Original: Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?
Modern: Go to a convent! Why would you want to have children who are just sinners?

Original: I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.
Modern: I’m reasonably honest myself, but I could list so many bad things about me that it would have been better if my mother had never given birth to me.

Original: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
Modern: I’m very proud, vengeful, and power-hungry; I have more sins ready to commit than I have thoughts to plan them, imagination to picture them, or time to carry them out.

Original: What should such fellows as I do, crawling between earth and heaven?
Modern: What should men like me be doing, living our pathetic lives between earth and heaven?

Original: We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us.
Modern: We are all complete scoundrels; don’t trust any of us.

Original: Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Modern: Go on your way to a convent.

Original: Where’s your father?
Modern: Where’s your father?

Original: Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house.
Modern: Let him be locked up in his house, so he can only act like a fool there and nowhere else.

Original: Farewell.
Modern: Goodbye.

Original: If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
Modern: If you do get married, I’ll give you this curse as your wedding gift: even if you’re as pure as ice and snow, you still won’t escape slander and gossip.

Original: Get thee to a nunnery.
Modern: Go to a convent.

Original: Go, farewell.
Modern: Go, goodbye.

Original: Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.
Modern: Or if you absolutely must marry, marry an idiot; because smart men know exactly how you women turn them into monsters.

Original: To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
Modern: Go to a convent, and do it quickly.

Original: Farewell.
Modern: Goodbye.

Original: I have heard of your paintings too, well enough.
Modern: I’ve heard plenty about how you women paint your faces with makeup.

Original: God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
Modern: God gave you one face, but you create a different one for yourselves.

Original: You jig, you amble, and you lisp; you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.
Modern: You dance around, walk in a fake way, and talk with affected speech; you give silly names to God’s creatures and pretend your wild behavior is just innocent ignorance.

Original: Go to, I’ll no more on’t! it hath made me mad.
Modern: Come on, I won’t put up with this anymore! It has driven me crazy.

Original: I say, we will have no moe marriages.
Modern: I’m telling you, there will be no more marriages.

Original: Those that are married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as they are.
Modern: Those who are already married—all except one—will continue to live; the rest should stay as they are.

Original: To a nunnery, go.
Modern: Go to a convent.

In Act III, Scene 1 of “Hamlet,” the scene opens with King Claudius and Queen Gertrude receiving a report from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about their attempts to discover the source of Hamlet’s melancholy. The two courtiers report that Hamlet admits to feeling distracted but refuses to reveal why, and they mention that he seemed pleased about the arrival of the players and has arranged for a performance before the King. Polonius then reminds Claudius of their plan to have Ophelia encounter Hamlet while they secretly observe the meeting. Gertrude exits, and Claudius and Polonius conceal themselves after instructing Ophelia to appear to be reading a prayer book.

Hamlet enters and delivers his famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, contemplating death and suicide, weighing the pains of life against the uncertainty of what comes after death. He concludes that the fear of the unknown afterlife makes people endure suffering rather than end their lives. After his soliloquy, he notices Ophelia, who attempts to return love tokens he previously gave her. Hamlet’s demeanor shifts dramatically as he denies having given her anything and launches into an increasingly harsh tirade, telling her he loved her once but then denying it, urging her to go to a nunnery, condemning marriage, and making bitter remarks about women’s painted faces and deceptive behavior. Ophelia is left devastated by his cruel words. After Hamlet exits, Claudius and Polonius emerge, with Claudius recognizing that Hamlet’s affliction is not love and determining to send him to England for safety.

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.