Original: I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather.
Modern: I’ll tell you why I’m acting this way. By explaining it first, I’ll stop you from having to figure it out, and you can keep your promise to the King and Queen without breaking it.

Original: I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory;
Modern: Lately - though I don’t know why - I’ve lost all my happiness and given up all my usual activities; my mood has become so dark that this beautiful world now looks to me like a barren cliff.

Original: this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
Modern: This wonderful covering above us, the sky - look at it - this glorious overhanging heavens, this majestic ceiling decorated with golden stars - well, it looks like nothing more to me than a disgusting and poisonous collection of mist.

Original: What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!
Modern: What an amazing creation a human being is! How dignified in thinking! How unlimited in abilities! How perfect and wonderful in shape and movement! How angelic in behavior! How god-like in understanding! The most beautiful thing in the world, the best of all creatures!

Original: And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?
Modern: But to me, what is this perfect being except just dust?

Original: Man delights not me- no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
Modern: Men don’t bring me joy - no, and neither do women, even though your smiling makes it seem like you think they do.

In Act II, Scene ii of Hamlet, the Danish court receives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, childhood friends of Prince Hamlet whom King Claudius and Queen Gertrude have summoned to Elsinore. The royal couple asks these young courtiers to spend time with Hamlet and discover the cause of his recent melancholic behavior and apparent madness. Meanwhile, Polonius arrives with news that he has discovered the source of Hamlet’s distraction: the prince’s love for Ophelia, Polonius’s daughter. To prove his theory, Polonius proposes that the King and Queen hide and observe while he arranges an encounter between Hamlet and Ophelia.

The scene continues with Hamlet’s entrance, where he engages in wordplay and seemingly mad discourse with Polonius, calling him a “fishmonger” and making cryptic remarks. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear, Hamlet quickly realizes they have been sent by the King and Queen to spy on him. During their conversation, Hamlet delivers his famous speech about his loss of delight in the world and mankind, describing how “this goodly frame, the earth” seems to him “a sterile promontory” and man appears “a quintessence of dust.” The scene concludes with the arrival of a company of traveling actors, whom Hamlet greets warmly and asks to perform “The Murder of Gonzago” the following evening, planning to add his own lines to the play.

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.