Year 7

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Script
&
Summary

Mr. Abdelrahman Mahmoud

(NGI) English Department
Year 7

[Type text] Page 0

 ACT I
SCENE I Elsinore. A Platform at the Castle
King Hamlet of Denmark has been dead for four months, and his son, Prince Hamlet, suspects that his
father was murdered. The King’s brother, Claudius, became king and married the Queen, Gertrude, less
than two months after the death of Old Hamlet. Claudius claims his brother’s death was the result of a
snake bite, but Hamlet thinks that Claudius himself is the snake. The quickness of the marriage has
added. , Hamlet wonders if his mother knows to Hamlet’s grief. Furthermore, the truth of his father’s
death. Did she perhaps play a part in it? He spends his days and nights in suspicion and mourning.

It is a quiet and dark night at Elsinore, the castle of the king of Denmark. Some officers on
guard duty are preparing to change shifts on the night watch. (Francisco, a guard, is at his post.
Bernardo, another officer, walks towards him in the darkness.)

BERNARDO: Goodnight. If you see Horatio and Marcellus, tell them to hurry up.

FRANCISCO: I think I hear them. (Speaks towards the sound of the footsteps) Who is there? (Enter
Horatio and Marcellus)

HORATIO: It’s us.

FRANCISCO: Have a good night.

MARCELLUS: Good night. (Exit Francisco)

MARCELLUS: Hello, Bernardo!

BERNARDO: Welcome. I have seen nothing tonight.

MARCELLUS: Horatio says it is only our imagination. So, I’ve asked him to come with us tonight. If this
vision appears again, he might believe us and speak to it himself.

HORATIO: Oh, it won’t appear.

BERNARDO: I know you don’t believe it’s true, but sit down and I’ll tell you again what we’ve seen the
last two nights. Last night, at one o’clock —

MARCELLUS: Silence—look, here it comes again!

(A ghost appears, carrying a sword at its side and wearing the uniform of a king in battle.)

MARCELLUS: You’re a smart one, Horatio; you talk to it.

HORATIO: (After a moment; nervously) What are you, with your warlike form and appearance of the
dead king? Speak! (The Ghost turns and walks away.)

BERNARDO: Look, it’s walking away!

HORATIO: Stay! Speak, speak! (Exit Ghost)

BERNARDO: So, what do you think now, Horatio?

HORATIO: By God, I wouldn’t believe this without seeing it with my own eyes.

(Re-enter Ghost)

(A rooster crows somewhere in the distance)

(Exit Ghost)

BERNARDO: It was about to speak, when the rooster made its cry.

HORATIO: Let us tell what we have seen tonight to young Hamlet, for, upon my life, this spirit, who will
not speak to us, will speak to him.

(Exit all)

SCENE II One of the King’s Rooms in the Castle

Claudius has been king for four months. He has now been married to Gertrude for two months. The
king and Queen have just been discussing the excessive mourning of Hamlet. The King does not think
that it is appropriate for Hamlet to continue his mourning. Polonius, an adviser to the King is with his
son, Laertes, who returned from England for the old King’s funeral and the new one’s wedding. (Enter
the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Lords and an Attendant.)

KING: Now, Hamlet—why do dark clouds hover over you?

HAMLET: Not at all, my lord. I am too much in the sunlight.

QUEEN: Good Hamlet, you know this is normal—all that lives must die, passing through nature to
eternity.

HAMLET: Yes, madam. It is normal.

QUEEN: Then, why does it not seem common with you?

KING: Hamlet, your father lost a father; that father lost his. But this unmanly grief in you shows no
understanding of heaven. We pray you, stop this sadness, and think of me as a father. Let the world
hear that you are the next in line to the throne. As for your desire to go back to school in Wittenberg,
this is not what your mother and I desire. We beg you to stay here, in the comfort of our eye.

QUEEN: I pray that you stay with us; don’t go to Wittenberg.

HAMLET: I shall do my best to obey you, madam.

KING: Well, that’s a loving and reasonable reply. Come, let’s go.
(Exit all, except Hamlet)

HAMLET: How hard, tiring and useless all things in this world seem to me. Just four months dead! So
excellent a king; so loving to my mother. Any beast would have mourned longer, and yet she married
my uncle, my father’s brother.

(Enter Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo.)

HORATIO: My lord, I think I saw your father last night. Allow me to tell the strange story to you.
HAMLET: (Astonished) Let me hear it.
HORATIO: Two nights in a row, Marcellus and Bernardo saw the image of your father. Together with
them, I watched and saw each word of their story true before my own eyes.
HAMLET: You didn’t speak to it?
HORATIO: I did, but it did not answer. When the morning rooster cried, the image vanished from our
sight.
HAMLET: This is very strange, and it troubles me very much. Will you be on guard duty tonight?
MARCELLUS & BERNARDO: Yes, my lord

HAMLET: I will watch tonight. Perhaps it will walk again.

(Exit all)

SCENE III A Room in Polonius’s House

(Enter Laertes and Ophelia.)

LAERTES: Farewell, Sister. And for Hamlet, I think his feelings for you are not permanent. They may be
sweet, but are not lasting; they are like perfume—for only a minute,

OPHELIA: No more.

LAERTES: Perhaps he does love you now. But you must fear for his will is not his own. He himself is
subject to his royal birth. And therefore, his choice must be limited and overruled by the King.

(Enter Polonius.)

POLONIUS: Still here, Laertes! Get aboard, get aboard! The wind is ready for your sail.

LAERTES: Farewell, Father. Farewell, Ophelia.

(Exit all)
SCENE IV The Platform of the Castle
It is late at night, and Hamlet has joined the officers to witness the Ghost.
(Enter Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus.)

HAMLET: The air bites; it’s so cold. What is the time?

MARCELLUS: It is just now twelve.

HORATIO: Look, my lord; it comes! (Enter Ghost.)

HAMLET: Angels protect us! Whether you are a good spirit or a demon, I will speak to you. I’ll call you
Hamlet, King, Father or royal Dane . Oh, answer me!

(Ghost beckons Hamlet.)

HORATIO: It desires that you go away with it.

(Ghost waves him closer. Exit Ghost and Hamlet)

MARCELLUS: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Come, let’s follow him.

(Exit all.)

SCENE V A Distant and Quiet Part of the Castle

(Enter Ghost and Hamlet)

HAMLET: Speak to me! I will not go further.

GHOST: I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for an amount of time to walk the night, and by day to suffer
in fires. If you loved your father, revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET: Murder! Swift wings will sweep me to revenge.

GHOST: I see you are eager. Now, it is told that while I was sleeping in my garden, a snake stung me.
That serpent that did sting your father’s life now wears his crown.

HAMLET: My uncle!

GHOST: Yes. As I was sleeping in my orchard, your uncle slipped poison into my ear. Thus, my brother
took my life, my crown and my queen. Now, however, you pursue revenge; do not let yourself turn
against your mother. Leave her to heaven, and let her own guilty conscience stab and sting her heart.
Farewell!
Vocabulary
Suspect: think; believe; expect; have doubts about
Claim: insist; assert; declare
Grief: very great sadness, especially at the death of someone
Furthermore: in addition; moreover
Murdered: killed; assassinated
Suspicion: a belief that something may be true; doubt
Mourning: grieving; weeping
Vision: dream; apparition; spirit; ghost
Ghost: the spirit of a dead person
Crow: squawk; cry; screech
Sword: a weapon with a handle and a long sharp blade
Rooster: an adult male chicken
Spirit: ghost; phantom
Excessive: too much; extreme; unnecessary
Appropriate: suitable; proper; adequate
Funeral: the ceremony that is held when the body of someone who has died is buried
Hover: to stay in one place in the air; float; flutter
Eternity: infinity; time which never ends or which has no limit
Desire (v.): to want something, especially strongly
Vanish: disappear; become invisible; be lost to sight; dissolve
Duty: work that one must do for one’s job

Farewell: goodbye
Permanent: lasting for a long time or forever
Royal: a royal person is a king, queen, or emperor, or a member of their family.

Witness: watch; see; observe

Bite: cut; tear; pinch
Dane: a person born in Denmark
Beckon: signal, gesture

Revenge: to harm someone as a punishment for harm that they have done to someone else
Foul: treacherous, criminal
Pursue: if one pursues a plan, one tries to achieve it
Conscience: the part of one that judges the morality of one’s own actions and makes one feel
guilty about bad things that one has done