Hamlet

by: William Shakespeare

Act 1 Scene 4

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Original Text	Modern Text
Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS	HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS enter.
HAMLET The air bites shrewdly. It is very cold.	HAMLET The air is biting cold.
HORATIO It is a nipping and an eager air.	HORATIO Yes, it’s definitely nippy.
HAMLET What hour now?	HAMLET What time is it?
HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve.	HORATIO A little before twelve, I think.
MARCELLUS 5No, it is struck.	MARCELLUS No, it’s just after twelve; I heard the clock strike.
HORATIO Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.	HORATIO Really? I didn’t hear it. So it’s nearly the time when the ghost likes to appear.
A flourish of trumpets and two pieces of ordnance goes off	Trumpets play offstage and two cannons are fired.
What does this mean, my lord?	What does that mean, sir?
HAMLET The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, 10Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels, And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.	HAMLET The king is staying up all night drinking and dancing. As he guzzles down his German wine, the musicians make a ruckus to celebrate his draining another cup.
HORATIO Is it a custom?	HORATIO Is that a tradition?
HAMLET 15Ay, marry, is ’t. But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed revel east and west 20Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.	HAMLET Yes, it is. But though I was born here and should consider that tradition part of my own heritage, I think it would be better to ignore it than practice it. Other countries criticize us for our loud partying.

Read the Summary of Act I, scenes iii–iv

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