Internet Shakespeare Editions

Toolbox




Jump to line
Help on texts

About this text

  • Title: Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)
  • Textual editor: Eric Rasmussen
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-434-9

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

    The Tragedie of Hamlet
    Ham. O thou shouldst not a beleeued me!
    Go to a Nunnery goe, why shouldst thou
    Be a breeder of sinners? I am my selfe indifferent honest,
    But I could accuse my selfe of such crimes
    It had beene better my mother had ne're borne me,
    O I am very prowde, ambitious, disdainefull,
    1780With more sinnes at my becke, then I haue thoughts
    To put them in, what should such fellowes as I
    Do, crawling between heauen and earth?
    To a Nunnery goe, we are arrant knaues all,
    Beleeue none of vs, to a Nunnery goe.
    Ofel. O heauens secure him!
    1785Ham. Wher's thy father?
    Ofel. At home my lord.
    Ham. For Gods sake let the doores be shut on him,
    He may play the foole no where but in his
    Owne house: to a Nunnery goe.
    Ofel. Help him good God.
    1790Ham. If thou dost marry, Ile giue thee
    This plague to thy dowry:
    Be thou as chaste as yce, as pure as snowe,
    Thou shalt not scape calumny, to a Nunnery goe.
    1792.1Ofel. Alas, what change is this?
    Ham. But if thou wilt needes marry, marry a foole,
    For wisemen know well enough,
    What monsters you make of them, to a Nunnery goe.
    Ofel. Pray God restore him.
    Ham. Nay, I haue heard of your paintings too,
    God hath giuen you one face,
    And you make your selues another,
    1800You fig, and you amble, and you nickname Gods creatures,
    Making your wantonnesse, your ignorance,
    A pox, t'is scuruy, Ile no more of it,
    It hath made me madde: Ile no more marriages,
    All that are married but one, shall liue,
    The rest shall keepe as they are, to a Nunnery goe,
    To