Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2

Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
Bottom of Form

Act 3, Scene 1, Page 4

Original Text
POLONIUS
Ophelia, walk you here.
(to CLAUDIUS)
Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow
ourselves. (to
OPHELIA)Read on this
45 book
That show of such an
exercise may color
Your loneliness.We
are oft to blame in this,
50 'Tis too much proved,
that with devotions
visage
And pious action we do
sugar o'er
The devil himself.
CLAUDIUS
(aside) Oh, tis too
true!
How smart a lash that
speech doth give my
conscience!
The harlots cheek,
beautied with plastering
art,
55 Is not more ugly to the
thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my
most painted word.

Modern Text

POLONIUS
Ophelia, come here.(to CLAUDIUS) Your Majesty, we will hide.
(to OPHELIA)Read from this prayer book, so it looks natural that
youre all alone. Come to think of it, this happens all the time
people act devoted to God to mask their bad deeds.

CLAUDIUS
(to himself) How right he is! His words whip up my guilty feelings.
The whores pockmarked cheek made pretty with make-up is just
like the ugly actions Im disguising with fine words. What a terrible
guilt I feel!

O heavy burden!
POLONIUS
POLONIUS
I hear him coming. Lets
I hear him coming. Quick, lets hide, my lord.
withdraw, my lord.
CLAUDIUS and
CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS hide.
POLONIUS withdraw
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET enters.
HAMLET
To be, or not to be? That
is the question
Whether tis nobler in
the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a
sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end
HAMLET
them? To die, to sleep
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up
No moreand by a
60
with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight
sleep to say we end
against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and
The heartache and the
for all? Dying, sleepingthats all dying isa sleep that ends all
thousand natural shocks
the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives usthats an
That flesh is heir totis
achievement to wish for. To die, to sleepto sleep, maybe to dream.
a consummation
65
Ah, but theres the catch: in deaths sleep who knows what kind of
Devoutly to be wished!
dreams might come, after weve put the noise and commotion of life
To die, to sleep.
behind us. Thats certainly something to worry about. Thats the
To sleep, perchance to
consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long.
dreamay, theres the
rub,
70
For in that sleep of death
what dreams may come
When we have shuffled
off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Theres the respect
That makes calamity of
so long life.

Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2

Top of Form
Bottom of Form