Hamlet declines to take the drink for the time being. Hamlet wins the first point and the king offers him a drink to refresh himself, dropping a poisoned pearl in the wine just before he hands it over. As they prepare to fight, Claudius proposes a drink to Hamlet. Laertes nonchalantly chooses the unblunted sword with the envenomed blade. Laertes appears to accept this apology but declares that his honor will not be satisfied until they have had their contest. Hamlet begs Laertes’ pardon both for his outburst at Ophelia’s grave and for his rash killing of Polonius. When Horatio worries that Laertes is better at swordplay than he, Hamlet declares that he has been in continual practice for some time.Ī table is prepared and the king, queen and other figures of state gather to watch the swordfight. Eventually Hamlet agrees to enter the contest. Hamlet and Horatio mock Osric’s pompous and artificial mannerisms. In very ornate and silly language, Osric declares to Hamlet that Claudius has proposed a contest of swordsmanship between Laertes and he. At this point, pirates attacked the vessel, as related previously.Ī courtier, Osric, interrupts Hamlet and Horatio. Hamlet then replaced the letter while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were asleep. He happened to have a signet ring in the shape of the seal of Denmark, and so sealed the letter. Hamlet then devised a substitute letter asking for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In the letter he found an order for his death. He says that he strongly suspected Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of foul play, and so decided to apprehend their letter to England. Hamlet explains to Horatio what happened on his journey to England. After they have left, Claudius reminds Laertes of their plan to take care of Hamlet.

Hamlet then exits and Horatio follows him. The king and queen dismiss his avowal as madness. After grappling with Laertes, Hamlet declares that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brothers could. Provoked by this show of grief, Hamlet then reveals himself.

In his intense grief, Laertes leaps into his sister’s grave to hold her body again and orders the gravediggers to bury him alive. Gertrude steps forward to say farewell to Ophelia. In the course of his arguing with the priest, Laertes reveals to Hamlet that the dead body is that of Ophelia. He and Horatio stand aside while Laertes argues with the priest about the paltriness of the burial rites. Hamlet notices that the burial is less elaborate than usual, signifying that the deceased was a suicide. He takes up the skull and speaks about Yorick, a topic that leads him to consider the nature of mortality more generally.Ī procession interrupts Hamlet’s reveries – Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes march toward the grave along with a priest and an entourage bearing a body. Hamlet is amazed – he knew Yorick and loved him as a child. The gravedigger says that this is the skull of Yorick, the old king’s jester. He then produces a skull from the grave that he says has been lying there for twenty-three years. The gravedigger informs Hamlet about the length of time it takes bodies to decay in the ground. Hamlet approaches the gravedigger and exchanges witticisms about this morbid work. As the gravediggers throws various skulls out of the grave, Hamlet wonders whom they might have belonged to in life – whether a courtier or a lawyer. Hamlet appears fascinated by the gravedigger’s indifference to the gravity of his profession. The main gravedigger sends his partner off for a cup of liquor and then commences to dig, singing songs all the while. After some witty and macabre banter on the nature of gravedigging, Hamlet and Horatio enter. We learn that the king has overridden the objections of the clergy and provided for her burial. They repeat a rumor that Ophelia committed suicide and wonder whether she ought to be buried in hallowed ground. The final Act begins with a conversation between two gravediggers as they dig Ophelia’s grave.

Hamlet spark notea