Hamlet: Act 5, Scene 1 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 5, Scene 1 of Hamlet from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Gravedigger and Another. GRAVEDIGGER Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she willfully seeks her own salvation? OTHER I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial. 5 GRAVEDIGGER How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? OTHER Why, ’tis found so. GRAVEDIGGER It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself 10 wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches—it is to act, to do, to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. OTHER Nay, but hear you, goodman delver— GRAVEDIGGER Give me leave. Here lies the water; 15 good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is (will he, nill he) he goes; mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his 20 own life. OTHER But is this law? GRAVEDIGGER Ay, marry, is ’t—crowner’s ’quest law.	At the palace graveyard, two hi-la-rious gravediggers discuss Ophelia's death. In their dialogue, they paraphrase some of the arguments from the famous 1554 suicide case of Sir James Hales, a dead-by-suicide judge whose land was forfeited to the crown, as was standard punishment for suicides. One argument held that the court could only punish someone for acts committed in their lifetime. "Successful" suicide required the ending of one's life—thus when Hales succeeded at suicide, he was no longer living and couldn't be held accountable, meaning...his widow should be entitled to his stuff. That argument didn't win, and she didn't get it, but it's part of the reason for all the quibbling on whether Ophelia meant to kill herself or not.
OTHER Will you ha’ the truth on ’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ 25 Christian burial. GRAVEDIGGER Why, there thou sayst. And the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christian. Come, my spade. There is no 30 ancient gentlemen but gard’ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They hold up Adam’s profession. OTHER Was he a gentleman? GRAVEDIGGER He was the first that ever bore arms. OTHER Why, he had none. 35 GRAVEDIGGER What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms? I’ll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself— 40 OTHER Go to!	These two men think Ophelia's death was clearly a suicide. Because suicide is an offense against God, those who committed the act were usually not allowed to be buried in a Christian graveyard. Lucky for Ophelia, her family is rich and powerful. They move on to a discussion of Adam and whether or not he had arms, with one of the men meaning actual arms and the other taking the word to mean weapons. Next, the primary Gravedigger challenges his buddy to solve a riddle.
GRAVEDIGGER What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? OTHER The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 45 GRAVEDIGGER I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well. But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To ’t again, come. 50 OTHER “Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?” GRAVEDIGGER Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. OTHER Marry, now I can tell. GRAVEDIGGER To ’t. 55 OTHER Mass, I cannot tell. Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off. GRAVEDIGGER Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating. And, when you are asked this question next, say “a grave-maker.” The houses he makes 60 lasts till doomsday. Go, get thee in, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. The Other Man exits and the Gravedigger digs and sings. In youth when I did love, did love, Methought it was very sweet To contract—O—the time for—a—my behove, 65 O, methought there—a—was nothing—a—meet.	The riddle is: Who builds something that is stronger than things built by carpenters, masons, or shipbuilders? The Gravedigger's buddy guesses a guy who builds gallows (the structure you use to hang people). It's a good answer, but not the one the Gravedigger was looking for. He finally gives it up after teasing his friend a bit. The answer? A grave digger, of course, because the house he builds lasts forever. Ba-DUM-bum!
HAMLET Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He sings in grave-making. HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. 70 HAMLET ’Tis e’en so. The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. GRAVEDIGGER sings But age with his stealing steps Hath clawed me in his clutch, And hath shipped me into the land, 75 As if I had never been such. He digs up a skull.	Hamlet wonders if the Gravedigger who remains is particularly callous because he's singing while he digs the grave. Horatio points out that doing a task over and over makes it easier—easy enough to crack jokes.
HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to the ground as if ’twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician which this ass 80 now o’erreaches, one that would circumvent God, might it not? HORATIO It might, my lord. HAMLET Or of a courtier, which could say “Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, sweet lord?” 85 This might be my Lord Such-a-one that praised my Lord Such-a-one’s horse when he went to beg it, might it not? HORATIO Ay, my lord. HAMLET Why, e’en so. And now my Lady Worm’s, 90 chapless and knocked about the mazard with a sexton’s spade. Here’s fine revolution, an we had the trick to see ’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggets with them? Mine ache to think on ’t. 95 GRAVEDIGGER sings A pickax and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding sheet, O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. He digs up more skulls.	Hamlet philosophizes as the Gravedigger uncovers a skull from the hole in the ground. Hamlet wonders who this skull used to be when it was part of a living person.
HAMLET There’s another. Why may not that be the 100 skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this mad knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum, this fellow might 105 be in ’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more 110 of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box, and must th’ inheritor himself have no more, ha? HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord. 115 HAMLET Is not parchment made of sheepskins? HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calves’ skins too. HAMLET They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow.— Whose grave’s this, sirrah? 120	When the Gravedigger uncovers another skull, Hamlet suggests it could be the skull of a lawyer. Horatio says sure, why not? Could be. Hamlet decides to chat up the Gravedigger and see if he knows.
GRAVEDIGGER Mine, sir. Sings. O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. HAMLET I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in ’t. GRAVEDIGGER You lie out on ’t, sir, and therefore ’tis 125 not yours. For my part, I do not lie in ’t, yet it is mine. HAMLET Thou dost lie in ’t, to be in ’t and say it is thine. ’Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. 130 GRAVEDIGGER ’Tis a quick lie, sir; ’twill away again from me to you. HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for? GRAVEDIGGER For no man, sir. HAMLET What woman then? 135 GRAVEDIGGER For none, neither. HAMLET Who is to be buried in ’t? GRAVEDIGGER One that was a woman, sir, but, rest her soul, she’s dead. HAMLET How absolute the knave is! We must speak by 140 the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, this three years I have took note of it: the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.—How long hast thou been 145 grave-maker?	The Gravedigger is a chatty—but very literal—guy. When Hamlet asks him whose grave he digging, he says it's his...because he's the one digging it. When Hamlet asks if the grave is for a man or a woman, the Gravedigger says neither. He finally adds that it's for someone that was a woman, but isn't anymore, because she's dead. Hamlet is amused by this guy's wit and asks him how long he's been digging graves.
GRAVEDIGGER Of all the days i’ th’ year, I came to ’t that day that our last King Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. HAMLET How long is that since? 150 GRAVEDIGGER Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was that very day that young Hamlet was born—he that is mad, and sent into England. HAMLET Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? GRAVEDIGGER Why, because he was mad. He shall 155 recover his wits there. Or if he do not, ’tis no great matter there. HAMLET Why? GRAVEDIGGER ’Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he. 160 HAMLET How came he mad? GRAVEDIGGER Very strangely, they say. HAMLET How “strangely”? GRAVEDIGGER Faith, e’en with losing his wits. HAMLET Upon what ground? 165 GRAVEDIGGER Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.	The Gravedigger says he's been at it since the day the old King Hamlet beat Fortinbras, which, coincidentally is the day the young Hamlet was born. The Gravedigger doesn't know who he's talking to, so he tells his new BFF a little more—like that Prince Hamlet has gone mad and been sent England, where it doesn't matter if he's cured since everyone there is mad, too. We bet that killed at the Globe.
HAMLET How long will a man lie i’ th’ earth ere he rot? GRAVEDIGGER Faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as we have many pocky corses nowadays that will 170 scarce hold the laying in), he will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year. HAMLET Why he more than another? GRAVEDIGGER Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his 175 trade that he will keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull now hath lien you i’ th’ earth three-and-twenty years. HAMLET Whose was it? 180 GRAVEDIGGER A whoreson mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was? HAMLET Nay, I know not. GRAVEDIGGER A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! He poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. 185 This same skull, sir, was, sir, Yorick’s skull, the King’s jester. HAMLET This? GRAVEDIGGER E’en that.	Next, Hamlet wants to know how long it takes a body to rot. The Gravedigger says it depends. For most bodies, it takes eight or nine years. Tanners last the longest because their skin is stained with the chemicals they use on leather, so their bodies are more waterproof. The Gravedigger hands Hamlet a skull and says it's from someone dead for twenty-three years now: King Hamlet's former jester, Yorick.
HAMLET, taking the skull Let me see. Alas, poor 190 Yorick! I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. 195 Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch 200 thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.—Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.	The is the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" bit: Hamlet reminisces about the times Yorick used to cart him around on his back and generally makes a melodramatic scene about all the jokes and laughs and dances Yorick used to do, but now can't, being dead and all.
HORATIO What’s that, my lord? HAMLET Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’ th’ earth? 205 HORATIO E’en so. HAMLET And smelt so? Pah! He puts the skull down. HORATIO E’en so, my lord. HAMLET To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of 210 Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole? HORATIO ’Twere to consider too curiously to consider so. HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither, with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it, as 215 thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 220 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. O, that that earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw! Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords attendant, and the corpse of Ophelia, with a Doctor of Divinity. But soft, but soft awhile! Here comes the King, The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow? 225 And with such maimèd rites? This doth betoken The corse they follow did with desp’rate hand Fordo its own life. ’Twas of some estate. Couch we awhile and mark. They step aside.	Is this everyone's fate? Hamlet is particularly interested in Alexander the Great, wondering if you could trace his dust until you found him stopping up a "bunghole" (which was literally the hole in a barrel or cask of drink, but, you guessed it, has been slang for "anus" since the thirteenth century). This is very similar to Hamlet's train of thought with the worm eating a king's corpse, the worm becoming bait, etc. He's saying that Alexander the Great, after dying, would be buried. His body would return to dust and mix with the earth, from which we make loam which could be used to stop up a beer barrel. Hamlet's a real cheerful guy. His morbid thoughts are interrupted by a funeral procession. We know it's Ophelia's, but Hamlet doesn't...yet.
LAERTES What ceremony else? 230 HAMLET That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark. LAERTES What ceremony else? DOCTOR Her obsequies have been as far enlarged As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful, And, but that great command o’ersways the order, 235 She should in ground unsanctified been lodged Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her. Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, 240 Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial. LAERTES Must there no more be done? DOCTOR No more be done. We should profane the service of the dead 245 To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.	Hamlet observes from afar as Laertes, who he recognizes, asks about the brevity of the ceremony. The priest snarks a little about how Ophelia's powerful family got her a nice burial, even though she should really be in unsanctified ground and only get broken bits of pottery and pebbles as a tribute. Instead, she's getting a garland to indicate she's a virgin and flowers strewn about her grave. Plus she's in the sanctified section and she's getting the full bell-tolling treatment.
LAERTES Lay her i’ th’ earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, 250 A minist’ring angel shall my sister be When thou liest howling.	Laertes doesn't take kindly to all this trash talking of his recently dead sister, and says that Ophelia will be an angel while the priest howls in Hell.
HAMLET, to Horatio What, the fair Ophelia? QUEEN Sweets to the sweet, farewell! She scatters flowers. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife; 255 I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, And not have strewed thy grave. LAERTES O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursèd head Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense 260 Deprived thee of!—Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. Leaps in the grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made T’ o’ertop old Pelion or the skyish head 265 Of blue Olympus. HAMLET, advancing What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wand’ring stars and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, 270 Hamlet the Dane.	Wait—did he say sister? Hamlet realizes this is Ophelia's funeral. He advances toward the grave as his mom scatters flowers, saying she thought Ophelia was going to be Hamlet's wife one day. Laertes, beside himself with grief, jumps into the grave, and you can bet his mood is not improved when Hamlet approaches, talking about how sad he is and announcing himself the way you would announce the King.
LAERTES, coming out of the grave The devil take thy soul! HAMLET Thou pray’st not well. They grapple. I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, For though I am not splenitive and rash, 275 Yet have I in me something dangerous, Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand. KING Pluck them asunder. QUEEN Hamlet! Hamlet! ALL Gentlemen! 280 HORATIO Good my lord, be quiet. Hamlet and Laertes are separated. HAMLET Why, I will fight with him upon this theme Until my eyelids will no longer wag! QUEEN O my son, what theme? HAMLET I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers 285 Could not with all their quantity of love Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? KING O, he is mad, Laertes! QUEEN For love of God, forbear him. HAMLET ’Swounds, show me what thou ’t do. 290 Woo’t weep, woo’t fight, woo’t fast, woo’t tear thyself, Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile? I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me with leaping in her grave? 295 Be buried quick with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, an thou ’lt mouth, 300 I’ll rant as well as thou. QUEEN This is mere madness; And thus awhile the fit will work on him. Anon, as patient as the female dove When that her golden couplets are disclosed, 305 His silence will sit drooping. HAMLET Hear you, sir, What is the reason that you use me thus? I loved you ever. But it is no matter. Let Hercules himself do what he may, 310 The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. Hamlet exits.	Laertes promptly leaps out of Ophelia's grave and scuffles with Hamlet. The two are broken up, and Hamlet declares he'll fight Laertes "on this theme," meaning, the question of who loved Ophelia more, until the end of his days. While his mother tries to calm him and make excuses for his behavior, Hamlet challenges Laertes to a duel and stalks out. It's all very dramatic.
KING I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him. Horatio exits. To Laertes. Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech. We’ll put the matter to the present push.— 315 Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.— This grave shall have a living monument. An hour of quiet thereby shall we see. Till then in patience our proceeding be. They exit.	Claudius says what he needs to say to everyone: he sends Horatio to tend to Hamlet, tells Laertes to hold firm with their plan, and tells Gertrude to have someone watch over Hamlet. What a guy.