Hamlet Translation

Long ago in a kingdom far away—specifically, in Elsinore, Denmark—some guys named Bernardo and Francisco are hanging out on the castle battlements.Francisco is done with his shift and gets...

Claudius, the new King of Denmark, gives his inaugural address to the court. He manages to explain away the fact that he has married his brother's widow, Gertrude, only a month after her husband's...

Laertes, a young lord about to depart for Paris, has some dear parting words with his sister, Ophelia. He tells her she shouldn't take any of Hamlet's flirting seriously. Come again? says Ophelia.

We're back to the battlement with Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. While waiting for the ghost, Hamlet and Horatio look through the windows of the palace at Claudius, who is carousing drunkenly...

And now for the big money talk: The ghost (who says he is indeed the ghost of Hamlet's father) says he needs revenge, and sooner rather than later, since he's doomed to burn in etern...

It's several weeks later. Shoot! Did we miss all the awesome avenging action? No, we have not missed the avenging action. Literally nothing has happened. Well, nothing vengeful, anyway. Poloni...

Hamlet's cray-cray behavior has Claudius and Gertrude worried. In hopes of finding out what's going on with Hamlet, they invite two of Hamlet's school friends to stay with them in Denmark. The...

Later, in a room in the palace, Claudius questions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about whether they've gotten any closer to figuring out why Hamlet "puts on" this madness. The two friends say that H...

Hamlet, in director mode, tells the actors how he wants them to perform the play. He'd like it to come off naturally, which means they shouldn't be too loud, or gesticulate (make gestures) too much...

Claudius meets with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Claudius says Hamlet's clearly crazy, so he can't stick around Denmark—the crazier he gets, the greater the threat to the throne. Instead, he'll...

In Gertrude's bedroom, Polonius coaches Gertrude on what to say to Hamlet. Polonius says she should tell him his pranks have gone too far, and that she's been covering his royal behind long enough....

Claudius can see that Gertrude is upset, so he asks her what's up, and where's Hamlet? She asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to give them a minute, and then she tells Claudius that her son is defin...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern catch up to Hamlet and try to convince him to give up Polonius' body, which Hamlet has hidden. Hamlet is uncooperative, and then he calls Rosencrantz a sponge. A sponge...

As planned, Claudius has gathered some trusted friends and told them all what's going on with Hamlet—how he's gone mad and killed Polonius, and how he must now be sent away. Rosencrantz comes in...

Hamlet is on his way to England. More specifically, he's on the Danish coast near the Danish castle. And what does he see but the armies of Prince Fortinbras of Norway, who has decided to wage war...

Gertrude really doesn't want to talk to Ophelia, but it looks like she has to. Seems like Ophelia's gone totally nuts. She's been wandering around the palace singing old songs and blathering on abo...

Inside the palace, Horatio runs into some sailors carrying a letter to him from Hamlet. 

Claudius and Laertes have been bonding. Claudius has not only told Laertes that it was Hamlet that killed Polonius, but he's also led him to believe that Hamlet was plotting against Claudius for no...

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-...

Hamlet tells Horatio what happened while he was out of Denmark: he was on the ship to England, when he got the idea to check out Claudius' letter in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's pack. Surprise! I...