To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis 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 heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. 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: 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 despised 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 undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller 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 o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. -- [Soft you now!]1 The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Summers: "But soft"
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Dudley Buck (1839 - 1909), "To be or not to be", 1903 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Summer , "To be or not to be" [ voice and piano ], from Oxford Songs, Book III, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Moses Mendelssohn (1729 - 1786) , "Monolog aus dem Hamlet " ; composed by Hans Georg Nägeli.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Carlo Rusconi) , no title, first published 1901
- POR Portuguese (Português) ( Luis I, King of Portugal) , no title, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, first published 1877
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 35
Word count: 276
Essere, o non essere, tale è il problema. È egli più decoroso per l’anima di tollerare i colpi dell’ingiusta fortuna, o impugnare le armi contro un mare i dolori e, affrontandoli, finirli? Morire, dormire, null'altro; e dire che con quel sonno poniamo termine alle angosce del cuore e ai mille affanni naturali di cui è erede la carne.... è una conchiusione da essere avidamente desiderata. Morire,... dormire,... dormire! forse sognare...; ah, ecco il punto; perocchè quali sogni possono sopravvenire in quel sonno di morte, allorchè reciso abbiamo il filo di questo mondo? Ecco quello che ci trattiene, ed è ciò che rende l’infortunio sì lungo: perocche chi vorrebbe altrimenti sopportare i flagelli del tempo, gli oltraggi degli oppressori, le contumelie dei superbi, le angosce dell’amore disprezzato, le cabale della legge, l’insolenza dei governanti, e i vilipendi che il merito paziente soffre dall’abbietta ignoranza, quando un ferro gli basterebbe per darsi quiete? Chi vorrebbe sopportare questi fardelli, e gemere, e affannarsi, trascinando un’inferma vita, se non fosse il timore di qualche cosa al di là della tomba, di quel paese ignoto, da cui nessun viaggiatore ritorna, che turba la volontà, e fa preferirci i mali che abbiamo, piuttostochè affrontarne altri che ci sono sconosciuti? Così la coscienza ci rende tutti codardi, e il colore ingenito della risoluzione rimane offuscato dalla pallida ombra del pensiero; cosi le imprese di maggior polso e momento si sviano dal loro corso naturale, e perdono il nome di azioni. — Pace ora! La bella Ofelia, — Ninfa, nelle tue orazioni siano ricordati tutti i miei peccati.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: this is a prose text. The line breaks have been added to try to make it line up with the original English.
Authorship:
- by Carlo Rusconi (1819 - 1889), no title, first published 1901 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-05-02
Line count: 34
Word count: 260