Act 4, Scene 1

King: There is a reason for your sorrow; tell me. We need to discuss this together. Where is
your son?

Queen: Leave for a little while. You won’t believe what I have seen tonight!
King: What is it? How is Hamlet?
Queen: He has gone mad. He heard something stir from behind the curtain and said, ‘A rat! A
rat!’ and killed Polonius.

King: If I was there, it would have been me. What will happen now? We will pay for this and
know about this. We loved Hamlet too much and couldn’t release him from our grasp. Someone
with a horrible will keep quiet. Where is he?

Queen: He has taken Polonius’s body and is going to get rid of it.
King: We will send him to England first thing tomorrow morning, but we do excuse him. Bring
the body to the chapel, and please hurry. We’ll get some good friends and tell them all about
this. Let’s move fast before any rumors begin.

Act 4, Scene 2
Hamlet: Safely stored.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern: Hamlet!
Hamlet: Who calls for me? Here they come.
Rosencrantz: What have you done with the body?
Hamlet: I buried it.
Rosencrantz: Tell us where it is. We have to take it to the chapel.
Hamlet: Don’t believe it.
Rosencrantz: Believe what?
Hamlet: That I can keep your secrets and not my own. I won’t share information with a sponge.
Rosencrantz: Are you calling me a sponge?
Hamlet: The king is using you and will squeeze you dry.
Rosencrantz: I don’t understand.
Hamlet: Figures. Of course you’re not going to understand, you are an idiot.
Rosencrantz: Just tell us where the body is and come with us to see the king.
Hamlet: The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing-
Guildenstern: A thing?
Hamlet: Never mind. Take me to the king. You can find the body yourself.

Act 4, Scene 3
King: I have sent men to find Hamlet and the body. We will not punish him because everyone
loves him. We can’t do much to Hamlet. What have you found out, Rosencrantz?

Rosencrantz: He will not tell us where it is.

King: Where is he?
Rosencrantz: Outside with a guard waiting on you.
King: Bring him in.
Rosencrantz: Bring him in, Guildenstern!
King: Hamlet, where is Polonius?
Hamlet: At supper.
King: At supper? Where?
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten by worms. We fatten animals for us to eat,
we become fat, we die, and we fatten the worm. To come to it, a fat king is the same as a
beggar to a worm.

King: Whatever.
Hamlet: I man may fish with a worm that ate the king, and eat the fish that ate the worm.
King: What does this mean?
Hamlet: Just showing you how a king can go through the guts of a beggar.
King: Where is Polonius?
Hamlet: In heaven; send a messenger to see if he is. If he’s not there then find him yourself in
the other place. If you can’t smell him in a month, try looking in the lobby.

King: Go get the body there.

Hamlet: He will stay until you arrive.
King: For your own safety, we need to send you to England.
Hamlet: To England?
King: Yes.
Hamlet: Good.
King: It is, if you knew your reason for going.
Hamlet: I know what you’re up to. To England! Good bye, loving Mother.
King: Your loving father, Hamlet.
Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; so my
mother. Let’s go to England!

King: Follow him and make sure he is gone tonight. Everything is ready. England, if you have
ever loved me, you must help me. Now that we own you, you must. The letters tell you to kill
Hamlet. Do it, England. I will not be happy until he is dead.

Act 4, Scene 4
Fortinbras: Captain, go and remind the king about our meeting.
Captain: I will.
Fortinbras: Go softly.
Hamlet: Whose army is this?
Captain: They are Norway’s.
Hamlet: Why are you here?
Captain: To get some part of Poland.
Hamlet: Who is in charge?
Captain: Fortinbras is in charge.
Hamlet: Are you going for Poland or just a piece?
Captain: What we want is a scrap of land worth only its name. I would not farm it for five ducats.
The Polish would never profit from it if they sold it.

Hamlet: Why fight? They will never defend it.

Captain: It is already guarded.
Hamlet: Why should we lose $20,000 and 2,000 souls over worthless land? That’s pretty stupid.
Thanks for talking to me.

Captain: Same to you.

Rosencrantz: Can we leave now?
Hamlet: I will be right there. Everything is on my con and urges me to revenge my father’s
death. What good is a man that just eats and sleeps? A beast! God gives us the ability to think
for a reason. What is my purpose here? I have a cause ad a will to revenge. Every time I turn
around there is another reason to kill Claudius. Here is a reason: this army led by a prince.
Leading an army doesn’t make men great. It is the small things that count. My father has been
murdered, my mother stained, but I have done nothing. Yet I let them march to their graves. My
thoughts must only be concentrated on revenge.

Act 4, Scene 5
Queen: I won’t speak to her.
Gentlemen: She is mad and distracted. We need to pity her.
Queen: What does she want?
Gentlemen: She speaks mostly of her father.
Horatio: It was good she was spoken to because she might have influenced ill-thinking people.
Queen: Let her come in. Everything seems to foreshadow what is to come.
Ophelia: Where is the beautiful queen of Denmark?
Queen: How are you, Ophelia?
Ophelia: How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff And
his sandal shone.

Queen: Why do you sing that song?

Ophelia: What? No, you remember. He is dead and gone, my lady, He is dead and gone; At his
head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.

Queen: No, but Ophelia-

Ophelia: Listen.
White his shroud as the mountain snow-
Queen: Look here.

Ophelia:
Larded with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.  

King: How are you, pretty lady?

Ophelia: We know what we are, but not what we may be.
King: Imagination about her father.

Ophelia: If they ask you what it means, say this:

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,
And dupp’d the chambet door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King: Poor Ophelia!

Ophelia: Here’s the end.
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do ‘t, if they come to ‘t;
By cock, they are to blame.
She quotes:
‘Before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.’
He answers:
‘So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.’

King: How long has she been like this?

Ophelia: I hope all will be well. We must be patient. I can’t weep to see them lie him in the cold
ground. My brother should know of this. Good night, ladies. Goodnight.

King: Follow her and watch her closely. Her craziness is due to her father’s death. Gertrude,
when someone grieves it comes all at once. First, her father is dead, and now Hamlet is gone.
Her brother comes from France. He doesn’t want anyone to know of his father’s death yet.

Queen: What was that noise?

King: Where are my bodyguards? Let them guard the door.
Gentlemen: Laertes is very angry and is followed by a mob and men crying, ‘Laertes king!
Laertes king!’

Queen: How they speak wrongfully!

King: The doors are broken.
Laertes: Where is the king? –Stay there, men.
Danes: No, We’ll come in.
Laertes: Please leave.
Danes: We will, we will.
Laertes: Thank you. Keep the door. You evil king! Give me my father!
Queen: Calm down, Laertes.
Laertes: If I’m calm then I’m a bastard, because I love my father so much I will do anything for
him.

King: Why are you so angry? –Let him go, Gertrude. We have nothing to fear from him. –Why
are you so angry? Tell me.

Laertes: Where is my father?

King: He is dead.
Queen: But not by him.
King: Let him satisfy himself.
Laertes: Why is he dead? Do not joke with me. Vows to the blackest devil! Give me my father!
King: Who will stop you?
Laertes: Not the whole world.
King: Do you want to know who killed your father? Is it in your revenge that that you will
challenge whoever killed your father?

Laertes: I will challenge if they are my father’s enemy.

King: Would you happen to be their friend?
Laertes: I would seem like a friend, then get them back for what they have done.
King: You sound normal now. I am innocent to your father’s death, and I grieve for him. In just a
little bit, everything will be clear as day.

Danes: Let her come in.

Laertes: What is that noise. Poor Ophelia! What has happened to her?

Ophelia:
They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
And in his grave rain’d many a tear-
I hope you are well, my dove!

Laertes: It would not help her now to have wits.

Ophelia: You must sing ‘A-down a-down,’ and you “Call him a-down-a.’ It is the false steward
that stole his master’s daughter.

Laertes: This is not good.

Ophelia: Rosemary is for remembrance, this is for you. Pansies are for thought’s, there you go.
Laertes: There is a lesson in madness.
Ophelia: There’s a fennel for you, and a columbines. There’s a rue for you, and here is some
for me. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but all of them withered when my father
died. For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Laertes: I wish she would go back to the way she was.

Ophelia:
And will ‘a not come again?
And will ‘a not come again?
No, no, he is dead,
Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,All flaxen was his poll.
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan.
God ha' mercy on his soul!
May God be with you all.

Laertes: God, do you see this?

King: Laertes, I grieve too, but you must move on. I promise you will have the chance to avenge
your father.

Laertes: I hope so. I hate the way he was buried; not honorable to his name. I can’t believe he
was buried that way.

King: I don’t blame you. Go with me, Laertes.

Act 4, Scene 6
Horatio: Who wants to talk?
Servant: Sailors. They say they have letters for you.
Horatio: Let them in. I don’t know anyone overseas except for Hamlet.
First Sailor: God bless you.
Horatio: Let God bless you too.
First Sailor: If you are Horatio, then you need to see this.
Horatio:  ‘Horatio, once these men show you this letter, send them to the king. Two days into
the sea, pirates overthrew our ship. Somehow I ended up on the pirate’s ship. I am their slave,
and they treated me well. I need to return the favor. Come and get me as quick as you would
want to escape death. I have things to tell you that you won’t believe, but they are not important
now. These men will bring you to me. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are still bound for England,
and I must tell you of them. Good bye.
Sincerely,
HAMLET' 

I’ll show you to the king and you will show me to Hamlet.

Act 4, Scene 7
King: Since I have told you that Hamlet killed your father, you must do as I say.
Laertes: It seems so. Why haven’t you done anything about it?
King: Well, for two reasons: the queen loves him and I love his mother, and the citizens love
him.
Laertes: So I have lost a father, and my sister is crazy. I will have my revenge.
King: Don’t think that I’ll take this lightly. You will hear more soon. I loved your father, and I love
myself. I hope that this will let you think that- What is this? News?

Messenger: Letter from Hamlet: this one is for you, and this one is for the queen.
King: From Hamlet! Who brought them?
Messenger: Sailors, but I haven’t seen them. I got them from Claudio; he got them from
Hamlet.
King: Laertes, you can listen.- Leave us. 

‘To your majesty, I am in your kingdom,  but I don’t have anything that belongs to me.  I hope
that I will see you tomorrow and I’ll  tell you all about my journey.
HAMLET'

What does this mean? Are the others coming too? This better not be a hoax.

Laertes: Do you recognize the handwriting?

King: It’s typical of Hamlet. ‘Naked!’ He says he is alone. Will you listen to my advise?
Laertes: I’m upset by it, but let him come. I’m hoping on saying ’This is you death’ in his face.
King: Okay. I know you love your father so much that you will do what I say.
Laertes: Yes, and I hope you don’t try to make peace between us.
King: I won’t make peace between you. If he does return, we will kill him and call it an accident.
Laertes: Okay, I’ll be part of it if you devise the plan.
King: There has been a lot of talk about your skill.
Laertes: What are you getting to?
King: To a youthful folly, but it is necessary. Two months ago a young man from Normandy
fought here and was marvelous.

Laertes: He was a Norman?

King: A Norman.
Laertes: It was Lamord.
King: The same guy.
Laertes: I know him. He’s the best of the best.
King: He knows that no one can beat you in a dual. Hamlet heard this and he wanted to fight
you.

Laertes: The point being…

King: Laertes, did you love your father?
Laertes: Why do you ask that?
King: I know that you love your father and want to revenge his death. Would you really like to
do it or do you just want to say you did?

Laertes: I want to slit his throat in the church.

King: You can’t kill him there. Stay in your chamber and Hamlet will know you are home. You
will challenge him to a dual and kill him there.

Laertes: I’ll do it, and I will dip my sword in poison so strong that if I just scratch him, he will be
dead.

King: Let’s think what to do. I have it! When Hamlet’s thirsty, I will poison a drink of wine to
ensure his death. What is that noise? What’s wrong, my queen?

Queen: When one follows how fast another one does. You sister, Ophelia, drowned.
Laertes: Drowned? Where?
Queen: She was sitting on a branch of a willow tree when it broke and fell into the water where
she drowned.

Laertes: She has drowned?

Queen: Drowned.
Laertes: Poor Ophelia, you drowned, but for that I won’t cry. Good bye.
King: Let’s follow him, Gertrude. I did so much to calm him down. I think he might strike again.