【解读】哈姆莱特3 语言特色：“生存还是毁灭”

Hamlet 3: the Language

哈姆莱特3 语言特色：“生存还是毁灭”

In the previous episode, we looked at how Shakespeare created one of the most complex and alive characters in all of literature. Part of what gives Hamlet life are the contradictions and paradoxes of his character. And these contradictions are mirrored in the different registers of speech that he uses, which reflect different ways of thinking and feeling. In this episode, we’ll break down some of Hamlet’s most important speeches to see how Shakespeare creates this sense of a living mind at work.

上集节目中，我们了解了莎士比亚是如何创造哈姆莱特这个文学史上最复杂、最鲜活的人物形象的，哈姆莱特的生命力有一部分源自他性格上的冲突和对立，而这些冲突和对立又是通过他多变的语言风格展现出来的，不同的语言风格表现出了不同的思想和感情。本集节目，我们将解析《哈姆莱特》这部戏剧中最著名的几段台词，探究莎士比亚是如何创造出这种鲜活生命力的。

We’ll also explore how Shakespeare’s plays are living works of art, open to new perspectives and interpretations. In this episode, we’ll hear from both our featured scholars, Paulina Kewes and Simon Palfrey, who are both professors of English at the University of Oxford. For our first speech, you’ll hear how they find different meanings in the same words. As you listen to their discussion and to the actor’s recitation, you can also think about how the speech strikes you.

本集节目，我们还将探讨莎剧的强大生命力所在，探讨这些戏剧如何不断激发出新的观点、新的解读。我们依旧邀请到了著名学者、牛津大学英文教授保利娜·柯斯和西蒙·帕尔弗里来继续和我们分享他们的观点与看法。针对接下来我们即将听到的第一段台词，他们两人都有各自不同的解读。在听他们分析台词和演员朗诵台词时，你也可以一同来思考，这段台词在你的脑海中激荡出了怎样的火花。

This speech comes from Claudius, Hamlet’s chief antagonist in the play: Hamlet refers to himself and Claudius as “mighty opposites.” But Claudius is fascinating in that he not only sharply contrasts with Hamlet but also mirrors him in certain ways. We’ll hear Claudius’s speech from Act One, the first time he appears on stage. His brother, King Hamlet, is dead, and Claudius is addressing the Danish court as their new king.

下面这段是克劳狄斯的台词，克劳狄斯是哈姆莱特最大的敌人。哈姆莱特形容自己与克劳狄斯是“两个强敌”。然而，克劳狄斯这个角色之所以这么迷人，不仅仅是因为他与哈姆莱特的性格截然相反，同时也是因为他在某些方面与哈姆莱特有着很大的相似性。这段对话选自戏剧第一幕，是克劳狄斯首次登场时所说。那时，他的兄长老哈姆莱特王刚刚去世，他正在向丹麦王室人员宣布自己是丹麦的新国王。

Claudius, 1.2.1-31, “Though yet of Hamlet … His further gait herein.”

克劳狄斯，第一幕，第二场，第1-31行，“虽然我们亲爱的兄长哈姆莱特……他的侄子”

CLAUDIUS Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death

虽然我们亲爱的兄长哈姆莱特

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

新丧未久，我们的心里应当

To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

充满了悲痛，我们全国

To be contracted in one brow of woe,

都应当表示一致的哀悼，

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

可是我们凛于后死者责任的重大，不能不违情逆性，

That we with wisest sorrow think on him

一方面固然要用适度的悲哀纪念他，

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

一方面也要为自身的利害着想；

Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,

所以我已经和我旧日的长嫂、当今的王后、这一个尚武之国共同的统治者，

Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,

在一种悲喜交集的情绪之下，

Have we (as ’twere with a defeated joy,

让幸福和忧郁

With an auspicious and a dropping eye,

分据了我的两眼，

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,

殡葬的挽歌和结婚的笙乐同时并奏，

In equal scale weighing delight and dole)

用盛大的喜乐抵销沉重的不幸，

Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred

我和她结为夫妇；这一次婚姻事

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

先曾经征求各位的意见，多承你们

With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

诚意的赞助，这是我必须向大家致谢的。

Now follows that you know. Young Fortinbras,

现在我要告诉你们知道，年轻的福丁布拉斯

Holding a weak supposal of our worth

看轻了我们的实力，

Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death

也许他以为自从我们亲爱的王兄崩逝以后，

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

我们的国势已经瓦解，

Colleaguèd with this dream of his advantage,

所以挟着他的从中取利的梦想，

He hath not failed to pester us with message

不断向我们书面要求

Importing the surrender of those lands

把他的父亲

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,

依法割让给

To our most valiant brother—so much for him.

我们英勇的王兄的土地归还。这是他一方面的话。

Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.

现在要讲到我们的态度和今天召集各位

Thus much the business is: we have here writ

来此的目的。我们的对策是这样的：

To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,

我这儿已经写好了一封信给挪威国王，年轻的福丁布拉斯的叔父，

Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears

他因为卧病在床，不曾与闻

Of this his nephew’s purpose, to suppress

他侄子的企图，在这里我请他注意

His further gait herein, in that the levies,

他的侄子擅自在国内征募壮丁，

The lists, and full proportions are all made

训练士卒，积极进行各种准备的事实，

Out of his subject; and we here dispatch

要求他从速制止他的进一步的行动。

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,

现在我就派遣你，考尼律斯，还有你，伏提曼德，

For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,

替我把这封信送去给挪威老王，

Giving to you no further personal power

除了训令上所规定的条件以外，

To business with the King more than the scope

你们不得僭用你们的权力

Of these dilated articles allow.

和挪威成立逾越范围的妥协。

Claudius is a really, really interesting character. He's a sort of a consummate politician in a way. He just wants to get on with his government. But he's wracked by guilt and he cannot escape that guilt. And it's interesting the way he's written. He has a couple of the great, I think, really the greatest speeches in the play. And I think the one where he talks about “there is no shuffling there”. That one, when he's just recognizing the impossibility of fooling heaven. It's fantastic.

克劳狄斯这个角色非常非常有意思，从某种意义上说他是一位很完美的政治家，他希望能和自己的政府和谐相处。但同时，他内心又有着很深的负罪感，他一直无法从中挣脱出来。莎士比亚对他的描写很有意思。我认为他的好几段台词都是这部剧中最精彩的部分。我认为他说“没有什么能蒙混过关”时，在说那段台词的时候，他意识到想要骗过上帝是根本不可能的。这段台词相当精彩。

Claudius gives the speech about fooling heaven just after Hamlet has reenacted Claudius’s murder of his brother, as he’s struggling to repent for that murder. It’s the only soliloquy in the play from a character other than Hamlet, and it reveals interesting similarities between them: an acute self-consciousness, and a sense in each man that he can only be himself when he’s alone. In this scene, however, Claudius is not alone but addressing the full Danish court. We can interpret the form of his address in different ways.

克劳狄斯这段关于骗过上帝的台词是在哈姆莱特以戏剧形式再现他谋杀兄长的场景之后说的，对于谋杀兄长一事，他内心一直饱受煎熬与折磨。这段独白是全剧唯一一段出自哈姆莱特以外人物之口的独白，体现出了克劳狄斯和哈姆莱特这两个人物之间一些有趣的相似之处：他们都有很强的自我意识，都只有在独处的时候才会展现出真实的自己。然而，在刚刚这场戏中，克劳狄斯不是一个人，他面对的是整个丹麦王室。我们可以从不同方面来解读他这段演讲的形式。

So we have the speech of Claudius. And this is the first time Claudius speaks to his court, and this is the first time we, the audience, encounter him. He uses the royal we, our brother's death, not my brother's death, so he's very clearly the king, he is in charge here.

克劳狄斯的这段台词，是他第一次面对王室成员进行的一次演讲，是他的首次登场。这里他对着王室成员们说“我们”，他说“我们的兄长去世”，而不是说“我的兄长去世”，所以很明显，他就是丹麦的新王，他掌控着丹麦的一切。

This particular speech is his first long speech in public, and it's a classic speech because it shows that mix of public rhetorical mastery with a kind of guilty haste or something. The crucial thing to look at here is the mixture of speaking on his behalf and on the kingdom's behalf. In a way, the most decisive thing is the pronouns, us, our, ourselves. He's talking with the royal plural, “our whole kingdom”, but at the same time, he's talking about the collective in “one brow of woe” “that we with wise sorrow think on him together with remembrance of ourselves”. And so he's purporting to speak for everybody.

这是克劳狄斯第一次的长篇公开演讲，十分经典，因为这段演讲既展现出了娴熟的公共演说技巧，也透露出一种愧疚的仓促感。这段台词我们要重点关注的一点是，他作这段演讲时，既是站在个人的立场上说的，也是站在整个丹麦国的角度说的。从某种程度上说，我们可以他所选择的那些代词“我们”“我们的”“我们自己”上感受到。他在对丹麦的众多皇室成员们发表演讲，他说“我们全国”，“我们后死者”“一方面固然要用适度的悲哀纪念他，一方面也要为自身的利害着想”。由此可以看出，他在这里其实是代表了在场的每一个人。

But you can feel the strain in what he says, because all the time there's a kind of unresolved conflict. There's unresolved uncertainty as to whether he's speaking about his people, his nation, or is he speaking about the people here in his court right now? Is he speaking about himself as an individual who has lost a brother or is he speaking of himself as the king? All of these different identities, a kind of warring and there's a sort of whereas in a less in a king who was more assured you wouldn't have these doubts.

但同时，你从他的话语中也可以感受到他的紧张，因为整段台词中都带着无法解决的冲突感。这种无法解决的不确定性在于，我们确定他是在谈论他的国民和国家，还是在谈论此刻在场的皇室成员们。他在说这番话的时候，是作为一个刚失去兄长的个人呢？还是作为一国之君呢？这种种不同的身份，这种冲突感，让我们觉得这位国王在极力说服我们打消心中的疑虑。

The warring identities include, of course, Claudius’s identity as a brother who is supposedly in mourning and as a husband who is celebrating his marriage. We find the opposed feelings of dole--or grief--and delight, which are reflected in the oppositions of his language.

克劳狄斯身上的确交织着多重的身份：他刚刚失去了兄长，理应是悲痛的，但他当时却沉浸在新婚的喜悦之中。我们可以感受到悲伤和喜悦这样对立的情绪，而这些情绪是通过他语言中的那些反义词体现出来的。

When he talks about “the wisest sorrow”, when he talks about “a defeated joy”, “an auspicious and a dropping eye”, “mirth in funeral”, “dirge in marriage”, “delight and dole”, those are the sort of oxymoronic doublets. These phrases pull in different directions, defeated joy. They all speak to the sense of death, passing, mourning, and at the same time, joy, marriage, coronation. This oxymoron, this contrast, this paradoxical confusion demonstrates the sort of rhetorical prowess of Claudius. He knows how to turn a phrase.

在这段台词中，克劳狄斯提到了“适度的悲哀”，提到了“悲喜交集”，他还用到了“让幸福和忧郁分据了我的两眼”“殡葬的挽歌”“结婚的笙乐”“喜乐”这样的反义词组，他把矛盾的词语组合在一起，就像“悲喜交集”这样。这些表达都在谈论死亡、消逝和哀悼，但同时也在说欢愉、婚姻和加冕。这种矛盾修辞法，这种对比，这种矛盾的杂糅展现出了克劳狄斯高超的修辞技巧，不得不承认他十分擅长遣词造句。

Have we, as it were, with “a defeated of joy”, with “an auspicious and a dropping eye”, with “mirth in funeral” and with “tears in marriage” and “equal scale weighing delight and dole” “taken to wife”. Now that's a bit of a joke. It's a rhythmic joke which Shakespeare repeats in his speech, which is we get a kind of almost parodic prolixity, a kind of using too many words, playing with the proverbial wisdom, playing with paradoxes. Whenever in Shakespeare you get someone speaking in these kind of really blatant, symmetrical opposites, you know, that he's writing parodically. He's exposing somebody self-regard or exposing somebody's nervousness, “mirth in funeral”, “tears in marriage”, “delight and dole”, “auspicious and dropping eye”, always kind of these perilous opposites that are being contained. He wants to pretend that there's been an accommodation between opposites, between, say, sister and wife, or between himself and his brother, or between him as an individual and the kingdom.

在这段台词中，我们听到了“悲喜交集”“让幸福和忧郁分据了我的两眼”“殡葬的挽歌”“结婚的笙乐”“用盛大的喜乐抵销沉重的不幸”“结为夫妇”这样的表达。莎士比亚在这里玩了一个他常玩的小把戏，我们听这段台词时，会觉得节奏冗长，词汇太多了，感觉作者在卖弄他的语言能力，把一些自相矛盾的表达全堆砌在了一起。在莎剧中，只要某个角色说着这样明显对称的反义词的时候，你就应该明白了，莎士比亚其实是在讽刺。一方面，他写出了这个人物的自尊，但同时也表现出了这个人物的焦虑不安，这种时候台词中包含的往往就是类似“殡葬的挽歌”“结婚的笙乐”“悲喜”“让幸福和忧郁分据了我的两眼”这样的反义词。他试图调和这些对立，例如姐妹和妻子之间的对立，他自己和兄弟之间的对立，以及他个人和国家之间的对立。

He knows all the time that he holds the kingdom by a thread. And the character of Claudius is constantly insecure. He's desperately afraid of Hamlet. He's afraid of the authorities. He's afraid of the people. He's constantly aware that others may do to him what he has done to his own brother.

克劳狄斯一直明白他的政权并不稳固，一直有一种不安全感。他尤其害怕哈姆莱特，害怕政权机构，害怕人民。他一直觉得其他人也可能会像他当初谋害了自己的兄长那样来谋害他。

At the same time that Claudius may fear losing his position, he shows skillful handling of threats to his kingdom--in particular, Fortinbras’s plan to invade.

克劳狄斯也害怕失去王位。在应对别国的威胁时，他展现出了出众的才能，这一点尤其在他对于福丁布拉斯的入侵威胁的应对上。

Claudia's, even as he's making military preparations, he decides to solve this problem through diplomacy. He sends an embassy to the court of Norway. And Claudius tells his ambassadors that they cannot exceed their instructions. They are supposed to do only and say only what he tells them to say. He writes to Norway and Laura here stands for the king of Norway, and he wants his ambassadors to intervene. And as we learned later, that embassy is successful. This tells you something about the kind of rulership, king-craft that Claudius practices.

虽然，克劳狄斯一方面也在做着军事上的准备，但他还是希望通过外交的方式解决这个问题。他派遣使者前往挪威，并告诫使者们不可“僭用权利”“逾越范围”，他规定使者们只能做他规定的事情，说他规定的话。他写了一封信给挪威老王，希望使者可以协调解决这个问题。在之后的剧情中，我们也了解到，这次外交取得了成功。我们由此也可以了解克劳狄斯管理国家的方式。

Is Claudius a capable ruler? Is he a shrewd, effective diplomat or a weak and nervous politician? Is he a worse king than his brother or a better one? Shakespeare artfully allows for both possibilities in this speech.

克劳狄斯是一位有能力的统治者吗？他是一个精明能干的外交家，还是一位懦弱神经质的玩弄权术者？和他的兄长老哈姆莱特国王相比，他更优秀还是更糟糕？莎士比亚通过高超的写作技巧，将这些对立面全都融合在上面那段台词中。

Next is a soliloquy of Hamlet’s from Act 2, which he delivers after watching an actor perform an passionate speech about a son avenging his father’s murder. Hamlet chastises himself for not having a similar passion for his own murdered father and attempts to work himself hopping into an emotional state, concluding with a cry of, “O vengeance!” Then he begins this speech--one that gives us particular insight into how Shakespeare dramatizes the act of thinking.

下面我们要听到的是哈姆莱特在戏剧第二幕中的一段独白。当时他刚刚看完一位伶人表演的儿子为父亲复仇的桥段。那段表演激昂澎湃，但同时也令哈姆莱特深感自责，因为他认为自己对于为父亲报仇的热情完全不及剧中的人物，于是他强迫自己学习剧中的那位儿子，喊出了“啊！复仇！”。下面节选的是后半部分的台词，我们从中可以感受到莎士比亚是如何戏剧性地表现出人物的内心活动。

Hamlet, 2.2.611-634, “Why, what an ass am I … Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”

哈姆莱特，2.2.611-634，“嗨，我真是个蠢材……我可以发掘国王内心的隐秘。”

HAMLET Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,

哈姆莱特：嗨，我真是个蠢材！我也只能做这样的事情，

That I, the son of a dear father murdered,

我的亲爱的父亲被人谋杀了，

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

鬼神都在鞭策我复仇，

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words

我这做儿子的却像一个下流女人似的，只会用空言发发牢骚，

And fall a-cursing like a very drab,

学起泼妇骂街的样子来，

A stallion! Fie upon ’t! Foh!

呸！呸！

About, my brains!—Hum, I have heard

活动起来吧，我的脑筋！我听人家说，

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

犯罪的人在看戏的时候，

Have, by the very cunning of the scene,

因为台上表演的巧妙，

Been struck so to the soul that presently

有时会激动天良，

They have proclaimed their malefactions;

当场供认他们的罪恶；

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

因为暗杀的事情无论干得怎样秘密，

With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players

总会借着神奇的喉舌泄露出来。我要叫这班伶人

Play something like the murder of my father

表演一本跟我的父亲惨死的情节相仿的戏剧，

Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks;

在我的叔父面前表演，我就在一旁窥察他的神色；

I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench,

我要探视到他的灵魂的深处，要是他稍微露惊骇不安之态，

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

我就知道我应该怎么办。我所看见的幽灵

May be a devil, and the devil hath power

也许是魔鬼的化身，魔鬼是有着一种本领的，

T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,

借着一个美好的形状出现；对于

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

柔弱忧郁的灵魂，他最容易发挥他的力量；

As he is very potent with such spirits,

也许他看准了我的柔弱和忧郁，

Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds

才来向我作祟，要把我引诱到沉沦的路上。我要先得到一些

More relative than this. The play’s the thing

比这更切实的证据；凭着这一本戏，

Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.

我可以发掘国王内心的隐秘。

. Particularly in soliloquies, he's rehearsing possibilities. He's testing himself. He's listening to himself. He's improvising in the moment. And through that process of improvisation, he's moving all the time. And so whereas the conventional soliloquy, the speaker knows from the start of the speaking what he's going to say, where he's going to go. And he's, as it were, reporting staff that has already been thought. In Hamlet, we’ve got moment by moment thinking. We have the action of living in the moment. And so the point at which he arrives is not the point at which he departs.

哈姆莱特经常在独白中思考各种可能性，他在考验自己，在倾听内心的声音。这些独白都是他当下的即兴演说，在做即兴演说时，哈姆莱特的思绪一直在变化。在传统的独白中，说话人从一开始就知道自己要说什么，他很清楚独白的发展脉络，他所表达的都是脑中已经成型的内容。但哈姆莱特这段台词都是他即时的想法，鲜活生动。甚至他自己在说这段台词的时候，都无法预计自己将会表达哪些内容。

And what we have is so crucial to the soliloquy are short phrases, are short units of speech. And the soliloquy was the first place where Shakespeare in his writing really broke up the line.

这段独白中最关键的是短语，短的意群，这是莎士比亚首次将一个意群打碎分写在不同行中。

So traditionally what happens in Shakespeare's scripting is if you have a, say, a unit of speech which works for half a line, then that half line speech unit is inviting a response from some other character. That's the basic convention that the actor observed so far. And so the moment you get a half line or a third of a line as sort of a say, a three syllable phrase, it creates a pause. And it creates not just that, it creates the expectation or indeed the necessity of some kind of answer. So in other words, a kind of a midline break, a short a half line phrase is an intrinsically implicitly dramatic space. This particular soliloquy is absolutely jam packed with short phrases, half line or third line speech units, which are creating these dramatic, dynamic question and answer, interlocutor's dynamic within Hamlet's own mind.

一般来说，在读莎剧的时候，如果你发现一个意群被打碎分在了两行中，那么这意味着说话人说完了前半部分内容，他在等另一个角色的回应，这是戏剧演员们一直以来都遵循的管理操作。所以，如果一个句子被分成了两行或三行，那么就形成了一次停顿，说话人此刻是在期待，在期待一个回应。换言之，这种句中换行，这种将一个意群分写在两行中的做法，间接地创造出了戏剧的空间感。我们刚刚听到的那段独白就充满了这样的短语和分写在两行或三行的意群，作者用这种方式营造出了戏剧般的、动态的问与答，在哈姆莱特脑中，也有一个动态的应答者与他在互动。

“Why, what an ass am I?” Again, “this is most brave”. Now, in the first line, we have three different speech acts. “Why? What an ass am I?” this is most private notes. And so “what an ass am I?” he's immediately insulting himself, but in an exasperated way, which is already moving away from “this is most brave”, listen, to hear the sarcasm that “I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must look like a whore. Unpack my heart with words and for all the cursing, like a very drab”.

独白一开始，哈姆莱特就说“嗨，我真是个蠢材！”“在我已经是不得了的了！”。在第一行中，我们就遇到了三个不同的语言行为。“嗨，我真是个蠢材！”这是一句很私密的话，这句“嗨，我真是个蠢材！”其实是哈姆莱特在责骂自己，但是却使用一种愤怒的方式在责骂自己，他正在逐渐偏离“在我已经是不得了的了！”这个意思了。我们可以听出这里面的讽刺语气，他说“我的亲爱的父亲被人谋杀了，鬼神都在鞭策我复仇，我这做儿子的却像一个下流女人似的，只会用空言发发牢骚，学起泼妇骂街的样子来”。

So what we have there is you have a short line at the start and then this escalating self-accusation, calling himself twice “a whore, a whore” and “a drab” means also a whore. And he's disgusted by his own fluency. The next lines kind of he's almost spitting out his own fluency “fire upon a foe”. And it's almost like he's always kind of viscerally getting rid of his own beautiful or authoritative language. “About my brains”, now he's having got rid of this kind of strain of false talking. He starts again. “Hum” just means he's just thinking, thinking, thinking. “I have heard and noticed” so immediately the register shifts, the rhythm shifts. “I have heard” and the line stops with that word “heard”. What is he heard? A brief pause at the end of the line, we wait for it. “That guilty creatures sitting at a play/ Have, by the very cunning of the scene/ Been struck so to the soul that presently/ They have proclaimed their malefactions/For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/ With most miraculous organ.”

在这段台词中，一开始是短小的一行，接着是他的自我责备，他把自己比作是“下流的女人”和“泼妇”，这里的“泼妇”其实就是“下流的女人”的意思。他反感自己只知道用空言发发牢骚。下面几行他咒骂自己用空言发牢骚“呸！呸！”，他似乎发自内心地想摆脱自己华丽、高贵的语言。接着他说“活动起来吧，我的脑筋！”，表明他在试图摆脱那些假话空话。之后的“哼”表示他在思考，思考，不断地思考。然而紧接着的那句“我听人家说”，语调有变了，节奏也变了。“我听人家说”这一句在“说”这里换行了，他究竟听人家说了什么呢？这一行结尾有一个短暂的停顿，我们等待着，然后就听到哈姆莱特说“犯罪的人在看戏的时候，因为台上表演的巧妙，有时会激动天良，当场供认他们的罪恶；因为暗杀的事情无论干得怎样秘密，总会借着神奇的喉舌泄露出来。”

The rhythms are completely different. They're much more measured and thoughtful and slowly building than the first part of the speech, but at the same time you can see him warming up all over again. Very characteristic of Hamlet is that he has more rhythmic changes than any other character. In the sense that he moves from sort of cold to heat, to postulations, to interruption, self-interruptions, self-contradiction, moves, and again, into longer kind of periods. So if he translated Hamlet into music, it would be an extraordinary fury like Stravinsky or something, or may be extraordinarily furious. I think Hamlet is like a rapper, you know, Kendrick Lamar or something. Bang, bang, bang. He's so quick breaking up, interrupting himself.

到了这里的节奏和之前完全不一样了，这里更加缓慢、更加深沉、更加稳重，但同时你又能感觉到哈姆莱特整个人再次激动了起来。哈姆莱特的一个典型特点就是他语言节奏是全剧所有人物中最多变的，也就是说他从冷静到激动，接着开始自我证明、自我解读、自我否认，然后再次转成缓慢的节奏。如果用音乐来表现哈姆莱特的话，那他就像斯特拉文斯基创作的音乐一样，是狂怒的。我感觉哈姆莱特像一位说唱歌手，他会像是肯德里克·拉马尔那样的说唱歌手。“砰、砰、砰”，他在解读剖析自己的时候，语速很快。

“For murder so it have no tongue will speak with most miraculous organ” and he stops midline. Midline stop signifies a more pregnant stop and it's a stop, this is no longer in this stage of Shakespeare's career doesn't always mean that another character will enter, but it does mean that the character is going to speak or is going to switch from one thought strain, one kind of progress of thought into another. “I'll have these players play something like the murder of my father before my uncle”, a simple sentence and again, a midline stop. Pause, “I'll observe his looks”, stop. “I'll tent him to the quick”, stop. “If you do blanch”, stop, “I know my course”, stop. Very, very simple way, it's performing the old soliloquy function of telling the audience what's going to happen. But much more importantly, we have the birth of an idea in Hamlet’s mind.

哈姆莱特说“因为暗杀的事情无论干得怎样秘密，总会借着神奇的喉舌泄露出来”这句话时，在一句话中做了停顿。句中停顿意味着更充分的停顿时间。创作《哈姆莱特》这部戏剧这段时期，莎士比亚运用这样的停顿不总是表示另一个人物将登场说话了，而是预示说话人将要进入另一个话题了，或者说话人的思维发生了转变，从一个想法转到了另一个想法上。果真，哈姆莱特接下说的就是“我要叫这班伶人在我的叔父面前表演一本跟我的父亲惨死的情节相仿的戏剧”，这也是一个简单的句子，但同样，他又在句中停顿了。停顿，“我就在一旁窥察他的神色”，停顿，“我要探视到他的灵魂的深处”，停顿，“要是他稍微露惊骇不安之态”，停顿，“我就知道我应该怎么办”，停顿。这种写作手法很简单，就是传统的独白模式，是在对观众讲述将要发生的事情，但是我们要注意的是，通过这样的节奏与停顿，我们初步了解了哈姆莱特脑中的想法。

He ends the speech “I'll have grounds for relatedness”. In other words, “don't take me for a fool”. And so he regenerates himself. He almost rebirths himself in the speech. And we get the classic pride of Hamlet, the sense in which he is going to be master of the situation. “The play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king” and ends with a sort of triumphant rhyme. The number of shifts, the number of kind of vocal and rhythmic and elocutionist shifts in the speech are in many ways a very simple speech by Hamlet standards. Even so, it shows you a mind which is constantly hatching, hatching, hatching, hatching, and then reflecting upon that, rehearsing the idea, thinking about it. And it's kind of mini drama in its own right.

独白接近尾声时，哈姆莱特说“我要先得到一些比这更切实的证据”，换言之，他的意思是“谁都别想骗我”。这番独白令他重新振作了起来，在独白中他似乎也重拾了信心。我们又看到了哈姆莱特身上那种典型的骄傲，他感觉自己又将掌控整个局势。最后一句哈姆莱特说“凭着这一本戏，我可以发掘国王内心的隐秘”，这里透露着一种胜者的语气。从许多方面来看，按照《哈姆莱特》这部剧的标准看，这段台词中的语调变化，声音、节奏和发声上的变化都是十分简单的。可即便如此，你在听这段独白的时候，也能感受到他大脑在不断地运转、运转、运转，当哈姆莱特想到一个主意后，他便在脑中排练反思，这整个过程本身就像是一出迷你剧。

The next speech is another soliloquy of Hamlet’s. In the 1604-5 text, it occurs in Act 3 just after Polonius and Claudius decide to stage an encounter between Hamlet and Ophelia. With Claudius and Polonius concealed somewhere on stage, Hamlet gives a speech that famously ponders universal human questions, while also revealing his own unique obsessions.

接下来这段依旧是哈姆莱特的独白。文本选自1604-1605年版《哈姆莱特》。在第三幕中，波洛涅斯和克劳狄斯策划让哈姆莱特与奥菲利娅偶然相遇。哈姆莱特在说这段台词时，波洛涅斯和克劳狄斯就躲在舞台的某个角落。在这段台词中，哈姆莱特探讨了有关全人类的一些问题，同时也说出了令他自己无比困扰的那些烦恼。

Hamlet, 3.1.64-96, “To be or not to be … And lost the name of action.”

哈姆莱特，3.1.64-96，“生存还是毁灭……”

HAMLET To be or not to be—that is the question:

哈姆莱特：生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题；

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

这两种行为，哪一种更高贵？默默忍受

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

命运的暴虐的毒箭，

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

或是挺身反抗人世的无涯的苦难，

And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep—

在奋斗中扫清那一切，死了，睡去了，

No more—and by a sleep to say we end

什么都完了；要是在这一种睡眠之中，

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

我们心头的创痛，以及其他无数

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation

血肉之躯所不能避免的打击，都可以从此消失，

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—

那正是我们求之不得的结局。死了，睡去了；

To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,

睡去了也许还会做梦。嗯，阻碍就在这儿：

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

因为，在那死的睡眠里，

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后，究竟将要做些什么梦，

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。人们甘心

That makes calamity of so long life.

久困于患难之中，也就是为了这一个缘故。

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

谁愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、

Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

压迫者的凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、法律的迁延、

The insolence of office, and the spurns

官吏的横暴和俊杰大才

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

费尽辛勤所换来的得势小人的鄙视，

When he himself might his quietus make

要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

就可以清算他自己的一生？谁愿意

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

负着这样的重担，在烦劳的生命的压迫下呻吟流汗，

But that the dread of something after death,

倘不是因为惧怕不可知的死后，

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

惧怕那从来不曾有一个旅人回来过的

No traveler returns, puzzles the will

神秘之国，是它迷惑了我们的意志，

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

使我们宁愿忍受目前的磨折，

Than fly to others that we know not of?

不敢向我们所不知道的痛苦飞去？

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

这样，重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，

And thus the native hue of resolution

决心的赤热的光彩，

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色，

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下，

With this regard their currents turn awry

也会逆流而退，

And lose the name of action.

失去了行动的意义。

The to be a not to be soliloquy is the most celebrated soliloquy in all of drama, without question, the best known, but before we even get to thinking about what it means, we have to think about what it is and what kind of speech act it is, because there are these kind of curious questions about the speech. Cut  Cut Cut Cut Is this a soliloquy? Now, a soliloquy supposedly is when a character is alone on the stage talking to him or herself, but here in this case, the character is not alone on the stage. There are other characters present on the stage with him.

“生存还是毁灭”这段独白是所有戏剧中最有名的一段独白，这毫无疑问，它最出名。但是我们在探讨它含义之前，需要先来思考一下这段台词究竟是什么，它属于哪一类语言行为，因为关于这段台词有许多有意思的问题。首先，这一段真的算是独白吗？一般来说，独白是演员独自一人站在舞台上的自言自语，但在这一场戏中，哈姆莱特并非舞台上唯一的演员，此刻舞台上还有其他人。

And so there's a really fundamental question here about what kind of speech this is about and who Hamlet is speaking to, what Hamlet knows or doesn't know and what we in the audience know or don't know. Does Hamlet know that Polonius and Claudius are there or not? Does he find, does he realize that they're there at a certain point?

所以，这里的一个基本问题就是这段台词到底应该算哪一种语言行为？哈姆莱特的这番话是对谁说的？他知道些什么，不知道些什么？我们观众知道些什么，不知道些什么？哈姆莱特知道波洛涅斯和克劳狄斯也在舞台上吗？他最终有没有发现了那两个人？

Now, just a few obvious points about the speech. It's “To be or not to be—that is the question” It goes to the heart of the play. It's a play which is all about the question, all about the idea of a question. It's a play in which the question, it's not just to live or not to live, it's to exist or not to exist. It's a play which is all about the question whether something is or is not.

现在，关于这段台词我们还有几个需要注意的点。“生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题”这句话直击整部戏剧的核心。《哈姆莱特》这部戏剧就是围绕这个问题展开的，全剧都在探讨这个问题，这个问题谈论的的不仅仅是生与死，更是在谈论存在与消亡，在谈论某件事情的是与非。

The “to be or not to be” speech is clearly about the question of why we live. What he most fervently wishes for in this speech is an end to consciousness. He wants death to be oblivion, “to die, to sleep, to sleep”. And he can feel with the rhythms there, this tense longing for cessation, for an end, for quiet. Hamlet is a character who's defined by this sleepless, this is absolute sleeplessness, restlessness, a mind that never stops, a pain that never abates. He can't stop thinking and he just longs for that, he longs for a rest and he gets there these repetitions “to die, to sleep no more”, “to die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance, to dream”.

很明显，“生存还是毁灭”这段台词探讨的是我们活着的意义。在这段台词中，哈姆莱特最渴望的是意识的终结。他希望死亡是一种无意识的状态，“死了，睡去了；睡去了”，他可以感受到这里的节奏，他这种紧张的情绪能够中断，能够停止，能够安静下来。哈姆莱特这个角色有一个特点就是他的失眠，他一直无法入睡，无法停歇，他的思维不断飞速运转，他所感受的疼痛永远不会减弱。他无法停止思考，但是他很渴望思维能够停下来，能够让他喘口气，于是他不断地重复“死了，睡去了，什么都完了”，“死了，睡去了；睡去了也许还会做梦”。

And immediately with that he, as it were, wakes up. “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” and he stops. The pause is halfway through the line. Time enough for a silence and a recognition that there is no rest in death because it will still be cursed by consciousness, by the consciousness which is defined by endless unanswerable questions and by endless, inescapable memory, the thing which completely haunts him. “There's the rub”.

但是他刚说完这些话后，便又清醒了过来。他接着说“嗯，阻碍就在这儿：因为当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后，在那死的睡眠里，究竟将要做些什么梦，那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑”，到这里他停了下来。这里是一个句中的停顿。这处停顿的时间足够让我们明白，在死亡中也找不到宁静，因为死亡依旧受到意识的侵扰，即便是死后依旧需要面对无尽的、无法回答的问题，要面对无尽的、无法逃避的回忆，这一切长期不断地缠扰着他，“阻碍就在这儿”。

His attitude to death epitomizes the way in which this is a play, which is in many ways all about the question of knowledge, the question of whether we can have knowledge and whether we can act upon our knowledge. Now, Hamlet, among many other things, is, as it were, the kind of classic humanist character and the character who's been hit by a sort of humanist paragon. And such a paragon should be defined by virtue, and his virtue is defined by the ability to think and then act upon his thought.

哈姆莱特面对死亡的态度是这部剧的缩影，这部戏剧在很多方面都在探讨认知这个问题。我们能否拥有知识？能否根据已有的认知采取行动？从许多方面看，哈姆莱特是一个典型的人文主义者，但他却一直遭受来自完美人文主义典范的冲击，这种完美典范是由美德来定义的，而美德又是由思考的能力，以及根据思想采取行动的能力来决定的。

But look at this, he says, who would all this stuff, who had all of this kind of stuff, these terribly boring, miserable, unjust things, bear except “the dread of something after death”, “puzzles the will”. That doesn't mean simply makes us think what's going on leaves us kind of puzzled or incredulous, it means that the will, the ability to act is compromised. “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”. Now notice again the what the kind of distinctive nausea of Hamlet there. “The native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought” and “cast” there doesn't just mean kind of, the type of thought. A cast is the vomit. It is imagining that thinking is a great big vomit, which is sick over resolution. And, you know, you're kind of nauseated by this. And of course when you're sick, you can't act. “And enterprise of great pitch and moment”, again, “pitch” brings in again. This pitch means heightened importance, but also a pitch is another vomit. “With this regard their currents turn awry/ And lose the name of action”. And now “action” is the crucial thing. So action doesn't simply mean killing the king. Action again is virtuous because action is defined by reason, rationality, decision by an individual in control of their movements compared to passion. 

但是再看看哈姆莱特接下来的话，他说“倘不是因为惧怕不可知的死后”，倘不是死亡“迷惑了我们的意志”，谁愿意负着这样的重担，谁愿意忍受这些极度无聊、痛苦和不公。这段话的意思是，思考当下正在发生的事情不仅仅会令我们感到迷惑和怀疑，甚至还会影响我们采取行动的意志和能力。“重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，决心的赤热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色”，这里我们依旧要注意哈姆莱特所表现出的厌恶之情，“决心的赤热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色”，这里的“灰色”不仅仅指的是某种思维，英文原文中所使用的那个单词，除了可以指物体表面的颜色，还有“呕吐”的意思。这里把思维比作是由决心引起的一次猛烈呕吐，这很令人恶心，而且当你感到恶心反胃的时候，你自然也就失去了采取行动的能力。“伟大的事业”这里也是一样，“伟大”这个词，英文原文的单词，既可以指很高的重要性，同样也有呕吐的意思。接着他说“伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下也会逆流而退，失去了行动的意义”，在这一句话中“行动”一词十分关键，它不仅仅指刺杀国王克劳狄斯，而应该是高尚的，应该是在理智和理性的指导下作出的决定，而不是冲动鲁莽的行为。

And so this great soliloquy is fundamentally all about these questions of the ability to understand and to act on that understanding and what we do when that understanding is impossible or compromised or leads us down the track merely of this kind of circularity. So we think we understand. And then the more we understand, the more we realize we just keep repeating the trap that we already in.

所以这段了不起的独白从根本上探讨的就是人的认知的能力，探讨的是人根据已有认知采取行动的能力。它让我们思考，如果无法获取认知，或者获取认知受阻时，我们会怎么做。它让我们思考，如果被认知带入闭环的时候，我们会怎么做。我们以为自己了解了某事，而随着了解的深入，我们也越来越意识到自己不过是在重复之前的路径，被困在闭环中无法挣脱。

This speech comes from Act 3. Gertrude has summoned Hamlet to her bedchamber to question him about his wild, and seemingly mad behavior. Hamlet takes the opportunity to berate her for marrying Claudius and, it seems, for having sexual desire.

最后这段台词选自第三幕，王后葛特露召唤哈姆莱特去她的寝宫，想弄明白他为什么会表现得如此反常，甚至疯狂。哈姆莱特则趁此机会怒斥她竟然会愿意嫁给克劳狄斯，斥责说她这么做似乎就是屈服于自己的情欲。

Hamlet and Gertrude, 3.4.74-99, “Here is your husband … O Hamlet, speak no more!”

哈姆莱特和葛特露，3.4.74-99，“这是你现在的丈夫……啊，哈姆莱特！不要说下去了！”

HAMLET Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear

哈姆莱特：这是你现在的丈夫，像一株霉烂的禾穗，

Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?

损害了他的健硕的兄弟。你有眼睛吗？

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed

你甘心离开一座大好的高山，

And batten on this moor? Ha! Have you eyes?

靠着这荒野生活吗？嘿！你有眼睛吗？

You cannot call it love, for at your age

你不能说那是爱情，因为在你的年纪，

The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble

热情已经冷淡下来，

And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment

它必须等候理智的判断；什么理智

Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,

愿意从这么高的地方，降落到这么低的所在呢？知觉你当然是有的，

Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense

否则你就不会有行动；可是你那知觉

Is apoplexed; for madness would not err,

也一定已经麻木了；因为就是疯人也不会犯那样的错误，

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled,

无论怎样丧心病狂，

But it reserved some quantity of choice

总不会连这样悬殊的差异

To serve in such a difference. What devil was ’t

都分辨不出来。那么是什么魔鬼

That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?

蒙住了你的眼睛，把你这样欺骗呢？

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,

你的视觉、听觉、触觉、嗅觉，

Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,

全都失去了交相为用的功能了吗？

Or but a sickly part of one true sense

因为单单一个感官有了毛病，

Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?

决不会使人愚蠢到这步田地的。羞啊！你不觉得惭愧吗？

Rebellious hell,

要是地狱中的孽火

If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,

可以在一个中年妇人的骨髓里煽起了蠢动，

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

那么在青春的烈焰中，让贞操像蜡一样

And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame

融化了吧。又有什么可耻呢？

When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,

因为少年情欲的驱动而失身，

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

霜雪都会自动燃烧，

And reason panders will.

理智都会做性欲的奴隶呢。

GERTRUDE O Hamlet, speak no more!

葛特露：啊，哈姆莱特！不要说下去了！

Here is Hamlet talking to his mother. And upgrading her for remarrying, for marrying Claudius.

这是哈姆莱特和他母亲之间的对话，他斥责母亲竟然愿意嫁给克劳狄斯。

In both productions, there are various props being used, either we see the portraits of old Hamlet and Claudius hanging on the wall or there are miniatures. I'm not sure that such a prop is necessary in many ways. The scene would be more effective if there isn't a physical representation of the two brothers because if there isn't one, then there is a better scope for imagining that Claudius and old Hamlet are not actually as different from one another as Hamlet is implying that they are.

在这两场演出中，都用到了各种道具，我们可以看到墙壁上挂着老哈姆莱特和克劳狄斯的画像或者他们的一些小画像。但是，我觉得这些道具其实是完全没必要的。相比之下，不具体呈现这两兄弟的外貌，这场戏的冲击力反而会更强，因为没有他们的具体画像，那么我们就可以有更大想象空间，可以通过哈姆莱特的话语，想象出克劳狄斯和老哈姆莱特之间是多么得不同。

What the speech is? It's a deeply angry, misogynistic, offensive harangue leveled by young youngish men against his mother. So he's simultaneously accusing his mother of a lack of judgment and some kind of unruly, uncontrolled, depraved passion which is immoral, which she absolutely should not have. She descends from a husband who is good and handsome in every respect for someone who is depraved, lesser. Hamlet accuses her essentially of being blind of lacking sense, of being rotten to the core. He says that something hellish is raising your rebellion in the bones of an older woman who should be respectable.

这段台词表达的是什么内容呢？这里一位年轻的儿子用愤怒、冒犯、仇视女性的话语怒斥自己的母亲。他指责母亲没有判断能力，指责她未能控制自己的情欲，指责她屈从于邪恶的情欲，甘于堕落。哈姆莱特认为葛特露根本不应该这样做。他对母亲说，她从前的丈夫高雅优美，但如今却选择了这么一个堕落不堪的人做丈夫。他严厉斥责自己的母亲，说她的感官全都失去了功能，说她堕落到了骨髓里。他说是地狱中的孽火让他母亲这样一个本值得他人敬重的中年妇人的骨髓里煽起了蠢动。

It's shameful for her to feel sexual desire, and Gertrude begs him to speak no more. It's an extraordinarily powerful sin and I'm not sure that we often appreciate how powerful, and how outrageous it is and it is certainly not the case that no older women got remarried. Even Queens when widowed could remarry. And sometimes did. It's just bringing it to the fore and couching it in the imagery, which is related to virtue, to sin, to fire, to hail, to frost. Fire is so prominent here. There is an implication that sexual desire in the female, especially an older female, is directly related to the fires of hell. It's evil. And it's to be condemned.

哈姆莱特认为，对于葛特露而言，有情欲是一件羞愧的事情，王后乞求他不要再说了。这是一个深重的罪孽，我不确定我们是否能体会到这个罪孽究竟有多深重，有多么令人无法容忍。当然，中年妇人再婚的情况也是有的，甚至是王后在丈夫去世后也是可以再婚的，而且这种情况在历史上也的确发生过。但这段台词却突出了这一行为，并将它具象化了，把它和美德、罪孽、火焰、冰雹、霜冻联系在了一起。这里火焰很重要，它象征着女性的情欲，尤其是中年女性的情欲，直接就与地狱的火焰相联系，是邪恶的，要受到谴责。

Another striking feature of this speech is that Hamlet is preoccupied with condemning his mother for her sexual desire when he has just accused her of another crime that we would expect to be much more serious. A few minutes earlier, when Hamlet has killed Polonius, Gertrude cries, “O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!” and Hamlet replies, “almost as bad, good mother, / As kill a king and marry with his brother”--a line which suggests that Hamlet suspects Gertrude was involved in her husband’s murder.

这段台词中还有一个指的注意的内容，哈姆莱特在指责他母亲的屈服于情欲之前，还指责她犯下了另一个更严重的罪行。就在这段台词之前，哈姆莱特刚刚杀死了波洛涅斯，葛特露大喊“啊，多么鲁莽残酷的行为！”，但哈姆莱特却回应说“简直就跟杀了一个国王再去嫁给他的兄弟一样坏。”哈姆莱特的这句话表明，他怀疑自己的母亲葛特露王后与克劳狄斯合谋杀死了自己的丈夫。

The question of what happened to old Hamlet is, of course, immediately there and it gets more or less answered, but it goes with something that's never answered in the play, is the guilt or otherwise of his queen, of Gertrude. Was she involved in the murder of her husband? Did she have knowledge of it? Did she have implicit knowledge of it? Did she give her tacit consent to it or not? In the very first edition of the play, in the first quarto, she does. The character of Gertrude does have knowledge of it and is guilt ridden about her complicity in the crime.

这就涉及到了老哈姆莱特究竟遭遇了什么这个问题，到这里我们多少都已经有了答案，但是这又牵扯出另外一个问题，王后葛特露究竟有没有参与谋害自己的丈夫？这个问题剧中并没有给出任何解答。她是否有罪？她是否知情？她有没有得到暗示？对于这起谋杀，她是默许，还是反对？在第一版的《哈姆莱特》剧本，也就是第一四开本中的版本里面葛特露对此是知情的，她知道这件事情，是共犯，内心也一直受到愧疚的折磨。

But in the two main, as it were, versions of Hamlet, the second quarto, in the Folio, those confessions and those acknowledgements vanish. And instead, we have this enigmatic sort of adjacency to a crime, from which she seems to have both suffered and benefited and we never quite know. And again, the play teases us with all these questions about. And so, again, I mean, for a play which is in so many ways harping on the question of the guilt of women, the kind of cupidity of women, the kind of sexual rapacity of women, all sort of stuff. What is Gertrude’s crime? Has she committed a crime? If she hasn't committed a crime? These sorts of questions. At almost every point in the play, every shift in the play, every sort of plot point in the play is, as it were, quite questionable.

但在之后两个更广为人知的版本中，在第二四开本版和第一对开本版里面，葛特露的忏悔和认罪都不见了。我们看到的葛特露与老哈姆莱特的被谋杀一事之间的关系很微妙，她似乎又受到了伤害又得到了好处，至于真实情况究竟如何，我们不得而知。戏剧再一次用这些问题逗弄我们，它从多个方面不断地向我们念叨这个女性的罪行、女性的贪婪、女性的情欲等等这类话题。它让我们思考葛特露犯了什么罪？她真的犯罪了吗？等等这些问题。在这部戏剧中，几乎每一个点，每一个转折点，每一个情节拐点都值得我们去思考发问。

One of my favorite points in the play is when Hamlet says to the ghost that comes in such a questionable shape, which is a perfect kind of joke, really, about the way in which the very idea of a question takes on shape, takes on body “What are you? Who are you? Where do you come from? What are you made of?” These really, really basic questions about what makes a being.

这部剧中我最喜欢的情节之一就是哈姆莱特觉得鬼魂“形状可疑”，这里莎士比亚就是通过鬼魂在隐喻问题也有它的表现形式和载体，哈姆莱特质问鬼魂“你是什么？你是谁？你从哪里来？你到底是什么东西？”等等这一系列问题，也正是关于存在的最基本的疑问。