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All Site ContentHamletAct 3Scene 2
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"turn Turk"
Allusion
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 251-261

An explanation of “turn Turk” in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

All   

Lights, lights, lights!
[Exit all except Hamlet and Horatio]

Hamlet

[Hamlet merrily sings a few lines from a ballad]
‘Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
 The hart ungalled play.
For some must watch, while some must sleep,
 So runs the world away.’
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers (if the rest of
my fortunes turn Turk with me) with two provincial
roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of
players, sir?

Horatio   

Half a share. 

Hamlet

A whole one, I.

“To turn Turk” was a disparaging expression in the Renaissance that meant to turn against what’s seen as good, like a Christian becoming Muslim, as Turks were assumed to be. Hamlet is saying that his luck — his fortunes — are starting to betray him.