Hamlet

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486272788
• eBook ISBN: 9780486132570
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Théâtre britannique

In this quintessential Shakespeare tragedy, a young prince's halting pursuit of revenge for the murder of his father unfolds in a series of highly charged confrontations that have held audiences spellbound for nearly four centuries. Those fateful exchanges, and the anguished soliloquies that precede and follow them, probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any art.
The title role of Hamlet, perhaps the most demanding in all of Western drama, has provided generations of leading actors their greatest challenge. Yet all the roles in this towering drama are superbly delineated, and each of the key scenes offers actors a rare opportunity to create theatrical magic.
As if further evidence of Shakespeare's genius were needed, Hamlet is a unique pleasure to read as well as to see and hear performed. The full text of this extraordinary drama is reprinted here from an authoritative British edition complete with illuminating footnotes.
A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.

FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

BER.Who’s there?

FRAN.Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.

BER.Long live the King!

FRAN.Bernardo?

BER.He.

FRAN.You come most carefully upon your hour.

BER.’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRAN.For this relief much thanks. Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.

BER.Have you had quiet guard?

FRAN.Not a mouse stirring.

BER.Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals¹ of my watch, bid them make haste.

FRAN.I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

HOR.Friends to this ground.

MAR.And liegemen to the Dane.

FRAN.Give you good night.

MAR.O, farewell, honest soldier.

Who hath relieved you?

FRAN.Bernardo hath my place.

Give you good night.[Exit.

MAR.Holla, Bernardo!

BER.Say,

What, is Horatio there?

HOR.A piece of him.

BER.Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.

MAR.What, has this thing appear’d again tonight?

BER.I have seen nothing.

MAR.Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy,

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us.

Therefore I have entreated him along

With us to watch the minutes of this night,

That if again this apparition come

He may approve our eyes² and speak to it.

HOR.Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.

BER.Sit down awhile,

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,

What we have two nights seen.

HOR.Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

BER.Last night of all,

When yond same star that’s westward from the pole³

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one—

Enter GHOST.

MAR.Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again.

BER.In the same figure like the King that’s dead.

MAR.Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

BER.Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.

HOR.Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

BER.It would be spoke to.

MAR.Question it, Horatio.

HOR.What art thou that usurp’st this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes⁴ march? By heaven I charge thee, speak!

MAR.It is offended.

BER.See, it stalks away.

HOR.Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak![Exit GHOST.

MAR.’Tis gone, and will not answer.

BER.How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on ’t?

HOR.Before my God, I might not this believe

Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

MAR.Is it not like the King?

HOR.As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armour he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated;

So frown’d he once, when, in an angry parle,⁵

He smote the sledded Polacks on the ic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dramatis Personae
• ACT I
• ACT II
• ACT III
• ACT IV
• ACT V