No, to sleep, to dream, aye marry there it goes,įor in that dream of death, when we awake, To be, or not to be, Ay there's the point, In the version below, the spelling is updated, along with minor alterations of scansion, capitalization and punctuation. When it was discovered, it was thought to be an earlier version than the Second Quarto, but is now considered by scholars to be derivative, or pirated and imperfectly remembered. It contains a number of unique characteristics and oddities. Though it was published in 1603, it was lost or not known until a copy was discovered in 1823. The First Quarto is a short early text of Hamlet. With this regard their Currents turn awry, Īnd lose the name of Action. Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,Īnd enterprises of great pitch and moment, Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, The undiscovered country, from whose bournĪnd makes us rather bear those ills we have, With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear, īut that the dread of something after death, The pangs of dispised Love, the Law’s delay, The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,įor who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time, To sleep, perchance to Dream aye, there's the rub,įor in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,Īnd by opposing end them: to die, to sleep The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer To be, or not to be, that is the question:

This version preserves most of the First Folio text with updated spelling, punctuation, and five common emendations introduced from the Second ('Good') Quarto (italicised).

Even so, Hamlet seems to consider himself alone and there is no definite indication that the others hear him before he addresses Ophelia, so the speech is almost universally regarded as a soliloquy. Hamlet is not alone as he speaks because Ophelia is on stage waiting for him to see her and Claudius and Polonius have concealed themselves to hear him. The opening line is one of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English literature, and the speech has been referenced in many works of theatre, literature, and music. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, weighing the pain and unfairness of life against the alternative, which might be worse.

' To be, or not to be' is the opening phrase of a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called 'nunnery scene' of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. Comparison of the 'To be, or not to be' soliloquy in the first three editions of Hamlet, showing the varying quality of the text in the Bad Quarto, the Good Quarto and the First Folio

Hamlet by william shakespeare play