Vol. 08 · Shakespeare ·Hamlet, Act I.ii ·Hamlet
"How weary, stale and unprofitable."
Not quite the line.
How it's usually quoted
"How weary, stale and unprofitable."
What Shakespeare actually wrote
"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, / Seem to me all the uses of this world!" Hamlet — Hamlet, Act I.ii
Why it matters
Shakespeare wrote four adjectives, not three; "flat" is almost always the one dropped. He needed the fourth beat to land the line on "unprofitable."
More from the canon.
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