Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Queen and Polonius. POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him.
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear
with
And that your Grace hath screened and stood
between 5
Much heat and him. I’ll silence me even here.
Pray you, be round with him. HAMLET, within Mother, mother, mother! QUEEN I’ll warrant you. Fear me not. Withdraw,
I hear him coming. 10 Polonius hides behind the arras. | In Gertrude's bedroom, Polonius coaches Gertrude on what to say to Hamlet. Polonius says she should tell him his pranks have gone too far, and that she's been covering his royal behind long enough. As Hamlet approaches, Polonius hides behind a tapestry. |
Enter Hamlet. HAMLET Now, mother, what’s the matter? QUEEN
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 15 | Gertrude reprimands Hamlet for upsetting Claudius with the play, but Hamlet turns the tables and starts attacking her for marrying her husband's brother. |
QUEEN
Why, how now, Hamlet? HAMLET What’s the matter now? QUEEN
Have you forgot me? HAMLET No, by the rood, not so.
You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife, 20
And (would it were not so) you are my mother. QUEEN
Nay, then I’ll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge.
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. 25 QUEEN
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
Help, ho! | Gertrude is feeling pretty disrespected by Hamlet, so she moves to call in some other people (probably Polonius and Claudius) to talk to him. Hamlet tells her she's not going anywhere until he gets her to look deeply into the mirror (figuratively) so she can see just how badly she's behaved. At this point, the Queen gets a little worried and cries out for help. |
POLONIUS, behind the arras What ho! Help! HAMLET
How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead. He kills Polonius by thrusting a rapier
through the arras. POLONIUS, behind the arras
O, I am slain! 30 QUEEN O me, what hast thou done? HAMLET Nay, I know not. Is it the King? QUEEN
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAMLET
A bloody deed—almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king and marry with his brother. 35 QUEEN
As kill a king? | Polonius, still behind the curtain, echoes Gertrude's cry for help, which causes Hamlet to turn and stab him through the tapestry. Hamlet is convinced he's killed "a rat," a.k.a., Claudius, until Polonius cries out and Gertrude says, "What have you done?" Um, I'm not sure, Hamlet says. That was the king, right? Clearly, Hamlet thinks it was. And killing Claudius, he tells his mom, isn't as bad as what she did when she killed Old Hamlet and married his brother. Gertrude seems truly baffled by this statement. |
HAMLET Ay, lady, it was my word.
He pulls Polonius’ body from behind the arras.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.
I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger. 40
To Queen. Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit
you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damnèd custom have not brazed it so 45
That it be proof and bulwark against sense. | Oh snap. It wasn't Claudius behind the tapestry. It was Polonius. Hamlet didn't mean to kill the old busybody, but at the same time, he thinks Polonius kind of got what he deserved. If he hadn't always been meddling in everyone else's business, he wouldn't be in this position. (This position being "dead.") He tells his mother to stop wringing her hands because he plans to wring her heart—if in fact her heart is still capable of feeling emotion. |
QUEEN
What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me? HAMLET Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, 50
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows
As false as dicers’ oaths—O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks 55
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words! Heaven’s face does glow
O’er this solidity and compound mass
With heated visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act. 60 QUEEN Ay me, what act
That roars so loud and thunders in the index? | Gertrude wants to know what she's done to make Hamlet talk to her this way. Hamlet says she's done something so horrible that she's lost her virtue, become a hypocrite, made a mockery of wedding vows, and made all of heaven sick. Gertrude again demands to know what he's talking about. |
HAMLET
Look here upon this picture and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See what a grace was seated on this brow, 65
Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command,
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,
A combination and a form indeed 70
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man.
This was your husband. Look you now what follows.
Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? 75
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed
And batten on this moor? Ha! Have you eyes?
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble
And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment 80
Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense
Is apoplexed; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled,
But it reserved some quantity of choice 85
To serve in such a difference. What devil was ’t
That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense 90
Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?
Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame 95
When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will. | It's like this, Hamlet says. On the one hand, there's my dad, your first husband, who was totally awesome. He had the qualities and the blessings of multiple gods. And on the other hand, there's his deadbeat brother, Claudius, who is like a moldy ear of corn that infects everything around it. What on earth made her choose to marry that jerkface? There's no explaining it except that she must have been motivated by some horrible evil. |
QUEEN O Hamlet, speak no more!
Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, 100
And there I see such black and grainèd spots
As will not leave their tinct. HAMLET Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love 105
Over the nasty sty! QUEEN O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet! | Gertrude begs Hamlet to stop. She's looking inside her soul now, like he wanted her to, and she doesn't like what she's seeing. |
HAMLET A murderer and a villain, 110
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings,
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket— 115 QUEEN No more! | Hamlet keeps going, saying his mom married a murderer and a villain who stole his father's crown. |
HAMLET A king of shreds and patches— Enter Ghost. Save me and hover o’er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards!—What would your gracious
figure? 120 QUEEN Alas, he’s mad. HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
Th’ important acting of your dread command?
O, say! 125 GHOST Do not forget. This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
O, step between her and her fighting soul.
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. 130
Speak to her, Hamlet. | The ghost of King Hamlet shows up in the middle of Prince Hamlet's rant. (Good timing.) He reminds Hamlet that he's got some revenge to attend to, and talking to his mom is just part of the preparation. The ghost tells Hamlet to talk to his mom. She's watching him like he's totally cuckoo right now. |
HAMLET How is it with you, lady? QUEEN Alas, how is ’t with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse? 135
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’ alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 140
Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look? HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares.
His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. To the Ghost. Do not
look upon me, 145
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects. Then what I have to do
Will want true color—tears perchance for blood. QUEEN To whom do you speak this? HAMLET Do you see nothing there? 150 QUEEN
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear? QUEEN No, nothing but ourselves. HAMLET
Why, look you there, look how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived! 155
Look where he goes even now out at the portal! Ghost exits. | So Hamlet turns to his mom and says, "How's it going?" Um, not well, Gertrude tells him. She asks what he's looking at and who he's talking to. Hamlet is shocked to realize that she can't hear or see the ghost. Last time, remember, all his buddies saw the ghost, too. So what's going on here? Gertrude clearly thinks Hamlet's lost it, but what do you think? Did the ghost choose only to appear to Hamlet this time? Whatever the case, the ghost leaves. |
QUEEN
This is the very coinage of your brain.
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in. HAMLET Ecstasy? 160
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will reword, which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, 165
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven, 170
Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come,
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue,
For, in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, 175
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. | Gertrude says it's pretty clear that Hamlet's crazy, but Hamlet tells her that's not the case. He's totally sane, but even if she thinks he's crazy, she can't just forget about all of her sins and blame everything on his madness. He begs his mother to repent for her sins and stop making things worse with excuses and lies to cover over her corrupt deeds. |
QUEEN
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain! HAMLET
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half!
Good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed. 180
Assume a virtue if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery 185
That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence, the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature
And either … the devil or throw him out 190
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night,
And, when you are desirous to be blest,
I’ll blessing beg of you. For this same lord
Pointing to Polonius.
I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so
To punish me with this and this with me, 195
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel only to be kind.
This bad begins, and worse remains behind. 200
One word more, good lady. | Gertrude tells Hamlet he's breaking her heart in two, and he says, "Perfect. Throw away the bad half and keep the pure one." He tells her she has to admit that her remarriage was a sin and stop having sex with Claudius. If she abstains tonight, it will get easier and easier to keep saying no to him. |
QUEEN What shall I do? HAMLET
Not this by no means that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed,
Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse, 205
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses
Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. ’Twere good you let him know, 210
For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house’s top, 215
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep
And break your own neck down. | Gertrude appears to be coming around. She asks Hamlet what she should do now, and he says (again), don't sleep with Claudius. This time, though, he's saying it because he's worried that if she goes to bed with Claudius, he'll convince her to talk freely about Hamlet, and she'll be tempted to tell him that Hamlet isn't really mad, that he's just pretending. According to Hamlet, that would put Gertrude in great danger...just like the ape that tried to fly like a bird and wound up breaking its neck. Um, yeah, we're not sure where that story comes from, but you get the point: if Gertrude spills to Claudius, he might kill her. |
QUEEN
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 220
What thou hast said to me. | Gertrude says there's no need to worry about her talking. To talk, you have to be able to breathe, and she feels pretty much dead at this point. |
HAMLET
I must to England, you know that. QUEEN Alack,
I had forgot! ’Tis so concluded on. HAMLET
There’s letters sealed; and my two schoolfellows, 225
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard; and ’t shall go hard 230
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing.
I’ll lug the guts into the neighbor room. 235
Mother, good night indeed. This counselor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.—
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.—
Good night, mother. 240 They exit, Hamlet tugging in Polonius. | Hamlet then reminds his mother that he has to leave for England with his "friends," Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, neither of whom he actually trusts. He says the little scheme Claudius is setting is fine, as he will basically be blown up by his own bomb (hoisted with his own petard). Hamlet then looks at Polonius and comments that this guy, who was such a foolish prattler in life is finally quiet and serious, a.k.a., "grave," as in...well, you get it. Then, lugging Polonius' corpse out, he wishes his mom a good night. Just a typical Friday night at Elsinore. |