Hamlet

by: William Shakespeare

Act 3 Scene 1

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Original Text	Modern Text
Take these again, for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.	their value when the givers turn out not to be so nice. There, my lord.
HAMLET 105Ha, ha, are you honest?	HAMLET Ha ha, are you good?
OPHELIA My lord?	OPHELIA Excuse me?
HAMLET Are you fair?	HAMLET Are you beautiful?
OPHELIA What means your lordship?	OPHELIA My lord, what are you talking about?
HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.	HAMLET I’m just saying that if you’re good and beautiful, your goodness should have nothing to do with your beauty.
OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?	OPHELIA But could beauty be related to anything better than goodness?
HAMLET Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.	HAMLET Sure, 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 used to be a great puzzle, but now I’ve solved it. I used to love you.
OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.	OPHELIA You certainly made me believe you did, my lord.
HAMLET You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.	HAMLET You shouldn’t have believed me, since we’re all rotten at the core, no matter how hard we try to be virtuous. I didn’t love you.
OPHELIA I was the more deceived.	OPHELIA Then I guess I was misled.
HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.	HAMLET Get yourself to a convent “Nunnery” could mean either convent or brothel. convent at once. Why would you want to give birth to more sinners? I’m fairly good myself, but even so I could accuse myself of such horrible crimes that it would’ve been better if my mother had never given birth to me. and

Read the Summary of Act III, scene i

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