| And can you, by no drift of circumstance,Get from him why he puts on this confusion, | King ClaudiusHave you found out what’s wrong with him? Why he’s crazy? |
| He does confess he feels himself distracted;But from what cause he will by no means speak. | RosencrantzHe says something is distracting him, but he wont tell me what. |
| Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,When we would bring him on to some confessionOf his true state. | GuildensternWhen we would question him and try to find out, he cleverly avoided it by acting crazy. |
| Did you assay him?To any pastime? | Queen GertrudeDid you guys invite him to do anything with you guys? |
| Madam, it so fell out, that certain playersWe o’er-raught on the way: of these we told him;And there did seem in him a kind of joyTo hear of it: | RosencrantzYes we told him a troupe is on there way and he seemed happy. |
| they are about the court,And, as I think, they have already orderThis night to play before him. | RosencrantzThey are staying at the castle and he has already ordered them to perform tonight before him. |
| And he beseech’d me to entreat your majestiesTo hear and see the matter. | Lord PoloniusHe wants me to invite you guys to come watch. |
| With all my heart; and it doth much content meTo hear him so inclined. | King ClaudiusOf course we’ll come, and it makes me happy that he wants us there. |
| . Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,That he, as ’twere by accident, may hereAffront Ophelia: | King ClaudiusLeave us Gertrude. We have set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia and Hamlet is coming now. (“accidentally” bump into each other) |
| Her father and myself, lawful espials,Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,We may of their encounter frankly judge, | King ClaudiusHer Dad and I will hide and judge what happens. |
| And gather by him, as he is behaved, If’t be the affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for. | King ClaudiusAnd we will see by his behavior if love is why he is mad. |
| And for your part, Ophelia, I do wishThat your good beauties be the happy causeOf Hamlet’s wildness: | Queen GertrudeOphelia, I hope you are in fact why Hamlet is crazy. |
| so shall I hope your virtuesWill bring him to his wonted way again,To both your honours. | Queen GertrudeSo that your greatness can bring him back to himself. Maybe it will be good for both of you. (She would be happy if they married) |
| Madam, I wish it may. | OpheliaI hope it does. |
| Read on this book;That show of such an exercise may colourYour loneliness. | Lord PoloniusRead this book to show that you are lonely. |
| We are oft to blame in this,–‘Tis too much proved–that with devotion’s visageAnd pious action we do sugar o’erThe devil himself. | Lord PoloniusMost people hide something rotten behind a pretty face. |
| . O, ’tis too true!How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! | King ClaudiusMakes it sound like he is hiding something in his appearance. |
| The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art,Is not more ugly to the thing that helps itThan is my deed to my most painted word:O heavy burthen! | King ClaudiusA whore that puts on a lot of makeup to hide ugliness isn’t as bad as him covering up his guilt. |
| To be, or not to be: that is the question: | HamletContemplating suicide. Should I love or should I die? |
| Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, | HamletIf it is more noble to live suffering bad fortune. |
| Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? | HamletOr to go against what is haunting you by ending it by killing yourself. |
| To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummationDevoutly to be wish’d. | HamletTo die and not sleep anymore, which would end suffering, you should want to die. |
| To die, to sleep;To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; | HamletHere’s the problem, after life issue. |
| For in that sleep of death what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause: there’s the respectThat makes calamity of so long life; | HamletWhen we die we don’t know what happens next. That’s why enduring suffering may be better. That’s what stops us from suicide (might be worse). |
| For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,The insolence of office and the spurnsThat patient merit of the unworthy takes, | HamletWho would want to spend an eternity in hell and misery. |
| When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin? | HamletWhen they can end it all with a dagger. |
| . who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life, | HamletWho would bear all of that |
| But that the dread of something after death,The undiscover’d country from whose bournNo traveller returns, puzzles the willAnd makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of? | HamletBut because we don’t know what comes after, what it’s like, and no one has come back to tell us, we would rather endure ills then go to the unknown. |
| Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; | HamletOur conscience (thinking) makes us cowards/rethink things. |
| And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pith and momentWith this regard their currents turn awry,And lose the name of action.— | HamletFear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. |
| Soft you now!The fair Ophelia! | HamletPretty Ophelia |
| Nymph, in thy orisonsBe all my sins remember’d. | HamletNymph (pretty young women) – I have problems and your so perfect and pure so please pray for me. |
| My lord, I have remembrances of yours,That I have longed long to re-deliver;I pray you, now receive them. | OpheliaI have gifts to give back to you. (Giving back things he gave to her) |
| No, not I;I never gave you aught. | HamletNo, I never gave you anything. |
| My honour’d lord, you know right well you did;And, with them, words of so sweet breath composedAs made the things more rich: | OpheliaYou know you did and with that you said beautiful, nice things to me. |
| their perfume lost,Take these again; for to the noble mindRich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.There, my lord. | HamletThese things don’t appeal to me like they did before because you aren’t treating me well. |
| Ha, ha! are you honest? | HamletAre you good/serious? |
| Are you fair? | HamletAre you beautiful/do you treat people well? |
| What means your lordship? | OpheliaWhat do you mean? (Which one of these are you saying) |
| That if you be honest and fair, your honesty shouldadmit no discourse to your beauty. | Hamlet(Being good and beautiful aren’t related) I’m just saying that if your good and beautiful, your goodness should have nothing to do with your beauty. |
| Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce thanwith honesty? | Ophelia(Beauty and good are related) Could beauty be related to anything better than beauty? |
| . truly; for the power of beauty will soonertransform honesty from what it is to a bawd than theforce of honesty can translate beauty into hislikeness: | HamletSure, since beauty’s power can more easily change a good girl into a whore than the power of goodness can change a beautiful girl into a virgin. |
| this was sometime a paradox, but now thetime gives it proof. | HamletTHis was a paradox, but I’ve solved it. |
| . I did love you once. | HamletI did love you once. |
| . I did love you once. | OpheliaYes, you made me think so, |
| You should not have believed me | HamletYou shouldn’t have believed me. |
| for virtue cannotso inoculate our old stock but we shall relish ofit: | HamletYou can’t create virtue by passing it on.We’re all rotten at the core, no matter how hard we try to be virtuous. |
| . I loved you not. | HamletI didn’t love you. |
| I was the more deceived. | OpheliaThen I was deceived. |
| Get thee to a nunnery: | HamletGet yourself to a convent.(Nunnery – slang for whore house or a place to stay pure, a virgin forever) |
| why wouldst thou be abreeder of sinners? | HamletWhy would you want to give birth to more sinners? |
| I am myself indifferent honest;but yet I could accuse me of such things that itwere better my mother had not borne me: | HamletI’m fairly good myself, but I could accuse myself of such horrible crimes that it would have been better if my mom hadn’t given birth to me. |
| What should such fellows as I do crawlingbetween earth and heaven? | HamletWhat should I do with my life? |
| We are arrant knaves,all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. | HamletEveryone of us is a criminal. Don’t believe any of us. Hurry to a convent or a whore house. |
| Where’s your father? | HamletWhere’s your father? |
| At home, my lord. | OpheliaAt home. |
| Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play thefool no where but in’s own house. | HamletLock him in, so he can play the fool in his own home only. So he can’t get into trouble anywhere else. (Shows Hamlet knows he is being spied on) |
| O, help him, you sweet heavens! | OpheliaGod help him. |
| . If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague forthy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure assnow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to anunnery, go: farewell. | HamletIf you marry, I’ll give you this curse as your wedding present. Be as clean as ice, as pure as the driven snow, and you’ll still get a bad reputation. Get yourself to a convent. |
| Or, if thou wilt needsmarry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enoughwhat monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,and quickly too. | HamletOr if you have to get married, marry a fool, since a wise man will know that you’ll cheat on him. |
| I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; Godhas given you one face, and you make yourselvesanother: Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hathmade me mad. | HamletI’ve heard about you women and your cosmetics too.I won’t stand for it. It’s driving me crazy. |
| . I say, we will have no more marriages:those that are married already, all but one, shalllive; the rest shall keep as they are. To anunnery, go. | HamletWhoever is already married (except one – hinting at killing Claudius), will stay married. Everyone else will stay single. Go to a convent, fast. |
| O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword;The expectancy and rose of the fair state,The glass of fashion and the mould of form,The observed of all observers, quite, quite down! | OpheliaOh how noble his mind used to be and how lost he is now. Used to have gentlemen’s grace, scholar’s wit, soldiers strength, used to be jewel of the country, obvious heir to throne, now he has fallen low. |
| And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,That suck’d the honey of his music vows,Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youthBlasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! | OpheliaAnd of all the women who enjoyed him, I am the most miserable. His mind is out of tune. He’s been ruined by madness. I’m miserable to see him now and know what he was before. |
| Love! his affections do not that way tend; | King ClaudiusLove? His feelings don’t move in that way. |
| Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little,Was not like madness. | ClaudiusHis words, although disorganized, weren’t madness. |
| There’s something in his soul,O’er which his melancholy sits on brood;And I do doubt the hatch and the discloseWill be some danger: | ClaudiusHis sadness is hatching something that may be dangerous. |
| which for to prevent,I have in quick determinationThus set it down: he shall with speed to England,For the demand of our neglected tribute | ClaudiusSo to prevent any harm, I’ve made the decision to send him to England to try to get back the money he owes us. |
| Haply the seas and countries differentWith variable objects shall expelThis something-settled matter in his heart, | ClaudiusWith luck, maybe the sea and new country will help him. |
| It shall do well: but yet do I believeThe origin and commencement of his griefSprung from neglected love. | PoloniusIt should work, but I still think his madness was caused by unrequited love. |
| after the playLet his queen mother all alone entreat himTo show his grief: let her be round with him; | PoloniusLet his mom get him alone and beg him to share his feelings. |
| And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the earOf all their conference. | PoloniusI’ll hide and listen. |
| If she find him not,To England send him, | PoloniusIf she can’t find out what his secret is, then send him to England. |
| It shall be so:Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go. | ClaudiusThat’s what I’ll do. When important start to show signs of insanity, you have to watch them closely. |
Hamlet 3.1
September 6, 2019