DN Hamlet Scripts

Hamlet Scripts
The small collection of Shakespeare pieces on the Drama Notebook website have been created
and edited by professional Shakespearean actors. There are many books about teaching
Shakespeare to kids, but many of them advocate modernizing the text, which, in my opinion,
defeats the purpose of reading/performing Shakespeare.
To create an easy Shakespeare performance, use the short scripts on this website so that every
student has a meaningful role. To expand any piece, ask students to read the play in its entirety
and choose a soliloquy to add into the play. This can be completely elective, allowing interested
students to take the work further.
Additionally, students can be invited to choose a sonnet to perform either alone or with a
partner between the plays presented on performance day!
Get Started with Hamlet!

Give the first version to all the kids and assign them to read Storyteller, Hamlet, Queen, etc. It
would take about five minutes. Then ask a different group of kids to read it. Then reassign the
parts again. Pretty soon a lot of different kids would have had a chance to read the part of
Hamlet and the part of the storyteller. They would all know the story after you went through it
four times. By the end of the first class they could do it off book, and anyone could play any
part, or be the storyteller (the storyteller doesn't have to get the lines exactly right, just connect
the scenes).
There are three versions of the plays below, each a little longer than the last. As the group
progresses, you can give them more and more of the piece.
© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 1

Hamlet in One Page!
By William Shakespeare
Adaptation by Johnny Stallings
CHARACTERS:
Storyteller
Marcellus
Hamlet
Ghost
Ophelia
Horatio
Gravedigger
Band of Players
Polonius
Laertes
STORYTELLER: When Prince Hamlet returns to Denmark for his father's funeral, his mother is
already getting married to Claudius---his uncle!
MARCELLUS: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
STORYTELLER: One night, after the stroke of midnight, Hamlet saw the ghost of his father.
HAMLET: What should I do?
GHOST. Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder.
STORYTELLER: Hamlet contemplates killing himself.
HAMLET. To be or not to be, that is the question.
STORYTELLER: His girlfriend, Ophelia, returns the love letters he sent her.
He hears her father, Polonius, make a noise nearby and gets angry at Ophelia for taking part in
her fathers plots against him.
HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! (He exits.)
OPHELIA: O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
STORYTELLER: Hamlet asks some traveling players to put on a play about a murder in front
of the king.
(This could be done as a dumb show-meaning no words. Silently acted out.)
STORYTELLER: The king runs from the room and Hamlet is now sure that he is guilty.
Hamlet goes to see his mother, the queen, in her private chamber.
While they are talking he hears a sound behind the curtain.

HAMLET: (Draws his sword.) How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat. Dead! (Stabs Polonius.)
STORYTELLER: He draws the curtain, and discovers, not the king, but his counselor, Polonius,
who had been spying on them.
QUEEN: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
HAMLET: I'll lug the guts into the neighbor room. (Drags Polonius' body away.)
STORYTELLER: Overwhelmed by the news that Hamlet has killed her father, Ophelia goes
mad.
OPHELIA: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance....I would give you some violets, but they
withered all when my father died.
STORYTELLER: Ophelia's brother, Laertes, returns home for his father's funeral. A short time
later, the Queen is the bearer of sad news.
QUEEN: One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow. Your sister's drowned, Laertes.
STORYTELLER: Wandering in a graveyard with his friend Horatio, Hamlet comes upon a jolly
gravedigger.
GRAVEDIGGER. This same skull, sir, was, sir, Yorick's skull, the King's jester.
HAMLET. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio.
STORYTELLER: The King has arranged for a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.
Hamlet is scratched by Laertes rapier, which has a poisoned tip. Hamlet wounds Laertes with
the same sword. The Queen drinks a cup of poison meant for Hamlet. Hamlet kills the King.
(This can all be acted out.)
STORYTELLER: As Hamlet lies dying he says:
HAMLET: I am dead, Horatio. The rest is silence. (He dies.)
HORATIO. Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Hamlet in Four Pages!
CHARACTERS:
Storyteller
Marcellus
Hamlet
Ghost
Ophelia
King Claudius
Horatio
Gravedigger
Band of Players
Polonius
Laertes
already getting married to Claudius---his uncle!
STORYTELLER: One night, after the stroke of midnight, Hamlet saw the ghost of his father.
GHOST: Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET: Murder?
GHOST: Murder most foul, strange and unnatural.
HAMLET: To be or not to be, that is the question.

To die, to sleep---
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
(OPHELIA hands HAMLET some letters.)
HAMLET: I did love you once.
OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

(POLONIUS and KING CLAUDIUS are spying on them. POLONIUS makes a noise. HAMLET
hears.)
HAMLET: Where's your father?
OPHELIA: At home, my lord
HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! (He exits.)
STORYTELLER: Hamlet asks some traveling players to put on a play about a murder in front
of the king.
(This could be done as a dumbshow. The PLAYER KING formally embraces the PLAYER QUEEN.
He lies down and falls asleep. She leaves. The MURDERER comes in. He pours poison in the
PLAYER KING's ear. PLAYER KING dies. QUEEN comes back in. She formally embraces the
MURDERER. )
KING: (Who has been watching the play, along with the QUEEN.) Give me some light! (He
leaves in haste.)
STORYTELLER: Hamlet is now sure that King Claudius is guilty.

Hamlet goes to see his mother, the queen, in her private chamber.
While they are talking he hears a sound behind the curtain.
HAMLET: (Draws his sword.) How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat. Dead! (Stabs Polonius.)
STORYTELLER: He draws the curtain, and discovers, not the king, but his counselor, Polonius,
who had been spying on them.
QUEEN: What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
HAMLET: Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty.
(The GHOST appears. HAMLET sees it, but the QUEEN cannot.)
HAMLET: What would your gracious figure?
QUEEN: Alas, he's mad!
GHOST: Do not forget. (GHOST leaves.)
Good night, mother.

mad.
OPHELIA: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. (Gives rosemary to the KING.) Pray
you, love, remember. And there is pansies. (Gives pansies to the QUEEN.) That's for
thoughts. (To LAERTES.) I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father
died.
STORYTELLER: Ophelia's brother, Laertes, has returned home for his father's funeral. A short
time later, the Queen is the bearer of sad news.

gravedigger.
HAMLET: Whose grave's this, sirrah?
GRAVEDIGGER: Mine, sir.
HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?
GRAVEDIGGER: For no man, sir.
HAMLET: What woman, then?
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. (Picks up a skull.)
This same skull, sir, was, sir, Yorick's skull, the King's jester. (He hands the skull to HAMLET.)
HAMLET: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio---a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent
fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times.
HAMLET: Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong.
LAERTES: I do receive your offered love like love,

And will not wrong it.
(The match begins. HAMLET scores the first hit.)
KING: (Lifts a cup.) Here's to thy health.
HAMLET: I'll play this bout first.

(HAMLET scores another hit.)
QUEEN: (Takes the cup.) The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
KING: Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN: I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me. (She drinks.)
LAERTES: (To HAMLET.) Have at you now!
(LAERTES wounds HAMLET. The point of his rapier is sharp. HAMLET gets the sword from him
and wounds LAERTES. The QUEEN falls.)
KING: She swoons to see them bleed.
QUEEN: No, no, the drink, the drink! O, my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. (She dies.)
HAMLET: Treachery! Seek it out.
LAERTES: (Falls.) It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.

In thee there is not half an hour's life.
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenomed.
The King, the King's to blame. (He dies.)
HAMLET: The point envenomed too? Then, venom to thy work. (Stabs KING.)
Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. (Makes KING drink.) Follow my mother. (KING dies.)
I am dead, Horatio.
Had I but time---O, I could tell you---but let it be. (He falls. HORATIO goes to him.)
The rest is silence. (He dies.)
HORATIO: Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Hamlet in Six Pages!
CHARACTERS:
Storyteller
Marcellus
Hamlet
Ghost
Ophelia
King Claudius
Horatio
Gravedigger
Band of Players
Polonius
Laertes
already getting married to Claudius---his uncle! It makes Hamlet sick at heart.
HAMLET: O that this too, too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
STORYTELLER: Hamlet loves Ophelia and Ophelia loves him. Before leaving for France, her
brother, Laertes, warns Ophelia not to lose her heart to Hamlet. Her father Polonius forbids her
to talk to Hamlet. He gives some parting advice to Laertes.
POLONIUS: To thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
STORYTELLER: Soldiers have seen the ghost of Hamlet's father on the night watch.
STORYTELLER: They tell Prince Hamlet. The next night, after the stroke of midnight, Hamlet
confronts his father's spirit.
GHOST: Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET: Murder?

GHOST: Murder most foul, strange and unnatural.
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.
STORYTELLER: Hamlet's father's spirit tells him that he was murdered by his brother Claudius,
who is now married to the Queen. Hamlet wants to get revenge, but he pretends to be mad to
avoid suspicion that he is plotting against the King.
POLONIUS: Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET: (Looks up from a book he is reading.) Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
STORYTELLER: The King sends two childhood friends of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, to spy on Hamlet, to see why he is acting strangely. This is what Hamlet tells
them.
HAMLET: I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of
exercise, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth
seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air---look you!---this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire---why it appears nothing to
me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man, how noble
in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action
how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals---and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor
woman, neither.
HAMLET: To be or not to be, that is the question.

To die, to sleep---
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
(OPHELIA hands HAMLET some letters.)
HAMLET: I did love you once.
OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
(POLONIUS and KING CLAUDIUS are spying on them. POLONIUS makes a noise. HAMLET
hears.)
HAMLET: Where's your father?
OPHELIA: At home, my lord

HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! Farewell! (He slaps her [optional], then exits.)

The coutier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,
Th'expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mold of form,
Th'observed of all observers, quite, quite, down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh---
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
T'have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Storyteller: Hamlet asks some travelling players to put on a play about a murder in front of the
King.
(This could be done as a dumbshow. The PLAYER KING formally embraces the PLAYER QUEEN.
He lies down and falls asleep. She leaves. The MURDERER comes in. He pours poison in the
PLAYER KING's ear. PLAYER KING dies. QUEEN comes back in. She formally embraces the
MURDERER. )
KING: (Who has been watching the play, along with the QUEEN.) Give me some light! (He
leaves in haste.)
STORYTELLER: Hamlet is now sure that King Claudius is guilty.
HAMLET: 'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on.
STORYTELLER: The King tries to pray.
KING: O, my offense is rank! It smells to heaven.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.
(HAMLET enters.)
HAMLET: (Draws his sword.) Now might I do it pat, no he is a-praying

And now I'll do't! And so he goes to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned:
A villain kills my father, and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.
Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. (Puts up his sword and leaves.)
KING: My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
STORYTELLER: Hamlet goes to see his mother, the queen, in her private chamber.
HAMLET: Now, mother, what's the matter?
QUEEN: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended.

(There is a noise behind the curtain, [maybe a sneeze].)
(HAMLET draws his sword.) How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat. Dead! (Stabs Polonius.)
(He draws the curtain and discovers Polonius)
HAMLET: Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
QUEEN: O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
HAMLET: A bloody deed---almost as bad, good mother

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
(The GHOST appears. HAMLET sees it, but the QUEEN cannot.)
HAMLET: What would your gracious figure?
QUEEN: Alas, he's mad!
GHOST: Do not forget. (GHOST leaves.)
Good night, mother.
STORYTELLER: The King is informed that Hamlet has killed his counselor.
KING: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET: At supper.
KING: At supper? Where?
HAMLET: Not where eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are
e'en at him.
mad.
OPHELIA. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. (Gives rosemary to the KING.) Pray
you, love, remember. And there is pansies. (Gives pansies to the QUEEN.) That's for

thoughts. (To LAERTES.) I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father
died.
STORYTELLER: Ophelia's brother, Laertes, has returned home for his father's funeral. A short
time later, the Queen is the bearer of sad news.

There is a willow grows askant the brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples.
There, on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like a while they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and endued
Unto that element. But long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
gravedigger.
HAMLET: Whose grave's this, sirrah?
GRAVEDIGGER: Mine, sir.
HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?
GRAVEDIGGER: For no man, sir.
HAMLET: What woman, then?
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. (Picks up a skull.)
This same skull, sir, was, sir, Yorick's skull, the King's jester. (He hands the skull to HAMLET.)
HAMLET: Alas, poor 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. 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 chopfallen?

Now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she
must come. Make her laugh at that.
HAMLET: Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong.
LAERTES: I do receive your offered love like love,

And will not wrong it.
(The match begins. HAMLET scores the first hit.)
KING: (Lifts a cup.) Here's to thy health.
HAMLET: I'll play this bout first.

(HAMLET scores another hit.)
QUEEN: (Takes the cup.) The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
KING: Gertrude, do not drink.
QUEEN: I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me. (She drinks.)
LAERTES: (To HAMLET.) Have at you now!

(LAERTES wounds HAMLET. The point of his rapier is sharp. HAMLET gets the sword from him
and wounds LAERTES. The QUEEN falls.)
KING: She swoons to see them bleed.
QUEEN: No, no, the drink, the drink! O, my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. (She dies.)
HAMLET: Treachery! Seek it out.
LAERTES: (Falls.) It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain.

In thee there is not half an hour's life.
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenomed.
The King, the King's to blame. (He dies.)
HAMLET: The point envenomed too? Then, venom to thy work. (Stabs KING.)
Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
Drink off this potion. (Makes KING drink.) Follow my mother. (KING dies.)
I am dead, Horatio.
Had I but time---O, I could tell you---but let it be. (He falls. HORATIO goes to him.)
The rest is silence. (He dies.)
HORATIO: Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

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Hamlet Scripts

Get Started with Hamlet!

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 1

MARCELLUS: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

HAMLET: What should I do?

GHOST. Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder.

STORYTELLER: Hamlet contemplates killing himself.

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

HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! (He exits.)

OPHELIA: O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

(This could be done as a dumb show-meaning no words. Silently acted out.)

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 2

QUEEN: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

QUEEN: One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

HAMLET. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio.

(This can all be acted out.)

STORYTELLER: As Hamlet lies dying he says:

HAMLET: I am dead, Horatio. The rest is silence. (He dies.)

HORATIO. Good night, sweet prince,

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 3

MARCELLUS: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

HAMLET: What should I do?

GHOST: Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder.

GHOST: Murder most foul, strange and unnatural.

STORYTELLER: Hamlet contemplates killing himself.

HAMLET: To be or not to be, that is the question.

(OPHELIA hands HAMLET some letters.)

HAMLET: I did love you once.

OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 4

HAMLET: Where's your father?

OPHELIA: At home, my lord

HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! (He exits.)

OPHELIA: O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

STORYTELLER: Hamlet is now sure that King Claudius is guilty.

HAMLET: Such an act

HAMLET: What would your gracious figure?

QUEEN: Alas, he's mad!

GHOST: Do not forget. (GHOST leaves.)

QUEEN: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 5

QUEEN: One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

HAMLET: Whose grave's this, sirrah?

GRAVEDIGGER: Mine, sir.

HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?

GRAVEDIGGER: For no man, sir.

HAMLET: What woman, then?

GRAVEDIGGER: For none, neither.

HAMLET: Who is to be buried in't?

HAMLET: Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong.

LAERTES: I do receive your offered love like love,

(The match begins. HAMLET scores the first hit.)

KING: (Lifts a cup.) Here's to thy health.

HAMLET: I'll play this bout first.

© Drama Notebook www.dramanotebook.com All rights reserved. Page 6

KING: Gertrude, do not drink.

QUEEN: I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me. (She drinks.)

LAERTES: (To HAMLET.) Have at you now!