Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2

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POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here.

(to CLAUDIUS)

Gracious, so please you,

We will bestow

ourselves. (to

OPHELIA)Read on this

book

That show of such an

exercise may color

Your loneliness.We

are oft to blame in this,

'Tis too much proved,

that with devotions

visage

And pious action we do

sugar o'er

The devil himself.

POLONIUS Ophelia, come here.(to CLAUDIUS) Your Majesty, we will hide.

(to OPHELIA)Read from this prayer book, so it looks natural that

youre all alone. Come to think of it, this happens all the time

people act devoted to God to mask their bad deeds.

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CLAUDIUS (aside) Oh, tis too

true!

How smart a lash that

speech doth give my

conscience!

The harlots cheek,

beautied with plastering

art,

Is not more ugly to the

thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my

most painted word.

CLAUDIUS (to himself) How right he is! His words whip up my guilty feelings.

The whores pockmarked cheek made pretty with make-up is just

like the ugly actions Im disguising with fine words. What a terrible

guilt I feel!

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O heavy burden!

POLONIUS I hear him coming. Lets

withdraw, my lord.

POLONIUS I hear him coming. Quick, lets hide, my lord.

CLAUDIUS and

POLONIUS withdraw CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS hide.

Enter HAMLET HAMLET enters.

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65

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HAMLET To be, or not to be? That

is the question

Whether tis nobler in

the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of

outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a

sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end

them? To die, to sleep

No moreand by a

sleep to say we end

The heartache and the

thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir totis

a consummation

Devoutly to be wished!

To die, to sleep.

To sleep, perchance to

dreamay, theres the

rub,

For in that sleep of death

what dreams may come

When we have shuffled

off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.

Theres the respect

That makes calamity of

so long life.

HAMLET The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up

with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight

against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and

for all? Dying, sleepingthats all dying isa sleep that ends all

the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives usthats an

achievement to wish for. To die, to sleepto sleep, maybe to dream.

Ah, but theres the catch: in deaths sleep who knows what kind of

dreams might come, after weve put the noise and commotion of life

behind us. Thats certainly something to worry about. Thats the

consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long.

Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2

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