Original: So many journeys may the sun and moon
Modern: The sun and moon may travel across the sky so many times

Original: Make us again count o’er ere love be done!
Modern: That we could count them all again before our love ends!

Original: But woe is me! you are so sick of late,
Modern: But I’m so troubled! You’ve been so unwell lately,

Original: So far from cheer and from your former state.
Modern: So distant from happiness and from how you used to be.

Original: That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Modern: That it makes me suspicious. Yet, even though I’m suspicious,

Original: Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
Modern: I must not let this upset you at all, my lord;

Original: For women’s fear and love holds quantity,
Modern: Because a woman’s fear and love are equal in measure,

Original: In neither aught, or in extremity.
Modern: Either we feel nothing at all, or we feel everything intensely.

Original: Now what my love is, proof hath made you know;
Modern: You now know through experience just how much I love you;

Original: And as my love is siz’d, my fear is so.
Modern: And my fear is just as big as my love.

Original: Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Modern: When love is strong, even the smallest doubts become frightening;

Original: Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
Modern: And when small fears become big, it shows that great love exists there.

In Act III, Scene ii of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark presents “The Mousetrap,” a play he has arranged to test his uncle Claudius’s guilt regarding his father’s murder. Hamlet has added specific lines to the performance that mirror the circumstances of his father’s death as described by the ghost. As the actors perform the play-within-a-play, depicting a king being murdered by poison poured into his ear while sleeping, Hamlet watches Claudius intently for his reaction. The court audience, including Queen Gertrude, observes the performance while Hamlet provides commentary and makes pointed remarks about the action unfolding on stage.

When the player king is murdered in the same manner as Hamlet’s father, Claudius abruptly rises and calls for lights, effectively ending the performance and fleeing the scene in apparent distress. His reaction confirms Hamlet’s suspicions about his uncle’s guilt in murdering the former king. After Claudius’s dramatic exit, the court disperses, and Hamlet is left with Horatio, who has been observing Claudius as instructed. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then approach Hamlet to inform him that his mother wishes to speak with him in her chamber, as she is upset by his behavior during the play. The scene concludes with Hamlet agreeing to visit his mother while internally preparing for the confrontation ahead.

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.