| Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;Tell him that, by his licence, FortinbrasCraves the conveyance of a promised marchOver his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.If that his majesty would aught with us,We shall express our duty in his eye;And let him know so. | Prince FortinbrasGo, Captain, and give the Danish king my greetings. Tell him that Fortinbras asks permission to move his troops across Denmark. You know the meeting place we’ve arranged. If His Majesty wants us to do any favor for him, tell him his wish is my command. (sending guard to Claudius to tell him they are there) |
| How purposed, sir, I pray you? | HamletWhat are they (troops) doing here, sir? |
| Against some part of Poland. | CaptainThey’re on their way to invade some part of Poland. |
| Truly to speak, and with no addition,We go to gain a little patch of groundThat hath in it no profit but the name.To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;Nor will it yield to Norway or the PoleA ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. | CaptainTo tell the truth, we’re fighting to win a little patch of ground that’s not worth anything. I myself wouldn’t pay five ducats for it, if someone offered it to me to farm. And it won’t provide any more profits than that to either the Norwegian or the Pole. |
| Why, then the Polack never will defend it. | HamletSo then the Poles won’t be willing to defend it. |
| Yes, it is already garrison’d. | CaptainOh, yes they will. They’ve already stationed troops there. |
| Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducatsWill not debate the question of this straw:This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,That inward breaks, and shows no cause withoutWhy the man dies. | Hamlet(to himself) Even two thousand men and twenty-thousand ducats are just the beginning of what it will cost to settle this pointless matter. This is what happens when countries have too much money and peace. This quarrel is like an abcess that grows inside someone until it bursts and kills them, and no one knows why. (People get bored and restless in times of peace. Hamlet not like his father in ideology – Hamlet is more interested in keeping the peace) |
| How all occasions do inform against me,And spur my dull revenge! | HamletMy God! Everything I see shows me how wrong I am and tells me to hurry up and get on with my revenge. |
| . Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,Looking before and after, gave us notThat capability and god-like reasonTo fust in us unused. | HamletGod didn’t create us with such a huge power of thought and a divine capacity for reason in order for us not to use them. |
| Now, whether it beBestial oblivion, or some craven scrupleOf thinking too precisely on the event,A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdomAnd ever three parts coward, I do not knowWhy yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’Sith I have cause and will and strength and meansTo do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me: | HamletNow, whether it’s animal-like mindlessness, or the cowardly hesitation that comes from thinking too much (thinking thoughts that are one part wisdom, three parts cowardice), I don’t know why I’m still alive to say “I have to do this deed” rather than having done it already. I have the motivation, the willpower, the ability, and the means to do it. It’s as plain as the ground beneath my feet that I must do it. |
| Witness this army of such mass and chargeLed by a delicate and tender prince,Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’dMakes mouths at the invisible event,Exposing what is mortal and unsureTo all that fortune, death and danger dare,Even for an egg-shell. | Hamlet Look at this massive army led by a delicate and tender prince who’s so puffed up with divine ambition that he puts his fragile life at risk, exposing it to danger and death, for a reason as thin as an eggshell. (Hamlet is doing nothing in comparison) |
| Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument,But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honour’s at the stake. | HamletTo be truly great doesn’t mean you’d only fight for a good reason. It means you’d fight over nothing if your honor was at stake. |
| How stand I then,That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,Excitements of my reason and my blood,And let all sleep? | HamletSo where does that leave me, whose father has been murdered and mother defiled, ignoring these mental and emotional provocations and not doing anything about it? |
| while, to my shame, I seeThe imminent death of twenty thousand men,That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plotWhereon the numbers cannot try the cause,Which is not tomb enough and continentTo hide the slain? | HamletMeanwhile, to my shame, I watch twenty thousand men go marching to their deaths for an illusion and a little bit of fame, fighting for a tiny piece of land not even big enough to bury them all. |
| O, from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! | HamletFrom now on, if my thoughts aren’t violent I’ll consider them worthless. (Will do the violent thing without thinking) |
Hamlet 4.4
August 10, 2019