No Fear Shakespeare
Hamlet
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 2, Page 4
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HAMLET
“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not
“seems.”
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed
“seem,”
For they are actions that a man might play.
But I have that within which passeth show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
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HAMLET
“Seem,” mother? No, it
is. I don’t know what you
mean by “seem.” Neither my black clothes, my
dear mother, nor my heavy sighs, nor my weeping, nor my downcast
eyes, nor any other display of grief can show what I really feel.
It’s true that all these things
“seem” like grief, since a person could use
them to fake grief if he wanted to. But I’ve got more
real grief inside me that you could ever see on the surface. These
clothes are just a hint of it.
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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, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief.
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschooled.
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died today,
“This must be so.” We pray you, throw to
earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father. For let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne,
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CLAUDIUS
Hamlet, you are so sweet and such a good son to mourn your father
like this. But you have to remember, that your father lost his
father, who lost his father before him, and every time, each son has
had to mourn his father for a certain period. But overdoing it is
just stubborn. It’s not manly. It’s not what
God wants, and it betrays a vulnerable heart and an ignorant and
weak mind. Since we know that everyone must die sooner or later, why
should we take it to heart? You’re committing a crime
against heaven, against the dead, and against nature. And
it’s irration-al, since the truth is that all fathers
must die. Please give up this useless mourning of yours and start
thinking of me as your new father.
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