Act 3, Scene 1

A room in the Castle.

[Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.]
King Claudius
1630 And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
1631 Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
1632 Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
1633 With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
Rosencrantz
1634 He does confess he feels himself distracted,
1635 But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guildenstern
1636 Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
1637 But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof
1638 When we would bring him on to some confession
1639 Of his true state.
Queen Gertrude
1640 Did he receive you well?
Rosencrantz
1641 Most like a gentleman.
Guildenstern
1642 But with much forcing of his disposition.
Rosencrantz
1643 Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
1644 Most free in his reply.
Queen Gertrude
1645 Did you assay him
1646 To any pastime?
Rosencrantz
1647 Madam, it so fell out that certain players
1648 We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him,
1649 And there did seem in him a kind of joy
1650 To hear of it: they are about the court,
1651 And, as I think, they have already order
1652 This night to play before him.
Polonius
1653 'Tis most true;
1654 And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
1655 To hear and see the matter.
King Claudius
1656 With all my heart; and it doth much content me
1657 To hear him so inclin'd.—
1658 Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
1659 And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Rosencrantz
1660 We shall, my lord.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
King Claudius
1661 Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
1662 For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
1663 That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
1664 Affront Ophelia:
1665 Her father and myself,—lawful espials,—
1666 Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,
1667 We may of their encounter frankly judge;
1668 And gather by him, as he is behav'd,
1669 If't be the affliction of his love or no
1670 That thus he suffers for.
Queen Gertrude
1671 I shall obey you:—
1672 And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
1673 That your good beauties be the happy cause
1674 Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
1675 Will bring him to his wonted way again,
1676 To both your honours.
Ophelia
1677 Madam, I wish it may.
[Exit Queen.]
Polonius
1678 Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious, so please you,
1679 We will bestow ourselves.—
[To Ophelia.]
Polonius
1680 Read on this book;
1681 That show of such an exercise may colour
1682 Your loneliness.—We are oft to blame in this,—
1683 'Tis too much prov'd,—that with devotion's visage
1684 And pious action we do sugar o'er
1685 The Devil himself.
[Aside.]
King Claudius
1686 O, 'tis too true!
1687 How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
1688 The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
1689 Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
1690 Than is my deed to my most painted word:
1691 O heavy burden!
Polonius
1692 I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
[Exeunt King and Polonius.]
[Enter Hamlet.]
Hamlet
1693 To be, or not to be,—that is the question:—
1694 Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
1695 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
1696 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
1697 And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,—
1698 No more; and by a sleep to say we end
1699 The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
1700 That flesh is heir to,—'tis a consummation
1701 Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,—to sleep;—
1702 To sleep! perchance to dream:—ay, there's the rub;
1703 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
1704 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
1705 Must give us pause: there's the respect
1706 That makes calamity of so long life;
1707 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
1708 The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
1709 The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
1710 The insolence of office, and the spurns
1711 That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
1712 When he himself might his quietus make
1713 With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
1714 To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
1715 But that the dread of something after death,—
1716 The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
1717 No traveller returns,—puzzles the will,
1718 And makes us rather bear those ills we have
1719 Than fly to others that we know not of?
1720 Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
1721 And thus the native hue of resolution
1722 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
1723 And enterprises of great pith and moment,
1724 With this regard, their currents turn awry,
1725 And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!
1726 The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
1727 Be all my sins remember'd.
Ophelia
1728 Good my lord,
1729 How does your honour for this many a day?
Hamlet
1730 I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
Ophelia
1731 My lord, I have remembrances of yours
1732 That I have longed long to re-deliver.
1733 I pray you, now receive them.
Hamlet
1734 No, not I;
1735 I never gave you aught.
Ophelia
1736 My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
1737 And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
1738 As made the things more rich; their perfume lost,
1739 Take these again; for to the noble mind
1740 Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
1741 There, my lord.
Hamlet
1742 Ha, ha! are you honest?
Ophelia
1743 My lord?
Hamlet
1744 Are you fair?
Ophelia
1745 What means your lordship?
Hamlet
1746 That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
1747 discourse to your beauty.
Ophelia
1748 Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
Hamlet
1749 Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform
1750 honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can
1751 translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox,
1752 but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
Ophelia
1753 Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet
1754 You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so
1755 inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you
1756 not.
Ophelia
1757 I was the more deceived.
Hamlet
1758 Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of
1759 sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse
1760 me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me:
1761 I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my
1762 beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give
1763 them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I
1764 do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all;
1765 believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your
1766 father?
Ophelia
1767 At home, my lord.
Hamlet
1768 Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool
1769 nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
Ophelia
1770 O, help him, you sweet heavens!
Hamlet
1771 If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry,—
1772 be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
1773 calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt
1774 needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what
1775 monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
1776 Farewell.
Ophelia
1777 O heavenly powers, restore him!
Hamlet
1778 I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath
1779 given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you
1780 amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your
1781 wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made
1782 me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are
1783 married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as
1784 they are. To a nunnery, go.
[Exit.]
Ophelia
1785 O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
1786 The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
1787 The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
1788 The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
1789 The observ'd of all observers,—quite, quite down!
1790 And I, of ladies most deject and wretched
1791 That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
1792 Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
1793 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
1794 That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
1795 Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
1796 To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
[Re-enter King and Polonius.]
King Claudius
1797 Love! his affections do not that way tend;
1798 Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
1799 Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
1800 O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
1801 And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
1802 Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
1803 I have in quick determination
1804 Thus set it down:—he shall with speed to England
1805 For the demand of our neglected tribute:
1806 Haply the seas, and countries different,
1807 With variable objects, shall expel
1808 This something-settled matter in his heart;
1809 Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
1810 From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Polonius
1811 It shall do well: but yet do I believe
1812 The origin and commencement of his grief
1813 Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia!
1814 You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
1815 We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please;
1816 But if you hold it fit, after the play,
1817 Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
1818 To show his grief: let her be round with him;
1819 And I'll be plac'd, so please you, in the ear
1820 Of all their conference. If she find him not,
1821 To England send him; or confine him where
1822 Your wisdom best shall think.
King Claudius
1823 It shall be so:
1824 Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1693rhetorical device
“that is the question”
The word 'question' had a precise rhetorical meaning: the formal proposition under debate in a disputation. Hamlet frames his meditation in the structure of a university debate (he is a student at Wittenberg), laying out two possible positions — endure or resist — before examining the arguments on each side. This gives the soliloquy the logic of a formal argument, not just a private musing.
TLN 1695cultural context
“The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”
Slings and arrows are weapons of war — a sling hurls stones, a bow launches arrows. Hamlet imagines enduring life's attacks like a soldier under fire. 'Outrageous' means violent or savage, not merely offensive.
TLN 1696rhetorical device
“to take arms against a sea of troubles”
A deliberate logical contradiction (paradox or mixed metaphor): you cannot fight a sea with weapons. Some editors call it catachresis — the strained misapplication of an image. The illogic mimics Hamlet's dilemma: action against an overwhelming, shapeless force cannot succeed.
TLN 1700archaic vocab
“'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd”
'Consummation' means a completion or perfect ending — the bringing of something to its final state. 'Devoutly' means fervently, with religious intensity. Hamlet is saying death-as-sleep would be a perfect conclusion earnestly to be longed for. The religious flavor of 'devoutly' signals that the wish borders on sin.
TLN 1702archaic vocab
“there's the rub”
From the game of bowls: a 'rub' is an obstacle on the green that deflects the bowl from its intended path. Hamlet means 'that's the snag' or 'that's the catch.' The word survives in modern English as 'there's the rub' only because of this line.
TLN 1704archaic vocab
“shuffled off this mortal coil”
'Coil' here means turmoil or bustle — the noisy disorder of everyday human life, not a coil of rope. 'Shuffled off' means cast aside or shed, as a snake sheds its skin. The phrase imagines death as finally escaping the commotion of living.
TLN 1707archaic vocab
“the whips and scorns of time”
'Scorns' means contemptuous insults or acts of disdain — being dismissed, mocked, or treated with contempt. Together with 'whips,' Hamlet conjures life as a gauntlet of physical and social humiliation, a catalogue he extends across the next three lines.
TLN 1708archaic vocab
“the proud man's contumely”
'Contumely' means insolent contempt, abusive and humiliating scorn directed from a position of power — the arrogant put-down of a powerful person who need not care what you think. It is now rare; students sometimes confuse it with 'contempt,' but contumely adds the element of deliberate public humiliation.
TLN 1709historical topical
“the law's delay, The insolence of office”
These are recognizable Elizabethan grievances. The courts of Chancery and Common Law were notorious for ruinously slow proceedings; 'the insolence of office' names the arrogance of minor officials who abused their authority. A contemporary London audience would have felt both complaints keenly.
TLN 1712archaic vocab
“his quietus make”
A legal term: 'quietus' (Latin: he is quit) was the formal discharge written on an account to show a debt was settled. Here it means to settle the account of one's life — to die. The financial metaphor makes suicide sound like administrative tidiness.
TLN 1713archaic vocab
“a bare bodkin”
A bodkin is a long, slender dagger or large needle. 'Bare' means unsheathed or naked. Hamlet asks who would endure life's miseries if a simple, readily available blade could end it. The weapon is mundane — not a hero's sword — underscoring the accessibility of the option.
TLN 1713archaic vocab
“fardels bear”
Fardels (from Old French fardel) are bundles or burdens — the loads a pack-animal or a laboring person carries. The word was already old-fashioned in Shakespeare's time, lending the line a folk-proverb weight: who would lug these heavy bundles through a weary life?
TLN 1716archaic vocab
“The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns”
'Bourn' is an archaic word for a boundary, a limit, or a border — territory's edge. Hamlet imagines death as a land beyond all frontiers from which no explorer has ever come back. The metaphor was powerful to an Elizabethan audience thrilled and frightened by New World exploration.
TLN 1720archaic vocab
“conscience does make cowards of us all”
'Conscience' here carries both its modern meaning (moral sense) and its Elizabethan meaning of consciousness or self-awareness — the inner knowledge that makes us stop and think. Hamlet's argument is that reflection itself paralyzes: to be fully aware of consequences is to hesitate. The two meanings are deliberately fused.
TLN 1725archaic vocab
“lose the name of action”
'Lose the name of action' means the enterprise no longer deserves to be called action at all — it dissolves into mere thought. The phrase clinches the soliloquy's argument: over-thinking does not delay action; it replaces it entirely.
TLN 1726archaic vocab
“thy orisons”
Orisons are prayers — from Old French orison, from Latin oratio (speech, prayer). Polonius has told Ophelia to appear absorbed in a prayer book to make her presence look innocent. Hamlet's address to her as someone at prayer is either tender or bitterly ironic, given that this is a staged encounter.
TLN 1758archaic vocab
“Get thee to a nunnery”
On the surface: go to a convent, become a nun, withdraw from the world and its corruption. Hamlet seems to be urging Ophelia to preserve her purity in a place safe from men like him. The command is repeated four times in the scene, growing more frantic each time.
TLN 1778cultural context
“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another”
Hamlet attacks cosmetics — face-paint, powder, and rouge — as a form of deception that violates the face God made. The condemnation of female cosmetics was a standard Elizabethan moralist and Puritan theme, found in sermons and pamphlets. Hamlet's fury about false appearances (the play's running theme) here lands on Ophelia as a proxy for the whole corrupt court.
TLN 1779cultural context
“you jig, you amble, and you lisp”
Hamlet attacks the affected mannerisms taught to upper-class Elizabethan women: jigging (mincing, skipping steps), ambling (a slow, deliberate gait used for show), and lisping (affecting a childish or fashionably foreign pronunciation). These were recognized markers of courtly performance, not natural behavior.
TLN 1795archaic vocab
“Blasted with ecstasy”
'Ecstasy' in Elizabethan English meant madness or a state of being beside oneself — not joy or rapture. The word derives from Greek ekstasis (a standing outside oneself). 'Blasted' means withered or ruined, as by a sudden blight. Ophelia is saying that Hamlet's fine mind has been destroyed by madness.