HAMLET. "To be or not to be." (Act 3)

HAMLET. "To be or not to be."

(Act 3, Scene 1)

To be, or not to be, that is the question

Whether it´s nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to -´tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep

To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there is the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There´s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life,

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor´s wrong, the proud man´s contumely,

The pangs of disprized love, the law´s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No travelers returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in thy horizons

Be all my sins remembered.

Author: William Shakespeare.