I lượt thích him not, nor stands it safe with us to lớn let his madness range. Therefore prepare you. I your commission will forthwith dispatch, and he to lớn England shall along with you. The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.
CLAUDIUS
I don’t like it. It’s not safe to let his madness rage all over the place, so get ready. I’m sending you lớn England on a diplomatic mission, và Hamlet will go with you. My duty as a king does not allow me khổng lồ let such a dangerous man as Hamlet lớn run loose, especially as he’s getting crazier each hour.
Bạn đang xem: Hamlet act 3, scene 3 translation
GUILDENSTERN
We will ourselves provide. Most holy và religious fear it is lớn keep those many, many bodies safe That live and feed upon your majesty.
GUILDENSTERN
We’ll get ourselves ready. It’s a sacred duty to lớn protect all of those people whose lives depend on you, your Majesty.
ROSENCRANTZ
The single and peculiar life is bound With all the strength & armor of the mind khổng lồ keep itself from noyance, but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend & rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone, but, lượt thích a gulf, doth draw What’s near it with it. It is a massy wheel Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, to lớn whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised và adjoined, which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
ROSENCRANTZ
Each person tries khổng lồ avoid injury, with the full effort of his or her mind. But it is even more important khổng lồ protect that person upon whose health the entire nation depends. A king does not die alone. Instead, like a whirlpool, he sucks down all that is near. A king is lượt thích a huge wheel on the đứng đầu of the highest mountain, with a thousand smaller things attached khổng lồ its spokes. When that wheel rolls down the mountain, everything attached goes down with it, spinning wildly into ruin. A king never sighs alone; everyone else always groans with him.
"Sooo much more helpful than Spark
Notes. The way the nội dung is organizedand presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, & comprehensive."
Everything you need for every book you read.Everything you need for every book you read.Get Lit
Charts A+
CLAUDIUS
Arm you, I pray you, to lớn this speedy voyage.For we will fetters put upon this fear,Which now goes too free-footed.
CLAUDIUS
Please, prepare yourselves for this trip. We’ll put chains on this danger that’s now running free.
POLONIUS
My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet. Behind the arras I’ll convey myself lớn hear the process. I’ll warrant she’ll tax him home. And, as you said (and wisely was it said) ‘Tis meet that some more audience than a mother— Since nature makes them partial—should o’erhear The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege. I’ll hotline upon you ere you go to lớn bed và tell you what I know.
POLONIUS
My lord, Hamlet’s going khổng lồ his mother’s room. I’ll hide behind the tapestry to lớn listen in. I bet she’ll let him have it. & as you said (and you said it wisely), it’s good lớn have someone other than a mother listening to lớn what he says—since, as a mother, she naturally loves him. Goodbye, my lord. I’ll come to see you before you go to lớn bed, & tell you what I’ve learned.
CLAUDIUS
Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t, A brother’s murder. Pray can I not. Though inclination be as sharp as will, My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And, lượt thích a man to lớn double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, và both neglect. What if this cursèd hand Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash it trắng as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to lớn confront the visage of offence? và what’s in prayer but this twofold force, khổng lồ be forestallèd ere we come to fall Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up. My fault is past. But oh, what khung of prayer Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder?” That cannot be, since I am still possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, & my queen. May one be pardoned và retain th’ offense? In the corrupted currents of this world Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice, & oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above. There is no shuffling. There the kích hoạt lies In his true nature, & we ourselves compelled, Even khổng lồ the teeth and forehead of our faults, to lớn give in evidence. What then? What rests? Try what repentance can. What can it not? Yet what can it when one can not repent? O wretched state! O bosom black as death! O limèd soul that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay. Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe. All may be well.
CLAUDIUS
Oh, my crime is foul. It stinks all the way to lớn heaven. It is the oldest, và worst, of all crimes: a brother’s murder. I can’t pray. Though I badly want khổng lồ pray, my guilt is stronger than my hope to lớn pray. And—like a person with two things he has to do at the same time—I stand paralyzed, unsure which lớn start first, and thus neglect them both. Even if this cursed hand of mine is covered with my brother’s blood, isn’t there enough rain in sweet heaven to lớn wash it trắng as snow? What’s the purpose of God’s mercy if not khổng lồ forgive the sinner? and doesn’t prayer have these two powers: lớn stop us from sinning before we do, & to offer forgiveness when we’ve sinned? So I’ll pray. My sin is in the past. But, oh, what prayer can possibly give me what I want: “Forgive me for my awful murder?” That won’t work, since I still have all the things I gained by committing the murder: my crown—the object of my ambition—and my queen. Is it possible to lớn be forgiven và keep what you got from the crime? In this corrupt world, criminals can use the wealth they get from their crime to lớn shove justice aside by bribing officers of the law. But that’s not how it is heaven. You can’t hide from the law up there. There, every kích hoạt is judged strictly on its merits, & everyone must confront their sins face-to-face. What then? What remains for me khổng lồ do? Repent as best I can. That can’t hurt. But it can’t help much either, since I can’t really repent. Oh, what a wretched situation! Oh, my heart is as black as death. My soul is trapped in sin, and the more it struggles to be free, the more trapped it gets. Help me, angels! Make an effort. Now bend, my stubborn knees, & may my hard heart become soft as the muscle of a newborn baby. Perhaps all will be well.
HAMLET
Now might I bởi vì it pat. Now he is a-praying. và now I’ll vì ’t. & so he goes khổng lồ heaven. và so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, bởi vì this same villain send to heaven. Oh, this is hire và salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May. and how his audit stands who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought ‘Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged to lớn take him in the purging of his soul When he is fit và seasoned for his passage? No! Up, sword, & know thou a more horrid hent. When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed, At trò chơi a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in ’t— Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, and that his soul may be as damned and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
HAMLET
Now I could vì chưng it. Now as he’s praying. & now I’ll do it.
CLAUDIUS
CLAUDIUS
Hamlet is not the only character in Shakespeare’s play who offers us a soliloquy. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the murderer of Hamlet’s father (Claudius’ own brother), also gives us a detailed insight into his thoughts, for the first time, in this private moment as he goes to pray in Act III Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s play. ‘O, my offence is rank, it smells khổng lồ heaven’ definitively confirms Claudius’ guilt for the first time in Hamlet.
For this reason, among several others, it’s worth stopping to lớn analyse ‘O, my offence is rank’ in terms of its language và meaning. We’ll offer an analysis by summarising the soliloquy line-by-line, glossing any words that require it.
O, my offence is rank: it smells to lớn heaven;It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,Though inclination be as sharp as will:My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
Claudius begins his soliloquy by describing his ‘offence’ – killing his brother, Old Hamlet – as ‘rank’, i.e. Foul-smelling và offensive. His crime is the very first murder in the Bible: Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, from the book of Genesis, and the subsequent curse placed upon mankind.
Claudius, now he is alone, tries khổng lồ pray; it’s interesting that Shakespeare uses the soliloquy here as a kind of ‘prayer’ or confession khổng lồ us, the audience, in the absence of Claudius’ ability to lớn confess lớn God. Claudius wants to be able khổng lồ pray, but his guilt is so great that he’s afraid even khổng lồ address God, given the weight of his crime.
As the editors of Hamlet (The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series)
Xem thêm: Phần mềm viber là gì và một số thắc mắc cần biết về ứng dụng viber
And, lượt thích a man to double business bound,I stand in pause where I shall first begin,And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?
Claudius’ problem is that he has two tasks to undertake, và the two are incompatible: he wants to lớn beg forgiveness for his crime, but he isn’t truly sorry for it (he enjoys being King, and being married lớn Gertrude, his brother’s widow). So he finds himself at an impasse.
His next lines – a rhetorical question – seems khổng lồ be of a sort with Macbeth’s famous question (‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?’).
But given the context of Claudius’ words, they invite a more nuanced analysis. Claudius is lamenting that his guilt may be too great khổng lồ be forgiven; but he’s also giving himself a way out. (In other words, ‘Well, I’m not going lớn be forgiven for such a sin, so what’s the point in even pretending to be sorry? I’m clearly not.’)
This ambivalence is possibly reflected in Claudius’ choice of hand-washing as a metaphor for his state of mind: it conveys both the idea of absolving oneself of guilt and washing one’s hands of something, i.e. Abandoning it.
Whereto serves mercy
But khổng lồ confront the visage of offence?
In other words, what is the point of mercy if it doesn’t confront guilt itself?
And what’s in prayer but this two-fold force,To be forestalled ere we come lớn fall,Or pardon’d being down?
That is, the purpose of prayer is either to lớn prevent us from committing a sin before we do it, or khổng lồ forgive us after we’ve already done it.
Then I’ll look up;My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?
Claudius knows that words are insufficient to lớn beg forgiveness of the murder of his own brother.
That cannot be; since I am still possess’d
Of those effects for which I did the murder,My crown, mine own ambition & my queen.
‘Well, God isn’t going to lớn be convinced by my plea for forgiveness, when I haven’t given up all the worldly benefits I’ve accrued as a result of my crime: I’m king, I’m still ambitious khổng lồ rule more lands, và I have Gertrude, who I still tóm tắt a bed with, after all.’
May one be pardon’d and retain the offence?
Is it even possible for us khổng lồ be forgiven for something while we hold on to lớn the fruits of our crimes?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but ’tis not so above;
In the world, which is corrupted, many criminals can use wealth (‘gilded hand’) to make sure they don’t suffer punishment for their crimes. But you can’t bởi vì this with God, who can’t be ‘bought’ like this.
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell’d,Even to the teeth và forehead of our faults,To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
No, before God we ourselves become our own worst witness, having khổng lồ testify or give evidence against ourselves.
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
A neat couple of lines, which are chiastic in structure: you can try to repent, but if your heart’s not in it, God will know you’re not sincere, so what’s the point?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!O limed soul, that, struggling to lớn be free,Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!All may be well.
NB: ‘limed’ means ‘trapped’, like a bird trapped in birdlime (which was spread on the branches of trees). Claudius likens his immortal soul khổng lồ a bird struggling on the sticky branch, and, knowing that it’s trapped, struggles all the harder khổng lồ be free.
‘O, my offence is rank’ is an important moment in Shakespeare’s Hamlet not just because it confirms Claudius’ guilt – something we have probably long suspected, despite Hamlet’s fears over the veracity of the Ghost’s account. It is important because Hamlet offers a picture of Claudius’ state of mind, as someone ‘sorry not sorry’, repentant yet unable khổng lồ repent.
Claudius wants forgiveness because the weight of his sin is bearing down on him; but he is torn between spiritual absolution và worldly ambition and enjoyment. He doesn’t want to give up Gertrude và the crown, even if it means the continued plight of his soul.
