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Watch William Shakespeare's tragic eponymous protagonist bemoan the unweeded garden that is the world

Watch William Shakespeare's tragic eponymous protagonist bemoan the unweeded garden that is the world

Hamlet speaks his world-weary soliloquy “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt” (Hamlet, Act I, scene 2).
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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News •

Stacy Keach obituary • Nov. 11, 2026, 12:27 PM ET (The Guardian)
Stacy Keach, star of stage and ‘Mike Hammer’ series, dies at 85 • Nov. 10, 2026, 8:38 PM ET (NBC)
We band of brothers: Damian Lewis to star as Shakespeare’s Henry V • Nov. 10, 2026, 1:16 PM ET (The Telegraph)
Shakespeare family home and historic hotel added to at-risk register • Nov. 5, 2026, 1:00 AM ET (BBC)
Patrick Stewart found 'Star Trek' fame but always returned to Shakespeare and the stage • Oct. 30, 2026, 11:38 AM ET (AP)

Transcript

HAMLET: O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
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