Join us for Let's Make a Scene: Hamlet on Wednesday May 24th, 2023 at 7:30 PM!
Free and fun, we will round-robin read over Zoom: Hamlet: The 30-Minute Shakespeare.
Be serious, sanguine, silly, sad, angry, depressed, insane, pedantic, evil, ghostly, be it all!
All participants receive a free emailed PDF of Hamlet: The 30-Minute Shakespeare.
Join us; no experience necessary!
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85041676802?pwd=ZWVSbUxna2tXSFpmQkIrbHJVTUNjdz09
If you want to print out the script or
read it on a tablet here are some versions to print, copy etc.
And here is the script, pasted:
Play on!
Hamlet: The 30-Minute Shakespeare
Characters in the Play
scene 1. act i, Scene ii)
Elsinore. A room of state in the castle.
Narrator
Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is grieving over his father’s death. To make matters worse, his uncle Claudius has become king by marrying Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. Then there is the matter of the ghost .
King Claudius
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, our hearts in grief, We with wisest sorrow think on him.
Together with our sometime sister, now our queen,
Have we, with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
Taken to wife.
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Hamlet
Not so, my lord; I am too much i’ the sun.
Queen Gertrude
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
Hamlet
Ay, madam, it is common.
King Claudius
’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his: but to persever
In obstinate condolement, ’tis a fault against the dead. Come away.
Hamlet
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!
That it should come to this!
But two months dead:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
Frailty, thy name is woman!— Why she, even she—
O, God! A beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer—married with my uncle,
(addresses audience)
My father’s brother.
O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
Horatio
Hail to your lordship!
Hamlet
I am glad to see you well, Horatio.
Horatio
My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.
Hamlet (looks upward)
My father!—Methinks I see my father.
Horatio
Where, my lord? (haltingly, taken aback)
Hamlet
In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
Horatio
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Hamlet
The king my father!
For God’s love, let me hear.
Horatio
Two nights together with those gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on our watch, In the dead vast and middle of the night, were thus encounter’d. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly,
Appears before us, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by us:
It lifted up its head, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud, And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, And vanish’d from our sight.
Hamlet
’Tis very strange.
I will watch to-night; Perchance ’twill walk again.
Horatio
I warrant it will.
Hamlet
So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve, I’ll visit you.
Horatio
My duty to your honor.
Hamlet
My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well;
Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
Scene 2. Act I, Scene IV
A platform before the castle.
Narrator
On the watchmen’s platform, the ghost of the former king, Hamlet’s father, appears to give Hamlet disturbing news.
Hamlet
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
Horatio
Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter Ghost
Hamlet
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, King, father: O, answer me!
Horatio
It beckons you to go away with it.
Hamlet
Then I will follow it.
Horatio
Do not, my lord.
Hamlet
My fate cries out, I’ll follow thee.
Horatio
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Scene 3. Act I, Scene V
Another part of the platform.
Hamlet
Where wilt thou lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further.
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. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
Hamlet
O God!
Ghost
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Hamlet
Murder!
Ghost
Now, Hamlet, hear: Sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me.
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.
Hamlet
O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
Ghost
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
Won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
Sleeping within my orchard,
Thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon 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:
O, horrible! Most horrible!
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.
Hamlet
Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe.
O most pernicious woman! Smiling, damned villain!
Hamlet
Give me one poor request, Horatio.
Horatio
What is’t, my lord? I will.
Hamlet
Never make known what you have seen to-night.
Horatio
My lord, I will not.
Ghost Swear.
Horatio
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
Ghost (offstage) Swear.
Hamlet
Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!
.
Scene 4. Act II Scene II
A room in the castle.
Narrator
A traveling acting troupe arrives at Elsinore; Hamlet decides to have the players act out his father’s murder. (emphatically) The play’s the thing.
Hamlet
I’ll have the players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle:
I’ll observe his looks;
If he but blench, I know my course.
The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
Scene 5. Act III Scene I
A room in the castle.
Narrator
Hamlet and Ophelia, the daughter of King Claudius’s chief officer Polonius, have recently confessed their affection for each other. But when Ophelia’s father, bound by the king to spy on Hamlet, orders Ophelia to return Hamlet’s love letters, the prince’s vicious and unhinged reaction upsets her greatly.
Ophelia:
My lord, 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.
Ophelia
My honor’d lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost, Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.
.
Hamlet
I did love you once.
Ophelia
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet
You should not have believed me; I loved you not.
Ophelia
I was the more deceived.
Hamlet)
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. (points again)To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.
Ophelia
O heavenly powers, restore him!
Hamlet
God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages. To a nunnery, go.
Ophelia
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
I see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; O, woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Scene 6. Act III Scene II
A hall in the castle.
Hamlet
Horatio, there is a play to-night before the king; One scene of it comes near the circumstance Which I have told thee of my father’s death:
Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, And after we will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming.
Horatio
Well, my lord.
Hamlet
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place..
Queen Gertrude
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet
No, good mother, here’s metal more attractive.
The Players begin their show. Enter a king and a queen very lovingly; the queen embracing him, and he her. She bows to him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: he lies down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the king’s ears, and exit. The queen returns; finds the king dead, and mourns in anguish. The poisoner, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body stays dead. The poisoner woos the queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love.
Ophelia (
What means this, my lord?
Hamlet
It means mischief.
King Claudius
What do you call the play?
Hamlet
The Mouse-trap
Ophelia
The king rises.
Hamlet
What, frighted with false fire!
Queen Gertrude
How fares my lord?
King Claudius
Give me some light: away!
All
Lights, lights, lights!
Hamlet
O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
Horatio
Very well, my lord.
Hamlet
Upon the show of the poisoning?
Horatio
I did very well note him.
Hamlet
I will come to my mother by and by. Leave me, friend.’Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. Soft! Now to my mother.
Scene 7. Act III Scene IV
The Queen’s closet.
Narrator
Hamlet confronts his mother, resulting in a bloody deed involving Ophelia’s father, Lord Polonius; the Ghost returns.
Polonius
He will come straight.
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with. I’ll sconce me even here.
Hamlet Mother, mother, mother!
Queen Gertrude
Withdraw, I hear him coming.
.Hamlet
Now, mother, what’s the matter?
Queen Gertrude
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet
Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen Gertrude
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Hamlet
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Hamlet
How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Hamlet finds Polonius behind the pillar and stabs him with his sword.
Lord Polonius
O!
Queen Gertrude
O me, what hast thou done?
Hamlet
Is it the king?
Queen Gertrude
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Hamlet
Almost as bad as kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen Gertrude
As kill a king!
Hamlet
Ay Lady, ’twas my word.
Hamlet
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better:
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
Hamlet Do you see nothing there?
Queen Gertrude
Nothing at all..
Hamlet
Why, look you there!
My father!
Queen Gertrude
This the very coinage of your brain:
Hamlet
It is not madness
Confess yourself to heaven; avoid what is to come.
Queen Gertrude (disconsolate)
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hamlet
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Scene 8. Act IV Scene V
Elsinore. A room in the castle.
Narrator
Tragic events have had their effect on Ophelia.
Ophelia
Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
Queen Gertrude
How now, Ophelia!
Ophelia (singing)
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.
.
King Claudius
How do you, pretty lady?
Ophelia (singing)
To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine.
. King Claudius
How long hath she been thus?
Ophelia
I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i’ the cold ground. My brother shall know of it.
Ophelia.
Come, my coach!
Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night.
. King Claudius
O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father’s death. Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself and her fair judgment.
Laertes
Where is this king? O thou vile king, Where is my father?
King Claudius
Dead.
Laertes
How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with:
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
I’ll be revenged most thoroughly for my father.
King Claudius
I am guiltless of your father’s death, And am most sensible in grief for it.
Laertes
How now! What noise is that?
[Re-enter Ophelia from stage right, disheveled and with hair a mess.]
O heat, dry up my brains!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight.
O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
Ophelia [singing]
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead:
Go to thy death-bed:
He never will come again.
Laertes
Do you see this, O God?
King Claudius
Where the offense is let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me.
Scene 9. Act V, Scene II additional Material from Act III Scene I
A hall in the castle.
Narrator
Hamlet and Laertes duel. Poison is involved. I do not predict a
Hamlet
There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,—
Horatio
That is most certain.
Hamlet
Is’t not perfect conscience,
To quit him with this arm?
Horatio
Peace! Who comes here?
Osric
Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
Hamlet
I humbly thank you, sir.
Osric
My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head: Here is newly come to court Laertes. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits.
Hamlet
Let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him.
Osric
The king and queen and all are coming down.
Horatio
You will lose this wager, my lord.
Hamlet
There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. The readiness is all.
King Claudius
Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
Hamlet
Give me your pardon, sir: I’ve done you wrong; I here proclaim was madness.
Laertes
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement.
King Claudius
Give them the foils, young Osric.
Laertes
This is too heavy, let me see another.
King Claudius
The king shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath; Come, begin.
Laertes
Come, my lord.
Hamlet
One.
Laertes
No.
Hamlet
Judgment.
Osric
A hit, a very palpable hit.
Laertes
Well; again.
King Claudius
Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Here’s to thy health.
Hamlet
I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.
Another hit; what say you?
Laertes
A touch, a touch, I do confess.
Queen Gertrude
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
Hamlet
Good madam!
King Claudius
Gertrude, do not drink.
Queen Gertrude
I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
King Claudius
It is the poison’d cup: it is too late.
Hamlet
I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
Laertes
Have at you now!
Queen Gertrude [falls.]
Horatio
They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
Osric
How is’t, Laertes?
Laertes
I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery.
Hamlet
How does the queen?
King Claudius
She swounds to see them bleed.
Queen gertrude
No, no, the drink, the drink,—O my dear Hamlet,— The drink, the drink! I am poison’d.
Queen Gertrude [dies.]
Hamlet O villany! Let the door be lock’d: Treachery! Seek it out.
Laertes
It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, envenom’d:
Thy mother’s poison’d: The king’s to blame.
Hamlet
The point!—Envenom’d too!
Then, venom, to thy work.
[Hamlet stabs King Claudius].
king Claudius
O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
Hamlet
Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.
King Claudius [dies.]
Laertes
He is justly served;
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me.
laertes [dies.]
Hamlet
Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.
O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit:
The rest is silence.
hamlet [dies
Horatio
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
All start to gather onstage.
Actor 1
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Actor 2
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Actor 3
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?
All
To die: to sleep; No more;
Actor4 and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,
Actor 5
’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.
All
To die, to sleep;
Actor 6
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
Actor 7
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
All
Must give us pause:
Actor 8 There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
All
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
Actor 9
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
ALL hold hands and take a bow
To Thunderous applause!