William Shakespeare’s

  Hamlet

  In Plain and Simple English

  A SwipeSpeare™ Book

  www.SwipeSpeare.com

  © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

  About This Series

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  Characters

  Claudius, King of Denmark.

  Hamlet, Son to the former, and Nephew to the present King.

  Polonius, Lord Chamberlain.

  Horatio, Friend to Hamlet.

  Laertes, Son to Polonius.

  Voltimand, Courtier.

  Cornelius, Courtier.

  Rosencrantz, Courtier.

  Guildenstern, Courtier.

  Osric, Courtier.

  A Gentleman, Courtier.

  A Priest.

  Marcellus, Officer.

  Bernardo, Officer.

  Francisco, a Soldier

  Reynaldo, Servant to Polonius.

  Players.

  Two Clowns, Grave-diggers.

  Fortinbras, Prince of Norway.

  A Captain.

  English Ambassadors.

  Ghost of Hamlet's Father.

  Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and Mother of Hamlet.

  Ophelia, Daughter to Polonius.

  Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other

  Attendants.

  Comparative Version

  Act I

  Scene I

  Elsinore. A platform before the castle

  FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO

  BERNARDO

  Who’s there?

  Who's there?

  FRANCISCO

  No, you answer me. Identify yourself.

  Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.

  BERNARDO

  I am an officer in the king’s court.

  Long live the king!

  FRANCISCO

  Bernardo, is that you?

  Bernardo?

  BERNARDO

  Yes.

  He.

  FRANCISCO

  You are late.

  You come most carefully upon your hour.

  BERNARDO

  It’s only twelve o’ clock. Go to bed already, Francisco.

  'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

  FRANCISCO

  Thanks. It’s cold and I am sick of it.

  For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,

  And I am sick at heart.

  BERNARDO

  Have things been quiet on your guard?

  Have you had quiet guard?

  FRANCISCO

  Quiet as a mouse.

  Not a mouse stirring.

  BERNARDO

  Well, good night. If you see Horatio and Marcellus, tell them to hurry up.

  Well, good night.

  If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

  The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

  FRANCISCO

  I think I hear them now. Stop! Who’s there?

  I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?

  Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS

  HORATIO

  We are friends.

  Friends to this ground.

  MARCELLUS

  And we work for the Dane.

  And liegemen to the Dane.

  FRANCISCO

  Be on your way then.

  Give you good night.

  MARCELLUS

  Goodbye, soldier. Who has relieved you?

  O, farewell, honest soldier:

  Who hath relieved you?

  FRANCISCO

  Bernardo took my place. Good night.

  Bernardo has my place.

  Give you good night.

  Exit

  MARCELLUS

  Hey! Bernardo!

  Holla! Bernardo!

  BERNARDO

  What? Is that you, Horatio?

  Say,

  What, is Horatio there?

  HORATIO

  A part of me is here.

  A piece of him.

  BERNARDO

  Welcome, Horatio and Marcellus.

  Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.

  MARCELLUS

  Has that thing appeared again tonight?

  What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

  BERNARDO

  I haven’t seen anything.

  I have seen nothing.

  MARCELLUS

  Horatio doesn’t believe me; says it is all in my head. We have seen the ghost twice, so I invited him to stand guard with us tonight. If the apparition comes, he will see for himself.

  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 eyes and speak to it.

  HORATIO

  Nonsense. It will not appear again.

  Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

  BERNARDO

  Let’s sit down and we will tell you, although you are skeptical, what we have seen the last two nights.

  Sit down awhile;

  And let us once again assail your ears,

  That are so fortified against our story

  What we have two nights seen.

  HORATIO

  Ok, let’s sit. I will listen to Bernardo’s story.

  Well, sit we down,

  And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

  BERNARDO

  Last night, about one o’clock, with the light from that star in the west, Marcellus and I—

  Last night of all,

  When yond same star that's westward from the pole

  Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

  Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

  The bell then beating one,--

  Enter Ghost

  MARCELLUS

  Be quiet. Look, here it comes again!

  Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!

  BERNARDO

  It looks just like the dead king.

  In the same figure, like the king that's dead.

  MARCELLUS

  You are smart, Horatio, speak to it.

  Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

  BERNARDO

  It does look like the king; doesn’t it, Horatio?

  Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

  HORATIO

  It does, and I’m both scared and curious.

  Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.

  BERNARDO

  It acts like it wants to say something.

  It would be spoke to.

  MARCELLUS

  Ask it something, Horatio.

  Question it, Horatio.

  HORATIO

  What are you out at the time of night ready for war and resembling the dead king of Denmark? In the name of God, say something!

  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 sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!

  MARCELLUS

  It is offended.

  It is offended.

  BERNARDO

  See, it’s going away!

  See, it stalks away!

  HORATIO

  Wait, stay. Speak! I command you to speak!

  Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

  Exit Ghost

  MARCELLUS

  It’s gone and would not say anything.

  'Tis gone, and will not answer.

  BERNARDO

  What do you think now, Horatio? You look a little pale and scared. You think it’s more than some fantasy?

  How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:

  Is not this something more than fantasy?

  What think you on't?

  HORATIO

  I swear, I never would have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

  Before my God, I might not this believe

  Without the sensible and true avouch

  Of mine own eyes.

  MARCELLUS

  Doesn’t it look like the king?

  Is it not like the king?

  HORATIO

  I know that armor as well as I know myself. He wore it during the battle with Norway when he killed the Polacks on their sleds. So strange.

  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,

  He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

  'Tis strange.

  MARCELLUS

  This is the second time at this very hour that it has walked around like a soldier.

  Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,

  With martial stal
k hath he gone by our watch.

  HORATIO

  I don’t know what this means, but I have a funny feeling something is going to happen in our country.

  In what particular thought to work I know not;

  But in the gross and scope of my opinion,

  This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

  MARCELLUS

  Okay, let’s sit down and talk about what is going on. Why do we stand guard every night, and why are cannons being made? Why are we buying foreign weapons and ships are being built every day of the week. Do you think something is about to happen?

  Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

  Why this same strict and most observant watch

  So nightly toils the subject of the land,

  And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,

  And foreign mart for implements of war;

  Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task

  Does not divide the Sunday from the week;

  What might be toward, that this sweaty haste

  Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:

  Who is't that can inform me?

  HORATIO

  I think I know. As you know, the king, we just saw in his ghostly form, was the enemy of Fortinbras, the king of Norway. Fortinbras dared the king to fight and was killed by the seemingly valiant Hamlet. According to a signed contract, Fortinbras forfeited his land, as well as his life, to his conqueror. Our king had signed a similar contract. Now, his son, the young Fortinbras, seeks revenge and the return of his father’s land. He has commissioned the help of some lawless men. I think that is the reason for the frenzy of activity, including our watch and the procurement of weapons.

  That can I;

  At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,

  Whose image even but now appear'd to us,

  Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

  Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,

  Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--

  For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--

  Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,

  Well ratified by law and heraldry,

  Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands

  Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:

  Against the which, a moiety competent

  Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

  To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

  Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,

  And carriage of the article design'd,

  His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

  Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

  Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there

  Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,

  For food and diet, to some enterprise

  That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--

  As it doth well appear unto our state--

  But to recover of us, by strong hand

  And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands

  So by his father lost: and this, I take it,

  Is the main motive of our preparations,

  The source of this our watch and the chief head

  Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

  BERNARDO

  I think you’re right. That explains why the king, responsible for these wars, comes walking around in his armor on our watch.

  I think it be no other but e'en so:

  Well may it sort that this portentous figure

  Comes armed through our watch; so like the king

  That was and is the question of these wars.

  HORATIO

  There is definitely trouble brewing. Even in the great city of Rome, before the murder of Julius Caesar, the dead arose from their graves and walked the streets, speaking gibberish. There were other signs and omens, too, like shooting stars and solar eclipses. The fates are warning us. But wait! Here comes the ghost again! (Enter Ghost.) I’ll go to it, even though I don’t want to. Stay, ghost. If you can, speak to me. If there is anything I can do to ease your pain, tell me. Or, if you know something that would help our country, please speak. If you have some hidden treasure here on earth, which makes you uneasy, let us help you. (The cock crows.) Stay and speak! Stop the ghost, Marcellus.

  A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.

  In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

  A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

  The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead

  Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:

  As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

  Disasters in the sun; and the moist star

  Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands

  Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:

  And even the like precurse of fierce events,

  As harbingers preceding still the fates

  And prologue to the omen coming on,

  Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

  Unto our climatures and countrymen.--

  But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

  Re-enter Ghost

  I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!

  If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

  Speak to me:

  If there be any good thing to be done,

  That may to thee do ease and grace to me,

  Speak to me:

  Cock crows

  If thou art privy to thy country's fate,

  Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!

  Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

  Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

  For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

  Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.

  MARCELLUS

  Should I hit it with my sword?

  Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

  HORATIO

  Yes, if it doesn’t stop.

  Do, if it will not stand.

  BERNARDO

  It’s here!

  'Tis here!

  HORATIO

  It’s here!

  'Tis here!

  MARCELLUS

  It’s gone! (Exit Ghost.) We shouldn’t have used force on the ghost of the king. Anyway, it is an apparition and can’t be touched. We were stupid to think otherwise.

  'Tis gone!

  Exit Ghost

  We do it wrong, being so majestical,

  To offer it the show of violence;

  For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

  And our vain blows malicious mockery.

  BERNARDO

  It was about to speak when the cock crowed.

  It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

  HORATIO

  And then it started to act scared like someone guilty of a crime. I have heard when the cock crows, a sign that day is approaching, ghosts must return to where their spirits are confined. We just saw that for ourselves.

  And then it started like a guilty thing

  Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,

  The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,

  Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat

  Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,

  Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

  The extravagant and erring spirit his

  To his confine: and of the truth herein

  This present object made probation.

  MARCELLUS

  It also started to fade when the cock crowed. Some say, at Christmas, the rooster crows all night long, and ghosts, fairies, and witches are too fearful to work, because the time is so sacred.

  It faded on the crowing of the cock.

  Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes

  Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

  The bird of dawning singeth all night long:

  And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;

  The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

  No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,