No Fear Shakespeare

Hamlet

William Shakespeare

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Act 1, Scene 2, Page 3

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Modern Text


CLAUDIUS
Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?
CLAUDIUS
Do you have your father’s permission? What does Polonius say?



60
POLONIUS
He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
By laborsome petition, and at last
Upon his will I sealed my hard consent.
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
POLONIUS
My son has worn me down by asking me so many times. In the end I grudgingly consented. I beg you, let him go.



CLAUDIUS
Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will.—
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—
CLAUDIUS
In that case, leave when you like, Laertes, and spend your time however you wish. I hereby grant your request, and hope you have a good time. And now, Hamlet, my nephew and my son—

65
HAMLET
(aside) A little more than kin and less than kind.
HAMLET
(speaking so no one else can hear) Too many family ties there for me.

CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
CLAUDIUS
Why are you still so gloomy, with a cloud hanging over you?

HAMLET
Not so, my lord. I am too much i' the sun.
HAMLET
It’s not true, sir. Your son is out in the sun.



70


GERTRUDE
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not forever with thy vailèd lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st ’tis common. All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
GERTRUDE
My dear Hamlet, stop wearing these black clothes, and be friendly to the king. You can’t spend your whole life with your eyes to the ground remembering your noble father. It happens all the time, what lives must die eventually, passing to eternity.

HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is common.
HAMLET
Yes, mother, it happens all the time.


75
GERTRUDE
      If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
GERTRUDE
So why does it seem so particular to you?

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