Act 1
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110And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire.
115And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
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Because everyone knows that you are the man closest to this
throne, and I love you just as much as any father loves his son. And
your plans for going back to Wittenberg are not what I want.
I’m asking you now to stay here in my company as the
number-one member of my court, my nephew and now my son too.
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GERTRUDE Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.
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GERTRUDE Please answer my prayers, Hamlet, and stay with us.
Don’t go back to Wittenberg.
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HAMLET
120I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
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HAMLET I’ll obey you as well as I can,
ma'am.
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CLAUDIUS Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.
Be as ourself in Denmark.—Madam, come.
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart, in grace whereof
125No jocund health that Denmark drinks today
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king’s rouse the heavens shall bruit again,
Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away.
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CLAUDIUS That’s the right answer—it shows your love.
Stay in Denmark like us.—My dear wife, come.
Hamlet’s agreeing to stay makes me happy, and every merry
toast I’ll drink today will be heard as far as the clouds
overhead. My drinking will be echoed in the heavens.
Let’s go.
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Flourish. Exeunt all but HAMLET
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Trumpets play. Everyone except HAMLET
exits.
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HAMLET Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
130Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
135Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this.
But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king, that was to this
140Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother
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HAMLET Ah, I wish my dirty flesh could melt away into a vapor, or that
God had not made a law against suicide. Oh God, God! How tired,
stale, and pointless life is to me. Damn it! It’s like a
garden that no one’s taking care of, and
that’s growing wild. Only nasty weeds grow in it now. I
can’t believe it’s come to this. My
father’s only been dead for two months—no, not
even two. Such an excellent king, as superior to my uncle as a god
is to a beast, and so loving toward my mother that he kept the wind
from blowing too hard on her face.
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More Help
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No Fear Hamlet
NO FEAR -
Character List
CHARACTERS -
Hamlet: Character Analysis
CHARACTERS -
Plot Analysis
MAIN IDEAS -
Is Hamlet really mad?
MAIN IDEAS -
Quotes by Theme
QUOTES -
Themes
MAIN IDEAS -
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