Ad-free experience
Study Guides for 1,000+ titles
Full Text content for 250+ titles
No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
Flashcards
Mastery Quizzes
Infographics
Graphic Novels
AP® Practice & Lessons
Note-taking
Bookmarking
Dashboard
Read and listen with a SparkNotes PLUS trial!
No Fear Translations
No Fear Audio
Already have an account? Log in
Original Text |
Modern Text |
|
Enter King CLAUDIUS and Queen GERTRUDE , with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Enter King CLAUDIUS and Queen GERTRUDE , with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
CLAUDIUS (to GERTRUDE) There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves.
You must translate. 'Tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
|
CLAUDIUS (to GERTRUDE) There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves.
You must translate. 'Tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
|
|
GERTRUDE (to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN)
5 Bestow this place on us a little while.
|
GERTRUDE (to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN)
Bestow this place on us a little while.
|
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
|
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
|
|
CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
|
CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
|
|
GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
10 Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, “A rat, a rat!”
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.
|
GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, “A rat, a rat!”
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.
|
|
CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there.
15 His liberty is full of threats to all—
To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt,
20 This mad young man. But so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit,
|
CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there.
His liberty is full of threats to all—
To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt,
This mad young man. But so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit,
|
|
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
|
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
|
|
GERTRUDE 25 To draw apart the body he hath killed,
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
|
GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath killed,
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
|
|
CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
30 The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
|
CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
|
|
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
35 Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.
Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
|
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.
Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
|
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends,
40 And let them know both what we mean to do
And what’s untimely done. So dreaded slander—
Whose whisper o'er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports the poisoned shot—may miss our name
45 And hit the woundless air. Oh, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
|
Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends,
And let them know both what we mean to do
And what’s untimely done. So dreaded slander—
Whose whisper o'er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports the poisoned shot—may miss our name
And hit the woundless air. Oh, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
|
|
Exeunt
|
Exeunt
|
Original Text |
Modern Text |
|
Enter King CLAUDIUS and Queen GERTRUDE , with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Enter King CLAUDIUS and Queen GERTRUDE , with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
CLAUDIUS (to GERTRUDE) There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves.
You must translate. 'Tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
|
CLAUDIUS (to GERTRUDE) There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves.
You must translate. 'Tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
|
|
GERTRUDE (to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN)
5 Bestow this place on us a little while.
|
GERTRUDE (to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN)
Bestow this place on us a little while.
|
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
|
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
|
|
CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
|
CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
|
|
GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
10 Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, “A rat, a rat!”
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.
|
GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, “A rat, a rat!”
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.
|
|
CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there.
15 His liberty is full of threats to all—
To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt,
20 This mad young man. But so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit,
|
CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there.
His liberty is full of threats to all—
To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt,
This mad young man. But so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit,
|
|
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
|
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
|
|
GERTRUDE 25 To draw apart the body he hath killed,
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
|
GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath killed,
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
|
|
CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
30 The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
|
CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
|
|
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
35 Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.
Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
|
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.
Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
|
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
|
|
Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends,
40 And let them know both what we mean to do
And what’s untimely done. So dreaded slander—
Whose whisper o'er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports the poisoned shot—may miss our name
45 And hit the woundless air. Oh, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
|
Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends,
And let them know both what we mean to do
And what’s untimely done. So dreaded slander—
Whose whisper o'er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports the poisoned shot—may miss our name
And hit the woundless air. Oh, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
|
|
Exeunt
|
Exeunt
|
Test your knowledge
Take the Act 4, scenes 1-2 Quick Quiz
Read the Summary
Read the Summary of Act 4, scenes 1-2.
Shakespeare’s Life & Times
Dive into our comprehensive guide to ace your Shakespeare assignments
Did you know you can highlight text to take a note?
x
