Original: How all occasions do inform against me
Modern: Every situation seems to accuse me of doing nothing

Original: And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
Modern: And push me toward my slow-moving revenge! What makes someone human,

Original: If his chief good and market of his time
Modern: If the best use and profit of his time

Original: Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Modern: Is only to sleep and eat? That’s just an animal, nothing more.

Original: Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Modern: Surely God, who made us with the ability to think broadly,

Original: Looking before and after, gave us not
Modern: To consider the past and future, didn’t give us

Original: That capability and godlike reason
Modern: That ability and divine power to reason

Original: To fust in us unus’d. Now, whether it be
Modern: Just to let it rot inside us unused. Now, whether it’s

Original: Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Modern: Animal-like forgetfulness, or some cowardly doubt

Original: Of thinking too precisely on th’ event,-
Modern: From thinking too carefully about the outcome—

Original: A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
Modern: A way of thinking that, when divided into four parts, has only one part wisdom

Original: And ever three parts coward,- I do not know
Modern: And always three parts cowardice—I don’t know

Original: Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do,’
Modern: Why I’m still alive just saying “I need to do this,”

Original: Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
Modern: Since I have a reason, and desire, and strength, and the resources

Original: To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Modern: To do it. Examples as obvious as the ground itself urge me on.

Original: Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Modern: Look at this massive and expensive army,

Original: Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Modern: Led by a young and gentle prince,

Original: Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff’d,
Modern: Whose spirit, inflated with god-like ambition,

Original: Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Modern: Mocks the uncertain outcome,

Original: Exposing what is mortal and unsure
Modern: Risking his fragile and uncertain life

Original: To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Modern: To everything that luck, death, and danger can throw at him,

Original: Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Modern: Even for something worthless. To be truly great

Original: Is not to stir without great argument,
Modern: Doesn’t mean only acting when there’s a great cause,

Original: But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
Modern: But to nobly find reason to fight over something tiny

Original: When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
Modern: When honor is on the line. Where does that leave me,

Original: That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,
Modern: Who have a murdered father and a corrupted mother,

Original: Excitements of my reason and my blood,
Modern: Reasons that should stir both my mind and my emotions,

Original: And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
Modern: And yet I let everything remain dormant, while to my disgrace I see

Original: The imminent death of twenty thousand men
Modern: The approaching death of twenty thousand men

Original: That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Modern: Who for an illusion and small bit of glory

Original: Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Modern: Go to their deaths as calmly as going to bed, fight for a piece of land

Original: Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Modern: Where there isn’t even enough room for the armies to battle,

Original: Which is not tomb enough and continent
Modern: Which isn’t even large enough as a grave to contain

Original: To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
Modern: And bury all the dead? Oh, from this moment on,

Original: My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
Modern: Let my thoughts be violent and action-focused, or be completely worthless!

In Act IV, Scene iv of Hamlet, Prince Hamlet encounters a Captain from Fortinbras’s Norwegian army while traveling to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The Captain explains that Fortinbras is leading his forces across Denmark to fight the Polish army over a small, worthless piece of land in Poland. When Hamlet inquires about the value of this territory, the Captain reveals that it is essentially barren ground not worth five ducats, yet thousands of men will die fighting over it because honor is at stake.

After the Captain departs, Hamlet delivers a soliloquy reflecting on Fortinbras’s actions and his own inaction regarding his father’s murder. He observes that while Fortinbras and his army are willing to risk their lives for a trivial piece of land in the name of honor, he himself has failed to act despite having substantial cause for revenge. Hamlet concludes the scene by resolving that from this point forward, his thoughts must be bloody, or they will be worthless. The encounter serves as a catalyst for Hamlet to recommit himself to his vengeful purpose against Claudius.

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.