Original: One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
Modern: One tragedy follows right after another,

Original: So fast they follow. Your sister’s drown’d, Laertes.
Modern: They come so quickly. Your sister has drowned, Laertes.

Original: There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
Modern: There’s a willow tree that grows leaning over a stream,

Original: That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
Modern: That shows its silvery leaves reflected in the clear water.

Original: There with fantastic garlands did she come
Modern: She came there wearing strange wreaths of flowers

Original: Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
Modern: Made of buttercups, nettles, daisies, and wild orchids,

Original: That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
Modern: Which crude shepherds call by a more vulgar name,

Original: But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them.
Modern: But our modest young women call them “dead men’s fingers.”

Original: There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Modern: There, trying to hang her flower crown on the hanging branches,

Original: Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
Modern: As she climbed to hang it, a jealous branch broke,

Original: When down her weedy trophies and herself
Modern: And down fell both her flowery garlands and herself

Original: Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
Modern: Into the flowing stream. Her clothes spread out wide

Original: And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Modern: And like a mermaid’s tail, they kept her floating for a while;

Original: Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,
Modern: During this time she sang bits and pieces of old songs,

Original: As one incapable of her own distress,
Modern: As if she didn’t understand her own danger,

Original: Or like a creature native and indued
Modern: Or like a creature that was born and naturally suited

Original: Unto that element; but long it could not be
Modern: For life in the water; but it couldn’t last long

Original: Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Modern: Before her clothes, heavy with the water they absorbed,

Original: Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
Modern: Dragged the poor girl down from her beautiful singing

Original: To muddy death.
Modern: To a muddy death.

In Act IV, Scene vii of Hamlet, King Claudius manipulates Laertes into seeking revenge against Hamlet for the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia. Claudius reveals that Hamlet killed Polonius and explains why he could not openly punish Hamlet - citing the queen’s love for her son and Hamlet’s popularity with the common people. The king then proposes a seemingly friendly fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet, suggesting that Laertes use an unbated (unblunted) sword while Hamlet uses a blunted one. Laertes eagerly agrees and adds that he will poison the tip of his sword with a deadly venom he obtained from a mountebank, ensuring Hamlet’s death even from a small scratch.

As their plotting continues, Queen Gertrude enters with devastating news: Ophelia has drowned. The queen describes how Ophelia fell into a brook while gathering flowers, her heavy garments pulling her down as she sang snatches of old songs, seemingly unaware of her danger. Gertrude’s account suggests that Ophelia’s death may have been accidental, though the circumstances remain ambiguous. Laertes is overcome with grief at the news of his sister’s death, and his tears further fuel his desire for revenge against Hamlet. Claudius seizes upon Laertes’ renewed anguish to strengthen their alliance and ensure the success of their murderous plot.

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.