Consider now this compressed version, which
captures the core story, themes, and characters of one of the greatest tragic
plays in the English language. Note that
in my rendering, “Prince” becomes “Princess”:
A female student brilliantly enacted the role of the main character.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet: [Princess] of Denmark
All original lines by William
Shakespeare
Compressed for Presentation at Spring 2014
New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet
Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.
Director, New Salem Educational Initiative
From Hamlet,
Act I, Scene Five
[A platform outside the castle at
Elsinore, Denmark.]
[Enter Ghost of the Elder Hamlet,
approaching
from a distance the spot where a
downcast Hamlet
sits in mournful contemplation]
Elder Hamlet’s Ghost:
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the
night,
and for the day confined to fast in fires,
till the foul crimes done in my days of
nature
are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
to tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young
blood,
make their two eyes, like stars, start from
their spheres,
thy knotted and combined locks to part
and each particular hair to stand on end,
like quills upon the porcupine;
but this eternal blazon must not be
to ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love…
revenge this foul and most unnatural
murder.
Hamlet:
[Gasping]
Murder?
Elder Hamlet’s Ghost:
Murder most foul…
But, soft! Methinks I scent the morning
air;
brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
my custom always of the afternoon,
upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
with juice of cursed Hebona in a vial,
and in the porches of my ears did pour
the leperous distilment…
thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand,
of life, of crown, of queen, at once
dispatch’d;
cut off even in the blossoms of my sin…
with all my imperfections on my head:
O, horrible! O, horrible!
Most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not…
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me!
Hamlet:
Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost.
[Seeing into a room in the castle, where
King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern enter]
The time is out of joint: Oh cursed spite,
that ever I was born to set it right!
[Hamlet exits as King, Queen,
Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern engage in conversation.]
From Hamlet,
Act II, Scene Two
A
room in the castle.
King (Claudius):
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Something you have heard
of Hamlet’s transformation; so call it,
sith not the exterior nor the inward woman
resembles that it was.
I entreat you both,
that, being of so young days brought up
with
[her],
and, sith so neighbour’d to [her] youth and
haviour,
that vouchsafe your rest in our court
some little time: so that by your companies
to draw her on to pleasures, and to gather,
so much from occasion you may glean,
whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts
[her]
thus.
Queen (Gertrude):
Good [youth], [she] hath much
talk’d of you;
and sure I am two [friends]
there are not living
to whom she more adheres.
Rosencrantz:
Both your majesties,
might, by the sovereign power you have of
us,
put your dread pleasures more into command
than to entreaty.
Guildenstern:
But we both obey,
and here give up ourselves, in the full bent
to lay ourselves freely at your feet,
to be commanded.
King (Claudius):
Thanks, Rosencrantz and Gentle
Guildenstern.
Queen:
Thanks, Guildenstern and Gentle
Rosencrantz;
and I beseech you instantly to visit
my too changed [daughter].
[Exeunt
King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern.]
[Enter Polonius, who greets Hamlet as the
latter enters while reading a book.]
Polonius:
How does my good Lady Hamlet?
Hamlet:
Well, God-a-mercy!
Polonius:
Do you know me, my [lady]?
Hamlet:
Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
Polonius:
Not I, my [lady]!
Hamlet:
Then I would you were so honest a [person].
Polonius
Honest, my [lady]!
Hamlet:
Ay, madame;
to be honest, as this world
goes, is to be one [person] picked out of ten
thousand.
Polonius:
[Aside]
Though this be madness, yet there is method
in’t.
My honourable [lady], I will most humbly
take my leave of you.
Hamlet:
You cannot, madame, take from me any
thing that I will more willingly part
withal:
except my life, except my life, except my
life.
Polonius:
Fare you well, my [lady].
Hamlet:
[To the audience, as if mumbling]
These tedious old fools!
Enter
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Polonius:
[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
You go to seek the lady Hamlet;
There she is.
Exit Polonius
Guildenstern:
My honoured [lady].
Rosencrantz:
My most dear [lady].
Hamlet:
My excellent good friends! How dost
thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz!
Good [youth], how do you both?
Rosencrantz:
As the indifferent children of the earth.
Guildenstern:
Happy, in that we are not over-happy.
On fortune’s cap we are not the very
button.
Hamlet:
Were you not sent for?
Rosencrantz:
[Aside to Guldenstern]
What say you?
Hamlet:
[Aside]
Nay, then, I have an eye of you---
if you love me, hold not off.
Guildenstern:
My [lady], we were sent for.
Hamlet:
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your
secrecy to the king and queen moult no
feather.
I have of late--- but wherefore I know not--- lost
all my mirth, forgone all custom of
exercises;
and indeed it goes so heavily with my
disposition
that this goodly frame, the earth, seems
to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent
canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o’erhanging
firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with
golden fire, why, it appears no other thing
to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation
of
vapours.
What a piece of work is man! how
noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in
form and moving how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel! in apprehension
how like a god! the beauty of the world! the
paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is
this quintessence of dust?
[Exeunt Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern]
[Hamlet shifts position, as if to
another part of the room.]
From Hamlet,
Act III, Scene One
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 them? To die;
to sleep;
no more;
and by sleep to say we end
the heartache and the thousand natural
shocks
that flesh is heir to, ‘tis the
consummation
devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
to sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
for in that sleep of death what dreams may
come
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause: there’s the respect
that makes calamity of such long life;
for who would bear the whips and scorns of
time,
the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s
contumely,
the pangs of despised love, the law’s
delay,
the insolence of office and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his quietus make
with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something, after
death,
the undiscover’d country from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will
and makes us rather bear those ills we have
than fly to others that we know not of;
thus conscience does make cowards of us
all;
and thus the native hue of resolution
is sicklied o’er with the pale-cast of
thought,
and enterprises of great pitch and moment
with this regard their currents turn awry,
and lose the name of action.
[Enter
[Orpheus]
Hamlet:
The fair Orpheus!
[Orpheus]:
Good, my [lady],
How does your honour for this many a day?
Hamlet
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
[Orpheus]:
My lady, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you now, receive them.
Hamlet:
No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
[Orpheus]:
My honoured [lady], you know
right well you did;
And, with them, words of so
sweet breathcomposed
as made things more rich:
Their perfume lost,
Take these again; for the noble mind
rich gifts wax poor when givers prove
unkind.
There, my [lady].
Hamlet:
I did love you once.
[Orpheus]:
Indeed, my [lady], you made me believe so.
Hamlet:
You should not have believed me:
I loved you not.
[Orpheus]:
I was the more deceived.
Hamlet:
We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.
Go thy way to a [monastery].
Where’s your mother, [Polonius[?
[Orpheus]:
At home, my lord.
Hamlet:
Let the doors be shut upon her that
She may play the fool nowhere but in’r own
Home.
Farewell.
[Orpheus]:
Oh, help her, you sweet heavens!
From Hamlet,
Act III, Scene Two
A hall in the castle.
Hamlet:
[To audience, delivering a line from Act
II, Scene Two}
The play’s the thing wherein I’ll
catch the conscience of the king.
[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
Bid the players make haste.
Enter
King, Queen, Polonius, Orpheus,
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others.
King (Claudius):
How fares our cousin Hamlet?
[The king and the others take their
seats, as if to watch a performance.]
Hamlet:
Excellent, i’ faith.
Queen (Gertrude):
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet:
No, good mother…
[Hamlet points to actors who are
beginning
to perform in a presentation that the
Princess
has arranged for the King (Claudius),
and the
others in the seated group. One of the actors
portrays a king who lays down upon a bed of
flowers with his queen at his side. When he falls
asleep, the queen leaves him and exits
for the
next few moments. A Poisoner then enters, takes
off the king’s crown, kisses it, then
pours a deadly
liquid into the king’s ears. The queen then returns,
finds the king dead, and at first
expresses great grief.
But the Poisoner presents gifts, drops
to his knees as
if in proposal, and eventually the queen
accepts his
entreaties. She smiles, the Poisoner rises, puts on
the crown, and they exit the stage arm
in arm.]
King (Claudius):
[Visibly upset and sweating.]
Lights, lights, lights!
[Everyone, actors and audience members,
exit,
except Hamlet who gives a look now showing
that
she has no doubt that her uncle, King Claudius,
did
in fact murder her father as the
latter’s ghost had said.]
Hamlet:
[Speaking a line from Act I, Scene Five]
O most pernicious [mother]
Oh [uncle], villain, smiling… villain!
[After a while, Polonius returns.]
Polonius:
My [lady], the queen would
speak with you, and presently.
Hamlet:
Do you see yonder cloud that’s
almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius:
By the mass, and ‘tis
like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet:
Methinks it is a weasel.
Polonius:
It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet:
Or like a whale?
Polonius:
Very like a whale.
[Hamlet smiles at Polonius’s foolish
fickleness,
rubbing the older woman’s hair in playful
condescension.]
Hamlet:
Then I will come to my
mother by and by.
Polonius:
I will say so.
From Hamlet,
Act III, Scene Three
[A room in the castle, where the king
stands alone, looking guilty and
fearful.]
King (Claudius)
O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
it hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
a brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
though inclination be as sharp as
will;
my stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
and, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
and both neglect.
What if this cursed hand
were thicker than itself with brother’s
blood,
is there not rain enough in the sweet
heavens
to wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
but to confront the visage of offense?
And what’s in prayer but this two-fold
force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up;
My fault is past.
But, O, what force of prayer
can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder?
That cannot be; since I am still possess’d
of those effects for which I did the
murder,
my crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon’d and retain the offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
and oft ‘tis seen the wicked prize itself
buys out the law: but ‘tis not so above;
there is no shuffling, there the action
lies
in his true nature; and we ourselves
compell’d
even to the teeth and forehead of our
faults,
to give evidence.
What then?
what rests?
Try what repentance can; what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
art more engaged! Help, angels!
Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!!
All may be well.
[Kneels]
Rising
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven
go.
From Hamlet,
Act III, Scene Four
The queen’s closet [room].
Enter
Queen and Polonius.
Polonius:
She will come straight.
I’ll sconce myself even here.
Enter
Hamlet
Hamlet:
Now, mother, what’s the matter?
Queen (Gertrude):
Hamlet, thou has thy father much offended.
Hamlet:
Mother, you have my father much offended.
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
you go not till I set you up a glass
where you may see the inmost part of you.
Polonius:
[Behind the arras]
What, ho! Help, help, help!
Hamlet:
[Drawing]
How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Hamlet makes a pass through the arras.
Polonius;
[Behind] O, I am slain!
Polonius falls and dies.
Queen (Gertrude):
O me, what hast thou done?
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this?
Hamlet:
A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother,
as kill a king and marry with his brother.
[Hamlet lifts up the arras and discovers
Polonius)
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool,
farewell.
I took thee for thy better, [the
king]: take thy fortune.
Queen:
Oh, Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou hast turn’st mine eyes into my very
soul;
and there I see such black and grained
spots
as will not leave their tinct.
Hamlet:
Good night, mother.
Act IV, Scene Five
[A room in the castle, where the King
and Queen
stand in amazement, watching the entrance
of
Orpheus and then listening to him speak.
Orpheus:
How should I your true love know
from another one?
He is dead and gone, lady,
he is dead and gone; and his head
a grass-green turf,at his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow.
[Exit
Orpheus]
[Enter Laertes, who encounters an emotionally
unsettled King and Queen.]
Laertes:
Where is my [mother]?
King (Claudius):
Dead.
Queen (Gertrude):
But not by him.
Re-enter
Orpheus [looking disheveled and addled.]
Laertes:
Oh heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt,
dear [youth], kind [brother], sweet
[Orpheus]!
Oh, heavens! Is’t possible a young [man’s] wits
should be as mortal as a man’s life?
[Orpheus]:
They bore [her] barefaced on the bier;
hey, nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
and in [her] grave rain’d many a tear:---
fair you well, my dove!
From Hamlet,
Act IV, Scene Seven
[A room in the castle, where King and
Laertes
are in earnest conversation.]
King (Claudius):
Now must your conscience my acquittance
seal,
And you must put me in your heart for a
friend,
sith you have heard, and with a knowing
ear,
that [she] which hath your noble [mother]
slain
pursued my life.
Laertes:
It well appears.
King (Claudius):
You have been talked of since your travel
much.
A Norman… made confession of you,
and gave such a masterly report for
art and exercise in your defence
and for your rapier most especial.
Hamlet returned shall know you are come home;
we’ll bring you in fine together and wager
on your heads.
With ease, you may choose a sword unbated,
And in a pass of practice requite [her] for
your [mother].
Laertes:
I will do’t;
and, for that purpose, I’ll anoit my sword…
with this contagion, that, if I gall [her] slightly
it may be death.
King (Claudius):
And that [she] calls for drink, I’ll have
prepared for [her]
a chalice for the nonce, whereon but
sipping,
if [she] by chance shall escape your
venom’d stuck,
Our
purpose may hold there.
Enter Queen
Queen (Gertrude):
One woe do follow another’s
heel, so fast they follow: your
[brother’s] drowned, Laertes.
Laertes:
Drown’d?
Where?
Queen (Gertrude):
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
there, on the pendent bough… an envious sliver broke;
when down [his] weedy trophies and [himself]
fell in the weeping brook.
[His] clothes spread wide; till that [his] garments, heavy with their
drink,
pull’d the poor wretch from the melodious
lay to muddy death.
Laertes:
Alas, then, [he] is drown’d?
Adieu, my lord;
I have a speech of fire would fain blaze,
But that this folly douts it.
[Laertes exits].
From Hamlet,
Act V, Scene Two
[A room in the castle, where Hamlet and
closest confidante,
Horatio, are talking with great
seriousness and intensity.]
Horatio:
You will lose this wager, my [lady].
Hamlet:
I do not think so. Since [Laertes] went into
France, I have been at constant
practice; I will
win at the odds.
Horatio:
Nay, good my [lady]. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it:
I will forestall their repair hither, and
say you are not fit.
Hamlet:
Not a whit…
If it be now, ‘tis not to come;
if it be not to
come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
leaves, what is it to leave betimes? Let it be.
Enter
King (Claudius), Queen (Gertrude), Laertes, Lords, Osric
and
Attendants, with foils, etc.
King (Claudius):
Give them the foils, young Osric.
Laertes:
This is too heavy. Let me see another.
Hamlet:
This likes me well.
They [Hamlet and Laertes] prepare to
play.
Hamlet:
Come on, sir.
Laertes:
Come, my [lady].
They [Hamlet and Laertes] play.
Hamlet:
One.
Laertes:
No.
King (Claudius):
Judgment.
Osric:
A hit, a very palpable hit.
Laertes:
Well;
again.
King:
Hamlet, this pearl is thine.
Give [her] the cup.
Hamlet:
I’ll play this but first; set it by awhile.
Come.
They play.
Another hit; what say you?
Laertes:
A touch, a touch. I do confess.
.
[The queen starts to drink.]
Queen (Gertrude):
The queen carouses to thy fortune.
King (Claudius):
Gertrude, do not drink.
Queen (Gertrude):
I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
King (Claudius):
It is the poisoned cup; it is too late.
Hamlet:
Come, for the third, Laertes.
Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling they
exchange rapiers, and Hamlet wounds
Laertes.
Queen;
The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.
Hamlet:
Oh, villainy! The point envenom’d too!
Then venom, do thy work.
[Hamlet] stabs the King.
Laertes:
He is justly served;
it is a poison temper’d by himself.
[Laertes] dies.
Hamlet:
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
absent thee from felicity awhile,
to tell my story.
[Hamlet] dies.
Horatio;
There cracks a noble heart.
Good night, sweet [princess];
and flights of angels sing thee to thy
rest!
All of those still living line up with
backs to the audience.
After a pause, all of those dead rise and join them.
Then all of those lined up turn to face the audience, join
hands, and give a bow.
After a pause, all of those dead rise and join them.
Then all of those lined up turn to face the audience, join
hands, and give a bow.
Finis.
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