No Fear Shakespeare

Hamlet

William Shakespeare

Get this No Fear to go!

Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2

Original Text

Modern Text


20
To hear of it. They are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.
They are here at court now, and I believe they’ve been told to give a performance for him tonight.



POLONIUS
    'Tis most true,
And he beseeched me to entreat your Majesties
To hear and see the matter.
POLONIUS
It’s true, and he asked me to beg you both to attend.


25

CLAUDIUS
With all my heart, and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclined.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
CLAUDIUS
It makes me very happy to hear he’s so interested. Gentlemen, please try to sharpen his interest even more, and let this play do him some good.

ROSENCRANTZ
We shall, my lord.
ROSENCRANTZ
We will, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN exit.


30




35


CLAUDIUS
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too,
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as ’twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.
Her father and myself (lawful espials)
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If ’t be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
CLAUDIUS
Dear Gertrude, please give us a moment alone. We’ve secretly arranged for Hamlet to come here so that he can run into Ophelia. Her father and I, justifiably acting as spies, will hide in the room and observe Hamlet’s behavior, to determine whether it’s love that’s making him suffer.



40


GERTRUDE
    I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honors.
GERTRUDE
Yes, I’ll go. As for you, Ophelia, I hope that your beauty is the reason for Hamlet’s insane behavior, just as I hope your virtues will return him to normal some day, for the good of both of you.

OPHELIA
  Madam, I wish it may.
OPHELIA
I hope so too, Madam.
Exit GERTRUDE
GERTRUDE exits.

More Help

Watch the Video SparkNote

A quick and easy plot summary of Hamlet.

Read the Hamlet SparkNote

Summary, analysis, themes, essay topics, and more

Buy No Fear Hamlet at BN.com

Get the No Fear Shakespeare you can hold in your hand at BN.com

EVEN MORE HELP! ↓

Take a Study Break

SparkLife

Star Trek gets SEXY

Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana heat up the red carpet!

SparkLife

Are you afraid of relationships?

Auntie SparkNotes can help!

SparkLife

Wanna get JLaw's gorgeous glow?

Click here for simple, sexy makeup tricks!

SparkLife

Sexy starlet style

See every single look from the Met Gala!

SparkLife

Who'd be on your zombie-apocalypse crew?

We already dib'sed Genghis Khan.

Geek out!

The MindHut

Geeky Actors: Then and Now

Travel back in time!

The MindHut

Villains We Want These Actresses to Play

From super cute to super bad!

The MindHut

10 Movies Better Than Their Books

What do you think?

The MindHut

How To Look Like J-Law...

When you don't look like J-Law.

The MindHut

12 Scientific Inaccuracies in Into Darkness

What did Star Trek get wrong?