Original: I am thy father’s spirit,
Modern: I am your father’s ghost,

Original: Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
Modern: Sentenced for a set time to wander at night,

Original: And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
Modern: And during the day, locked up to suffer in flames,

Original: Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Modern: Until the sins I committed while I was alive

Original: Are burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbid
Modern: Are burned and cleansed away. If I weren’t forbidden

Original: To tell the secrets of my prison house,
Modern: To reveal the secrets of the place where I’m imprisoned,

Original: I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Modern: I could tell you a story whose mildest word

Original: Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Modern: Would tear your soul apart and freeze your young blood,

Original: Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Modern: Make your eyes pop out of their sockets like stars flying out of their orbits,

Original: Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
Modern: Make your neatly combed hair separate,

Original: And each particular hair to stand on end
Modern: And every single hair stand straight up

Original: Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.
Modern: Like the quills on a frightened, angry porcupine.

Original: But this eternal blazon must not be
Modern: But these secrets of the afterlife must not be told

Original: To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
Modern: To living human ears. Listen, listen, oh, listen!

Original: If thou didst ever thy dear father love-
Modern: If you ever loved your dear father—

Original: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther.
Modern: Get revenge for his evil and completely unnatural murder.

Original: Murther most foul, as in the best it is;
Modern: Every murder is evil, even in the best of circumstances;

Original: But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
Modern: But this one was the most evil, shocking, and unnatural of all.

Original: I find thee apt;
Modern: I see you’re ready to act;

Original: And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
Modern: And you’d have to be more sluggish than the bloated weed

Original: That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Modern: That lazily rots on the banks of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness,

Original: Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
Modern: If you weren’t moved to action by this. Now, Hamlet, listen.

Original: ‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
Modern: Everyone’s been told that while I was sleeping in my garden,

Original: A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Modern: A snake bit me. So all of Denmark

Original: Is by a forged process of my death
Modern: Has been fooled by a made-up story of how I died

Original: Rankly abus’d. But know, thou noble youth,
Modern: And terribly deceived. But know this, noble young man,

Original: The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Modern: The snake that took your father’s life

Original: Now wears his crown.
Modern: Is now wearing his crown.

Original: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
Modern: Yes, that incestuous, adulterous animal,

Original: With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts-
Modern: With his spellbinding cleverness and his treacherous charms—

Original: O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
Modern: Oh, how evil are cleverness and charm that have the power

Original: So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust
Modern: To seduce like that!—won over to his disgraceful lust

Original: The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
Modern: The heart of my queen, who seemed so faithful and pure.

Original: O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there,
Modern: Oh Hamlet, what a fall from grace that was,

Original: From me, whose love was of that dignity
Modern: Turning away from me, whose love was so honorable

Original: That it went hand in hand even with the vow
Modern: That it stayed true to every word of the promise

Original: I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Modern: I made to her when we married, and instead sinking down

Original: Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
Modern: To a miserable creature whose qualities were nothing

Original: To those of mine!
Modern: Compared to mine!

Original: But virtue, as it never will be mov’d,
Modern: But just as a truly good person will never be tempted,

Original: Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
Modern: Even if sin tries to seduce them looking like an angel,

Original: So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d,
Modern: Lust, even if it’s married to a shining angel,

Original: Will sate itself in a celestial bed
Modern: Will get bored with a heavenly bed

Original: And prey on garbage.
Modern: And go feed on trash.

Original: But soft! methinks I scent the morning air.
Modern: But wait! I think I can smell the morning coming.

Original: Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
Modern: Let me be quick. While I was sleeping in my garden,

Original: My custom always of the afternoon,
Modern: As I always did in the afternoon,

Original: Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
Modern: During that unguarded time, your uncle snuck up on me

Original: With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,
Modern: With a vial of deadly poison,

Original: And in the porches of my ears did pour
Modern: And poured into my ears

Original: The leperous distilment; whose effect
Modern: That disease-causing liquid, which

Original: Holds such an enmity with blood of man
Modern: Is so deadly to human blood

Original: That swift as quicksilver it courses through
Modern: That it races as fast as mercury through

Original: The natural gates and alleys of the body,
Modern: All the passageways and veins of the body,

Original: And with a sudden vigour it doth posset
Modern: And with sudden force it thickens

Original: And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
Modern: And curdles, like sour drops of acid in milk,

Original: The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;
Modern: The healthy, flowing blood. That’s what it did to mine;

Original: And a most instant tetter bark’d about,
Modern: And instantly a scabby rash covered me like tree bark,

Original: Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
Modern: Just like a leper, with a disgusting, horrible crust

Original: All my smooth body.
Modern: All over my smooth skin.

Original: Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand
Modern: So while I slept, at my own brother’s hand,

Original: Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d;
Modern: I lost my life, my crown, and my queen all at once;

Original: Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Modern: Killed while my sins were still in full bloom,

Original: Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d,
Modern: Without communion, without preparing, without last rites,

Original: No reckoning made, but sent to my account
Modern: Without confessing, I was sent to face God’s judgment

Original: With all my imperfections on my head.
Modern: With all my sins still weighing on me.

Original: If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
Modern: If you have any natural feeling in you, don’t put up with this.

Original: Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
Modern: Don’t let the royal bed of Denmark be

Original: A couch for luxury and damned incest.
Modern: A place for lust and cursed incest.

Original: But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Modern: But however you go about getting revenge,

Original: Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Modern: Don’t corrupt your mind, and don’t let yourself plan

Original: Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,
Modern: Anything against your mother. Leave her for God to judge,

Original: And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
Modern: And to the guilt that lives in her heart

Original: To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.
Modern: To stab and torment her. I must say goodbye now.

Original: The glowworm shows the matin to be near
Modern: The glowworm shows that morning is close

Original: And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Modern: As its weak light begins to fade.

Original: Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.
Modern: Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye! Remember me.

In Act I, scene 5 of Hamlet, the Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to the young prince and reveals the truth about his death. The Ghost commands Hamlet to follow him to a private location where he discloses that he was murdered by his own brother Claudius, who poured poison into his ear while he slept in the garden. The Ghost describes how Claudius not only killed him but also seduced his wife Gertrude, robbing him of his life, crown, and queen all at once. The spirit demands that Hamlet avenge his murder but warns him not to harm his mother, leaving her punishment to heaven and her own conscience.

After the Ghost departs, Hamlet is left deeply shaken by these revelations. When Horatio and Marcellus find him, Hamlet makes them swear multiple oaths of secrecy about what they have witnessed, with the Ghost’s voice mysteriously echoing from beneath the ground commanding them to swear. Hamlet hints that he may need to “put an antic disposition on” - essentially act mad - as part of his plan moving forward. The scene concludes with Hamlet expressing the weight of his burden, lamenting that he was born to set right the corruption that has infected the Danish court.

Hamlet tells the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, who is visited by the ghost of his recently deceased father. The ghost reveals that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, who has now married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and assumed the throne. Commanded by his father’s spirit to seek revenge, Hamlet struggles with doubt, melancholy, and the moral complexity of his task. To investigate the ghost’s claims and plan his revenge, he feigns madness, which creates tension throughout the Danish court.

As Hamlet deliberates, his erratic behavior affects everyone around him, particularly his love interest Ophelia, daughter of the king’s advisor Polonius. To test Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet stages a play mirroring his father’s murder, which confirms the king’s culpability. However, Hamlet’s actions become increasingly destructive—he accidentally kills Polonius while the old man spies on him, and his rejection of Ophelia contributes to her descent into genuine madness and eventual drowning.

The play reaches its climax when Ophelia’s brother Laertes returns to avenge his father’s death. Claudius manipulates Laertes into challenging Hamlet to a duel, secretly poisoning Laertes’s sword and preparing poisoned wine as backup. The final scene erupts in tragedy: during the duel, both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded by the poisoned blade, Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned wine, and Hamlet finally kills Claudius. As Hamlet dies, he names Prince Fortinbras of Norway as Denmark’s next ruler, bringing the cycle of revenge and political instability to a close. The play ends with Fortinbras restoring order to the Danish court as bodies are carried off in a funeral march.