Original: Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death
Modern: Even though the memory of my dear brother Hamlet’s death

Original: The memory be green, and that it us befitted
Modern: Is still fresh, and it would be appropriate for us

Original: To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
Modern: To carry sorrow in our hearts, and for our entire kingdom

Original: To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Modern: To be united together in sadness,

Original: Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
Modern: Yet good judgment has battled with our natural feelings enough

Original: That we with wisest sorrow think on him
Modern: That we mourn him with wise sadness

Original: Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Modern: While also remembering our responsibility to ourselves and the kingdom.

Original: Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Modern: Therefore, my former sister-in-law, now my queen,

Original: Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Modern: The royal co-ruler of this military nation,

Original: Have we, as ‘twere with a defeated joy,
Modern: I have married, as if with a conquered happiness,

Original: With an auspicious, and a dropping eye,
Modern: With one eye hopeful and the other eye crying,

Original: With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
Modern: With joy at a funeral and sadness at a wedding,

Original: In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Modern: Balancing happiness and grief equally,

Original: Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr’d
Modern: Taken as my wife; and I have not ignored

Original: Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
Modern: Your good advice, which has freely supported

Original: With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
Modern: This decision. Thank you all for that.

Original: Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Modern: Now, as you know, young Fortinbras,

Original: Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Modern: Having a low opinion of our power,

Original: Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death
Modern: Or thinking that because of my dear brother’s recent death

Original: Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Modern: Our country is broken and disorganized,

Original: Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
Modern: Combined with his fantasy that he has the upper hand,

Original: He hath not fail’d to pester us with message
Modern: Has constantly annoyed us with messages

Original: Importing the surrender of those lands
Modern: Demanding the return of those lands

Original: Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
Modern: His father lost, legally and fairly,

Original: To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Modern: To my very brave brother. That’s enough about him.

Original: Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
Modern: Now for my own business and the reason for this meeting.

Original: Thus much the business is: we have here writ
Modern: Here’s the situation: we have written here

Original: To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Modern: To the King of Norway, young Fortinbras’s uncle,

Original: Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears
Modern: Who is weak and bedridden, and barely knows

Original: Of this his nephew’s purpose, to suppress
Modern: About his nephew’s plans, asking him to stop

Original: His further gait herein, in that the levies,
Modern: His nephew’s progress in this matter, since the troops,

Original: The lists, and full proportions are all made
Modern: The rosters, and all the military resources are gathered

Original: Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
Modern: From his own Norwegian subjects; and we now send

Original: You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
Modern: You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,

Original: For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
Modern: As messengers carrying this letter to the old King of Norway,

Original: Giving to you no further personal power
Modern: Giving you no additional personal authority

Original: To business with the King, more than the scope
Modern: To negotiate with the King, beyond what

Original: Of These dilated articles allow.
Modern: These detailed documents permit.

Original: Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
Modern: Goodbye, and let your speed demonstrate your loyalty.

In Act I, Scene 2 of Hamlet, King Claudius holds court at Elsinore Castle, addressing various matters of state. He speaks of his recent marriage to Gertrude, the former queen and widow of his brother, the late King Hamlet, acknowledging the mixture of joy and sorrow surrounding these events. Claudius discusses political concerns, including young Fortinbras of Norway’s attempts to reclaim his father’s lost lands, and dispatches Cornelius and Voltemand as ambassadors to the Norwegian king to address this threat. He then grants Laertes permission to return to France, having received approval from Laertes’ father, Polonius.

The king and queen then turn their attention to Prince Hamlet, who appears in mourning attire and displays a melancholy demeanor. Both Claudius and Gertrude urge Hamlet to cease his prolonged grieving for his father and to remain at court rather than returning to university in Wittenberg. After some persuasion, particularly from his mother, Hamlet agrees to stay. Once the court departs, Hamlet delivers his first soliloquy, expressing his deep anguish over his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage. Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo then arrive and inform Hamlet about their encounters with what appears to be the ghost of his father, prompting Hamlet to arrange to join them on the castle battlements that evening to witness this apparition himself.

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.