he shall not choose but fall.And for his death no wind of blame shall breatheBut even his mother shall not see the intrigueAnd call it accident.Since your travel, you have been praised often—And within Hamlet's hearing—for some qualitiesWherein they say you shine.

LAERTESWhat qualities are they, my lord?


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CLAUDIUSFor art and exercise in your defense,And most especially for your rapier.Laertes, was your father dear to you?Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,A face without a heart?

LAERTESWhy do you ask?

CLAUDIUSWhat would you undertakeTo show yourself your father's son in deedMore than in words?

LAERTESI’d cut his throat in the church.

CLAUDIUSRevenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber;Hamlet returned shall know you have come home;We'll bring you together to spar, And wager on your heads. He being careless,In fact, naïve and free from all contriving,Will not inspect the foils, so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may chooseA sharpened foil, and with a gamesman’s hit,Avenge him for your father.

LAERTESI will do it.And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.I bought some poison from a travelling merchantSo deadly that, but dip a knife in it,Where it draws blood, there is no remedy.I'll touch my foilWith this contagion, that if I scratch him slightly


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It may be death.

CLAUDIUSIf this should fail,It were better not to try. Therefore this projectShould have a back or option that might holdIf this plan fails to work… I have it!And if he calls for drink, I'll have prepared himA chalice for the match, whereon but sipping,If he by chance escape your venomed strike,Our purpose may still hold. But hush, what noise?

Enter the Queen.

GERTRUDEOne woe does tread upon another's heel,So fast they follow. Your sister's drowned, Laertes.

LAERTESDrowned! O, where?

GERTRUDEThere is a willow grows aside the brookThat shows his frosted leaves in the glassy stream.And there, fantastic garlands did she makeOf crowflowers, nettles, daisies and long purples,That playful shepherds give a grosser name,But our chaste maids do call them dead men's fingers.When on the lowest boughs she climbed to hangHer crown of weeds, an envious sliver broke,And down her weedy trophies and herselfFell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wideAnd mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,During which she chanted snatches of old tunesAs one incapable of her own distress,Or like a creature born there, that belongsInside a watery world. But it would not be long


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Until her garments, heavy with their drink,Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious bedTo muddy death.

LAERTESAlas, then she is drowned.

GERTRUDEDrowned, drowned.

LAERTESYou’ve had too much of water, poor Ophelia,And therefore I forbid my tears. But yetIt is our trick — nature keeps her customsLet shame say what it will.

Exit

CLAUDIUSLet's follow, Gertrude.How much I had to do to calm his rage.Now I fear this will start it up again.Therefore let's follow.

Exit all.

END OF ACT 4. We will now pause for discussion and a 10 minute break


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ACT 5, SCENE 1

Enter the Gravedigger.

GRAVEDIGGER(Sings.) In youth when I did love, did love,I thought it was very sweetTo count the hours I’d have my love,And never would call them fleet.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

HAMLETHas this fellow no feeling of his business that he sings while grave-making?

HORATIOHabit has made it an ordinary task for him.

GRAVEDIGGER(sings) But age with his stealing stepsHas clawed me in his clutchAnd has shipped me into the earthAs if I had never been much.

Throws up a skull.

HAMLETThat skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How this knave tosses it to the ground, as if were Cain's jawbone, that did the first murder.

GRAVEDIGGER(sings) A pickaxe and a spade, a spade,And also a shrouding-sheet, O, a pit of clay is being madeFor a new guest we will meet.


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Throws up another skull.

HAMLETThere's another. Why, may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Why does he allow this madman to knock him about the head with a dirty shovel, but will not accuse him of assault and battery? I will speak to this fellow.—Whose grave is this?

GRAVEDIGGERMine, sir.(Sings) O, a pit of clay is being made—

HAMLETI think it is yours, indeed, for you lie in it.

GRAVEDIGGERFor my part, I do not lie in it, yet it is mine.

HAMLETYou do lie in it, to be in it and say it is yours. It’s for the dead, not for the living. Therefore you lie. What man do you dig it for?

GRAVEDIGGERFor no man, sir.

HAMLETWhat woman, then?

GRAVEDIGGERNo woman, neither.

HAMLETWho is to be buried in it?

GRAVEDIGGEROne that was a woman, sir, but rest her soul she's dead.


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HAMLET(to Horatio) How precise the rascal is! How long have you been grave-maker?

GRAVEDIGGERI started on the day that our last King Hamlet defeated Old Fortinbras.

HAMLETHow long ago was that?

GRAVEDIGGERCannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that! It was that very day that young Hamlet was born — he that is mad and sent into England.

HAMLETAh, yes. Why was he sent into England?

GRAVEDIGGERWhy, because he was mad. He shall recover his wits there. Or if he doesn’t, it’s no great matter there.

HAMLETWhy?

GRAVEDIGGERNobody will notice it there. There the men are all as mad as he.

HAMLETHow did he go mad?

GRAVEDIGGERVery strangely, they say.


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HAMLETHow, strangely?

GRAVEDIGGERWell, ya know, by losing his wits.

HAMLETHow long will a man lie in the earth before he rots?

GRAVEDIGGERWell, assuming he’s not already rotten before he dies, he will last about eight or nine years. Now here's a skull that has lain in the earth twenty-three years.

HAMLETWhose was it?

GRAVEDIGGERA poor mad fellow's. Whose do you think it was?

HAMLETUm…I don’t know.

GRAVEDIGGERThis same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the King's jester.

HAMLETThis?

GRAVEDIGGEREven that.


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HAMLETAlas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent imagination. He bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorrant it is to think about. My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how often. Where be your tricks now — your dances, your songs, your flashes of merriment, that used to make the table roar with laughter? Not a single joke now to mock your own grinning, quite down in the mouth. Now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, even if she paints her face an inch thick, she’ll look this way in the end. Make her laugh at that. Please, Horatio, tell me one thing.

HORATIOWhat's that, my lord?

HAMLETDo you think Alexander looked like this in the earth?

HORATIOJust like that.

HAMLETAnd smelled like this? Phew!

HORATIOEven so, my lord.


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HAMLETTo what dirty ends we may return, Horatio! Why, may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till we find it turned into a cork to plug a bung-hole? Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and from that loam, might we not make the cork to stop a beer-barrel?

Enter, Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes and a Priest.

But hush—but hush awhile.

Hamlet and Horatio stand aside. Enter pallbearers with a coffin. A short ceremony.

LAERTES What other ceremony will there be?

PRIEST Her burial has been drawn out as muchAs we have right to do.

LAERTES Is there no more to be done?

PRIESTNo more to be done.

LAERTES Lay her in the earth,And from her fair and unpolluted fleshMay violets spring. I tell you, unkind priest,A ministering angel shall my sister beWhen you lie howling.

HAMLET(aside to Horatio) What, the fair Ophelia?


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GERTRUDESweets to the sweet. Farewell.I hoped you would have been my Hamlet's wife:I thought I’d toss flowers on your bride-bed, sweet maid,Not strew them on your grave.

LAERTES Hold off the earth awhile,Till I have caught her once more in my arms.

Leaps in the grave.

Now pile your dust upon the quick and deadTill of this gap a mountain you have made.

HAMLET(comes forward) What is he whose griefBears such an emphasis? This is I,Hamlet the Dane.

LAERTES The devil take your soul!

HAMLETTake your hands off me!

CLAUDIUSPull them apart!

GERTRUDEHamlet! Hamlet!

HORATIOGood my lord, be quiet.


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HAMLETWhy, I will fight with him upon this themeUntil my eyelids will not open more.

GERTRUDEO my son, what theme?

HAMLETI loved Ophelia — forty thousand brothersCould not with all their quantity of loveMake up my sum. What will you do for her?

CLAUDIUSO, he is mad, Laertes.

GERTRUDEFor the love of God, have patience with him.

HAMLETBy god, show me what you’d do.Would weep, would fight, would fast, would tear yourself,Would drink up poison, eat a crocodile?I'll do it. Do you come here to whine,To outshine me with leaping in her grave?Be buried quick with her, and so will I.

GERTRUDEThis is mere madness,


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HAMLETHear you, sir,What is the reason that you use me thus?I loved you ever — but it is no matter.Let Hercules himself do what he may,The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

Exit Hamlet.

CLAUDIUSI pray you, good Horatio, go after him.

Exit Horatio.

(aside to Laertes) Hold fast and remember our last night’s plotWe'll try the matter in a present test.—Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.This grave shall have a living monument.Soon we shall see a time of deathly quiet;Till then…nothing but patience.

Exit all.

ACT 5, SCENE 2

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

HAMLETSo much for this, sir. Now shall you learn the rest:You do remember all the circumstance?

HORATIORemember it, my lord?


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HAMLETSir, in my heart there was a kind of fightingThat would not let me sleep. I acted rashly— And praised be rashness for it. SometimesMistaken actions serve us well, When our deep plots do fail — and that should teach usThere's a divinity that shapes our ends,No matter what we do.

HORATIOThat is most certain.

HAMLETAt sea, I left my cabin in the darkAnd groped to find my old mates, found them,Pilfered their letters, and at last withdrewTo my own room again, opening upTheir grand commission; where I found, Horatio, A royal knavery, an exact commandMasked by many several sorts of reasonsRegarding Denmark's health, and England's tooThat -- not to wait for the grinding of the axe—My head should be struck off.

HORATIOIs it possible? HAMLETHere's the commission; read it at more leisure.But will you hear now how I did proceed?

HORATIOI beseech you.

HAMLETBeing encircled thus by a net of villains, I sat me down,Devised a new commission, wrote it fair—


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Want to know the gist of what I wrote?

HORATIOYes, my good lord.

HAMLETAn earnest solicitation from the King,As England was his faithful tributary,That on the view and knowing of these contents,He should put to sudden death those bearers.Folded the writ up like the original,Signed as my uncle, sealed it, placed it safely,The exchange never known.

HORATIOSo Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are dead.

HAMLETWhy, man, they brought this on themselves!They are not on my conscience.

HORATIOWhy, what a king is this!

HAMLETDon’t you think I’m bound to see this through?He that has killed the king and whored my mother,Thrust in between the kingdom and my hopes,Angled with such devious designTo take my life. How can I not take revenge?

Enter Osric, a Courtier.

OSRICYour Lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.


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HAMLETI humbly thank you sir. (aside to Horatio) Do you know this water-fly?

OSRICSweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

HAMLETI will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Your bonnet to its right use: 'tis for the head.

OSRICI thank your lordship, it is very hot.

HAMLETNo, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

OSRICIt is a little bit cold, my lord, indeed.

HAMLETBut yet methinks it is very sultry and hot.

OSRICExceedingly, my lord, it is very sultry, indeed. My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter: you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes has at his weapon.

HAMLETWhat's his weapon?

OSRICRapier and dagger.

HAMLETThat's two of his weapons; but well.


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OSRICThe King, sir, has wagered, sir, that in a dozen passes between yourself and Laertes, he shall not hit you more than three times. The King has set the odds at twelve to nine in your favor, and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would agree to compete.

HAMLETSir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing and the King maintain his interest — I will win for him if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

OSRICShall I deliver that message?

HAMLETYes, along with what flourish your nature requires.

OSRICI commend my duty to your lordship.

HAMLETYours, yours. Exit Osric

HORATIOYou will lose, my lord.

HAMLETI do not think so. Since he went into France I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. You do not know how dark everything is within my heart — but it is no matter.


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HORATIOIf your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will hold off their coming here and say you are not fit.

HAMLETNot at all. We defy prediction. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man truly understands the life he lives, what does it matter if he leaves that life behind? Let it be.

A table prepared. Trumpets, Drums and Officers with cushions, foils and daggers. Enter Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, Osric and all the State.

CLAUDIUSCome, Hamlet, come and take this hand from me.

Puts Laertes’ hand into Hamlet’s hand.

HAMLETGive me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong,But pardon it as you are a gentleman.This audience knows, and I’m sure you have heard,How I am punished with a sore distraction.What I might have done to roughly wakeYour nature, your honor and your angerI here proclaim was madness.Let my denial of deliberate evilAbsolve me, in your most generous thoughts, this way:That I have shot my arrow over the houseAnd hurt my brother.

LAERTESI do receive your offered love like loveAnd will not wrong it.


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HAMLETI embrace it freelyAnd will this brothers' wager fairly play.Give us the foils.

LAERTESCome, one for me.

HAMLETI'll be your foil, Laertes. Against my ignoranceYour skill shall, like a star in the darkest night,Show fiery bright, indeed.

LAERTESYou mock me, sir.

HAMLETNo, by this hand.

CLAUDIUSGive them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,You know the wager?

HAMLETVery well, my lord.Your Grace has laid odds on the weaker side.

CLAUDIUS I do not fear it. I have seen you both

LAERTESThis is too heavy, let me see another.

HAMLETThis suits me well. These foils are all one length?

OSRIC Ay, my good lord.


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CLAUDIUSSet me the cups of wine upon that table.If Hamlet give the first or second hit Or score in answer to the third exchangeLet all the battlements their cannon fire.The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breathAnd in the cup there, he shall throw a jewel,Richer than that which four successive kingsIn Denmark's crown have worn—Come, begin!

Trumpets

And you, the judges, watch carefully.

HAMLETCome on, sir.

LAERTESCome, my lord.

They play.

HAMLETOne!

LAERTESNo!

HAMLETJudgment?

OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.

Drum, trumpets and shot.

LAERTESWell, again.


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CLAUDIUSWait. Hamlet, this pearl is thine:Here's to thy health. Give him the cup.

HAMLETI'll play this bout first. Set it by awhile.

They play.

Come, another hit! — What say you?

LAERTESA touch, a touch. I do confess it.

CLAUDIUSOur son shall win.

GERTRUDEHe's fat and scant of breath.Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows—The Queen raises her glass to Hamlet’s luck.

HAMLETGood madam.

CLAUDIUSGertrude, do not drink.

GERTRUDEI will, my lord, I pray you pardon me.

CLAUDIUS(aside) It is the poisoned cup! It is too late.

HAMLETI dare not drink yet, madam. By and by.


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GERTRUDECome, let me wipe your face.

LAERTES(aside to King) My lord, I'll hit him now.

CLAUDIUS (aside to Laertes) I do not think so.

LAERTES (aside) And yet it is almost against my conscience.

HAMLETCome for the third, Laertes, you do but dally.I pray you pass with your best violence.I know you want to make a fool of me.

LAERTESSay you so? Come on.

They play.

OSRICNothing neither way.

LAERTESHave at me now!

In scuffling, they change rapiers.

CLAUDIUSPart them — they are incensed.

HAMLETNo, come again

Gertrude falls.


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OSRICLook to the Queen there, ho!

HORATIOThey bleed on both sides. How are you, my lord?

OSRICWhat is it, Laertes?

LAERTESWhy, as a trapper in my own snare, Osric:I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

HAMLETHow does the Queen?

CLAUDIUSShe swoons to see you bleed.

GERTRUDENo, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet,The drink, the drink — I am poisoned.

She dies.

HAMLETO villainy, NO! Let the door be locked.Treachery! Seek it out. Exit Osric.

LAERTESIt is here, Hamlet, you are slain.No medicine in the world can do you good:In you there is not half an hour's life;The treacherous instrument is in your handUncovered and infected. The foul practiceHas turned itself on me. The King, the King's to blame.


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HAMLETThe point infected too? Then venom do your work!

Hamlet goes after the King.

LORDSTreason, treason!

CLAUDIUSO, yet defend me, friends, I’m only hurt.

HAMLETHere, you incestuous, damned Dane!Come, drink, here is your poison, here!Follow my mother.

Claudius dies.

LAERTESHe is justly served.It is a potion concocted by himself.Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet,My father's death—and mine— weigh not against you,Nor yours ‘gainst me.

Laertes dies.

HAMLETHeaven make you free of it. I follow you.I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu.You that look pale and tremble at this sight,That are but mutes or audience to this act,Had I but time — O, I could tell you— But let it be. Horatio, I am dead.You live still: Report me and my rightful cause To those who need to know.


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HORATIONever believe it.I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:Here's still some liquor left.

HAMLETGive me the cup. Let go! By heaven I’ll have it!O God, Horatio, what a wounded nameI leave behind if things remain unknown!If you did ever hold me in your heart—Tell my story.

A march afar off and sound of shooting.

What warlike noise is this?

Enter Osric.

OSRICYoung Fortinbras sends this warlike volley,Coming directly from a conquest in Poland.

HAMLETO, I die, Horatio.The potent poison quite o'erwhelms my spirit.I cannot live to hear the news from England,But I do prophesy succession landsOn Fortinbras: he has my dying vote.So tell him each occurance, large and smallWhich thus leads me to say—The rest is silence.

Hamlet dies.

HORATIONow cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet Prince,And flights of angels sing you to your rest.Why does the drum come this way?


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Enter Fortinbras with his army.

FORTINBRASWhere is this sight?

HORATIOWhat is it you would see?If either woe or wonder, cease your search.

FORTINBRASThis slaughter cries on havoc. O proud Death,What feast is planned in your infernal hallThat you so bloodily have struck so many princesIn a single shot?

HORATIOGive order that these bodiesBe placed to the view, high on a stage,And let me speak to the yet unknowing worldHow these things came about. So shall you hearOf carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,Of deaths set up with cunning, for no cause,And, in the upshot, plans that went awry,Fallen on th'inventors' heads. All this can ITruly deliver.

FORTINBRASLet us hurry to hear itTogether with a noble audience.For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.Let four captainsBear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,For he was likely, if he had lived,To have proved most royal. And for his passage,The soldier's music and the rite of warSpeak loudly for him.Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this


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Belongs in battle, but here shows much amiss.Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

Soldier’s music and the rite of war.

END OF PLAY


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