Copyright © 2016 by Lin-Manuel Miranda

TABLE of CONTENTS

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Paul Kepple and Max Vandenberg ACT I ACT II
at
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“aaron burr, sir”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 “cabinet battle # 1 ” .. . . . . . . . . . 66

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“ s a t i s f i e d ” .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 “the adams administration” . . . . 90

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“the story of tonight” (reprise) . . . 34
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“blow u s a l l awa y ” .. . . . . . . . . . 100
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“guns and ships” .. . . . . . . . . . . . 48

This book was produced “it’s quiet uptown”. . . . . . . . . . . 104

by
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“what comes next?”. . . . . . . . . . . 54
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Printed in China “tomorrow t h e r e ’ l l b e m o r e o f u s ” .. . 56

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1
A L E XA N D E R BURR: There would have been nothin’ left to do
7
You never learned to
take your time!
You never learned to
take your time!
Before we even begin, For someone less astute, Oh, Alexander Oh, Alexander

HA M I LT O N
a musical note. The 1
piano riff that begins He woulda been dead or destitute Hamilton Hamilton
this show is actually Without a cent or restitution, When America sings Alexander Hamilton
inspired by a beat
I made. I wanted
Started workin’—clerkin’ for his late mother’s for you America sings for you
6
landlord, Will they know what Will they know what From the very
the sound of a door
beginning, this was how
slamming as the
Tradin’ sugar cane and rum and all the things you overcame? you overcame, I sang his name. It’s an
downbeat, and in 2
Lights up on Aaron Burr & the company. Took up a collection just to send him to the he can’t afford Will they know you Will they know you absurdly musical name.
my computer music
program I grabbed mainland. Scammin’ for every COMPANY: rewrote the game? rewrote the game, 8 7
a sound file called We double the tempo
“Door Wood Squeak.” AARON BURR: How does a bastard, orphan, son “Get your education, don’t forget from whence book he can get his Scammin’ The world will never The world will never here because Hamilton’s
The sound of the of a whore and a you came, and hands on be the same, oh. be the same, oh. found his way out: He’s
wood squeak was so going to double down
compelling I set it Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten The world’s gonna know your name. What’s Plannin’ for the future Plannin’ on his education, and
to notes. Hence the Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impover- your name, man?” see him now as he Ooohh . . . BURR: make himself
opening riff. Okay. undeniable. The image
Let’s keep going.
ished, in squalor, stands on The ship is in the MEN: in my head is of Harry
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar? ALEXANDER HAMILTON: Alexander The bow of a ship harbor now, see if you Just you wait. Potter finding out he’s
2 a wizard. Everything
This was originally Hamilton.6 headed for a new can spot him. suddenly makes sense.
written as a Burr
monologue, when JOHN LAURENS: The ten-dollar Founding My name is Alexander Hamilton. land. Another immigrant,
8
Hamilton was still Father without a father 3 And there’s a million things I haven’t In New York you can comin’ up from the Those who have seen
a “concept album” in my White House
my head. It wasn’t until
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder done be a new man. bottom. performance will note
we realized we were By being a lot smarter But just you wait, just you wait . . . His enemies COMPANY: that these lyrics used
writing a musical that to be “In our cowardice
By being a self-starter COMPANY: HAMILTON: destroyed his rep Just you wait. and our shame, we will
we began to divvy up
the monologue among By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a ELIZA HAMILTON: When he was In New York you can Just you wait! America forgot him. try to destroy your
the people who bore name.” Over the course
trading charter. ten his father split, full of it, be a new man—
witness to Hamilton’s of the show’s develop-
life. This owes a debt to debt-ridden, In New York you can Just you wait! MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: We fought ment, we realized that
the prologue of Sweeney THOMAS JEFFERSON: And every day while Two years later, see Alex and his be a new man— with him. 9 the story would be told
Todd: All our characters not only by his enemies
set the stage for our slaves were being slaughtered and carted mother bed-ridden, but by his friends and
main man’s entrance. Away across the waves, he struggled and kept Half-dead sittin’ in their own sick, COMPANY: In New York you can be a LAURENS: Me? I died for him. loved ones. Friend or
foe, they’re in awe
3 his guard up. 4 The scent thick, new man— of him.
It’s up to the Treasury
Department whether we Inside, he was longing for something to be a WASHINGTON: Me? I trusted him.
9
get to keep this lyric or part of, FULL COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMIL- WOMEN: In New York— Of course, the actors
not. As of this printing, who play Mulligan and
Hamilton’s the dude on The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow TON) (WHISPERING): And Alex got ELIZA, ANGELICA, MARIA REYNOLDS: Lafayette fight with
the $10 bill. or barter. better but his mother went quick. MEN: New York— Me? I loved him. him as friends in Act
One and fight with him
4 as his enemies, Madison
At the top of every
musical, it’s essential JAMES MADISON: Then a hurricane came, GEORGE WASHINGTON: Moved HAMILTON: Just you wait! BURR: And me? I’m the damn fool that and Jefferson, in Act
Two. It’s also true of
to establish the world. and devastation reigned, in with a cousin, the cousin shot him. Laurens/Philip, who
Hamilton’s early life
was marked by trauma Our man saw his future drip, dripping down committed suicide. COMPANY: “dies for him” in both
acts. I was very proud
and a firsthand view the drain, Left him with nothin’ but ruined Alexander Hamilton COMPANY: COMPANY: There’s a million things I
of myself for the double
of the brutal practices
of the slave trade.
Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to pride, something new inside, Alexander Hamilton haven’t done, meanings in this
his brain, a voice saying, We are waiting in the But just you wait! section, hence this note.
5
This is a beautiful And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to “You gotta fend for COMPANY: wings for you. Waiting in the wings
letter. Look it up.
My favorite phrase in his pain. 5 yourself.” “Alex, for you. BURR: What’s your name, man?
it is that the scene was He started retreatin’ You gotta You could
“sufficient to strike
astonishment into
BURR: Well the word got around, they said, and readin’ every fend for Never back down. COMPANY: Alexander Hamilton!
angels.” “This kid is insane, man” treatise on the shelf. yourself.”

4 5
 AARON BURR, SIR BURR: Talk less. 5
Up in it, lovin’ it, yes I heard ya mother said
“come again?”
Lock up ya daughters and horses, of course 5
This whole section is
HAMILTON: What? It’s hard to have intercourse over four sets basically Harry Potter
9 meeting Draco Malfoy
of corsets . . . before meeting his real
1
The lights change. Aaron Burr emerges. He Then we could prove that we’re worth more BURR: Smile more. friends. Just Hamilton’s
luck to meet his
is approached by Hamilton. than anyone bargained for . . . LAURENS: No more sex, pour me another temperamental opposite.
HAMILTON: Ha. brew, son!
6
COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON): Seventeen BURR: Can I buy you a drink? Let’s raise a couple more . . . An homage to the
1 amazing subway
I know every word seventy-six. New York City. BURR: Don’t let them know what you’re breakdancers of NYC
that rhymes with Burr.
HAMILTON: That would be nice. against or what you’re for. LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN: circa present day, who
It’s a long list. I tried start their shows this
to use all of them in HAMILTON: Pardon me. Are you Aaron Burr, sir? To the revolution! way.
this show. The “Rhymes BURR: While we’re talking, let me offer you HAMILTON: You can’t be serious.
with Hamilton” list is 7
BURR: That depends. Who’s asking? some free advice. LAURENS: Well, if it ain’t the prodigy of This is a love letter to
nonexistent, so.
old school hip-hop. “I’m
2
BURR: You wanna get ahead? Princeton college! ___ in the place to be”
This is, of course, a
HAMILTON: Oh, well, sure, sir. They enter Fraunces Tavern, where a rap is so old-school, it was
fictional first meeting a staple of the first raps
between Hamilton and I’m Alexander Hamilton. I’m at your service, sir. circle comprised of Laurens, Lafayette & HAMILTON: Yes. MULLIGAN: Aaron Burr! I ever wrote as a kid.
Burr, and I centered 2 4
I have been looking for you. Mulligan is underway.
it around a rather
remarkable fact: Burr BURR: Fools who run their mouths off wind LAURENS: Give us a verse, drop some knowledge! 8
“I think Lafayette
graduated from college BURR: I’m getting nervous. up dead. wants to rap in French
crazy young and fast. now. I have to go learn
What he’s not telling BURR: Good luck with that: You’re takin’ a stand. some French. Damnit,
Hamilton: His father HAMILTON: Sir . . . LAURENS: Yo yo yo yo yo! You spit. I’m ’a sit. We’ll see where we land. Lafayette.” –me,
was the president of the tweeting in 2013
college; privilege plays
I heard your name at Princeton. I What time is it?
a role. But Hamilton was seeking an accelerated course LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN: Boooo! 9
doesn’t know that: What Listen, Mulligan
of study when I got sort of out of LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN: didn’t grow up to be a
he knows is that Burr
graduated fast, and sorts with a buddy of yours. I may Show time! 6 LAURENS: Burr, the revolution’s imminent. statesman like Lafayette
Hamilton has no money or Hamilton. But his
have punched him. It’s a blur, sir. What do you stall for? name is just the best
and no time to waste.
He handles the financials? BURR: . . . like I said . . . rapper moniker I ever
heard in my life. So
3 HAMILTON: If you stand for nothing, Burr,
Chernow blanched he gets the most fun
what’ll you fall for? 10
3
a bit at this historical BURR: You punched the bursar. LAURENS: Show time! Show time! Yo! punchlines. I don’t
leap—Hamilton wasn’t 7 know what his thing
I’m John Laurens in the place to be!
needlessly violent—but is with horses, but I
the rhyme was too good HAMILTON: Yes! Two pints o’ Sam Adams, but I’m workin’ on thought it was funny.
to pass up. I wanted to do what you did. three, uh!
10 “Those who stand
4 Graduate in two, then join the revo- Those redcoats don’t want it with me!
Fraunces Tavern, for nothing fall for
of course, still exists. lution. He looked at me like I was Cuz I will pop chick-a pop these cops ’til anything.” This is a
They’ve got great Hot paraphrase of a line
stupid, I’m not stupid. I’m free!
Toddies in the winter. often misattributed to
So how’d you do it? How’d you Alexander Hamilton.
graduate so fast? LAFAYETTE: Oui oui, mon ami, je m’appelle It was said by a later
Hamilton in the 20th
Lafayette! century. But the
BURR: It was my parents’ dying The Lancelot of the revolutionary set! 8 sentiment is so perfect
for this moment, and
wish before they passed. I came from afar just to say “Bonsoir!” so well underscores
Tell the King, “Casse toi!” Who’s the best? the difference between
Hamilton & Burr,
HAMILTON: You’re an orphan? C’est moi!
I flipped it for the
Of course! I’m an orphan. occasion.
God, I wish there was a war! MULLIGAN: Brrrah brraaah! I am Hercules
Mulligan,

6 7
 MY SHOT HAMILTON, MULLIGAN, LAURENS,
LAFAYETTE: It’s time to take a shot!
Poppin’ a squat on conventional wisdom,
like it or not,
A bunch of revolutionary manumission
LAFAYETTE: I dream of life without a monarchy. 7 abolitionists?
The unrest in France will lead to ’onarchy? Give me a position, show me where the
LAURENS: MULLIGAN: LAFAYETTE: HAMILTON: A colony that runs independently. ’Onarchy? How you say, how you say, “anarchy?” ammunition is!
Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, Meanwhile, Britain keeps shittin’ on us endlessly. When I fight, I make the other side panicky. Oh, am I talkin’ too loud?
Who are you? Essentially, they tax us relentlessly, With my— Sometimes I get overexcited, shoot off at
Who are you? Then King George turns around, runs a the mouth.
Who are you? spending spree. 5 HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, I never had a group of friends before, 7
I love writing for
He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free, MULLIGAN: Shot! I promise that I’ll make y’all proud. Lafayette because it
allows me to indulge
MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS: Ooh, So there will be a revolution in this century.
something I have found
1
And Tupac responds, who is this kid? What’s he gonna do? Enter me! MULLIGAN: Yo, I’m a tailor’s apprentice, LAURENS: Let’s get this guy in front of to be true in my own
“Holla if ya hear me.”
And I got y’all knuckleheads in loco parentis. 8 a crowd. life: Those for whom
English is a second
2 HAMILTON: I am not throwing away my shot! LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN, LAURENS: I’m joining the rebellion cuz I know it’s my chance language are capable
Mobb Deep’s greatest
lyric, revisited here. I am not throwing away my shot! (He says in parentheses.) 6 To socially advance, instead of sewin’ some pants! HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, of fantastic, outside-the-
box thinking with our
3 Hey yo, I’m just like my country, I’m gonna take a— MULLIGAN, ENSEMBLE: I am not throwing language.
This is the Big Pun
effect: stacking internal I’m young, scrappy and hungry, HAMILTON: Don’t be shocked when your away my shot.
8
rhymes into lyrics so And I’m not throwing away my shot! hist’ry book mentions me. HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, I am not throwing away my shot. Latin humor.
densely and making
them feel conversational. I’m ’a get a scholarship to King’s College I will lay down my life if it sets us free. MULLIGAN: Shot! Hey yo, I’m just like my country,
9
This is a shout-out
I prob’ly shouldn’t brag, but dag, I amaze and Eventually, you’ll see my ascendancy, I’m young, scrappy and hungry
to “You’ve Got To Be
4
This cadence is used astonish. LAURENS: But we’ll never be truly free And I’m not throwing away my shot. Carefully Taught” from
by The Notorious South Pacific, a Rodgers
The problem is I got a lot of brains but HAMILTON: Until those in bondage have the same rights
B.I.G. in “Going Back and Hammerstein
To Cali” when spelling no polish And I am not LAURENS: as you and me. I am not throwing away my shot. classic about racism.
1 As Laurens and the
his own name: I’m I gotta holler just to be heard. throwing away my My shot! You and I. Do or die. Wait till I sally in I am not throwing away my shot.
calling on all the East boys rap about equality,
Coast rap gods in this
With every word, I drop knowledge! shot. On a stallion with the first black battalion. Hey yo, I’m just like my country, Burr comes in with
verse. I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece I am not throwing Have another— I’m young, scrappy and hungry. some cold reality.

5
of coal away my shot. My shot! And I’m not throwing away my shot. 10 And here’s Hamilton,
Some have pointed
out that I also rhymed Tryin’ to reach my goal. My power of speech: Hey yo, I’m just like HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE, synthesizing everything
“spending spree” in unimpeachable. my country, MULLIGAN: Shot! HAMILTON, his friends have said
In The Heights. Totally 2 and going further. This
accidental, but true.
Only nineteen but my mind is older. I’m young, scrappy LAURENS: LAFAYETTE, song took years to write,
What is it with me and These New York City streets get colder, and hungry BURR: Geniuses, lower your voices. Ev’rybody sing: MULLIGAN: and here’s why: We have
spending sprees? to systematically prove
I shoulder You keep out of trouble and you double Whoa, whoa, whoa Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! that Hamilton is the
6
Stage direction humor. Ev’ry burden, ev’ry disadvantage And I’m not throwing And I’m not throwing your choices. Hey! most fearsome intellect
in the room, not just
I have learned to manage, I don’t have a gun away my shot. away my shot. I’m with you, but the situation is fraught. Whoa! Whoa!
by saying so, but by
to brandish. You’ve got to be carefully taught: 9 Wooh!! demonstrating it.
I walk these streets famished. 3 HAMILTON, MULLIGAN, LAURENS, If you talk, you’re gonna get shot! Whoa! Whoa!
The plan is to fan this spark into a flame LAFAYETTE: I am not throwing away my shot. Ay, let ’em hear ya!
But damn, it’s getting dark, so let me spell out I am not throwing away my shot. HAMILTON: Burr, check what we got. 10 Let’s go! Yea!
the name, Hey yo, I’m just like my country, Mr. Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot, COMPANY:
I am the— I’m young, scrappy and hungry I think your pants look hot, Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
And I’m not throwing away my shot. Laurens, I like you a lot I said shout it to the
HAMILTON, LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN, Let’s hatch a plot blacker than the kettle callin’ rooftops! Whoa!
LAURENS: A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R—we are— They drink. the pot . . . Said to the rooftops! Whoa!
meant to be . . . 4 What are the odds the gods would put us all in Come on! Yea!
one spot, Come on, let’s go!

8 9
 15 So how do you build
11 This lyric used to LAURENS: Rise up! HAMILTON: Scratch that, HAMILTON: HAMILTON, LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN,
an ending like this?
be Laurens yelling, When you’re living on your knees, This is not a moment, it’s the movement It’s time to take a shot! 15 LAURENS: Not throwin’ away my— Endless conversations with
“Don’t this sh*t make 11
my people wanna rise
You rise up. Where all the hungriest brothers with something Rise up! Tommy, Alex Lacamoire,
and Andy Blankenbuehler.
up?” A nod to Busta Tell your brother that he’s gotta rise up. to prove went. HAMILTON, Rise up! COMPANY: Not throwin’ away my shot!
Seriously, so many
Rhymes’s refrain in
Tell your sister that she’s gotta rise up. Foes oppose us, we take an honest stand, LAFAYETTE, versions of different
“Pass The Courvoisier.”
We roll like Moses, claimin’ our promised land. MULLIGAN, End of song. Hamilton, Laurens, Mulligan counterpoints to build
Once we learned that
to just the right finish.
clearing this sample LAURENS AND ENSEMBLE: And? 13 If we win our independence? LAURENS: & Lafayette are back in the tavern, after In these meetings,
was fiscally prohibitive,
When are these colonies gonna ’Zat a guarantee of freedom for our It’s time to take a shot! several drinks. I find I’m more the
I built the new lyric
editor than the
around Anthony Rise up? descendants? Rise up! writer—Alex will have
Ramos’s voice. He’s
a crooner at heart, When are these Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Or will the blood we shed begin an Take a shot! Rise up! 50 musical ideas, Andy
will have 50 staging
and his bravado is colonies gonna rise up endless Shot! Ri-ri-ri ideas, and Tommy and
unmatched. I’m really
glad I got to suit it to
When are these Whoa! Cycle of vengeance and death with no Shot! I will sift them in the
middle. It’s like this for
his strengths. colonies gonna rise up defendants? A-yo, it’s
most of the buttons in
12 This verse took the When are these colonies Whoa! I know the action in the street is excitin’, Time to take a shot! Time to take a shot! the show.

better part of a year to gonna rise up? But Jesus, between all the bleedin’ ’n fightin’ I’ve Time to take a shot! Time to take a shot!
write. It’s the Rosetta been readin’ ’n writin’. 14 And I am— And I am—
Stone of Hamilton’s
brain, and the first line
Rise up! Rise up! We need to handle our financial situation.
of it is the most Are we a nation of states? What’s the state of our
autobiographical thing
nation?
I’ve ever written. It’s
what I feel I have most Hamilton alone. I’m past patiently waitin’. I’m passionately
in common with smashin’ every expectation,
Hamilton: The ticking
clock of mortality is HAMILTON: I imagine death so much it feels Every action’s an act of creation!
loud in both our ears, 12
more like a memory I’m laughin’ in the face of casualties and sorrow,
and it sets us to work.
In this verse he goes When’s it gonna get me? For the first time, I’m thinkin’ past tomorrow.
from nihilism to a list In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?
of what needs to be
done to hope towards
If I see it comin’ do I run or do I let it be? HAMILTON AND COMPANY: And I am not
tomorrow, and he takes Is it like a beat without a melody? throwing away my shot
himself there through
See, I never thought I’d live past twenty I am not throwing away my shot.
one uninterrupted train
of thought. Where I come from some get half as many. Hey yo, I’m just like my country,
Ask anybody why we livin’ fast and we I’m young, scrappy and hungry
13 Continuing the rhyme
at the top of the next
Laugh, reach for a flask, And I’m not throwing away my shot.
line—this is what Big We have to make this moment last, that’s plenty.
Pun does so well. It
HAMILTON,
knits all his rhymes
together. I play with it Hamilton joins the group, and we see that he LAURENS, LAFAY-
a lot in this show, and is now speaking to a larger crowd. ETTE, MULLIGAN: ENSEMBLE:
this is my favorite one.
We’re gonna rise up! Not throwin’ away
14 And this is one of Time to take a shot! My shot.
the Big Pun-est lines in
the show—multiple
five-syllable rhymes We’re gonna rise up! Not throwin’ away
inside the line. Time to take a shot! My shot.
We’re gonna We’re gonna
Rise up!
Rise up!

10 11
 The

STORY OF TONIGHT
1 2
HAMILTON: I may not live to see our glory! HAMILTON: No matter what they tell you.

LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN, LAURENS: I may MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Let’s have another

not live to see our glory! round tonight.

1
HAMILTON: But I will gladly join the fight! LAURENS: Raise a glass to the four of us. I wrote this melody
when I was 16 years old.
I had a doo-wop group
LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN, LAURENS: HAMILTON, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, with four other friends,
and I’d written this
But I will gladly join the fight! LAFAYETTE: Tomorrow there’ll be more of us. song called “I’ve Got
a Bridge to Sell You.”
When it came time to
HAMILTON: And when our children tell HAMILTON, LAURENS: Telling the story
write this number for
our story . . . of tonight. the show, that melody
did everything I wanted
this scene to do: It
LAFAYETTE, MULLIGAN, LAURENS: MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Let’s have another conveyed a yearning
And when our children tell our story . . . round tonight. and innocence I felt in
finding a group of
friends to sing with me.
HAMILTON: They’ll tell the story of tonight. HAMILTON, LAURENS,
2
Yes, these lyrics are
ENSEMBLE:
foreshadowing, but
MULLIGAN: Let’s have another round tonight. They’ll tell the story of they’re no more dire
tonight. than most pub drinking
songs.
LAFAYETTE: Let’s have another round tonight. MULLIGAN, LAFAY-
3
ETTE, ENSEMBLE: I’ve got a bridge to sell
you . . . (see note at top
HAMILTON: Let’s have another round tonight. Raise a glass to
of scene.)
freedom.
4
LAURENS: Raise a glass to freedom, They’ll tell the story Tommy and I
discussed using this
Something they can never take away, of tonight.
song as a theme that
no matter what they tell you. 3 Raise a glass to would keep coming
back as we checked in
Raise a glass to the four of us. freedom.
with these young men.
They’ll tell the story We took our cue from
LAURENS, MULLIGAN: Tomorrow there’ll be of tonight. Sondheim’s Merrily We
Roll Along, where the
more of us. They’ll tell the story core trio of friends
of— repeatedly sings, “Here’s
4 to us. Who’s like us?
MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS: Telling ENSEMBLE: Tonight. Damn few.” This theme
the story of tonight. will mutate as time
wears on and people fall
Scene shift. A city square. Burr enters.
away, but here it is in
HAMILTON: They’ll tell the story of tonight. its first full blush.

LAURENS, MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Raise a

glass to freedom,
Something they can never take away.

12 13
 THE PEN
&
THE PAD I
From Lin’s Notebooks

TOP LEFT:

This is my outline of
Act One. Everything
in brackets refers to a
song that does not yet
exist, but can connect/
fill in what's there.
“Ladies Musical
Moment” became “The
Schuyler Sisters.”
“Hamiltonia” was an
idea for an actual
moment when
Hamilton came home
to New York and was
greeted as a hero. It
was a nice historical
moment, but we needed
to keep moving.

TOP RIGHT:

These are my character

notes for the Sons
Of Liberty for
the second verse of
“My Shot.”

BOTTOM: BOTTOM:

I wrote this song on Early draft of

my honeymoon, without Hamilton’s “Helpless”
a piano, and it took a rap. Peggy hadn’t
while for the melody arrived yet, but the
to settle. This version pieces are all there
is close to the final and waiting to gel.
form. Even though the
lyrics are different,
you can see I've got
my head around the
existing melody.

14 15
 The

SCHUYLER SISTERS
1 PEGGY: Daddy said not to go downtown. ELIZA: People shouting in the square.

ELIZA: Like I said, you’re free to go. PEGGY: It’s bad enough there’ll be violence on
our shore.
ANGELICA: But—look around, look around,
the revolution’s happening in New York. ANGELICA: New ideas in the air.
BURR: There’s nothing rich folks love more
Than going downtown and slummin’ it with the poor. ELIZA, PEGGY: New York. ANGELICA AND MALE ENSEMBLE: Look
They pull up in their carriages and gawk around, look around—
At the students in The Common COMPANY: Angelica,
2
Just to watch them talk. ELIZA: Angelica, remind me
Take Philip Schuyler: The man is loaded. SCHUYLER SISTERS what we’re looking for . . .
1
This is our “One Short Uh-oh, but little does he know that AND COMPANY: Work!
Day in the Emerald
City.” It’s a love letter His daughters: Peggy, Angelica, Eliza ALL MEN: She’s
to New York, and it lets Sneak into the city just to watch all the guys at— PEGGY: It’s bad enough lookin’ for me!
us know who the
Schuyler sisters are
Daddy wants to go to war.
outside the context of The Schuyler Sisters—Angelica,
Hamilton and his future
Eliza & Peggy—enter.
affections.

2
Union Square didn’t COMPANY: Work, work!
exist in its current form
yet, but I wanted that
kind of feel—a place ANGELICA: Angelica!
where you could find
any type of New Yorker
in the same place. COMPANY:
Talking to Chernow got Work, work!
me to The Common,
a square downtown.
ELIZA: Eliza!
3
Poor Peggy—she
doesn’t stick around the
story long enough to PEGGY: And Peggy! 3
merit a musical motif.
She married rich and
died young, in case COMPANY: Work, work!
you’re wondering where The Schuyler sisters!
she is in Act Two.

ANGELICA: Angelica!

PEGGY: Peggy!

ELIZA: Eliza!

COMPANY: Work!

PEGGY: Daddy said to be home

by sundown.

ANGELICA: Daddy doesn’t

need to know.

16 17
4
Our little Jay Z/ ANGELICA: COMPANY: ANGELICA: I’ve been reading “Common Sense” ELIZA, ANGELICA, PEGGY: History is Whoo! Hey! Hey!
Pharrell homage.
Eliza, I’m lookin’ for by Thomas Paine. 6 happening in Manhattan and we At how lucky
5
This is my wife’s a mind at work. Work, work! So men say that I’m intense or I’m insane. Just happen to be in the greatest city in the world! we are to be Hey! Hey!
favorite line in the I’m lookin’ for a mind You want a revolution? I wanna revelation alive right now!
show.
at work! Work, work! So listen to my declaration: COMPANY (EXCEPT WASHINGTON &
6
When this was still I’m lookin’ for a mind HAMILTON): In the greatest city in the world! COMPANY: Look around, look around at how
an album in my head, at work! Work, work! ELIZA, ANGELICA, PEGGY: “We hold these lucky we are to be alive right now!
I really wanted the
rapper Common Sense Whooaaaaa! truths to be self-evident ELIZA, History is happening in Manhattan and we just
to read a selection of That all men are created equal.” ANGELICA: PEGGY: MEN: happen to be
“Common Sense.” I am
nothing if not literal.
ELIZA, ANGELICA, Cuz I’ve been Look around, Hey! Hey!
PEGGY: Whooaaaaa! ANGELICA: And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, reading look around Hey! Hey! WOMEN: In the greatest city in the world.
7
She did, of course, Work! Work! “Common
meet Jefferson in Paris,
and corresponded with COMPANY: Unh! 7 Sense” by MEN: In the greatest city—
him later in life. It kills BURR: Whoo! There’s nothin’ like summer in Thomas Paine. MEN:
me that I couldn’t fit
that detail in the
the city. ANGELICA: I’m ’a compel him to include So men say that The revolution’s Hey! Hey! COMPANY: In the greatest city in the world!
show—so here it is in Someone in a rush next to someone lookin’ pretty. women in the sequel! I’m intense or happening in— Hey! Hey!
this book.
Excuse me, miss, 4 I know it’s not funny I’m insane. COMPANY: Work, work! ANGELICA:
8
I tell myself this every But your perfume smells like your daddy’s WOMEN: Work! Angelica!
day. It was nice to give got money. ANGELICA: ELIZA, Work, work!
it to Eliza.
Why you slummin’ in the city in your fancy heels? ELIZA: Look around, look around at how You want a PEGGY: ELIZA: Eliza!
You searchin’ for an urchin who can give you ideals? Lucky we are to be alive right now! 8 Revolution? New York! WOMEN: Work, work! PEGGY: And Peggy!
I wanna Look around, ANGELICA, ELIZA,
ANGELICA: Burr, you disgust me. ELIZA, PEGGY: Look around, revelation Look PEGGY:
look around at how in New York! around, the The Schuyler sisters!
BURR: Ah, so you’ve discussed me. Lucky we are to be alive right now! So listen to my Revolution’s Work, work!
I’m a trust fund, baby, you can trust me! 5 Declaration Happening We’re looking for a
mind at
ANGELICA, Work, work! work!
ELIZA, PEGGY: Hey!
We hold FEMALE Hey! Hey! Work, work!
these truths ENSEMBLE: Hey!
to be self evident Look around! Work, work!
That all men are Hey! Hey! ELIZA,
created equal Look around! COMPANY: ANGELICA: PEGGY: Hey!
Work, work! Whoa! Hey!
Work, work! Hey! Hey!
Hey!

In the greatest
Work, work! In the greatest
city in the world city in the world

COMPANY:
In the greatest city in the world!

18 19
 FA R M E R R E F U T E D
Y O U ’ L L B E BA C K
1

Samuel Seabury stands on a box. He reads. eloquently

than thee! They’re playing a
SAMUEL SEABURY: Hear ye, hear ye! dangerous
My name is Samuel Seabury and I present: But strangely, your Game.
“Free Thoughts On the Proceedings of the mange is the same.
Continental Congress!” I pray the King shows KING GEORGE: You say And no don’t change the subject, 1
1 I was having a drink
I began with the with Hugh Laurie, with
harpsichord progression Heed not the rabble who scream revolution, you his mercy The price of my love’s not a price that you’re Cuz you’re my favorite subject,
1 3 whom I’d worked on his
and wrote this melody They have not your interests at heart. Is he in Jersey? willing to pay. My sweet, submissive subject, series House, and I told
and lyrics rather 4 him I wanted to write
quickly. None of this
For shame, You cry My loyal, royal subject,
a breakup letter from
is in Seabury’s writings. MULLIGAN: Oh my god. Tear this dude apart. For the revolution! In your tea which you hurl in the sea when you Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever . . . King George to the
2 For shame, see me go by.2 colonies. Without
The fun (and COMPANY: blinking, he improv’d
laborious part) of this SEABURY: Chaos and bloodshed are not a solution. Why so sad? You’ll be back, at me, “Awwww, you’ll
tune was having Don’t let them lead you astray. For the revolution! Remember we made an arrangement when Like before, be back,” wagging his
Hamilton dismantle finger. I laughed and
Seabury using the same
This Congress does not speak for me. SEABURY: Heed— you went away. I will fight the fight and win the war
filed it away. Thanks,
vowels and cadences and Now you’re making me mad. For your love, Hugh Laurie.
talking over him. Heed
BURR: Let him be. HAMILTON: If you repeat yourself again Remember, despite our estrangement, For your praise, 2
becomes He’d. Rabble/ The Boston Tea Party
Unravel. Heart/hard I’m gonna— I’m your man. And I’ll love you till my dying days. reference. Blink and
to listen to you, etc. SEABURY: They’re playing a dangerous game. You’ll be back. When you’re gone you miss it.
It felt like the kind of 5
superpower Hamilton I pray the King shows you his mercy. SEABURY, HAMILTON: Scream— Soon you’ll see. I’ll go mad, 3
I wrote this song on
could deploy to impress For shame, for shame . . . You’ll remember you belong to me. So don’t throw away this thing we had. my honeymoon in the
his friends.
HAMILTON: Honestly, look at me, please You’ll be back. Cuz when push comes to shove South Pacific. I’d
3 already had the idea,
I have a lot of family HAMILTON: don’t read! Time will tell. I will kill your friends and family to but as my wife and I
in Jersey. When I kid, Yo! SEABURY: You’ll remember that I served you well. remind you of my love. walked around these
it’s with love. amazing islands, I
He’d have you all Heed not the rabble SEABURY: Not your interests— Oceans rise.
started hearing King
4
Meta joke. I love this unravel at the Empires fall. Da da da dat da da da da da ya George and singing to
joke. It just showed up. myself. The whole tune
Sound of screams but the Who scream HAMILTON: Don’t modulate the key then not We have seen each other through it all, Da da dat dat da ya da!
was written without a
Revolution is comin’ Revolution, they debate with me! 4 And when push Da da da dat da dat da da da piano. Just a melody in
The Why should a tiny island across the sea regulate Comes to shove, Da ya da da da dat dat- search of its moorings.

Have-nots are gonna Have not your the price of tea? I will send a fully armed battalion Everybody! 4
I just love that King
win this, it’s interests at To remind you of my love! George has a clever turn
2 of phrase on “subject”
Hard to listen to you heart. BURR: Alexander, please! ENSEMBLE:
3 and beats it into the
with a straight face. Da da da dat da dat da da da ya da Da da da dat da dat da da da ya da ground.
Chaos and bloodshed Chaos and bloodshed HAMILTON: Burr, I’d rather be divisive than Da da dat dat da ya da! Da da dat dat da ya da!
5
He did.
already haunt are not indecisive, drop the niceties. Da da da dat da dat da da da da ya da, Da da da dat da dat da da da da ya da
Us, honestly you A solution Da da dat dat da ya . . . da da dat dat da ya da!
shouldn’t even The King’s heralds enter.
Talk and what about Don’t let them lead You say our love is draining and you can’t go on. British soldiers in red coats emerge. One rebel
Boston? you ENSEMBLE: Silence! A message from the King! You’ll be the one complaining when I is killed.
Look at the A message from the King! am gone . . .
Cost, ’n all that we’ve Astray.
lost ’n you talk FULL COMPANY: A message from the King!
About Congress?! This Congress does
not speak for (King George appears.)
My dog speaks more Me,

20 21
 R I G H T HA N D MA N WASHINGTON: Check it—
Can I be real a second?
HAMILTON: We gotta stop ’em and rob ’em
Of their advantages.
For just a millisecond?
Let down my guard and tell the people how MULLIGAN: Rah!
I feel a second?
Now I’m the model of a modern major HAMILTON: Let’s take a stand with the stamina
The company sees a full armada, offstage. HAMILTON: Understand? It’s the only way to— general, 5 God has granted us.
The venerated Virginian veteran whose men Hamilton won’t abandon ship,
COMPANY: British Admiral Howe’s got troops HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, are all Yo, let’s steal their cannons— 7
on the water. LAFAYETTE: Rise up! Rise up! Lining up, to put me up on a pedestal,
Thirty-two thousand troops in New York Writin’ letters to relatives MULLIGAN: Shh- COMPANY:
1
harbor. HAMILTON: Here he comes! Embellishin’ my elegance and eloquence, boom! Boom!
1
This section used to But the elephant is in the room. 5
My first part in high
live in the middle of
ENSEMBLE 1: George Washington enters, heralded by sol- The truth is in ya face when ya hear the WASHINGTON: Goes the cannon, watch the school was as The
the song, but it’s much
Pirate King in The
more effective at the Thirty-two thousand ENSEMBLE 2: diers. British cannons go . . . blood and the shit spray and . . .
Pirates of Penzance.
top: Imagine the troops in New York Thirty-two thousand It was going to sneak
waterways around New
harbor troops in New York ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general! ENSEMBLE: Boom! COMPANY: Boom! in one way or another.
York surrounded by
I also think my rhyme
an armada so thick it When they surround harbor for general is better
chokes out the sky.
our troops! BURR: Ladies and gentlemen! WASHINGTON: Any hope of success is fleeting, WASHINGTON: Goes the cannon, we’re than theirs, “mineral.”
2
All props to Gilbert &
He did. In a letter to They surround our They surround our How can I keep leading, when the people I’m abandonin’ Kips Bay and . . . Sullivan, kings of
his friend Ned Stevens troops! troops! ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general! leading keep retreating? light patter.
at age 14, he writes “I
wish there was a war.” When they surround They surround our We put a stop to the bleeding as the British COMPANY: Boom! 6
My elementary school
our troops! troops! BURR: The moment you’ve been waiting for! take Brooklyn, had mandatory chess
3
For many in this
Knight takes rook,6 but look, WASHINGTON: There’s another ship and . . . class from K–4th grade.
country, joining the I’m still not very good
armed services is still HAMILTON: As a kid in the Caribbean I wished ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general! at the game, but I know
seen as a path to 2
for a war. WASHINGTON: ENSEMBLE: COMPANY: Boom! my way around a chess
security. ’Twas ever metaphor.
thus. I knew that I was poor BURR: The pride of Mount Vernon! We are outgunned, What?
I knew it was the only way to— Outmanned, What? WASHINGTON: We just lost the southern 7
Hamilton and
4
I wanted this to sound Mulligan really did go
ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general! Outnumbered, tip and . . .
chaotic, and I often on cannon-stealing
cited to Lacamoire HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, outplanned. adventures together.
the background vocals LAFAYETTE: Rise up! BURR: George Washington! Buck, buck, buck, COMPANY: Boom!
in Pharoahe Monch’s 8
buck, buck! This is a direct quote
“Simon Says”: It sounds
from Washington, in a
like a million dudes in a HAMILTON: If they tell my story WASHINGTON: ENSEMBLE: We gotta make an all WASHINGTON: We gotta run to Harlem quick, rare temper tantrum.
basement. I love that
sound. I am either gonna die on the battlefield in We are outgunned, What? out stand we can’t afford another slip.
glory or— 3 Outmanned, What? 4 Guns and horses giddyup,
Ayo, I’m gonna need a I decide to divvy up
HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, Outnumbered, Buck, buck, buck, right hand man. Buck, buck, buck, My forces, they’re skittish as the British cut the
LAFAYETTE: Rise up! outplanned. buck, buck! buck, buck! city up.
Incoming! This close to giving up, facing mad scrutiny,
HAMILTON: I will fight for this land We gotta make an all I scream in the face of this mass mutiny:
But there’s only one man out stand HAMILTON: They’re battering down the Are these the men with which I am to defend
Who can give us a command so we can— Battery America? 8
Ayo, I’m gonna need a Check the damages. We ride at midnight, Manhattan in the distance.
HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, right hand man. Buck, buck, buck, I cannot be everywhere at once, people.
LAFAYETTE: Rise up! buck, buck! MULLIGAN: Rah! I’m in dire need of assistance . . .

22 23
 Washington’s tent. Burr enters. WASHINGTON: Close the door on your way out. WASHINGTON: I’m being honest. information ’til ELIZA,
I’m working with a third of what our Congress we rise to the ANGELICA,
BURR: Your Excellency, sir! Burr exits. has promised. occasion of our PEGGY,
We are a powder keg about to explode, new nation. Sir! WOMEN:
WASHINGTON: Who are you? HAMILTON: Have I done something wrong, sir? I need someone like you to lighten the load. So? Whoa, whoa,
whoa . . .
BURR: Aaron Burr, sir? WASHINGTON: On the contrary. COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON): I am not
Permission to state my case? I called you here because our odds are throwin’ away my shot! ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general!
beyond scary. I am not throwin’ away my shot!
WASHINGTON: As you were. Your reputation precedes you, but I have Ayo, I am just like my country, I’m young, HAMILTON:
9
Burr showed valor as a to laugh. scrappy and hungry! Rise up! LAURENS, LAFAY-
soldier in his own right,
and took part in BURR: Sir, ETTE, MULLIGAN:
expeditions against the I was a captain under General Montgomery. HAMILTON: Sir? HAMILTON: I am not throwing away my shot! 13 What?
British. He worked for
Washington for a few Until he caught a bullet in the neck in Quebec,
weeks and that’s about and well, in summary 9 WASHINGTON: Hamilton, how come no one WASHINGTON: Son, ENSEMBLE:
it. We don’t know why
they parted. So I made
I think that I could be of some assistance. can get you on their staff? Here comes
this scene up. I admire how you keep firing on the British WASHINGTON, COMPANY: We are outgunned, the general!
10 My first draft of this from a distance. 10 HAMILTON: Sir! outmanned!
line read,”I don’t mean SCHUYLER
to brag, but my dad was WASHINGTON: Huh. WASHINGTON: Don’t get me wrong, you’re HAMILTON: You need all the help you can get. SISTERS, LAURENS, 13 I rewrote this line
the president of late in the process.
Princeton, soooo . . . ”
a young man, of great renown. I have some friends. Laurens, Mulligan, HAMILTON: WOMEN: LAFAY-
Tommy and I wanted
It was funny, but too BURR: I have some questions, a couple of I know you stole British cannons when we were Marquis de Lafayette, okay, what else? Rise up! Rise up! ETTE, to pinpoint the moment
snotty. I wanted
suggestions still downtown. MULLIGAN: when Hamilton puts
Washington to not trust away dreams of
Burr on a chemical On how to fight instead of fleeing west. Nathaniel Green and Henry Knox wanted to WASHINGTON AND COMPANY: What? martyrdom to rise in a
level, the way only hire you . . . Outnumbered, outplanned! different way. (Not that
really wise people, dogs, he doesn’t still harbor
and kids can read people WASHINGTON: Yes? ENSEMBLE: Here comes the general!
martyrdom fantasies.
on first meeting. HAMILTON: To be their secretary? I don’t HAMILTON: We’ll need some spies on the inside, Keep reading.)
11
11 This used to read, BURR: Well— think so. Some king’s men who might let some things LAURENS,
“I came to be a soldier, slide— SCHUYLER LAFAY-
not a secretary.” HAMILTON: Your Excellency, you wanted to WASHINGTON: Why’re you upset? ELIZA, HAMILTON: SISTERS: ETTE,
The revision reflects
Hamilton’s inability to see me? ANGELICA, Rise up! Rise up! MULLIGAN:
contain his anger. Papi, HAMILTON: I’m not— PEGGY, What?
Washington’s only
trying to figure out WASHINGTON: Hamilton, come in, have you HAMILTON: COMPANY: WOMEN:
what’s wrong, be easy. met Burr? WASHINGTON: It’s alright, you want to fight, I’ll write to Boom! Whoa, whoa, COMPANY: Here comes the general!
12 you’ve got a hunger. Congress and whoa . . .
Real talk from
Washington. Nothing HAMILTON: Yes, sir. I was just like you when I was younger. tell ’em we need HAMILTON: What?
to add, except if Head full of fantasies of dyin’ like a martyr? supplies,
present-day me could
talk to adolescent me, HAMILTON, BURR: We keep meeting. You rally the WASHINGTON: And his right hand man!
this is probably what HAMILTON: Yes. guys, master the
I’d say.
BURR: As I was saying, sir, I look forward to element of COMPANY: Boom!
seeing your strategy play out. WASHINGTON: Dying is easy, young man. surprise.
12
Living is harder. Chicka- Whoa, whoa,
WASHINGTON: Burr? I’ll rise above boom! whoa . . .
HAMILTON: Why are you telling me this? my station,
BURR: Sir? organize your

24 25
 1
“Helpless” was my

A W I N T E R ’ S BA L L H E LP L E S S
1 second attempt at a
song for this moment.
I wrote a tune, covering
the same events, called
“This One’s Mine.”
I played it for my wife
and she made a face.
“What?”
BURR: How does the bastard orphan son of a The scene gradually shifts. We are at a winter HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS: Hey She grabbed you by “Nothing. It’s good.
whore go on and on, soldiers’ ball. Hey the arm, I’m thinkin’ But it doesn’t feel like
it’s the final thing.”
Grow into more of a phenomenon? Hey hey “I’m through.” Ooohh “What do you mean?”
Watch this obnoxious arrogant loudmouth COMPANY: Seventeen eighty. “I dunno. It just doesn’t
feel like you’re done.”
bother HAMILTON, BURR, LAURENS, ALL WOMEN Then you look back at I stewed, I cursed,
1
Be seated at the right hand of the father. BURR: A winter’s ball (EXCEPT ELIZA): Hey hey hey hey me and suddenly I’m Helpless! I stalked around the
apartment . . . and a
Washington hires Hamilton right on sight. And the Schuyler sisters are the envy of all. helpless!
few hours later I wrote
1 But Hamilton still wants to Yo, if you could marry a sister, you’re rich, son. FEMALE ENSEMBLE, this. She was right.
Religion is like chess
for me—I grew up
fight, not write. ELIZA: ANGELICA, PEGGY: Oh, look at those eyes, 4 2
In the original tune,
learning it, and it came Now Hamilton’s skill with a HAMILTON: Is it a question of if, Burr, or Ohh, I do I do I do I Hey hey hey hey Look into your eyes, Eliza’s opening line
in awfully handy as a
quill is undeniable which one? 3 Dooo! Hey! Hey hey hey hey Oh! And the sky’s the limit was “I have never been
shared reference for our the pretty one or the
characters. But what do we have in common? Ohh, I do I do I do I Hey hey hey hey Yeah, I’m I’m funny one or the witty
2 We’re reliable with the Eliza, Angelica & Peggy enter. Dooo! Boy, you got me Hey hey hey Helpless, I know Helpless! one, I stayed on the
This is most likely side.” This was,
a tale spread by John
Down for the count,
obviously, selling Eliza
Adams later in life. But ALL MEN: Ladies! ELIZA AND WOMEN: Helpless! And I’m drownin’ in ’em way too short: She’s all
I like Hamilton owning those things. But in her
Look into your eyes, and the sky’s the limit.
it. At this point in the opening sentence,
story he is at peak BURR: There are so many to deflower. I’m helpless! I’m so into you I’m helpless! I wanted her to
cockiness. Down for the count, and I’m drownin’ in ’em. I am so into you establish that she is not
the center of the party:
3
Here’s an example
ALL MEN: Ladies! Look into your eyes, That’s Angelica’s gig.
of internal assonance ELIZA: I have never been the type to try and And the sky’s the I took the structure of
strengthening a 2 the discarded sentence
BURR: Looks! Proximity to power. grab the spotlight. limit I’m helpless! and used it later for
punchline: We’ve got
the rhyme at the We were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night, I know, I’m down for Angelica, to far better
end—”rich, son” with effect: “So I’m the oldest
ALL MEN: Ladies! Laughin’ at my sister as she’s dazzling the room. the count
“which one”—but you’re and the wittiest and the
scarcely aware of the Then you walked in and my heart went “Boom!” And I’m drownin’ gossip in New York City
agreement between BURR: They delighted and distracted him. Tryin’ to catch your eye from the side of in ’em Down for the count, is insidious . . . ”
“sister” and “if, Burr”
in the middle of the Martha Washington named her the ballroom. And I’m drownin’ in ’em 3
All that survives of
2
sentence. feral tomcat after him! Everybody’s dancin’ and the band’s top volume. “This One’s Mine.”
HAMILTON: Where are you taking me? 5 4
Several contemporary
HAMILTON: That’s true. ELIZA, WOMEN: Grind to the rhythm as we letters describe
wine and dine. ANGELICA: I’m about to change your life. Hamilton’s eyes:
Apparently they were
really something.
ELIZA: Grab my sister, and whisper, “Yo, this HAMILTON: Then by all means, lead the way.
5
This dialogue is
one’s mine.” 3 important because we’re
WOMEN: ELIZA: Elizabeth Schuyler. It’s a pleasure to going to visit it twice:
once from Eliza’s
Ooohh meet you.
perspective, and once
ELIZA: My sister from Angelica’s
made her way across HAMILTON: Schuyler? perspective. I thought
a lot about Maria and
the room to you Ooohh Tony’s dialogue in West
ANGELICA: My sister. Side Story, when they
first meet. You have
And I got nervous, eight lines to encapsu-
thinking “What’s she ELIZA: Thank you for all your service. late love at first sight:
Go. The challenge
gonna do?” Ooohh here is the same.

26 27
 Hamilton kisses Eliza’s hand. Helpless! Helpless! I’ve never felt Hamilton & Eliza’s wedding. As Eliza &
6 This is based on a Look into your eyes, so— Hey! Yeah, Alexander exchange rings, the guests sing.
real letter Angelica sent HAMILTON: If it takes fighting a war for us to And the sky’s the yeah! Down for the
Eliza. She was being as
playful as she is here.
meet, it will have been worth it. limit I’m I’m count WOMEN:
Helpless! Helpless! Down for the And I’m In New York, you can be a new man . . .
7 This is just a note to
ANGELICA: I’ll leave you to it. Hoo! Down for the count, count, I’m— drownin’ in In New York, you can be a new man . . .
say I wish you could
hear the insane things And I’m drownin’ in My life is gon’ ’em In New York, you can be a new man . . .
Sydney Harcourt, who ELIZA, WOMEN One week later ’em I’m be fine
originated the role of Pa
Schuyler, and I say to Helpless! Cuz Eliza’s in it. ELIZA: Helpless.
each other upstage in ELIZA: I’m writin’ a letter nightly That boy is mine. I look into
this scene.
Now my life gets better, every letter that you That boy is mine! your eyes, Helpless!
8
And here comes write me. Look into your eyes, And the sky’s
Hamilton, anti-
Laughin’ at my sister, cuz she wants to form And the sky’s the limit the limit
bragging. In reality,
before their marriage, a harem. I’m I’m
Hamilton wrote a Helpless! Helpless! Helpless! Helpless!
heartbreaking letter
trying to shatter any ANGELICA: I’m just sayin’, if you really loved Down for the count, Down for the count, Down for the
romantic notions Eliza me, you would share him. 6 And I’m drownin’ in ’em. And I’m drownin’ in ’em. count, And
might have about
marrying a penniless Helpless! Helpless! drownin’ in I’m drownin’
man. At the same time, ELIZA: WOMEN: Down for the count, ’em in ’em
he’s bragging about
his top-notch brain.
Ha! Two weeks later, And I’m drownin’ in ’em.
This swagger, built on Two weeks later,
a bedrock of total
In the living room HAMILTON:
insecurity, is the
contradiction that is Stressin’ Stressin’ Eliza, I don’t have a dollar to my name 8
our Hamilton. 7
My father’s stone-faced An acre of land, a troop to command,
9
And here’s where
While you’re asking for his a dollop of fame.
we prove that my wife Blessin’. Blessin’. All I have’s my honor, a tolerance for pain,
was right, and “This
I’m dying inside, as you A couple of college credits and my top-notch brain.
One’s Mine” was never
going to be right wine Insane, your family brings out a different
approach for this And dine side of me.
moment. By wrapping
the song around the And I’m tryin’ not to Peggy confides in me, Angelica tried to take a
word “Helpless,” we cry, ’cause bite of me.
encapsulate several
things: the giddy There’s nothing that No stress, my love for you is never in doubt,
helplessness of falling your mind can’t do. Ooohh We’ll get a little place in Harlem and we’ll
in love, but also
Hamilton’s fear of
My father makes his figure it out.
helplessness, and his way across the room I’ve been livin’ without a family since I was a child.
identification of
to you. Ooohh My father left, my mother died, I grew up buckwild.
helplessness in the first
woman he ever knew, I panic for a second, But I’ll never forget my mother’s face, that was real 9
his mother. It’s a weak thinking, “We’re And long as I’m alive, Eliza, swear to God, you’ll
point for him, it’s
Kryptonite. And it’ll through.” Ooohh never feel so . . .
come back in the form WOMEN:
of another character in
Act Two. Stay tuned. But then he shakes ELIZA: Helpless!
your hand and says, HAMILTON: I do I do I do
“Be true.” Ooohh Eliza I dooo! Helpless!
And you turn back to
me, smiling, and I’m I do I do I do
I dooo!

28 29
1
This is the most

SA T I S F I E D
ambitious tune in this
1
show (and that’s saying
a lot). It was always
a wedding toast,
originally entitled,
“Can I Say Something?”
I made several starts
and stops on this thing,
never really satisfied It is Alexander & Eliza’s wedding night. ANGELICA: I remember that night I just might
(heh) with the musical
feeling. The answer Laurens is finishing up his speech. Regret that night for the rest of my days
came in a song I’d
already written.
About two years prior, LAURENS: Alright, alright. That’s what I’m I remember those soldier boys
2
I’d written some music talkin’ about! Now everyone, give it up for the Tripping over themselves to win our praise
for Karen Olivo for a
project that never saw
maid of honor, Angelica Schuyler!
the light of day. She’d I remember that dreamlike candelight
written some beautiful,
ANGELICA: Like a dream that you can’t quite place
unrequited-love lyrics, 4
which I’d adapted into A toast to This is the genius
a pretty, haunting, and of choreographer Andy
the groom ALL MEN: But Alexander, I’ll never forget Blankenbuehler, who
cool dance tune. It
popped up in my shuffle To the groom! the first did the math on how
and I, like Angelica far back we’d have to
To the groom! ALL WOMEN: Time I saw your face rewind the scene.
upon meeting
Hamilton, realized it To the groom! To the groom! I have never been the same We don’t just cover
“Helpless”—by
was everything I ever To the bride. Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame
wanted in that moment. necessity, we rewind all
I frantically called
To the bride! And when you said hi I forgot my dang name the way to “A Winter’s
Karen and said, “Hey, To the bride! To the bride! Set my heart aflame, ev’ry part aflame, Ball,” because Angelica
remember that tune meets Hamilton first,
From your and Andy stages that in
I wrote you? I kind
of need it back. I won’t sister. To the bride! FULL COMPANY: This is not a game . . . pantomime here. I’m
use any of your lyrics, getting a headache just
Angelica! ELIZA: thinking about
but I need that music,
and you’re not using it Angelica! Angelica! HAMILTON: You strike me as a woman who planning it.
anyway, soooooooo Who is always Angelica! has never been satisfied. 5 5
please?” This exchange,
There was a pause, by your side. like the six lines of
and she said, “Yeah, By your side! By your side! ANGELICA: I’m sure I don’t know what you dialogue, needs to
dude. It’s your music.” carry everything in a
So Angelica’s haunting
To your union. mean. You forget yourself. super-compact amount
arpeggio in “Satisfied” To the union! of time. It’s when the
owes a debt to Karen multiple meanings of
To the union! To the HAMILTON: You’re like me. I’m never “Satisfied” will come
Olivo—she helped
bring it into the world. revolution! satisfied. in the handiest.
Hamilton goes full
2 To the Jordan Catalano here.
There’s no reason this
should be funny, except revolution! ANGELICA: Is that right?
Anthony Ramos says And the hope
it all the time, so I just
had him say it, and it
that you provide. HAMILTON: I have never been satisfied.
is funny. You provide!
3 You provide! You provide! Hamilton kisses Angelica’s hand. The company
“Satisfied,” like
“Helpless,” allows us to May you gasps.
twist several meanings always . . . HAMILTON:
from it. There is all
manner of satisfac- Always— Always— ANGELICA: My name is Angelica Schuyler.
tion—sexual, emotional, be satisfied. 3
financial. It’s also a
code word used in
Rewind— Rewind— HAMILTON: Alexander Hamilton.
dueling—“To demand
satisfaction.” It’s also
Rewind to the ballroom scene where Hamilton ANGELICA: Where’s your fam’ly from?
onomatopoetic—it feels
like it sounds, satisfying met Eliza. 4
to sing. We wring every
last bit from it.

30
 HAMILTON: Unimportant. There’s a million HAMILTON: Where are you taking me? ANGELICA: I know my sister like I know You provide!
things I haven’t done but my own mind, You provide! You provide!
6
I wrote this whole Just you wait, just you wait . . . ANGELICA: I’m about to change your life. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind. May you
verse in my trailer in
one frenzied burst
If I tell her that I love him she’d be silently always HAMILTON:
6 8
between scenes of the ANGELICA: So so so— HAMILTON: Then by all means, lead the way. resigned, Always— Always—
little-seen, little-loved
So this is what it feels like to match wits He’d be mine. Be satisfied.
NBC show Do No
Harm, wherein I played With someone at your level! What the hell is the COMPANY: Number one! She would say, “I’m fine.” Be satisfied,
scientist Dr. Ruben catch? It’s Be satisfied.
Marcado. It was a
dream job. We shot on The feeling of freedom, of seein’ the light, ANGELICA: I’m a girl in a world in which COMPANY: She’d be lying. Be satisfied,
location in Philadel- It’s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite! My only job is to marry rich.
phia, a perfect place to
research Hamilton, I You see it, right? My father has no sons so I’m the one 9 The scene dissolves, as Angelica continues. And I know MEN:
was #5 on the call sheet, The conversation lasted two minutes, maybe Who has to social climb for one, Be satisfied. WOMEN:
which meant I only
worked two to three
three minutes, ’Cause I’m the oldest and the wittiest and ANGELICA: But when I fantasize Be satisfied. Be satisfied.
days a week, and I was Ev’rything we say in total agreement, it’s the gossip in at night Be satisfied.
a short Amtrak ride
A dream and it’s a bit of a dance, New York City is insidious It’s Alexander’s eyes She’ll be Be satisfied.
from home. I also made
friends with Steve A bit of a posture, it’s a bit of a stance, he’s a Alexander is penniless, As I romanticize what might happy as
Pasquale, Samm Bit of a flirt, but I’m ’a give it a chance. Ha! That doesn’t mean I want him any less. Have been if I hadn’t sized him Be satisfied. 10 Oof. Tryin’ to
Levine, Phylicia
Rashad, Ruta Gedmint- I asked about his fam’ly, did you see his answer? Up so quickly. Be satisfied. out-Eponine Eponine
up in this piece.
as, Michael Esper, His hands started fidgeting, he looked askance ELIZA: Elizabeth Schuyler. It’s a pleasure to At least my dear Eliza’s his bride.
wonderful actors all. 11
I consider Do No Harm He’s penniless, he’s flying by the seat of meet you. his wife, And I know Be satisfied. Be satisfied. Funny thing about
an ill-fated show but his pants At least I keep his eyes Be satisfied. saying a word a lot:
also my Hamilton It starts to feel the
Philadelphia Residency.
Handsome and boy does he know it! HAMILTON: Schuyler? in my life . . .10 Be satisfied. opposite of what it
11
Peach fuzz, and he can’t even grow it! Be satisfied. means. With the world
7 singing “be satisfied,”
The structure of this I wanna take him far away from this place, ANGELICA: My sister. Angelica pauses and raises a glass as the Be satisfied. without the first half
song is exactly the form
of the Personal Literary Then I turn and see my sister’s face wedding reassembles around her. of the sentence, it feels
like a perverse, tragic
Essay I learned in 8th and she is . . . COMPANY: Number two! ANGELICA: He will never be satisfied.
mantra.
grade English.
ANGELICA: COMPANY: I will never be satisfied.
Introduction, Statement
of Thesis, Three Proofs, ELIZA: Helpless . . . ANGELICA: He’s after me cuz I’m a To the groom! To the groom!
conclusion. Here come
Schuyler sister. To the groom! WOMEN:
the three proofs.
ANGELICA: And I know she is . . . That elevates his status, I’d To the groom! To the groom!
8
This scene, when Have to be naïve to set that aside, To the bride!
broken up because of
the rewind, now takes
ELIZA: Helpless . . . Maybe that is why I introduced him to Eliza. To the bride!
on more meaning. Now that’s his bride. To the bride!
When the scene ends
ANGELICA: And her eyes are just . . . Nice going, Angelica, he was right, To the bride! To the bride!
here, we see how into
Angelica Hamilton is. You will never be satisfied. From your sister.
Lead the way! ELIZA: Helpless . . . Angelica! ELIZA:
9
Okay, so Philip Schuy-
ELIZA: Thank you for all your service. Angelica! Angelica!
ler really had loads of ANGELICA: And I realize Who is always
sons. I conveniently
Hamilton kisses Eliza’s hand. by your side.
forgot that while I was
writing this in service ANGELICA AND COMPANY: Three fundamen- By your side.
of a larger point: tal truths at the exact same time . . . 7 HAMILTON: If it takes fighting a war By your side.
Angelica is a world-
class intellect in a world for us to meet, it will have been worth it. To your union.
that does not allow her To the union! To the union!
to flex it.
ANGELICA: I’ll leave you to it. To the To the
revolution! revolution!
COMPANY: Number three! And the hope
you provide.

32 33
 The
From what I hear, you’ve made yourself BURR: You’re very kind, but I’m afraid it’s

STORY OF TONIGHT indispensable. unlawful, sir.

LAURENS: Well, well, I heard HAMILTON: What do you mean?

( R E P R I S E ) You’ve got a special someone on the side, Burr.
3
This was the way into
Burr. I knew he and
BURR: She’s married. Hamilton circled each
HAMILTON: Is that so? other all their lives,
I knew they went from
HAMILTON: I see. friends to frenemies to
LAURENS: What are you tryin’ to hide, Burr? foes, but it wasn’t til
I read this detail
Later in the night. Mulligan, Laurens & La- HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE: Woo! BURR: She’s married to a British officer. 3
online—that Theodosia
fayette enter, with goblets in hand, razzing BURR: I should go. was married to a British
Hamilton. LAFAYETTE: We’ll tell the story of tonight. HAMILTON: Oh shit . . . officer when Aaron
Burr met her, and he
HAMILTON: No, these guys should go. waited until she was
LAURENS: I may not live to see our glory! LAURENS: Let’s have another round— BURR: Congrats again, Alexander. Smile more. available—that the
character of Burr came
LAFAYETTE: What? I’ll see you on the other side of the war. free in my imagination.
MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: I may not live to Burr enters. Imagine Hamilton
waiting—for anything.
see our glory! LAURENS: No! HAMILTON: I will never understand you.
That’s when I realized
HAMILTON: Well, if it isn’t Aaron Burr. If you love this woman, go get her! What are our task was to
1 dramatize not two
I wanted to hear this LAURENS: But I’ve seen wonders great and HAMILTON: Leave us alone. you waiting for?
tune again: This is the ideological opposites,
tune of brotherhood small. BURR: Sir. but a fundamental
among these friends, MULLIGAN: Man . . . BURR: I’ll see you on the other side of the war. difference in tempera-
but it can also ment. No easy task.
encapsulate rowdiness MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: I’ve seen wonders HAMILTON: I didn’t think that you would make it. But that was the task.
and the lewd roast that great and small. Mulligan, Laurens & Lafayette slink off. HAMILTON: I’ll see you on the other side of
occurs.
BURR: To be sure. the war.
2 LAURENS: Cuz if the tomcat can get married, HAMILTON: It’s alright, Burr. I wish you’d
Tommy Kail and I
always described this MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Burr! brought this girl with you tonight, Burr.
scene as “When your
hometown friends are MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: If Alexander can
at the party with your get married— BURR: I came to say congratulations.
college friends.”

LAURENS: There’s hope for our ass, after all! MULLIGAN: Spit a verse, Burr!

LAFAYETTE: Raise a glass to freedom. BURR: I see the whole gang’s here.

2
LAURENS, MULLIGAN: Hey! LAFAYETTE: You are the worst, Burr!
1
Something you will never see again!
HAMILTON: Ignore them. Congrats to you,
MULLIGAN: No matter what she tells you. Lt. Colonel.
I wish I had your command instead of manning
LAFAYETTE: Let’s have another round tonight! George’s journal.

LAURENS: Raise a glass to the four of us! BURR: No, you don’t.

LAFAYETTE, HAMILTON: Ho! HAMILTON: Yes, I do.

MULLIGAN: To the newly not poor of us! BURR: Now, be sensible.

34 35
1
Jonathan Edwards,
writer of “Sinners in
the Hands of an
Angry God.”

2
WA I T F O R I T BURR:
I am not falling behind or running late
He exhibits no restraint.
He takes and he takes and he takes
Just a note to say that And he keeps winning anyway.
I love how “hymns won’t
teach ya” agrees with ENSEMBLE: He changes the game.
“brimstone preacha.” Wait for it. He plays and he raises the stakes.
Super subliminal but
effective. I actually
BURR: Theodosia writes me a letter ev’ry day. BURR: When they died they left no instructions. Wait for it. And if there’s a reason
wrote this verse first I’m keeping her bed warm while her husband Just a legacy to protect. Wait for it. He seems to thrive when so few survive,
and swapped it with
is away. Wait for it. then goddamnit—
the Theodosia verse
after taking a step back. He’s on the British side in Georgia. BURR, ENSEMBLE:
He’s tryin’ to keep the colonies in line. Death doesn’t discriminate 3 BURR: BURR: I’m willing to COMPANY: I’m willing
3
I often write loops.
I’ll make eight or 16
But he can keep all of Georgia. Between the sinners and the saints, I am not standing still, wait for it. to wait for it.
bars of music I think Theodosia, she’s mine. It takes, and it takes, and it takes I am lying in wait. Wait for it,
I like, and I sing over it
And we keep living anyway. Wait for—
until it feels true. This
is how “Wait For It” Love doesn’t discriminate We rise and we fall ENSEMBLE: I’m willing to wait
was born. Between the sinners And we break, Wait for it . . .
At this point in my
life, I was carrying And the saints. And we make our mistakes. Wait Life doesn’t Life doesn’t
around both an iPod It takes and it takes and it takes And if there’s a reason I’m still alive Wait discriminate discriminate
and a phone. I’m
grateful for this in And we keep loving anyway. When ev’ryone who loves me has died Between the sinners Between the sinners and
retrospect because the We laugh and we cry I’m willing to wait for it. BURR: and the saints. the saints.
entire chorus came in
one ridiculous rush, as
And we break I’m willing to wait for it. Hamilton faces an endless uphill climb. It takes and it takes It takes and it takes and
I listened to the music And we make our mistakes. and it takes it takes 4
How do you dramatize
on a loop on a crowded stasis (waiting for it)?
And if there’s a reason I’m by her side Wait for it. ENSEMBLE: We rise And we keep living
A train to a friend’s You give the audience a
birthday party in When so many have tried Climb anyway glimpse of the immense
Williamsburg. Then I’m willing to wait for it. ENSEMBLE: Climb self-control that makes
I lived at the top of it possible. I make you
the A train at the time, I’m willing to wait for it. Wait for it. Climb We fall We rise and we fall wait even for the words
so that meant taking the Wait for it. and we break “wait for it.”
A from 207th street to
14th street, then the L BURR: Wait for it. BURR: And we make our
into Brooklyn. I don’t My He has something to prove mistakes
know how to describe
the feeling. It did not
grandfather BURR: He has nothing to lose. And if there’s a reason And if there’s a reason
exist one moment and was a fire and I am the one thing in life I can control. I’m still alive I’m still alive
then there it was,
brimstone MEN: ENSEMBLE: When so many have When so many have
coursing through my 1
head: “Death doesn’t preacher, Preacher, ENSEMBLE: Lose died died
discriminate . . . ” preacher, Wait for it. Lose Then I’m willin’ to— Then I’ willin’ to—
I got out of the train in
Williamsburg and began preacher Wait for it. Lose
singing into the voice But these are Wait for it. Lose BURR:
memo function in my
iPod from the loop I things that Wait for it. Wait for it . . . 4 WOMEN:
was listening to in my the homilies BURR: Wait for it . . . MEN:
phone. (This is why
I was glad I had them
and hymns BURR: Hamilton’s pace is relentless, he wastes no time. Wait for it . . . Wait for it . . .
both.) I said hi to my won’t teach Teach ya, I am inimitable, Wait for it . . .
friend, wished him 2
ya. teach ya, I am an original. ENSEMBLE: Wait for it . . .
happy birthday, had
exactly half a beer, teach ya Time Wait for it . . .
and turned around for My mother WOMEN: ENSEMBLE: Time Wait for it . . .
another hour-and-a-half
train ride home, during was a genius, Genius Wait for it. Time Wait for it . . .
which I worked out the My father Wait for it. Wait for it . . .
other verse variations.
Music doesn’t commanded Respect, Wait for it. BURR: What is it like in his shoes? Wait for it . . .
discriminate when it respect. respect Wait for it. Hamilton doesn’t hesitate. Wait . . .
arrives either. It’ll get
you on the A train if
you’re open to it.

36 37
 S TA Y A L I V E WASHINGTON: Don’t engage, strike by night.
Remain relentless ’til their troops take flight.
HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE:
Raise a glass!

HAMILTON: Make it impossible to justify the MULLIGAN: I go back to New York and my
cost of the fight. apprenticeship.

1
Hamilton is seated. He is writing letters. They only take British money, so sing a song WASHINGTON: Outrun. LAFAYETTE: I ask for French aid, I pray that Probably a subcon-
scious nod to all the
of sixpence. France has sent a ship. rigatigatum and
ELIZA: Stay alive . . . HAMILTON: Outrun. cracko-jacko in West Side
Story, though if I’m
Washington enters. Hamilton stands at attention. LAURENS: I stay at work with Hamilton. being honest, I hear it
ELIZA, ANGELICA, ENSEMBLE WOMEN: WASHINGTON: Outlast. We write essays against slavery. in Method Man’s voice,
in that one Wu-Tang
Stay alive . . . WASHINGTON: The cavalry’s not coming. And every day’s a test of our camaraderie skit where they’re just
HAMILTON: Outlast. and bravery. talking about how
they’re going to beat
HAMILTON: I have never seen the general HAMILTON: Sir!
each other up. “And
so despondent. WASHINGTON: Hit ’em quick, get out fast. HAMILTON: We cut supply lines, we steal bang them sh*ts with
I have taken over writing all his correspondence. WASHINGTON: Alex, listen. There’s only one contraband. a spiked bat like blao.”
1
Congress writes, “George, attack the way for us to win this. HAMILTON: Chick-a-plao! We pick and choose our battles and places to
British forces.” Provoke outrage, outright. take a stand.
I shoot back, we have resorted to eating WASHINGTON: Stay alive ’til this horror show And ev’ry day,
our horses. HAMILTON: That’s right. is past. “Sir, entrust me with a command.”
Local merchants deny us equipment, assistance, We’re gonna fly a lot of flags half-mast. And ev’ry day,

38 39
 WASHINGTON: No. HAMILTON: Yes, sir!
TEN DUEL
HAMILTON: He dismisses me out of hand. LAURENS: A thousand soldiers die in a hundred

C O M MA N D M E N T S
1
degree heat.
General Charles Lee enters.
LAFAYETTE: As we snatch a stalemate from
ELIZA, the jaws of defeat.
HAMILTON: ANGELICA:
2
Instead of me Stay alive. HAMILTON: Charles Lee was left behind
He promotes LEE: Without a pot to piss in. MEN: One, two, three, four LAURENS: If they don’t reach a peace,
Charles Lee. Charles Lee. He started sayin’ this to anybody who that’s alright.
Makes him would listen. FULL COMPANY: Five, six, seven, eight, nine . . . Time to get some pistols and a doctor on site.
second-in-command:
LEE: Washington cannot be left alone to BURR, HAMILTON, LAURENS, LEE: It’s the HAMILTON: You pay him in advance, you treat 1
This song owes a huge
LEE: I’m a general. Whee!!!! his devices Ten Duel Commandments. him with civility. debt to Affairs Of Honor,
the book on dueling by
Indecisive, from crisis to crisis. Joanne Freeman. She is
HAMILTON: Yeah. He’s not the choice I would The best thing he can do for the revolution FULL COMPANY:It’s the Ten Duel BURR: You have him turn around so he can also one of the world’s
2 foremost Hamilton
have gone with. is turn ’n Commandments. have deniability. experts, and her insights
Go back to plantin’ tobacco in Mount Vernon. Number one! and friendship have
been indispensable.
HAMILTON, LAURENS, LAFAYETTE: COMPANY: Five!
2 He shits the bed at the Battle of Monmouth. COMPANY: Ooh!! LAURENS: The challenge: demand satisfaction.
I’m playing fast and
2
loose with who gets to If they apologize no need for further action. LEE: Duel before the sun is in the sky. The entire company
be narrator here: I want narrates this tune—it’s
Hamilton’s frustration
WASHINGTON: Ev’ryone attack! WASHINGTON: Don’t do a thing. History will
the most complex one
at being passed over prove him wrong. COMPANY: Number two! COMPANY: Pick a place to die where it’s high for our stage manager
first and foremost, so to call and our sound
LEE: Retreat! and dry, number six!
he gets to tell us this board op to track
part of the story. HAMILTON: But, sir! LAURENS: If they don’t, grab a friend, that’s because the narrator
WASHINGTON: Attack! your second. HAMILTON: Leave a note for your next of kin. keeps changing. I did
this because I wanted
WASHINGTON: We have a war to fight, let’s Tell ’em where you been. Pray that hell or the audience to
LEE: Retreat! move along. HAMILTON: Your lieutenant when there’s heaven lets you in. understand that dueling
was simply a way of
reckoning to be reckoned. life, with its own codes
WASHINGTON: What are you doing, Lee? LAURENS: Strong words from Lee, someone COMPANY: Seven! and customs. It was
almost never a crime
Get back on your feet! oughta hold him to it. COMPANY: Number three!
of passion—there were
LEE: Confess your sins, ready for the moment steps and ways out.
LEE: But there’s so many of them! HAMILTON: I can’t disobey direct orders. LEE: Have your seconds meet face to face. Of adrenaline when you finally face your opponent

WASHINGTON: I’m sorry, is this not your speed?! LAURENS: Then I’ll do it. BURR: Negotiate a peace . . . COMPANY: Number eight!
Hamilton! Alexander, you’re the closest friend I’ve got.
HAMILTON: Or negotiate a time and place. LAURENS, LEE, HAMILTON, BURR: Your last
HAMILTON: Ready, sir! HAMILTON: Laurens, do not throw away chance to negotiate.
your shot. BURR: This is commonplace, ’specially ’tween Send in your seconds, see if they can set the
WASHINGTON: Have Lafayette take the lead! recruits. record straight . . .

COMPANY: Most disputes die, and no one Hamilton & Burr meet center stage. They are
shoots. Number four! the seconds in this duel.

40 41
 BURR: Alexander. BURR: With his life? We both know that’s COMPANY: Number nine! MEN: Five six seven eight nine
absurd, sir.
HAMILTON: Aaron Burr, sir. HAMILTON: Look ’em in the eye, HAMILTON, BURR: Number
3
Burr thought dueling HAMILTON: Hang on, how many men died aim no higher.
was pointless, by the
way. He even prevented
BURR: Can we agree that duels are dumb and because Lee was inexperienced and ruinous? Summon all the courage you require. COMPANY: Ten paces!
one between Hamilton immature? Then count
and James Monroe.
BURR: Okay, so we’re doin’ this. HAMILTON, BURR: Fire!
Until, y’know. He
didn’t. HAMILTON: Sure. MEN: One two three four
But your man has to answer for his words, Burr. 3 They walk off to their respective corners.
 MEET ME INSIDE
1
WASHINGTON: Or you could die and we need Hamilton freezes, aware of the line he has crossed.
you alive.
WASHINGTON: Go home, Alexander. That’s an 5
Doing this scene with
HAMILTON: I’m more than willing to die— order from your commander. Chris is really different
every night. We’re best
friends, and it takes a
HAMILTON: Lee, do you yield! HAMILTON: Don’t call me son. WASHINGTON: Your wife needs you alive, son, HAMILTON: Sir— lot out of us. Sometimes
I need you alive— he screams my head off.
1 Other times he can
This is one of the only
BURR: You shot him in the side! Yes, he yields! WASHINGTON: This war is hard enough WASHINGTON:
barely look at me. It’s
hip-hop songs I know without infighting— Washington reaches out Go home. always real though.
in a 7/8 time signature.
LAURENS: I’m satisfied. to Hamilton.
It’s super hard to
sustain, but I like that HAMILTON: Lee called you out. We called
we break into it right BURR: Yo we gotta clear the field! his bluff. HAMILTON: Call me
after the duel. It feels
chaotic, messy. son one more time— 5
2
HAMILTON: Go! We won. WASHINGTON: You solve nothing, you
Jeremy: A remarkably
aggravate our allies to the south.
gracious thing for GW
to say. Why have him COMPANY: Here comes the general!
say it? HAMILTON: You’re absolutely right. John
Lin: History has its eyes
on him, McCarter! BURR: This should be fun. should have shot him in the mouth.
That would’ve shut him up.
3
I always loved the
Washington enters.
menace at the end of
DMX’s “Party Up (Up WASHINGTON: Son—
in Here)”: “Meet me WASHINGTON: What is the meaning of this?
outside, meet me
outside.” What’s gonna Mr. Burr? Get a medic for the general. HAMILTON: I’m notcha son—
happen outside, DMX? I
used that menace here.
BURR: Yes, sir. WASHINGTON: Watch your tone.
4 I am not a maiden in need of defending,
We’re back to 4/4 time
here. And this scene is WASHINGTON: Lee, you will never agree with I am grown.
one of my favorites—it’s
a fully functional scene me, but believe me.
with two friends at These young men don’t speak for me. HAMILTON (OVERLAPPING): Charles Lee,
cross-purposes. 2
Hamilton doesn’t know, Thank you for your service. Thomas Conway. These men take your name
or can’t internalize, that and they rake it through the mud.
Washington wants to
keep him safe—all he
BURR: Let’s ride!
wants is a command. WASHINGTON: My name’s been through a lot,
Washington’s logic falls
WASHINGTON: Hamilton! I can take it.
on deaf ears, so he
keeps trying to get
familiar, which only HAMILTON: Sir! HAMILTON: Well, I don’t have your name.
infuriates Hamilton
more. This is where I don’t have your titles.
watching every episode WASHINGTON: Meet me inside. I don’t have your land.
of The West Wing helps
you be a better writer. But, if you—
COMPANY: Meet ’im inside! Meet ’im inside!
Meet ’im inside, meet ’im meet ’im inside! 3 WASHINGTON: No—

Washington & Hamilton, alone. HAMILTON: If you gave me command of a

battalion. A group of men to lead, I could fly
WASHINGTON: Son— 4 above my station after the war.

44
 T HA T W O U L D B E
ENOUGH
1

Hamilton goes home. Eliza enters. She is vis- ELIZA: I relish being your wife.
ibly pregnant. Look around, look around . . .

ELIZA: Look around, look around, at how Look at where you are.
1 lucky we are to be alive right now. Look at where you started.
Very few songs come
to me as quickly as the Look around, look around . . . The fact that you’re alive is a miracle.
first draft of this song
did. Words and music Just stay alive, that would be enough.
together at the piano, HAMILTON: How long have you known?
from this point to the
end of the tune, in
And if this child
about 45 minutes. There ELIZA: A month or so. Shares a fraction of your smile
is no historical basis for
Or a fragment of your mind, look out, world!
this song. Eliza needed
to say it, so she did. HAMILTON: Eliza, you should have told me. That would be enough.
2
My first draft of this
song ended here, but
ELIZA: I wrote to the general a month ago. I don’t pretend to know
I revisited the tune after The challenges you’re facing.
writing “Burn” in Act
HAMILTON: No. The worlds you keep erasing and creating in
Two. Tommy and I
discussed making Eliza your mind.
even more active here— ELIZA: I begged him to send you home.
not just expressing this
sentiment, but asking But I’m not afraid.
to be let into Hamilton’s HAMILTON: You should have told me. I know who I married.
internal life. If she’s
“erasing herself from So long as you come home at the end of the day
the narrative” in Act ELIZA: I’m not sorry. That would be enough.
Two, she needs to be
part of it in Act One.
I love the way this last I knew you’d fight We don’t need a legacy.
section soars—I can’t
until the war was won. HAMILTON: We don’t need money.
imagine the song 2
without it now. The war’s not If I could grant you peace of mind
Done
But you deserve a If you could let me inside your heart
chance to meet Oh, let me be a part of the narrative
Your son. In the story they will write someday.
Look around, look Let this moment be the first chapter
around, at how lucky Where you decide to stay
we are to be alive And I could be enough
right now. And we could be enough
That would be enough.
HAMILTON: Will you relish being a poor
man’s wife? Hamilton kisses Eliza’s hand.
Unable to provide for your life.
 GUNS AND SHIPS LAFAYETTE:
WOMEN:
Hamilton! MEN:
Ah! Uh, get Get your right
yah right hand hand man
man back. back!
BURR: How does a ragtag volunteer army in And so the balance shifts. You know you Hamilton! Your right
need of a shower gotta get ya hand man
Somehow defeat a global superpower? WASHINGTON: We rendezvous with Rocham- right hand back!
1 How do we emerge victorious from the beau, consolidate their gifts. man back.
This is a weird one. I
thought everyone knew this quagmire? I mean ya Hamilton! Hamilton! 3
The last line I added
word, yet I don’t know Leave the battlefield waving Betsy Ross’ flag LAFAYETTE: We can end this war in York- gotta put some Ha- to the show. Just one
where I’ve heard it. You more fast rap for
should have seen the
higher? town, cut them off at sea but thought into ha-!
Lafayette please.
looks on the faces of my Yo. Turns out we have a secret weapon! For this to succeed, there’s someone else we the letter but
collaborators when I 4
An immigrant you know and love who’s need. the sooner the Hamilton Hamilton In real life, Hamilton
brought the song in. It’s
and his friends badgered
apparently a super- unafraid to step in! better 3 Hamilton Hamilton
Washington for a
archaic word. I really He’s constantly confusin’ confoundin’ the WASHINGTON: I know. to get ya right Ha- ha-! Ha- ha-! command on his behalf.
don’t know where I met
British henchmen. hand man back. He felt the war was
it, but it was there for
winding to a close and
me when I needed it. Ev’ryone, give it up for America’s favorite fight- WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Hamilton! was desperate to see
2 ing Frenchman. WASHINGTON: Alexander Hamilton, action before its end.
The speed at which We represent that via
Lafayette rhymes here LAFAYETTE: Sir, he knows what to do in a Troops are waiting in the field for you. 4 Lafayette’s crazy fast
was always meant to be
COMPANY: Lafayette! trench. If you join us right now, together we can turn raps.
a punchline: Here’s
1
Lafayette, the Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean— the tide.
Frenchman, who LAFAYETTE: I’m takin’ this horse by the reins Oh, Alexander Hamilton,
struggles with the word
anarchy in “My Shot,” makin’ redcoats redder with bloodstains. WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Hamilton! I have soldiers who will yield for you.
and he’s a speed demon. If we manage to get this right
It’s also meant to
demonstrate how COMPANY: Lafayette! LAFAYETTE: Sir, you’re gonna have to use They’ll surrender by early light.
Lafayette flourished him eventually. The world will never be the same, Alexander . . .
once he was put in
command. He goes
LAFAYETTE: And I’m never gonna stop until I What’s he gonna do on the bench, I mean—
from being one of make ’em drop, burn ’em up and scatter their Hamilton kisses Eliza goodbye. He enters
Hamilton’s friends to
remains, I’m— WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Hamilton! Washington’s office.
a rap god/military
superhero. Doesn’t hurt
that Daveed is one of COMPANY: Lafayette! LAFAYETTE: No one has more resilience,
the most technically 2
gifted rappers I’ve ever Or matches my practical tactical brilliance.
met, so I knew I could LAFAYETTE: Watch me engagin’ ’em! Escapin’
build him tapestries.
It was actually his idea ’em! Enragin’ ’em! I’m— WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Hamilton!
to rap this “resilience/
brilliance” rap in a
triplet rhythm, which
COMPANY: Lafayette! LAFAYETTE:
is perfect. You wanna
LAFAYETTE: I go to France for more funds. fight for your
land back? COMPANY:
COMPANY: Lafayette! Hamilton!
WASHING-
LAFAYETTE: I come back with more TON: I need
my right hand
LAFAYETTE, ENSEMBLE: Guns man back!
And ships
 H I S T O R Y HA S I T S YORKTOWN
EYES ON YOU
1
(THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN)

1
This just made me laugh:
1 Lafayette and Hamilton,
Once again, I’m in on the verge of the last
Chernow’s debt here. battle of the war, patting
Washington is a hard
COMPANY: The Battle of Yorktown. Seventeen And I’m not throwin’ away my shot!
themselves on the back.
character to bust out eighty-one. I am not throwin’ away my shot! I never anticipated that
of the marble shell the audience response
in which history has would drown out the next
encased him. When Hamilton & Lafayette enter and embrace. HAMILTON: ’Til the world turns upside down . . . few lines every night.
I read Chernow’s So we added two bars
Washington bio and just to absorb the reaction.
learned about his LAFAYETTE: Monsieur Hamilton. ENSEMBLE: ’Til the world turns upside down! Cheers still drowned ’em
disastrous first turn out. So we added four
with a command (a bars. Then it felt like we
slaughter that helped HAMILTON: Monsieur Lafayette. HAMILTON: I imagine death so much it feels were asking for applause,
trigger the French and more like a memory. and they delivered, and it
Indian War) it unlocked was even worse. We went
him for me. This is a
LAFAYETTE: In command where you belong. This is where it gets me:
back to two bars and it is
man whose first brush On my feet, what it is. Why does it get
with fame was such a delighted response?
HAMILTON: How you say, no sweat. The enemy ahead of me.
humiliation. History Because it’s true.
had its eyes on him We’re finally on the field. We’ve had quite a run. If this is the end of me, at least I have a friend
early, and he never 2
with me. This is the kind of thing
forgot it. You can feel that happens in hip-hop
him calcify under the LAFAYETTE: Immigrants: Weapon in my hand, a command, and my men
but not so much in musical
weight of it over the with me. theater: breaking the
course of his life, 1 rhyme scheme to highlight
ever conscious of it. WASHINGTON: I was younger than you are now WASHINGTON: Let me tell you what I wish HAMILTON, LAFAYETTE: We get the job done. Then I remember my Eliza’s expecting me . . .
2 a different meaning of
Restraint: It’s a lesson When I was given my first command. I’d known Not only that, my Eliza’s expecting, the word. Musical theater
Hamilton never purists may scoff, but
really learns.
I led my men straight into a massacre. When I was young and dreamed of glory. They high-five. We gotta go, gotta get the job done,
I love that Hamilton’s
You have no control. Gotta start a new nation, gotta meet my son! soliloquy here leads him
2
Once I wrote this I witnessed their deaths firsthand. HAMILTON: So what happens if we win? Take the bullets out your gun! 3 to maturity: He has to
passage, I knew it put away his martyrdom
would be the key to the I made every mistake, WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Who lives, who fantasies because others
2
whole musical. In the And felt the shame rise in me, dies, who tells your story. LAFAYETTE: I go back to France, ENSEMBLE: What? are counting on him to
words of Tupac, “This come home.
be the realest sh*t I ever
And even now I lie awake, I bring freedom to my people if I’m given
wrote.” We strut and WASHINGTON: I know that we can win. the chance. HAMILTON: The bullets out your gun! 3
This seems so counter-
fret our hour upon the
WASHINGTON: LAURENS, I know that greatness lies in you. intuitive but it’s what
stage, and how that happened: Leave it to
reverberates is entirely Knowing history has MULLIGAN: But remember from here on in, HAMILTON: We’ll be with you when you do. ENSEMBLE: What? Hamilton to make his
out of our control and its eyes Whoa, whoa, whoa men remove their bullets
entirely in the hands of to ensure no one would
those who survive us. On me. Whoa . . . WASHINGTON, LAFAYETTE: Go lead your men. HAMILTON: We move under cover and we
give away their sneak
It’s the fundamental Whoa . . . HAMILTON, MEN: move as one attack. That’s some
truth all our characters control-freak realness.
(and all of us) share. Yeah. History has its HAMILTON: I’ll see you on the other side. Through the night, we have one shot to live
I can relate.
HAMILTON, ENSEMBLE: another day.
WASHINGTON: Eyes on you. Whoa, whoa, whoa LAFAYETTE: ’Til we meet again, let’s go! We cannot let a stray gunshot give us away.
History has its COMPANY: Whoa . . . We will fight up close, seize the moment and
Eyes on Whoa, whoa, whoa Whoa . . . ENSEMBLE: I am not throwin’ away my shot! stay in it.
Me. Whoa . . . . I am not throwin’ away my shot! It’s either that or meet the business end
Whoa . . . COMPANY: History has its eyes on you. Hey yo, I’m just like my country, I’m young, of a bayonet.
Yeah. scrappy and hungry The code word is “Rochambeau,” dig me?

50 51
4
Part of the inspiration
for the structure of
“Yorktown” is what I ENSEMBLE: Rochambeau! HAMILTON: After a week of fighting, a young There are screams and church bells ringing. LAFAYETTE: Freedom for America,
call the “Busta Rhymes
soft-loud-soft” technique. man in a red coat stands on a parapet. freedom for France!
On countless songs, HAMILTON: You have your orders now, go, And as our fallen foes retreat,
Busta will give you the
smoothest, quietest man, go! LAFAYETTE: We lower our guns as he I hear the drinking song they’re singing . . . COMPANY: Down, down, down.
delivery and then full-on And so the American experiment begins 4 frantically waves a white handkerchief.
scream the next verse.
It makes for a delightful
With my friends all scattered to the winds. ALL MEN: The world turned upside down. HAMILTON: Gotta start a new nation,
tension and release, and Laurens is in South Carolina, redefining brav’ry. MULLIGAN: And just like that, it’s over. Gotta meet my son.
it’s entirely vocal. Same
We tend to our wounded. We count our dead. COMPANY: The world turned upside down, 8
here. “I have everything
I wanted but I can’t die HAMILTON, LAURENS: We’ll never be free The world turned upside down, COMPANY: Down, down, down.
today/We’re going into until we end slavery! 5 LAURENS: Black and white soldiers wonder The world turned upside down,
battle/here’s what my
friends are doing/ alike if this really means freedom. Down, MULLIGAN: We won!
Hercules Mulligan!” HAMILTON: When we finally drive the British Down, down, down.
Thank you and God bless
you, Busta Rhymes. away, WASHINGTON: Not yet. 7 LAFAYETTE: We won!
Lafayette is there waiting—
5
Laurens actually was HAMILTON: We negotiate the terms of surrender. MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS:
at the Battle of
Yorktown. He didn’t HAMILTON, LAFAYETTE: In Chesapeake Bay! I see George Washington smile. We won!
head down to South We escort their men out of Yorktown.
Carolina until later.
But I didn’t have time HAMILTON: How did we know that this plan They stagger home single file. MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS,
to explain that, so I would work? Tens of thousands of people flood the streets. HAMILTON, WASHINGTON: We won!
moved him down there
early. He spent much
We had a spy on the inside. That’s right,
of the war trying to get COMPANY: The world turned upside down!
approval for a plan that
Mulligan emerges.
would allow 3,000
black men to fight
alongside the rebels for HAMILTON, COMPANY: Hercules Mulligan!
their emancipation and
freedom.
MULLIGAN: A tailor spyin’ on the British
6
This Mulligan verse
government!
includes the greatest
lines from a really long I take their measurements, information
Mulligan verse I wrote and then I smuggle it!
for the first draft of
“My Shot.” It’s much
more effective here. COMPANY: Up.
7
Washington, of course,
owned hundreds of MULLIGAN: To my brothers’ revolutionary
slaves, and did not covenant
emancipate them until
his death at the end of I’m runnin’ with the Sons of Liberty and I am
the century. lovin’ it!
8 See, that’s what happens when you up
Per Chernow, this was
the name of the tune against the ruffians. 6
the British sang as they We in the shit now, somebody gotta shovel it!
retreated. I sought out
the actual song and Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction,
it’s . . . well, it’s a When you knock me down I get the
drinking song. It’s
sprightly and lively and fuck back up again!
fun to sing with a pint
in your hand, but didn’t
serve me musically. So
COMPANY: Whoa! Left! Right! Hold!
I wrote my own melody Go!
for it. But God, what a
What! What! What!
great sentiment for the
end of the war and the
birth of this moment.

1 I thought that we’d made an arrangement when
To paraphrase Ashanti
and Ja Rule, the king’s
not always there when
you call, but he’s always
on time. It was a delight
to have him pop up at
this key moment. He
becomes an audience
surrogate in a strange
way, robbing the
revolution of its
inevitability and kicking
the tires on it: So you’re
going to rule yourselves
now. Have you figured out
how that works yet? Good
luck. It’s lonely, thankless
work.
2 Do you have a clue what happens now?
This is prep for our
second act in a real way:
It’s not hard to make
a revolution exciting
onstage. But governing?
That takes some doing.
H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n
W HA T C O M E S N E X T ?
1 2
This song arrived in
We see King George, glum. my life in one of those
very strange, momen-
tous weeks. To set the
1 scene: 2011. I was on
KING GEORGE: They say
Thanksgiving vacation
The price of my war’s not a price that they’re with my wife’s family
willing to pay. in the Dominican
Republic. My wife’s
Insane. aunt Isolde, across the
You cheat with the French, now I’m fighting sea in Austria, was
struggling in the final
with France and with Spain.
stages of ALS, so the
I’m so blue. air was heavy: We
dreaded/anticipated
the news of her passing
you went away, even as we attempted
to make the best of this
You were mine to subdue.
vacation.
Well, even despite our estrangement, I’ve got a Amidst all this, one
small query for you: day a tiny stray puppy
jumped up on my wife’s
beach chair and nipped
What comes next? at her ankle, with large
brown eyes that pleaded,
You’ve been freed.
“Get me off this island.”
Do you know how hard it is Vanessa, a lifelong cat
person, switched teams
to lead? to you, and you’ll blow us all away . . .
in that moment, and
Tobillo (Spanish for
ankle) entered our lives
You’re on your own.
for good. We said to
Awesome. Wow. ourselves, “If she comes
back tomorrow, she’s
ours.” She came back
the next morning, with
Oceans rise. a little gray sister by
her side. That evening,
Empires fall.
we got the news that
2
It’s much harder when it’s all your call. Vanessa’s aunt passed
away (on Isolde’s
birthday). We cried,
All alone, across the sea. we held each other, we
When your people say they hate you, made travel plans, and
we came home to New
don’t come crawling back to me. York with two small
puppies. (Tobillo’s sister,
the gray dog, lives with
Da da da dat da dat da da da a wonderful family
Da ya da in Virginia.)
It was against the
Da da dat
backdrop of this week,
Da da ya da . . . full of heartbreak and
new discoveries and
family life, that I wrote
You’re on your own . . . “Dear Theodosia.” It’s
the calm in the storm of
our show, and it was the
calm in the storm of my
life in that moment.
54
D EA R T H E O D O S IA
1
Aaron Burr enters. Oh Philip, you outshine the morning sun. Be open to accidents as
My son. you write. This bridge
came about because while
BURR: Dear Theodosia, what to say to you? When you smile, I fall apart. playing back a section in
Logic Pro, I accidentally
You have my eyes. You have your mother’s And I thought I was so smart.
looped a random fragment
name. My father wasn’t around. of a measure in the verse.
I liked how it sounded so
2 much that I isolated it and
When you came into the world, you cried BURR: My father wasn’t around. wrote these words over it.
and it broke my heart. I am so moved by
“My father wasn’t
HAMIL-
around.” Maybe because I
I’m dedicating every day to you. TON: don’t know a set of
Domestic life, was never quite my style. I swear that BURR: parents who don’t struggle
to learn from their own
When you smile, you knock me out, I fall I’ll be around for you. I’ll be around for you. upbringing, invariably
making new mistakes of
apart.
their own. Maybe because
And I thought I was so smart. HAMILTON: I’ll do whatever it takes. my parents worked such
You will come of age with our young nation. long hours on our behalf,
and the blessing/curse of
We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it BURR: I’ll make a million mistakes. that ethic was lots of time
right for you. on my own as a kid. The
time I spent on my own
If we lay a strong enough foundation BURR, HAMILTON: I’ll make the world
was when I learned to
We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world safe and sound for you . . . keep my own company
and pursue my own
Will come of age with our young nation.
creative endeavors, and I
someday, someday. We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it wouldn’t trade it for
anything, despite any
Yeah, you’ll blow us all away, right for you.
loneliness I might have
someday, someday. felt at the time. Mostly,
If we lay a strong enough foundation 3 the lyric moves me
because they’re both new
Hamilton enters. We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world fathers, without role
to you, and you’ll blow us all away . . . models of their own,
vowing to do
HAMILTON: Oh Philip, when you smile I someday, someday.
their best.
am undone. Yeah, you’ll blow us all away,
3
My son. someday, someday. This last section used to
be sung by the whole
Look at my son. Pride is not the word I’m company. But between
looking for. this, “Yorktown,”
and the upcoming
There is so much more inside me now.
“Non-Stop,” we already
had a lot of full choral
moments, so we simplified
it to these two men.
55
 TOMORROW
THERE’LL BE MORE
1
This is the only scene
unrepresented on our
cast album, precisely for

OF US
this reason: It’s more of
1
a scene than a song. I
wanted to save a
surprise for those who
see the show. And you,
reading this.

2
John Laurens was the
LAURENS: I may not live to see our glory.
most militant opponent
of slavery in this band
ELIZA: Alexander? There’s a letter for you. of brothers. He was also
the most reckless in
battle (which is saying
HAMILTON: It’s from John Laurens. I’ll something, in a crew
that includes Lafayette
read it later. and Hamilton). To me,
his death is the greatest
What-If? in American
LAURENS: But I will gladly join the fight.
history. A voice for
emancipation from a
ELIZA: No. It’s from his father. surviving Revolutionary
War veteran and a
favorite of Washington:
HAMILTON: His father? We’ll never know what
could have been.

LAURENS: And when our children tell 3

Here’s the thing about
Hamilton’s response: It’s
our story.
more telling when he’s
quiet than when he has
HAMILTON: Will you read it? something to say. This
was true of the
historical Hamilton as
LAURENS: They’ll tell the story of well. We have very little
written record of his
tonight. grieving for Laurens.
For a man who had an
opinion on everything,
ELIZA: “On Tuesday the 27th, my son was
for him to hold back
killed in a gunfight against British troops betrays genuine,
retreating from South Carolina. The war was life-changing grief. It is
possible that Hamilton
already over. As you know, John dreamed of and Laurens were lovers
emancipating and recruiting 3,000 men for the at some point—Hamil-
ton’s letters to Laurens
first all-black military regiment. His dream of are every bit as
2
freedom for these men dies with him.” flirtatious as his letters
to the opposite sex, if
not more so. If this is
LAURENS: Tomorrow there’ll be more of us . . . the case, the silence
betrays an even more
profound loss.
ELIZA: Alexander. Are you alright?

HAMILTON: I have so much work to do. 3

 NON- STOP Now for a strong central democracy,
If not then I’ll be Socrates
Free ammunition for
your enemies! Awww!

HAMILTON: BURR, MEN: Why do

Throwing verbal you write like it’s WOMEN:
BURR: After the war I went back to New York. HAMILTON: Okay! rocks at these Going out of style? Going out of style, hey!
One more thing— mediocrities. ENSEMBLE:
1 HAMILTON: A-after the war I went back to Awww! Write day and night
They really did set up
their law practices in New York. BURR: Why do you assume you’re the smartest like it’s
the same ’hood around 6
the same time. in the room? BURR: Hamilton, at the Constitutional Going out of style? Going out of style, hey! I wish you could
hear my non-miked
BURR: I finished up my studies and I Why do you assume you’re the smartest in Convention conversations with
2
This trial didn’t occur
practiced law. the room? Chris Jackson as
until way later, but it’s
Washington after this
such a perfect way to Why do you assume you’re the smartest in HAMILTON: I was chosen for the BURR, COMPANY: Ev’ry day you fight like it’s
moment. Usually, in
introduce their postwar HAMILTON: I practiced law, Burr worked the room? 3 Constitutional Convention. going out of style. character, I say to him,
lives—two lawyers, 1
next door. Soon that attitude Do what you do. “Well, I meant to talk
fundamentally different,
for an hour, but it just
meeting up in court— May be your doom! BURR: There as a New York junior delegate: got away from me . . . ”
that I moved it up.
BURR: Even though we started at the very Hamilton at Burr’s doorstep. as he looks at me
Love them as a legal
with pity.
dream team too. same time, ENSEMBLE: Awwww! HAMILTON:
Alexander Hamilton began to climb. Now what I’m going BURR: Alexander? 7
3 Another great What
Once again, dancehall
BURR: Why do you ENSEMBLE: Why do to say may sound COMPANY: if ? Historically, we
rhythms for Burr, just
know that Hamilton
as in “Wait For It.” BURR: write like you’re you write like you’re indelicate . . . Awwww! HAMILTON: Aaron Burr, sir. asked other people
I wrote much of this
song in Nevis, where How to account for running out of time? 4 running out of time? to contribute to The
Federalist Papers:
I did research on his rise to the top? Write day and night BURR: BURR: It’s the middle of the night. 7 Madison and John Jay
Hamilton’s life, so my
pulse was already on
Maaaaan, the man is ENSEMBLE: like you’re running Goes and proposes agreed, but Gouverneur
Morris declined. I
island rhythm time. non-stop. Non-stop! out of time? his own form of HAMILTON: Can we confer, sir? extended that into this
4
Ev’ry day you fight, Ev’ry day you fight, government! What? fictional scene, wherein
This sentence sums Hamilton invites Burr
up how I think most HAMILTON: Gentlemen of the jury, I’m curious, like you’re running like you’re running out His own plan BURR: Is this a legal matter?
to write. This is the
of us feel in the face of bear with me. out of time. of time. for a new form of equivalent of asking
Hamilton’s remarkable someone to invest
output. Same as
Are you aware that we’re making hist’ry? Keep on fighting. In government! What? HAMILTON: Yes, and it’s important to me.
in Pixar just before
Shakespeare or the This is the first murder trial of our the meantime— Toy Story drops. It’s
Beatles: How on Earth plausible, as Burr
brand-new nation. Non-stop! BURR: Talks for six hours! The convention BURR: What do you need?
did you do that with the traveled in the same
same 24 hours a day that is listless! 6 circles and held similar
everyone else gets? HAMILTON: HAMILTON: Corruption’s such an old song that HAMILTON: Burr, you’re a better lawyer than views to Hamilton,
but it gets at the root
5
’Twas always true. The liberty behind BURR, ENSEMBLE: we can sing along in harmony 5 ENSEMBLE MAN: Bright young man . . . me. of their fundamental
Pick up the paper deliberation— Non-stop! And nowhere is it stronger than in Albany. difference: Burr is not
today and you can read willing to expose
about more corruption
This colony’s economy’s increasingly stalling and ANOTHER ENSEMBLE MAN: Yo, who the eff BURR: Okay.
himself or his legacy
hijinks. There’s actually HAMILTON: I intend to prove beyond a shadow is this? to something this risky.
an Albany Museum of
of a doubt HAMILTON: BURR, ENSEMBLE: HAMILTON: I know I talk too much,
Political Corruption.
A museum! With my assistant council— Honestly that’s why He’s just BURR: I’m abrasive.
public service seems to Non-stop! Why do you always You’re incredible in court. You’re succinct,
BURR: Co-council. be calling me Say what you believe? COMPANY: persuasive.
Hamilton, sit down. Why do you always Why do you always My client needs a strong defense.
Our client Levi Weeks is innocent. Call your HAMILTON: I practiced the law, I practic’lly Say what you believe? Say what you believe? You’re the solution.
2
first witness. perfected it.
That was all you had to say! I’ve seen injustice in the world and I’ve corrected it. Ev’ry proclamation
guarantees

58 59
 BURR: Who’s your client? HAMILTON: We won the war. HAMILTON: Angelica. COMPANY: How do you write like tomorrow
11
What was it all for? won’t arrive?
HAMILTON: The new U.S. Constitution? Do you support this Constitution? ANGELICA: Don’t forget to write. How do you write like you need it to survive?
How do you write ev’ry second you’re alive?
BURR: No. BURR: Of course. ELIZA: Look at where you are. Ev’ry second you’re alive ev’ry second
Look at where you started. you’re alive. 10 We drop into plain
HAMILTON: Hear me out. HAMILTON: Then defend it. The fact that you’re alive is a miracle. speech here because
Just stay alive, that would be enough. WASHINGTON: They are asking me to lead. the facts are so
extraordinary that no
BURR: No way! BURR: And what if you’re backing the I am doing the best I can amount of spin on the
wrong horse? And if your wife could share a fraction of To get the people that I need, ball can make them
land any harder.
HAMILTON: A series of essays, anonymously your time I’m asking you to be my right hand man.
published HAMILTON: Burr, we studied and we fought If I could grant you peace of mind 11
I wish writing were
Defending the document to the public. and we killed Would that be enough? HAMILTON: Treasury or State? really like the way Andy
staged it here: Me in
For the notion of a nation we now get to build. a mania at a desk while
8
This section was BURR: No one will read it. For once in your life, take a stand with pride. BURR: Alexander joins forces with James WASHINGTON: I know it’s a lot to ask, a group of people stand
added later. Originally around cheering in awe.
I don’t understand how you stand to the side. Madison and John Jay to write a series of essays
it ended with the two More realistically, it’s
of them stalking off to HAMILTON: I disagree. defending the new United States Constitution, HAMILTON: Treasury or State? me pooping around
their separate quarters, BURR: I’ll entitled The Federalist Papers. 10 on Twitter until I get
but now Hamilton an idea.
really challenges Burr
BURR: And if it fails? keep all my WASHINGTON: To leave behind the world
12
at his core: What are plans close to The plan was to write a total of 25 essays, the you know . . . In the space of two
you waiting for? It’s the lines, Hamilton takes
HAMILTON: Burr, that’s why we need it. my chest. ENSEMBLE: work divided evenly among the three men. In
more malignant version other people’s themes
of “I will never Wait for it, wait for it, the end, they wrote 85 essays, in the span of six HAMILTON: Sir, do you want me to run the and flips them to make
understand you” from BURR: The Constitution’s a mess. wait . . . months. John Jay got sick after writing 5. James Treasury or State department? his own argument. He
after the wedding. throws Eliza’s refrain
This difference will I’ll wait here and see Madison wrote 29. Hamilton wrote the other 51. back at her, and volleys
only escalate over the HAMILTON: So it needs amendments. which way the wind Which way the wind WASHINGTON: Treasury. with Washington’s
course of their lives. words and melody. He
will blow will blow. BURR: will do anything to get
9 BURR: It’s full of contradictions. I’m taking my time, I’m taking my time, How do you write HAMILTON: Let’s go. what he’s after, and we
We’re moving chess
pieces here: Angelica underscore that
watching the after- watching the afterbirth Like you’re WOMEN:
melodically here.
across the sea.
HAMILTON: So is independence. birth of a nation of a nation Running out of time? Running out of time? ELIZA: Alexander . . .
13 This all-skate came
We have to start somewhere. Watching the tension Watching the tension
from tons of trial
grow. grow. Write day and night HAMILTON: I have to leave. and error between me,
BURR: No. No way. Like you’re Andy, Tommy, and
Lacamoire. Take pieces
Angelica enters, arm in arm with Hamilton. Running out of time? Running out of time? ELIZA: Alexander— from five different
HAMILTON: You’re making a mistake. puzzles and make
something new, that
ANGELICA: I am sailing off to London. 9 BURR, MEN: Ev’ry HAMILTON: Look around, look around at
sets us sailing into
BURR: Good night. I’m accompanied by someone day you fight, how lucky we are to be alive right now. intermission: That’s
Who always pays Like you’re what’s at play here. As
the guy who gets to play
8
HAMILTON: Hey. I have found a wealthy husband who will keep Running out of time Running out of time? ELIZA: Helpless . . . Hamilton, let me also
What are you waiting for? me in comfort for all my days. Like you’re say, it’s a helluva view
12 from the center of it.
What do you stall for? He is not a lot of fun, but there’s no one who Running out of time, Running out of time? HAMILTON: They are asking me to lead.
can match you for turn of phrase. Are you
ELIZA: Look around, isn’t this enough? 13
BURR: What? My Alexander. Running out of time? Awwww!

60 61
ANGELICA:
He will never be ELIZA: ANGELICA: ELIZA: WASHINGTON, BURR: ENSEMBLE:
satisfied, What would be Why do you fight Why do you fight MULLIGAN, Why do you fight stop!
He will enough like like LAURENS,

Never be satisfied, To be LAFAYETTE:

Satisfied, History has its History has its History has its History has its History has its
Satisfied, Satisfied, WASHINGTON: eyes on you . . . eyes on you . . . eyes on you . . . eyes on you . . . eyes on you . . .
Satisfied . . . Satisfied . . . History has its BURR:
Eyes . . . Why do you assume HAMILTON:
you’re the smartest I am not throwin’ MEN:
in the room? away my Just you wait!
On . . . Shot!
Why do
Look around, You! you assume you’re I am not throwin’ FULL COMPANY:
the smartest in the away my Just you wait!
Look around, ENSEMBLE: Shot!
room? Non- I am
Why do Stop! Alexander Alexander
He will you assume you’re the Hamilton! Hamilton
Never be satisfied, Isn’t this smartest in the Hamilton, just you wait!
room? Non- I am not throwin’
Satisfied, enough? WASHINGTON, away
What would be MULLIGAN, Soon that stop! My shot!
enough? LAURENS, attitude’s
Satisfied . . . LAFAYETTE: gonna
History has its Be your doom!
Eyes . . . Why do you fight
On . . . Like you’re
You . . . Running out of time? Non-
 6
It’s to my regret that

WHA T ’ D I M I S S ?
Madison’s friendship
JEFFERSON: But who’s waitin’ for me when I WASHINGTON: Mr. Jefferson, welcome home. and fallout with
step in the place? Hamilton land firmly
in our act break. They
My friend James Madison, red in the face. HAMILTON: Mr. Jefferson? Alexander wrote The Federalist
Hamilton. Papers, but Hamilton’s
financial plans left
JEFFERSON:
war vets who sold their
COMPANY: Seventeen. Se se seventeen JEFFERSON: I helped Lafayette draft a He grabs my arm and WASHINGTON, ENSEMBLE: Mr. Jefferson, bonds with nothing,
1
I mean, you can’t say and Madison’s disgust
Se se seventeen declaration, I respond, ENSEMBLE: welcome home.
Burr didn’t warn you ish with this arrangement
was gonna get real. Then I said, I gotta go. “What’s goin’ on?” Aaa-ooo! began their falling out.
BURR: Seventeen eighty-nine. I gotta be in Monticello, now the work at COMPANY: Mr. Jefferson, welcome home. Madison and Jefferson
2 were in absolute lock-
I sometimes say this to
Thomas Kail.
How does the bastard orphan, home begins . . . MADISON: Thomas, we are engaged in a battle Sir, you’ve been off in Paris for so long! step for much of their
Immigrant decorated war vet for our nation’s very soul. relationship, and
3 it worked very well.
I can’t tell you how Unite the colonies through more debt? ENSEMBLE: Aaa-ooo! Can you get us out of the mess we’re in? 6 JEFFERSON: So what did I miss? Jefferson was the
thrilled I was when
I first saw Kail and Fight the other Founding Fathers ’til he has charisma, Madison
was the wonk. We
Blankenbuehler’s to forfeit? JEFFERSON: So what’d I miss? 4 ENSEMBLE: Aaa-ooo!
do our best to convey
staging for this
moment: Jefferson
Have it all, lose it all, What’d I miss? that quickly here.
1
descending a staircase, You ready for more yet? Virginia, my home sweet home, I wanna MADISON: Hamilton’s new financial plan is 7
with our ensemble This was a Daveed
Treasury secretary. Washington’s the president. give you a kiss. nothing less than government control. improv that made it
scrubbing the floors and
getting his bags. It’s the Ev’ry American experiment sets a precedent. I’ve been in Paris meeting lots of different I’ve been fighting for the South alone. into the song.
paradox of Jefferson Not so fast. Someone came along to resist him. ladies . . . Where have you been?
made flesh: The writer
who articulated liberty Pissed him off until we had a two-party system. I guess I basic’lly missed the late eighties.
so clearly was an active You haven’t met him yet, you haven’t had I traveled the wide, wide world and came JEFFERSON: ENSEMBLE:
participant in the brutal
system of slavery. the chance. back to this . . . Uh . . . France. 7 Aaa-ooo!
’Cause he’s been kickin’ ass as the ambassador
4
Figuring out the to France ENSEMBLE: Aaa-ooo! MADISON: We have to win.
“sound” of Thomas
Jefferson was a fun But someone’s gotta keep the American promise.
challenge. My 2
You simply must meet Thomas. Thomas! JEFFERSON: There’s a letter on my desk JEFFERSON: ENSEMBLE:
reasoning: He’s a full
generation older than from the president. What’d I miss? Wha? Wha? What’d I miss?
Hamilton, and he was COMPANY (EXCEPT HAM, PEG, PHIL): Haven’t even put my bag down yet. What’d I miss? I’ve come home to this?
absent for much of the
fighting of the
Thomas Jefferson’s coming home! Sally be a lamb, darlin’, won’tcha open it? 5 Headfirst into a
Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson’s coming home! It says the president’s assembling a cabinet political abyss!
though certainly an
Thomas Jefferson’s coming home! And that I am to be the secretary of state, great. Head first, into the abyss!
architect of some of the
founding documents. So Thomas Jefferson’s coming home! And that I’m already Senate-approved . . .
I wrote him in sort of a Thomas Jefferson’s coming home 3 I just got home and now I’m headed up to
Lambert/Hendricks/
Ross/Gil Scott-Heron Lord he’s been off in Paris for so long! New York. I have my
mode—jazzy, proto-hip- Aaa-ooo! first cabinet
hop, but not the boom
bap of Hamilton. He Aaa-ooo! ENSEMBLE: Headin’ to New York! meeting today, Chick-a-pow!
has just as much fun Headin’ to New York!
with words, but they
swing and they sing.
Thomas Jefferson enters. I guess I better think
JEFFERSON: of something to say
5
Our Sally Hemings JEFFERSON: France is following us to revolution Lookin’ at the rolling
shout-out.
There is no more status quo fields I’m already on my way, On my way.
But the sun comes up and the world still spins. I can’t ENSEMBLE: Let’s get to the
Believe that we are free. Believe that we are free bottom of this . . .
ENSEMBLE: Aaa-ooo! Ready to face What did I miss?
whatever’s awaiting Ahhh ah!
Me in N.Y.C. Me in N.Y.C.

64 65
 CA B I N E T B A T T L E # 1 Reticent—there isn’t a plan he doesn’t jettison. 5
Madison, you’re mad as a hatter, son, take your
WASHINGTON: You need the votes.

medicine. HAMILTON: No, we need bold strokes. We need

Damn, you’re in worse shape than the national this plan.
1 debt is in,
I was always excited
to write these Cabinet Microphones emerge. We create. You just wanna move our money Sittin’ there useless as two shits. WASHINGTON: No, you need to convince
5
battles: In fact, I wrote 2 I find that people react
around. Hey, turn around, bend over, I’ll show you more folks.
these before many of one of two ways when
the other songs in the WASHINGTON: Ladies and Gentlemen, you This financial plan is an outrageous demand. where my shoe fits. 6 they’re angry: They run
show. Battle rapping coulda been anywhere in the world tonight, but And it’s too many damn pages for any man HAMILTON: Well, James Madison won’t talk to hot or they run cold.
incorporates a lot of Most of us run hot: We
elements: moving the you’re here with us in New York City. Are you to understand. WASHINGTON: Excuse me? Jefferson, me, that’s a nonstarter. lose our temper, and our
1 wits often leave us as
crowd, flipping your ready for a cabinet meeting??? Stand with me. In the land of the free. Madison, take a walk! Hamilton, take a walk!
opponents’ insults, well. I don’t get angry
verbal prowess—but
And pray to God we never see Hamilton’s We’ll reconvene after a brief recess. Hamilton! WASHINGTON: Winning was easy, young man. easily (I’m really 5,000
the stakes are rarely The Company cheers. candidacy. Governing’s harder.8 times as mellow as
as high as the direction Hamilton) but when I
Look, when Britain taxed our tea, we got frisky. HAMILTON: Sir! do, I run cold: Time
your country takes.
I wanted to write battle WASHINGTON: The issue on the table: Imagine what gon’ happen when you try to tax HAMILTON: They’re being intransigent. slows down, and the
raps with exactly those exact right words click
Secretary Hamilton’s plan to assume state debt our whiskey. WASHINGTON: A word.
stakes in mind. Also into place to destroy
love Washington serving and establish a national bank. Secretary WASHINGTON: You have to find a what’s in front of me.
as Mekhi Phifer in Jefferson, you have the floor, sir. WASHINGTON: Thank you, Secretary MADISON: You don’t have the votes. compromise. Not proud of it, but it’s
8 Mile here. how I’m wired. I gave
Jefferson. Secretary Hamilton, your response. this trait to Hamilton,
2 JEFFERSON: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of JEFFERSON, MADISON: You don’t have the HAMILTON: But they don’t have a plan, they and I think it suits him
The fun in writing
well: He rhymes the
these debates is of happiness.” HAMILTON: Thomas. That was a real nice votes. just hate mine! 9 craziest when he is
course articulating the
perspectives of these We fought for these ideals; we shouldn’t settle declaration. backed into a corner.
men in a way that feels for less. Welcome to the present. We’re running a JEFFERSON: Aha-ha ha ha! WASHINGTON: Convince them otherwise. 6
contemporary. Jefferson This line alone makes
echoes the feelings of These are wise words, enterprising men real nation. the student matinees
many Wall Street critics quote ’em. Would you like to join us, or stay mellow, JEFFERSON, MADISON: You’re gonna need HAMILTON: What happens if I don’t get worth it. They lose their
today when he says, minds.
“We create. You just
Don’t act surprised, you guys, cuz I wrote ’em. Doin’ whatever the hell it is you do in Monticello? congressional approval and you don’t have the congressional approval?
wanna move our money If we assume the debts, the Union gets a new votes. 7
Our audiences are of
around.” If I were 3 all ages and walks of
JEFFERSON, MADISON: Owwwwwwwwww. line of credit, a financial diuretic. WASHINGTON: I imagine they’ll call for
watching that in a rap life, but everyone gets
battle, I’d nod my head. How do you not get it? If we’re aggressive and JEFFERSON: Such a blunder sometimes it makes your removal. the Grandmaster Flash
Jefferson had a way JEFFERSON: But Hamilton forgets competitive me wonder why I even bring the thunder. 7 reference, even if they
of making himself the don’t know how they
man of the people, and His plan would have the government assume The Union gets a boost. You’d rather give it a HAMILTON: Sir— know it. This feels
I tried to honor that in states’ debts. sedative? MADISON: Why he even brings the thunder . . . incredible from onstage.
his battle raps.
Now place your bets as to who that benefits A civics lesson from a slaver. Hey neighbor. WASHINGTON: Figure it out, Alexander. That’s 8
Nice bit of symmetry
3 The very seat of government where Your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor. Washington & Hamilton, alone. an order from your commander.
The first thing I did with “Dying is easy,
here was to look up the Hamilton sits. “We plant seeds in the South. We create.” Yeah, governing’s harder”
etymology of diuretic from Act One. Or as
and make sure it existed keep ranting. WASHINGTON: You wanna pull yourself Mario Cuomo put it,
in this era. Whew. HAMILTON: Not true! We know who’s really doing the planting. 4 together? “You campaign in
poetry. You govern
4 And another thing, Mr. Age of Enlightenment, in prose.”
I cannot tell you how
cathartic it is to get to JEFFERSON: Ooh, if the shoe fits, wear it. Don’t lecture me about the war, you didn’t fight HAMILTON: I’m sorry, these Virginians are
express this to Jefferson 9
If New York’s in debt— in it. birds of a feather. This is familiar in
every night. The contemporary politics.
audience’s reaction is Why should Virginia bear it? You think I’m frightened of you, man? We
similarly cathartic. Uh! Our debts are paid, I’m afraid. almost died in a trench WASHINGTON: Young man, I’m from
Don’t tax the South cuz we got it made in While you were off, getting high with the Virginia. So watch your mouth.
the shade. French.
In Virginia, we plant seeds in the ground. Thomas Jefferson, always hesitant with the HAMILTON: So we let Congress get held
President hostage by the South?

66 67
1

TA K E A B R EA K
A musical theater 1
composer I love and ELIZA: Your son is nine years old today. ELIZA: In a nearby park.
admire came to a He has something he’d like to say
workshop of Hamilton
and gave me notes.
He’s been practicing all day HAMILTON: I’d love to go.
One of them: “Take Philip take it away— 4
a Break.” It’s as well-
ELIZA: You and I can go when the night
written as your other
songs, but you don’t Eliza joins young Philip Hamilton at the piano. Do you have to live an ocean away? Eliza ushers Hamilton to the piano, where gets dark . . . 4
When people ask
need it. I sat with this Thoughts of you subside Philip leaps off the piano bench. me about the most
for a week (I admire autobiographical scene
this composer very ELIZA: Then I get another letter HAMILTON: I will try to get away. in the show, I point to
much) but then took Un deux trois quatre PHILIP HAMILTON: I cannot put the notion away . . . PHILIP: this one. There’s no
the note as a challenge history book in which
to earn the song’s place Cinq six sept huit Un deux trois quatre Daddy, Daddy, look— Fade up on Angelica. She is writing a response you’ll read about Philip
in the show. It’s our neuf. Eliza enters. My name is Philip. to Hamilton’s letter. doing a recital for
only personal check-in Alexander. This came
with Hamilton’s family
Cinq six sept huit neuf. I am a poet.
out of me, and looking
in a politically heavy Good! ELIZA: Take a break. I wrote this poem just to show it. ANGELICA: My dearest Alexander, at it, I see myself,
second act. I felt like almost painfully, in
Un deux trois quatre And I just turned nine. You must get through to Jefferson.
I needed it. So it does every character onstage.
exactly what I need it Cinq six sept huit Un deux trois quatre HAMILTON: I am on my way. You can write rhymes but you can’t write mine. Sit down with him and compromise. As Alexander, I relate
to do, without an ounce neuf. Don’t stop ’til you agree. as a father with an
of fat: introduce us to enormous workload.
Philip, let us know that Cinq six sept huit neuf. HAMILTON: Your fav’rite older sister, As Eliza, I relate
Angelica and Hamilton PHILIP: What! Angelica, reminds you because of the pains
are still letter-flirting, I take to slow down
and see that Hamilton’s He sings the last three notes differently. Eliza I practice French There’s someone in your corner all the way and carve out time for
work is driving him to corrects him, but he sings it his way. and play across the sea. my family. But most
distraction. Aaaand out. of all, I’m Philip: I’ve
Piano with my In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
written something and
2 ELIZA: mother. I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase. I’m proud of it and
This is the same
melody as the lead-in Sept huit neuf— PHILIP: Uh-huh! It changed the meaning. Did you intend this? 6 I want to show it to
to “Ten Duel Com- 2 the people I love. You
mandments.” When you Sept huit neuf– I have a sister but I One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days. didn’t expect these notes
start learning piano want a little brother. 5 It says: to turn into my therapy
(I started at age six), session, did you?
these are the kinds of
Sept huit neuf— PHILIP: Okay!
pieces you learn, simple Sept huit neuf– My daddy’s trying to Fade up on Hamilton, reading the letter. 5
And, boy, did he get
stuff to make you little brothers! Five of
start America’s bank.
practice scales. Fore- them, actually, and two
shadowing, but also ELIZA, PHILIP: One two three four five six HAMILTON, ANGELICA: “My dearest, Angelica.” sisters. But if you want
what a nine-year-old seven eight nine! Un deux trois quatre to see a musical with
would be learning. eight kids, go watch
cinq! ANGELICA: With a comma after “dearest.” The Sound of Music.
3
This used to be a really In an adjacent room, Hamilton composes a letter. Bravo! You’ve written
obscure Macbeth quote: 6
ELIZA: Take a break. This took weeks to
“They have tied me to figure out, but it’s based
a stake; I cannot fly, HAMILTON: My dearest Angelica, HAMILTON, ANGELICA: “My dearest, Angelica.” on actual correspon-
but, bear-like, I must “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow HAMILTON: Hey, our kid is pretty great. dence between Alexander
fight the course.” (It’s and Angelica. They’d
from a really short scene Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” 3 ANGELICA: Anyway, all this to say slip commas between
in Act Five where I trust you’ll understand the reference to another ELIZA: Run away with us for the summer. I’m coming home this summer words and change the
Macbeth kills Young meaning. The passage
Seward.) Then Oskar Scottish tragedy ELIZA: There’s a little surprise before supper Let’s go upstate. At my sister’s invitation, that inspired this verse
Eustis said, “Lin, I run Without my having to name the play. And it cannot wait. I’ll be there with your fam’ly was actually in French.
the Shakespeare Festival Comma sexting. It’s a
and even I don’t get
They think me Macbeth, ambition is my folly. HAMILTON: Eliza, I’ve got so much on my plate. If you make your way upstate.
thing. Get into it.
this reference.” He was I’m a polymath, a pain in the ass, a massive pain. HAMILTON: I’ll be there in just a minute, save I know you’re very busy
correct. I was being
Madison is Banquo, Jefferson’s Macduff my plate. ELIZA: We can all go stay with my father. I know your work’s important
willfully esoteric. So
I went with one of the And Birnam Wood is Congress on its way to There’s a lake I know . . . But I’m crossing the ocean and I just can’t wait.
greatest hits. But I Dunsinane. ELIZA: Alexander—
still like my Act Five
reference better. HAMILTON: I know.
HAMILTON, ANGELICA: And there you are, HAMILTON: Okay, okay—
an ocean away.

68 69
 HAMILTON, ANGELICA:
ocean away.
You won’t be an ELIZA, ANGELICA:
summer.
Run away with us for the
SA Y N O T O T H I S
You’ll only be a moment away. Let’s go upstate.

Eliza calls from the other room. HAMILTON: I lose my job if we don’t get this
plan through Congress. Maria Reynolds enters. Burr enters. MARIA: This one’s mine, sir:
ELIZA: Alexander, come downstairs.
Angelica’s arriving today! ELIZA, ANGELICA: We can all go stay with BURR: There’s nothing like summer in the city. HAMILTON: Then I said, “Well, I should head
our father. Someone under stress meets someone back home,” she turned red, she led me to her
Angelica enters. looking pretty. bed, let her legs spread and said: 3
ELIZA: ANGELICA: There’s trouble in the air, you can smell it.
ELIZA: Angelica! There’s a lake I know I know we’ll miss your And Alexander’s by himself. I’ll let him tell it. MARIA: Stay? 1
This originally started
face– with an LL Cool J
ANGELICA: Eliza! In a nearby park. Screw your courage Hamilton at his desk. HAMILTON: Hey quote from his seminal
’80s’ classic “I Need
To the sticking place— 7 Love.” It got a great
They embrace. Hamilton enters. You and I can go HAMILTON: I hadn’t slept in a week. MARIA: Hey laugh, but I realized we
I was weak, I was awake. 1
don’t need a laugh here,
7 Eliza’s right— we really need to focus.
And this is why cast
albums (all of ’em, not HAMILTON: The Schuyler sisters! Take a break Take a break. You’ve never seen a bastard orphan HAMILTON: That’s when I began to pray:
2
just mine) are so useful. And get away— More in need of a break. Lord, show me how to Hamilton’s the only
Maybe one in a one who can narrate
thousand people will ANGELICA: Alexander. Run away with us Longing for Angelica. Say no to this the song at this point
catch that Angelica’s For the summer— Missing my wife. I don’t know how to in the story: It happened
responding with a Lady to him, in secret, and
Macbeth quote, thus HAMILTON: Hi. Let’s go upstate Let’s go upstate. That’s when Miss Maria Reynolds walked into Say no to this. we don’t know Maria
referencing Hamilton’s Where we can stay. my life, she said: or James Reynolds yet.
Macbeth quote at the top So he does it. It’s an
of the song. Also, I first
ANGELICA: It’s good to see your face. We can all go stay with HAMILTON: But my God, she looks so helpless
all-hands-on-deck
heard “Screw your our father, MARIA REYNOLDS: I know you are a man of And her body’s saying, “Hell, yes.” approach to the
courage to the sticking storytelling: The person
ELIZA: Angelica, tell this man John Adams If you take your time— honor,
place” in Beauty and the closest to the action
Beast, not knowing as spends the summer with his family. I’m so sorry to bother you at home MARIA: Whoa . . . addresses the audience.
a child that the great Look around, look You will make your But I don’t know where to go, and I came here
Howard Ashman was 3
In real life, Hamilton
quoting Shakespeare. HAMILTON: Angelica, tell my wife John around, mark. all alone. HAMILTON: Nooo, show me how to described the moment
So it’s my nod to both. Adams doesn’t have a real job anyway. At how lucky we are this way: “Some
conversation ensued
to be alive right Close your eyes and HAMILTON: She said: HAMILTON, ENSEMBLE: Say no to this. from which it was
ANGELICA: . . . You’re not joining us? Wait. now— dream— quickly apparent that
other than pecuniary
MARIA: My husband’s doin’ me wrong HAMILTON: I don’t know how to
consolation would be
HAMILTON: I’m afraid I cannot join you We can go— Beatin’ me, cheatin’ me, mistreatin’ me. acceptable.” Wink,
upstate. Suddenly he’s up and gone HAMILTON, ENSEMBLE: Say no to this. wink.

When the night gets When the night gets I don’t have the means to go on.
ANGELICA: Alexander, I came all this way. dark. dark. HAMILTON: In my mind, I’m tryin’ to go
Take a break. Take a break. HAMILTON: So I offered her a loan, I offered
2
ELIZA: She came all this way— to walk her home, she said: ENSEMBLE: Go! Go! Go!
HAMILTON: I have to get my plan through
ANGELICA: All this way— Congress. MARIA: You’re too kind, sir HAMILTON: Then her mouth is on mine, and
I can’t stop ’til I get this plan through Congress. I don’t say
ELIZA, ANGELICA: Take a break. HAMILTON: I gave her thirty bucks that I had
socked away, she lived a block away, she said: ENSEMBLE: No! No!
HAMILTON: You know I have to get my plan Say no to this!
through Congress.

70 71
 No! No! MARIA: Please don’t go, sir. Whoa! Yes. Yes!
Say no to this! No, show me No!
HAMILTON: So was your whole story a setup? how to No!
No! No! say no to this. Say no to this! ENSEMBLE: Say no to this!
Say no to this! MARIA: I don’t know about any letter.
How can I Hamilton staggers.
No! No! HAMILTON: Stop crying goddamn it get up. How can you Say no to
Say no to this! say no to this? Say no to HAMILTON:
MARIA: I didn’t know any better. this? this! Say no to
Hamilton & Reynolds kiss and embrace. There is this. I— MARIA REYNOLDS:
HAMILTON: I am ruined. nowhere Don’t say no to this, Don’t say no to this.
HAMILTON: I wish I could say that was the I can go.
4 last time. MARIA: HAMILTON: When her There is nowhere I
This used to be “How
could you do this?” I said that last time. It became a pastime. Please don’t I am body’s on can go. ENSEMBLE:
Tommy Kail suggested A month into this endeavor I received a letter leave me with him helpless—how could mine Go! Go! Go! Go go go . . .
the change, and it’s a
good one—Hamilton’s From a Mr. James Reynolds, even better, it said: helpless. I do this? 4 I do not say . . .
5
realization of his own No! James Reynolds swaggers in. So imagine you’re me,
culpability in this and you get to the end
situation is far more
Lights up on James Reynolds. Just give him what he No! of this song. And you
compelling than wants and you can JAMES REYNOLDS: So? know that there’s a
blaming Maria. really timeless song
JAMES REYNOLDS: Dear sir, I hope this letter have me. I don’t want you. They kiss. It escalates. about the guilt of
finds you in good health, Hamilton pays James Reynolds. infidelity in the musical
theater canon: “Nobody
And in a prosperous enough position to Whatever you want I don’t want you. HAMILTON: ENSEMBLE:
Needs to Know,” by
put wealth Yes. MARIA: Say no to this! HAMILTON: Nobody needs to know. 5 Jason Robert Brown,
In the pockets of people like me: down on If you pay, I don’t . . . . Yes! from his brilliant show
The Last Five Years.
their luck. No! Hamilton walks away from them both. And you realize that
You see, that was my wife who you decided to You can stay. Yes. No! Burr enters. “know” is a great twist/
ending to a song about
Yes! not saying “no.” What
HAMILTON: Fuuuu— HAMILTON: Say no to this! do you do? You do what
I did: frantically call
Lord, show me Yes. Yes! No! JRB and ask his
JAMES REYNOLDS: Uh-oh! You made the how to ENSEMBLE: No! permission to quote his
work.
wrong sucker a cuckold. Say no to this. Say no to this! Say no to this!
So time to pay the piper for the pants
you unbuckled Tonight
And hey, you can keep seein’ my whore wife I don’t now
If the price is right: if not I’m telling your wife. how to
Say no to Say no to this!
HAMILTON: I hid the letter and I raced to her this.
place, screamed “How could you?!” In her face, Cuz the
she said situation’s
Helpless.
MARIA: No sir. Helpless.
And her
HAMILTON: Half dressed, apologetic. A mess, body’s
she looked pathetic, she cried: Screaming
hell yes.

72 73
 The ROOM WHERE The room where it
happened.
BURR, COMPANY: Thomas claims—

The room where it Well, I arranged the meeting.

IT HAPPENS
JEFFERSON:
happened. I arranged the menu, the venue, the seating,
1 No one else was in ENSEMBLE:
My father is a political
consultant: These kinds The room where it The room where it BURR: But!
of conversations are
very common. “Can happened. happened. No one else was in
you believe they named/ The room where it
honored/venerated
this guy?”
BURR: Ah, Mr. Secretary. HAMILTON: Do whatever it takes to get my happened. BURR, COMPANY: The room where it
plan on the Congress floor. The room where it The room where it happened.
2
Sometimes a rhyme HAMILTON: Mr. Burr, sir. happened. happens. The room where it happened.
leads you to a
wonderful, unexpected BURR: Now, Madison and Jefferson are merciless. No one really knows The room where it happened.
place. I’m playing with BURR: Didja hear the news about good old how
rhymes for “Burr, Sir” 1
in the whole show. So
General Mercer? HAMILTON: Well, hate the sin, love the sinner. The game is played. The game is played. BURR: No one else was in
I get to “Mercer” and The art of the trade,
think, who even is
HAMILTON: No. Madison & Jefferson enter. How the sausage gets How the sausage gets BURR, COMPANY: The room where it
Mercer? Google Mercer.
General who died made. made. happened.
during the Revolution- BURR: You know Clermont Street? MADISON: Hamilton! We just The room where it happened.
ary War. But doesn’t
he have a street named Assume that it Assume that it happens. The room where it happened.
after him downtown, HAMILTON: Yeah. HAMILTON: I’m sorry, Burr, I’ve gotta go. happens.
in the Village? What
was it called before he But no one else is in BURR:
died? Google. Clermont BURR: They renamed it after him. The Mercer BURR: But— The room where it The room where it No one really knows 4
The only account we
Street. Wait, wait, this 2
is perfect! In a song
legacy is secure. happens. happens. how the COMPANY: have of this dinner is
Jefferson’s, so we start
about legacy, we can HAMILTON: Decisions are happening over Parties get to yesssss. Parties get to yesssss. the Rashomon sequence
begin with Hamilton
HAMILTON: Sure. dinner. BURR, COMPANY: Thomas claims— The pieces that are with him.
and Burr bitching about
how the guy who sacrificed in
doesn’t even survive the BURR: And all he had to do was die. BURR: Two Virginians and an immigrant walk JEFFERSON: Alexander was on Washington’s Ev’ry game of Ev’ry game of chesssss.
war gets a street named
after him, while they’re into a room. doorstep one day chesssss.
still alive and hustling. HAMILTON: That’s a lot less work. In distress ’n disarray. 4 We just
And Burr has legacy on
his mind at the top of BURR, ENSEMBLE: Diametric’lly opposed, foes. Assume that it Assume that it happens.
this song about being BURR: We oughta give it a try. BURR, COMPANY: Thomas claims— happens.
on the outside of power
BURR: They emerge with a compromise, having
and legacy, looking in.
Thanks, Mercer! HAMILTON: Ha. opened doors that were JEFFERSON: Alexander said— But no one else is in
3 The room where it The room where it
Again, we’re tipping
Burr toward where he BURR: Now, how’re you gonna get your debt BURR, ENSEMBLE: Previously closed, bros. HAMILTON: I’ve nowhere else to turn! happens. happens.
needs to get by the end plan through?
of this song. Hamilton
is saying, “If I act like
BURR: The immigrant emerges with unprece- JEFFERSON: And basic’lly begged me to join BURR, COMPANY: Meanwhile—
you, I can get this deal HAMILTON: I’m guess I’m gonna fin’lly have dented financial power the fray.
done.” Which leaves
to listen to you. 3 A system he can shape however he wants. BURR: Madison is grappling with the fact that
Burr asking the
unspoken question, The Virginians emerge with the nation’s capital. BURR, COMPANY: Thomas claims— not ev’ry issue can be settled by committee.
“Why am I, who act like BURR: Really? And here’s the pièce de résistance:
me all the time, not
invited to this dinner?” JEFFERSON: I approached Madison and said— COMPANY: Meanwhile—
HAMILTON: Talk less. Smile more. BURR: “I know you hate ’im, but let’s hear what he has
No one else was in to say.” BURR: Congress is fighting over where to put
BURR: Ha-ha. The room where it the capital—
happened.

74 75
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

The company screams in chaos. 5 BURR, COMPANY: In God we trust. HAMILTON,

But we’ll never really know what got JEFFERSON,
BURR: It isn’t pretty. discussed. MADISON,
Then Jefferson approaches with a dinner and Click-boom then it happened. WASHINGTON: COMPANY:
invite. What do you want, What do you want,
And Madison responds with Virginian insight. BURR: No one else was in the room where it Burr? Burr?
happened. What do you want, What do you want,
MADISON: Maybe we can solve one problem Burr? Burr?
with another. COMPANY: Alexander Hamilton!
And win a victory for the southerners, in other If you stand for What do you want,
5
I asked the cast to words— BURR: What did they say to you to get you to nothing, Burr?
shout any city within
sell New York City down the river? Burr, what do What do you want?
the original 13 colonies,
but they kinda shout JEFFERSON: Oh-ho! you fall for?
whatever they want. COMPANY: Alexander Hamilton!
6
Originally, this section
MADISON: A quid pro quo. BURR: I
ended with: BURR: Did Washington know about the dinner? Wanna be in
HAMILTON: Cuz
JEFFERSON: I suppose. Was there presidential pressure to deliver? The room where it happens. 7 7
Burr unbound!
we’ll have the banks.
The city’s undimin- The room where it happens. This is Oskar Eustis’s
ished favorite section, because
MADISON: Wouldn’t you like to work a little COMPANY: Alexander Hamilton! I Burr answers the
BURR: You got more
than you gave. closer to home? Wanna be in company’s question in
HAMILTON: the most Burr-like way
BURR: Or did you know, even then, it doesn’t The room where
Checkmate: Game possible. What do you
finished. JEFFERSON: Actually, I would. matter where you put the U.S. capital. it happens. want? What do you
And that was the end The room where believe in? Burr: I want
of the section. On my to be in the room. For
second go-round of
MADISON: Well, I propose the Potomac. HAMILTON: Cuz we’ll have the banks, it happens. the sake of it.
revisions, I seized the We’re in the same spot. I I wanna be in the room
8
opportunity to play out Both Lacamoire and
JEFFERSON: And you’ll provide him his votes? Where it happens.
the Hamilton-Burr Blankenbuehler
dynamic inside Burr’s BURR: You got more than you gave. Wanna be The room where it petitioned me for more
mind. It also allowed MADISON: Well, we’ll see how it goes. happens. time in this section, and
me to play with the thank God they did.
trumpet sample I’d HAMILTON: And I wanted what I got. 6 The room where it Boy does it bring the
created for the song JEFFERSON: Let’s go. happens. number home.
(that refrain that plays
between each section is Hamilton faces Burr. In I wanna be in
deliberately treated and BURR: No! the room where it The room where it
processed to sound like
an old jazz sample, but
HAMILTON: When you got skin in the game, happens. happens.
it’s original). Anyway, COMPANY: –One else was in you stay in the game. I The room where it
this is my favorite part
The room where it happened. But you don’t get a win unless you play in the happens. The room
of the show to act as
Hamilton. game. where it happens.
BURR, COMPANY: The room where it You get love for it. You get hate for it. I wanna be in I wanna be in
happened. You get nothing if you . . . the room . . .
The room where it happened. Oh 8 the room
No one else was in HAMILTON, COMPANY: where it happens.
The room where it happened. Wait for it, wait for it, wait! Oh The room where it
The room where it happened. happens.
The room where it happened. HAMILTON: God help and forgive me,
I wanna build something that’s gonna The room where it
BURR: My God! Outlive me. happens.

76 77
 I wanna be
I wanna be I wanna be in the
Oh, I’ve got to be
in the room where SCHUYLER
room it happens . . . The room where

I’ve got to be
Where it happens.
The room where it I’ve got to be, I’ve
it happens.
The room where it
D E F EA T E D
happens. gotta be, I’ve gotta happens.
I’ve got to be The room where it be . . .
happens. in the room! I wanna be in
in that room The room where it Eliza enters. Philip Schuyler enters with a BURR: Since being one put me on the up and
In that big ol’ room happens. newspaper. up again.

COMPANY: The art of the compromise— 9 Click-boom! Click-boom! PHILIP: Look! Grampa’s in the paper! “War HAMILTON: No one knows who you are or
hero Philip Schuyler loses Senate seat to young what you do.
BURR: Hold your nose and close upstart Aaron Burr!”
your eyes. BURR: They don’t need to know me. They don’t
Grampa just lost his seat in the Senate. like you.
COMPANY: We want our leaders to
save the day— ELIZA: Sometimes that’s how it goes. HAMILTON: Excuse me?
9
I’m perhaps proudest
of these three couplets BURR: But we don’t get a say in what PHILIP: Daddy’s gonna find out any minute. BURR: Oh, Wall Street thinks you’re great.
in the whole show: they trade away. You’ll always be adored by the things you create
They encapsulate
everything the number ELIZA: I’m sure he already knows. But upstate,
is about, are fully in COMPANY: We dream of a brand new start—
character, and also
speak to something PHILIP: Further down, HAMILTON: Wait.
fundamentally true BURR: But we
about contemporary
dream in the PHILIP, ELIZA: Further down BURR: People think you’re crooked!
politics that I’d never
been able to verbalize dark, for the And Schuyler’s seat was up for grabs,
until these lines
most part. PHILIP: “Let’s meet the newest senator from so I took it.
showed up.
New York . . . ”
BURR, COMPANY: Dark as a tomb where HAMILTON: I’ve always considered you a
it happens. ELIZA: New York— friend.

BURR: COMPANY: ELIZA, PHILIP: Our senator! . . . BURR: I don’t see why that has to end!
I’ve got to be The room where
in the room . . . it happens. Hamilton storms up to Burr. The cabinet HAMILTON: You changed parties to run against
forms around them. my father-in-law.
I’ve got to be . . .
The room where HAMILTON: Burr! BURR: I changed parties to seize the opportunity
it happens. I saw.
I’ve got to be . . . HAMILTON: Since when are you a I swear, your pride will be the death of us all!
The room where Democratic-Republican? Beware it goeth before the fall . . .
it happens.

78 79

1
This was a natural fit
for the second rap
battle, because it was
the subject in which
Hamilton and Jefferson
clashed most directly.
Much of the poison that
came from their
respective pens stemmed
from this issue, and as
Jefferson says, State
Department matters are
really not in Hamilton’s
job description.
2 We needed money and guns and half a chance.
This is a famous line
from Biggie’s classic
song “Juicy.” Daveed,
the first time he got the
lyric: “It’s so hard not to
say n***a at the end of
this sentence. I’m
fighting muscle
memory!”
3 And stand with them if they fought
Originally, Hamilton’s
argument was as long
as Jefferson’s, but I
realized I wasn’t gonna
top this punchline.
Also, Washington
cutting him off and
agreeing with him
leads us nicely into the
next song: Hamilton
is winning without
trying, because he and
Washington are in
lockstep on this issue.
CA B I N E T BA T T L E #2 Washington exits.
JEFFERSON: Did you forget Lafayette?
HAMILTON: What?
Washington, Hamilton & Jefferson, back in WASHINGTON: Thank you, Secretary Jeffer-
the cabinet. son. Secretary Hamilton, your response. JEFFERSON: Have you an ounce of regret?
You accumulate debt, you accumulate power,
WASHINGTON: The issue on the table. France HAMILTON: You must be out of your goddamn Yet in their hour of need, you forget.
is on the verge of war with England. Do we mind if you think
provide aid and troops to our French allies or The president is gonna bring the nation to the HAMILTON: Lafayette’s a smart man,
1
do we stay out of it? Remember, my decision brink he’ll be fine.
on this matter is not subject to congressional Of meddling in the middle of a military mess, And before he was your friend, he was mine.
4
approval. The only person you have to convince A game of chess where France is queen and If we try to fight in every revolution in the This line gets a really
wild-card reaction every
is me. Secretary Jefferson, you have the kingless. world, we never stop. 4 night, depending on the
floor, sir. We signed a treaty with a king whose head is Where do we draw the line? audience. Sometimes
nothing. Sometimes
now in a basket. applause. Once a
JEFFERSON: When we were on death’s door. Would you like to take it out and ask it? JEFFERSON: So quick-witted. 5 profound “Oh, sh*t.”
We still recognize
When we were needy. “Should we honor our treaty, King Louis’ head?”
ourselves in this one.
We made a promise. We signed a treaty. “Uh . . . do whatever you want, I’m super dead.” 3 HAMILTON: Alas, I admit it.
5
Originally, this was
an exchange about
Uh, who provided those funds? WASHINGTON: Enough. Enough. Hamilton JEFFERSON: I bet you were quite a lawyer. Jefferson and Hamil-
is right. ton’s mutual friend
Angelica (Jefferson met
MADISON: France. HAMILTON: My defendants got acquitted.
her in Paris). It didn’t
JEFFERSON: Mr. President— serve our transition into
JEFFERSON: In return, they didn’t ask for land. JEFFERSON: Yah. Well, someone the next song, but it
was definitely soapy
Only a promise that we’d lend a hand. WASHINGTON: We’re too fragile to start oughta remind you. and fun:
another fight. HAMILTON: She’s
never mentioned you.
against oppressors, HAMILTON: What? JEFFERSON: She’s
And revolution is messy but now is the time JEFFERSON: But sir, do we not fight for not the type who
shares.
to stand. freedom? JEFFERSON: You’re nothing without But since you’re so
Stand with our brothers as they fight Washington behind you. interested in foreign
affairs . . .
against tyranny. WASHINGTON: Sure, when the French figure
Ooooohhhhh . . .
I know that Alexander Hamilton is here and he out who’s gonna lead ’em. Washington re-enters.
Would rather not have this debate.
I’ll remind you that he is not secretary of state. JEFFERSON: The people are leading— WASHINGTON: Hamilton!
He knows nothing of loyalty.
Smells like new money, dresses like fake royalty. WASHINGTON: The people are rioting. JEFFERSON: Daddy’s calling.
Desperate to rise above his station, There’s a difference. Frankly, it’s a little
Everything he does betrays the ideals of disquieting that you would let your ideals Hamilton exits after Washington, eyes on Jefferson.
our nation. blind you to reality.
Hamilton.
ENSEMBLE: Ooh!!
HAMILTON: Sir.
JEFFERSON: And if ya don’t know, now ya
2
know, Mr. President. WASHINGTON: Draft a statement of neutrality.
80 81
 WA S H I N G T O N O N JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR:
dried.
The ink hasn’t This immigrant’s keeping us all on our toes.
Oh!
It must be nice, it must be nice to have Washing- Let’s show these Federalists who

YOUR SIDE
1
ton on your side. they’re up against!
1
I’m crazy about the Oh!
music in this thing. It’s
MADISON: So he’s doubled the size of the
this weird swing beat,
not really common in government. JEFFERSON, MADISON: Southern mother- 4
Madison used to have
hip-hop, and I probably Wasn’t the trouble with much our previous fuckin’— his own verse, wherein
spent more time
building it from scratch BURR: It must be nice, it must be nice to have This prick is askin’ for someone to bring him to government size? 4 he said: “I used to write
with him/Imbibe with
in Logic than any other Washington on your side. task. JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: him and ride with him/I
song in the show, with
the exception of It must be nice, it must be nice to have Washing- Somebody gimme some dirt on this vacuous BURR: Look in his eyes! Democratic-Republicans! find myself on this side
of a sizable divide with
“Satisfied.” Originally, ton on your side. mass so we can at last unmask him. him./We used to fight
the song was much
I’ll pull the trigger on him, someone load the JEFFERSON: See how he lies. ENSEMBLE: Oh! for the right to be left
longer and had a section
alone./But left alone to
where Jefferson, JEFFERSON: Ev’ry action has its equal, opposite gun and cock it.
his own devices, he’s a
Madison, and Burr
reaction. While we were all watching he got Washington MADISON: Follow the scent of his enterprise JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Let’s follow crisis all his own.”
spread rumors about
Thanks to Hamilton, our cabinet’s fractured into in his pocket. the money and see where it goes. Ended up cutting
Hamilton. But we
everything but these
realized it was more factions. JEFFERSON: Centralizing national credit. 5 lines, as a lead-in to the
powerful to keep the
Try not to crack under the stress, we’re breaking JEFFERSON, BURR: It must be nice, it must be And making American credit competitive. ENSEMBLE: Oh! group verse.
action to the three of
them plotting and down like fractions. nice to have Washington on your side. 5
scheming, so the gossip This section is so excit-
section was cut and We smack each other in the press, and we don’t It must be nice, it must be nice to have Wash- MADISON: If we don’t stop it we aid and abet it. JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Because every ing and personal to me
replaced with the ratatat print retractions. ington on your side. second the Treasury grows. because the interplay
back and forth of the between these guys
I get no satisfaction witnessing his fits of JEFFERSON: I have to resign. captures how we made
second verse.
passion. Look back at the Bill of Rights. ENSEMBLE: Oh! the show: good ideas
2 cascading off each other
One of my go-to The way he primps and preens and dresses like MADISON: Somebody has to stand up for the and leading to action.
conversational gambits 2
is switching the letters the pits of fashion. Madison enters. South! JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: If we follow
6
of someone’s name. Our poorest citizens, our farmers, live ration to the money and see where it leads. Like I’ve said before,
“Jeremy McCarter? having Daveed gave me
ration MADISON: Which I wrote. BURR: Somebody has to stand up to his mouth! Get in the weeds, look for the seeds of Hamil- the confidence to write
More like Meremy
Jakarta.” It’s not funny, As Wall Street robs ’em blind in search of chips ton’s misdeeds. this intricately, knowing
but it makes me laugh, I had a ringer to pull it
to cash in. 3 JEFFERSON: If there’s a fire you’re trying to off. This section is very
and I find my brain is
doing it all the time. douse, JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: It must be Kendrick-Lamar
Anyway, I stumbled on inspired—he’s the master
nice. It must be nice. of these polysyllabic
Pits of Fashion/Fits of
Passion, realized that MADISON, JEFFERSON: You can’t put it out gems that seem to go off
the rails but are so
they’d both work, and from inside the house. MADISON: Follow the money and
worked backwards to perfect that the music
earn them. see where it goes. has no choice but to stop
JEFFERSON: I’m in the cabinet I am and meet him on the
3 other side.
Jefferson may be complicit in JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR:
Hamilton’s antagonist, 7
but he’s not wrong: It must be nice. It must be nice. The line at the Public
was “It’s nice to have
Hamilton’s plan left Watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it.
veterans who sold their something to really
war bonds out in the If Washington isn’t gon’ listen JEFFERSON: The emperor has no clothes. 7 oppose.” But I like this
cold and at the mercy of To disciplined dissidents, this is the difference. better. It’s more of a
those who bought them riddle.
This kid is out! 6 JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: We won’t be
knowing the govern-
ment would buy them invisible. We won’t be denied. Still.
back at cost.
MADISON, BURR, JEFFERSON: It must be nice, it must be nice to have Washing-
Oh! ton on your side.
This immigrant isn’t somebody we chose.
Oh!

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 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n

THE PEN
&
THE PAD II
From Lin’s Notebooks

TOP LEFT:

Well, I always knew

what the punchline TOP RIGHT:

would be. I’m working out the

clearest way to convey
TOP RIGHT: the importance of
King George’s logic comma placement and
in this early draft its usage in surrepti-
of “Guns and Ships” tious flirting in
is the same logic our “Take a Break.”
country has applied The notion of comma
to any number of placement as flirting
ill-advised foreign knocked me out when I
policy misadventures. first read about it.
(History Spoiler: I had to get it in there.
People almost never
greet invading soldiers BOTTOM:
as liberators.) We I got exactly this far
eventually changed this with Burr singing
section because King “It’s Quiet Uptown”
George’s re-emergence when it occurred to me
after the war is such that not only is Angel-
a delightful surprise, ica the only choice to
we didn’t want to have narrate this moment,
him pop up any earlier. it completes her arc in
the most unexpected,
BOTTOM LEFT: satisfying way possi-
I’m fiddling with the ble. For her to bear
imagery for the end of witness to the lives of
“The Room Where it Alexander and Eliza
Happens.” This is all is the role she chose
good stuff, and it in “Satisfied”. . . she
occurs to me that the fulfills it here, at their
last four lines (which lowest moment.
didn’t make the show)
are a riff on “Just To
Get A Rep” by Gang
Starr.

BOTTOM RIGHT:

I wanted this song to

start as simply as a
joke: “Three guys walk
into a bar . . .” It will
ease us into the com-
plexity that follows.

84 85
 O N E LA S T T I M E
1

Washington’s office. Hamilton enters. WASHINGTON: I’m stepping down. I’m not
running for president.
HAMILTON: Mr. President, you asked to
see me? HAMILTON: I’m sorry, what?

WASHINGTON: I know you’re busy. WASHINGTON: One last time.

Relax, have a drink with me
HAMILTON: What do you need, sir? Sir? One last time.
Let’s take a break tonight
2
WASHINGTON: I wanna give you a word And then we’ll teach them how to say goodbye, Reading Washington’s
Farewell Address, this
of warning. to say goodbye.
section jumped out at
You and I. me. In it, Washington
HAMILTON: Sir, I don’t know what you heard, seeks to do exactly what
we aim to do with this
but whatever it is, Jefferson started it. HAMILTON: No, sir, why? musical: paint himself
as human, and capable
1 of mistakes. Which
Keeping what I loved WASHINGTON: Thomas Jefferson resigned WASHINGTON: I wanna talk about neutrality. makes his ode to
about “One Last Ride”
while rewriting it as this morning. “The Benign Influence
Of Good Laws Under
“One Last Time” (see HAMILTON: Sir, with Britain and France on A Free Government”
page 207) was a little
like merging a vanishing HAMILTON: You’re kidding. the verge of war, is this the best time— WASHINGTON: No, they will see we’re strong. Washington hands Hamilton the pen. all the more moving.
And moving in stereo,
bar of soap to a new bar
because they’re
of soap. Takes a lot of
WASHINGTON: I need a favor. WASHINGTON: I want to warn against partisan HAMILTON: Your position is so unique. He starts writing Washington’s Farewell Hamilton’s sentiments
strength and I’d like to
fighting. Address. as well. The music
end the metaphor here
underpinning it is
now, please.
HAMILTON: Whatever you say, sir, Jefferson WASHINGTON: So I’ll use it to move them along. “The Story of Tonight,”
will pay for his behavior. HAMILTON: But— HAMILTON: Though, in reviewing the which we have not
heard since Laurens’s
HAMILTON: Why do you have to say goodbye? incidents of my administration, I am uncon- death, so it evokes a
WASHINGTON: Shh. Talk less. WASHINGTON: Pick up a pen, start writing. scious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too nostalgia for a more
idealistic time in the
I wanna talk about what I have learned. WASHINGTON: If I say goodbye, the nation sensible of my defects not to think it probable lives of all these men.
HAMILTON: I’ll use the press, The hard won wisdom I have earned. learns to move on. that I may have committed many errors. I shall
I’ll write under a pseudonym, you’ll see what It outlives me when I’m gone. also carry with me
I can do to him— HAMILTON: As far as the people are concerned Like the Scripture says:
You have to serve, you could continue to serve— “Everyone shall sit under their own vine and HAMILTON: WASHINGTON:
2
WASHINGTON: I need you to draft an address. fig tree The hope that my The hope
WASHINGTON: No! One last time And no one shall make them afraid.” country will
HAMILTON: Yes! He resigned. You can finally The people will hear from me They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made. view them with View them with
speak your mind— One last time I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree. indulgence indulgence
And if we get this right A moment alone in the shade. And that
WASHINGTON: No. He’s stepping down so he We’re gonna teach ’em how to say goodbye, At home in this nation we’ve made. after forty-five years After forty-five years
can run for president. You and I— One last time. of my life dedicated of my life dedicated
to its service with an to its service with an
HAMILTON: Ha. Good luck defeating you, sir. HAMILTON: Mr. President, they will say HAMILTON: One last time. upright zeal, upright zeal
you’re weak. the faults of

86 87
 C H A P T E R 

incompetent abilities George Washington’s

will be Going home
consigned to Consigned to We’re gonna teach
oblivion, as I myself oblivion, as I myself ’Em how to say Teach ’em
must soon be to the must soon be to the Goodbye! How to say
mansions of
rest.
mansions of
rest. Teach them
Goodbye!
I KNOW HIM
I anticipate with I anticipate with How to say Teach ’em how!
pleasing pleasing Goodbye
expectation that expectation that
retreat in which retreat in which To say goodbye!
I promise myself to I promise myself to Say goodbye! 1
BAHAHAHA.
realize, the realize, the Say goodbye! King George showed up
1 again!
sweet enjoyment of sweet enjoyment of Say goodbye! King George enters. John Adams?! This surprised me,
partaking, in partaking, in One last time! I know him. just as it surprised me
when the Piragua Guy
the midst of my the midst of my One last time! KING GEORGE: They say That can’t be. showed up for his
2
fellow-citizens, fellow-citizens, George Washington’s yielding his power and That’s that little guy who spoke to me reprise in In The
Heights, one of the last
the benign the benign stepping away. All those years ago.
songs we added for that
influence of good influence of good ’Zat true? What was it? Eighty-five! show. But sometimes a
laws laws I wasn’t aware that was something a person That poor man, they’re gonna eat him alive! character just will not
be denied.
Under a free Under a free could do. Oceans rise. To be honest, his
government, the government, the I’m perplexed. Empires fall. reappearance here was
probably inspired by the
ever-favorite object ever-favorite object Are they gonna keep on replacing whoever’s in Next to Washington, they all look small anecdote wherein King
of my heart, of my heart, charge? All alone George says of
Washington’s resigna-
and the happy and the happy If so, who’s next? Watch them run. tion: “If he does that,
reward, as I trust, reward, as I trust, There’s nobody else in their country who looms They will tear each other into pieces. he will be the greatest
man in the world.” I
of our mutual cares, of our mutual cares, quite as large . . . Jesus Christ, this will be fun!
love that.
labors, and labors, and
2
dangers. dangers. A sentinel whispers in King George’s ear. Da da da dat da da da da ya da I’m just taking it as a
given that everyone
Da da da dat da ya daaaaa! watched the John
WASHINGTON: One last time. What? Adams miniseries on
HBO. The scene
Hahahaha.
between Adams and
WOMEN: George Washington’s going home! The sentinel whispers again. President John Adams. King George in that
Good luck. film is my favorite
scene in the whole
HAMILTON: Teach ’em how to say goodbye. series.

COMPANY:
WASHINGTON: George Washington’s
You and I Going home

George Washington’s
Going home Going home

History has its eyes George Washington’s

on you. Going home

88 89
 A DA M S The
WE KNOW
1
When I cut the
contents of Hamilton’s
angry pamphlet about
Adams, I also cut
Adams’s insults, which
A D M I N I S T RA T I O N
had provoked Hamilton
in the first place. At
this point our show is
moving very quickly, Hamilton, in his study. Jefferson, Madison & BURR, JEFFERSON, MADISON: Ya best g’wan
1
so I had to get in and BURR: How does Hamilton the short-tempered COMPANY: Oh! Burr enter. run back where ya come from—
out fast.
protean creator of the coast guard 1
The original line
2 Founder of the New York Post HAMILTON: The line is behind me HAMILTON: Mr. Vice President. HAMILTON: Ha! You don’t even know what here was a Lauryn Hill
Just begin with a
burner of an opening quote, but I was told
Ardently abuse his cab’net post I crossed it again Mr. Madison. you’re asking me to confess. that she does not allow
sentence, as harsh as
Burr’s run-on sentences Destroy his reputation? Well, the President lost it again Senator Burr. her work to be sampled
re: Hamilton. at all. I like the rewrite,
Welcome folks, to Aww, such a rough life What is this? JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Confess.
because by flipping into
3 Better run to ya’ wife Jamaican patois, it
In a workshop reading,
BURR, COMPANY: The Adams administration! Yo, the boss is in Boston again JEFFERSON: We have the check stubs. From HAMILTON: You have nothing. I don’t have to becomes an ugly dig at
this was Hamilton
Hamilton’s Caribbean
talking smack about Lemme ask you a question: Who sits separate accounts. tell you anything at all. origins.
Abigail Adams’s
appearance—something BURR: Jefferson’s the runner-up, which makes At your desk when you’re in Massachusetts? Unless.
2
the historical Hamilton This is a super-esoteric
him the vice president They were calling you a dick back in MADISON: Almost a thousand dollars, paid in
never did, but par for 2 reference to my favorite
the course in hip-hop ’seventy-six 4 different amounts. JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Unless. podcast, My Brother,
insults. One look at the JEFFERSON: Washington can’t help you now, And you haven’t done anything new since! My Brother and Me.
audience’s cringing In this podcast, the
reaction and I cut it. No
no more mister nice president. You nuisance with no sense! BURR: To a Mr. James Reynolds way back in HAMILTON: If I can prove that I never broke McElroy brothers—
one messes with Abigail You will die of irrelevance! seventeen ninety-one. the law, 3 Justin, Travis, and
Adams. We just won’t Griffin—dispense
BURR: Adams fires Hamilton. Go ahead: You can call me the Devil Do you promise not to tell another soul what hilarious, often terrible
have it. 1
Privately calls him creole bastard in his taunts. You aspire to my level, HAMILTON: Is that what you have? Are you you saw? advice to listeners.
4 Often, one of them
This is actually my You aspire to malevolence! 5 done? will say “Unless,”
favorite nod to the
musical 1776, not the
JEFFERSON: Say what! Say hi to the Jeffersons! BURR: No one else was in the room where it prompting the other
two to say, “Unless...,”
“Sit down” quote at And the spies all around me, MADISON: You are uniquely situated by virtue happened.
and then they’ll give
the end.
BURR: Hamilton publishes his response. Maybe they can confirm of your position— completely contradicto-
5 I don’t care if I kill my career with this, HAMILTON: Is that a yes? ry, equally hilarious
The wordplay in this advice. It seemed fitting
cut lyrics
is just so much fun. I am confining you to one term. JEFFERSON: Though “virtue” is not a word I’d that Hamilton would
Nuisance/no sense, my 2 go full “Unless” right
level/malevolence.
HAMILTON: An open letter to the fat apply to this situation— JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Um, yes.
before telling his
Hamilton’s unhinged as Arrogant HAMILTON: Sit down, John, you fat mother— enemies one of his
hell here, which makes
Anti-charismatic [BLEEP]er. MADISON: To seek financial gain, to stray from Hamilton pulls a letter from his desk and biggest secrets. Thanks,
it fun to play. Alas, he’s McElroys.
using all his best stuff National embarrassment your sacred mission— hands it to Burr. He begins to read:
against a character we Known as President John Adams Hamilton drops a thick tome of paper on the 3
Hamilton is self-
never meet, so goodbye
floor. The Company explodes. JEFFERSON: And the evidence suggests you’ve BURR: “Dear sir, I hope this letter finds you in sabotaging by telling
fun wordplay. You’re
his enemies way too
doomed to a footnote BURR: Shit engaged in speculation— good health much. Note, too, that
in this book.
BURR: Hamilton is out of control. And in a prosperous enough position to put the music under this
6 scene is the same as
A paraphrase of HAMILTON: The man’s irrational, he claims BURR: An immigrant embezzling our govern- wealth James Reynolds’s letter
real-life Jefferson, who that I’m in league MADISON: This is great! He’s out of power. He ment funds— In the pockets of people like me, down on their in “Say No to This.”
called Hamilton “an
host within himself” With Britain in some vast, international intrigue. holds no office. And he just destroyed President luck.
in a letter to Madison Trick, please. John Adams, the only other significant member JEFFERSON, MADISON: I can almost see the You see, it was my wife who you decided to—”
about an unrelated beef.
Also, one more thing: You wouldn’t know what I’m doin’, of his party. headline, your career is done.
This was the site of one You’re always goin’ berserk JEFFERSON: Whaaaat—
of my best typos of all
time. You haven’t lived
But you never show up to work JEFFERSON: Hamilton’s a host unto himself. BURR: I hope you saved some money for your
til you’ve seen Daveed Give my regards to Abigail 3 As long as he can hold a pen, he’s a threat. Let’s daughter and sons.
read: “As long as he can
Next time you write about my lack of moral compass let him know what we know. 6
hold a pen, he’s a treat!”
At least I’m doin’ my job up in this rumpus

90 91
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

HAMILTON: She courted me. HAMILTON: As you can see I kept a record of JEFFERSON: My God. Burr hangs back.
Escorted me to bed and when she had me in a every check in my checkered history.
4
This section has some corner Check it again against your list ’n see MADISON: Gentlemen, let’s go. HAMILTON: How do I know you won’t use this
of my favorite internal That’s when Reynolds extorted me consistency. against me
rhyming in the show,
beyond the spent/cent/
For a sordid fee. I never spent a cent that wasn’t mine HAMILTON: So? The next time we go toe to toe?
sent/scent extravaganza. I paid him quarterly. You sent the dogs after my scent, that’s fine. 4
I dropped the music out
I may have mortally wounded my prospects but Yes, I have reason for shame JEFFERSON, MADISON: The people won’t BURR: Alexander, rumors only grow. And we
under “consistency”
because it puts a little my papers are orderly! But I have not committed treason and sullied my know what we know. both know what we know.
highlight on it. good name.
Hamilton begins pulling reams of paper out of As you can see I have done nothing to provoke They exit. Burr exits.
his desk. legal action.
Are my answers to your satisfaction? HAMILTON: Burr!

92 93
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

H U R R I CA N E
1

1
The challenge with
this song is such a
strange one: a moment
alone with Hamilton,
wherein he thinks about HAMILTON: In the eye of a hurricane I was louder than the crack in the bell.
his whole life and then There is quiet I wrote Eliza love letters until she fell.
comes to the wrong
For just a moment, I wrote about the Constitution and defended it
conclusion about what to
do. He equates his A yellow sky. well.
success as a writer with And in the face of ignorance and resistance,
success in general, and
talks himself into When I was seventeen a hurricane I wrote financial systems into existence.
writing “The Reynolds Destroyed my town. And when my prayers to God were met with
Pamphlet.” This was
only plausible to me if, I didn’t drown. indifference,
in reviewing his life, we I couldn’t seem to die. I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance.
saw the cracks in the
foundation of his mind.
I wrote my way out, In the eye of a hurricane
2
And here’s the crack Wrote everything down far as I could see. There is quiet
in the foundation:
Here’s the trauma to I wrote my way out. For just a moment,
end all traumas. I looked up and the town had its eyes on me.
Surviving this must
have felt like an even They passed a plate around. A yellow sky.
worse punishment than Total strangers
death.
Moved to kindness by my story. I was twelve when my mother died. BURR:
3
Raised enough for me to book passage on a ship She was holding me. Wait for it,
that was New York bound . . . We were sick and she was holding me. Wait for it, HAMILTON:
2
I wrote my way out of hell. I couldn’t seem to die. Wait for it . . . I’ll write my
I wrote my way to revolution. way out . . .
ENSEMBLE,
BURR:
3
And here’s Burr,
Wait for it, Write ev’rything
singing his theme, but
Wait for it, Down, far as ELIZA, now it’s in anticipation
Wait for it . . . I can see . . . ANGELICA, of Hamilton’s
self-sabotage.
MARIA,
4
I’ll write my WASHINGTON: And here’s Team
Hamilton and Maria
Wait for it, way out . . . History has its
Reynolds, those who
4
Wait for it, Overwhelm eyes on you. will be most affected by
Wait for it them this thing he’s writing,
trying to remind him of
Wait . . . with honesty. the ramifications of
what he’s about to do.
They’re voices in
HAMILTON: This is the eye of the hurricane, Hamilton’s head as well,
this is the only way I can protect my legacy. but they’re drowned out.

COMPANY: Wait for it,

Wait for it,
Wait for it . . . Wait . . .

HAMILTON: The Reynolds Pamphlet.

94 95
 C H A P T E R 

The
R E Y N O L D S PA M P H L E T
1

Hamilton writes The Reynolds Pamphlet. DEEP VOICE: Damn!

COMPANY: The Reynolds Pamphlet. HAMILTON, JEFFERSON: “Mrs. Hamilton

with our children being absent on a visit to her
1
The beat for “The JEFFERSON, MADISON, ANGELICA: Have father.”
Reynolds Pamphlet” is
actually a reprise of an you read this?
earlier cut tune called MADISON, BURR: No . . .
“No John Trumbull.”
It’s super contemporary BURR, JEFFERSON, MADISON: Alexander
and totally different Hamilton had a torrid affair. COMPANY: Boooo!
from anything we’ve
And he wrote it down right there.
heard, and I love that
the music that MADISON, BURR: Have you read this?
accompanies the
MADISON: Highlights!
nation’s first sex scandal
sounds so contemporary JEFFERSON: Well, he’s never gon’ be president
and crazy. HAMILTON, now. 3
2 JEFFERSON:
This is all drawn from
the actual “Reynolds “The charge against MADISON, BURR: Never gon’ be president now.
Pamphlet,” with some
me is a connection
language updated—I
took out “with his with one JAMES REYNOLDS: JEFFERSON: He’s never gon’ be president now.
privity and connivance” James Reynolds! James Reynolds! COMPANY: All the way from London?! JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Well, he’s
and put in “with his
knowing consent.” For purposes of MADISON, BURR: Never gon’ be president now. Damn. never gon’ be president now.
improper speculation. BURR: 4
This was originally
3
What a joy it has been part of a longer tune
My real crime is an “My real crime is an JEFFERSON: He’s never gon’ be president now. HAMILTON: Angelica, thank God. ENSEMBLE:
to see this line pop up titled “Congratulations.”
during presidential amorous connection amorous connection Someone who understands what I’m struggling JEFFERSON, Never gon’ be It came between “The
election season. It’s just with his wife with his wife . . . ” MADISON, BURR: Never gon’ be president now. here to do. MADISON, BURR: president now. Reynolds Pamphlet”
catchy and bitchy and “Burn,” but we
enough to be the For a considerable Never gon’ be realized that the
National Gaffe Theme time with his COMPANY: JEFFERSON: That’s one less thing to worry ANGELICA: I’m not here for you. president now. audience desperately
Song. 2 wanted to see Eliza’s
knowing consent.” Oooooh! about. Never gon’ be
reaction, so I folded the
ENSEMBLE: Oooooh! president now. best parts of it into the
MADISON, BURR, JEFFERSON: Damn! JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: That’s one less Well, “The Reynolds
Pamphlet.” I love how
thing to worry about! ANGELICA: I know my sister like I know my He’s never gon’ be different it is from
HAMILTON, JEFFERSON, MADISON: “I had own mind, 4 president now. everything else in this
section. It contributes to
frequent meetings with her. Most of them at my Angelica enters with suitcases. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind. Never gon’ be the feeling that the
own house.” I love my sister more than anything in this life, president now. world is crashing,
pathos within
ANGELICA: I came as soon as I heard. I will choose her happiness over mine every time. That’s one less thing celebration within
BURR: At his own house! Put what we had aside. to worry about. schadenfreude.
JEFFERSON: What?! I’m standing at her side. That’s one less thing
MADISON: At his own house! You could never be satisfied. to worry about.
HAMILTON: Angelica— God, I hope you’re satisfied.

96 97
 JEFFERSON,
MADISON: HAMILTON: WOMEN:
BURN
5
Hey! Hey! Well, he’s never gon’ MEN:
At least he was At least I was be President now. Well, he’s never gon’
5
Honest with our money! Honest with our money! be President now.
Here’s where King 1
George gets in on the Well, he’s never gon’ Eliza sits with a lantern and a stack of letters. Do you know what Angelica said
fun onstage. A late be President now. When she read what you’d done?
addition by Tommy
and Andy that kicks
Well, he’s never gon’ ELIZA: I saved every letter you wrote me. She said,
the deliriousness up Well, he’s never gon’ be President now. From the moment I read them “You have married an Icarus.
to 11. 2
be President now. I knew you were mine. He has flown too close to the sun.”
Hey! Hey! Well, he’s never gon’ You said you were mine.
At least he was At least he was That’s one less thing be President now. I thought you were mine. You and your words, obsessed with your legacy
Honest with our money! Honest with our money! to worry about. Your sentences border on senseless
Do you know what Angelica said And you are paranoid in every paragraph
FULL COMPANY: That’s one less thing to When we saw your first letter arrive? How they perceive you? 1
Eliza’s response is lost
worry about! She said, to time—those letters
The Reynolds Pamphlet. You, you, you . . . were burned after
Hamilton’s death.
“Be careful with that one, love.
This gave me enormous
JEFFERSON, MADISON, BURR: Have you He will do what it takes to survive.” I’m erasing myself from the narrative. freedom, but also gave
read this? Let future historians wonder me a dramatic action.
What if Eliza’s reaction
Did you ever see somebody ruin their own You and your words flooded my senses. How Eliza reacted when you broke her heart. is to erase her reaction
life? Your sentences left me defenseless. You have torn it all apart. from memory? Writing
this song is the first
You built me palaces out of paragraphs, I am watching it time I introduced the
COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON, ELIZA): You built cathedrals. Burn. theme of “narrative”
for Eliza—which I
His poor wife. I’m re-reading the letters you wrote me. Watching it burn. then promptly went
I’m searching and scanning for answers The world has no right to my heart. back and threaded
into “That Would
In every line, The world has no place in our bed.
Be Enough” and the
For some kind of sign, They don’t get to know what I said. finale of the show.
And when you were mine I’m burning the memories, 2
Chernow found a
The world seemed to Burning the letters that might have letter from Angelica to
redeemed you. Eliza that says pretty
much this.
Burn. You forfeit all rights to my heart.
Burn. You forfeit the place in our bed.
You’ll sleep in your office instead,
You published the letters she wrote you. With only the memories
You told the whole world how you brought Of when you were mine.
this girl into our bed.
In clearing your name, you have ruined I hope that you burn.
our lives.

98 99
 B L O W U S A L L A WA Y
1
GEORGE: I know where to find you, piss off. Philip, your mother can’t take another
I’m watchin’ this show now. heartbreak.

The scene shifts. Hamilton enters. PHILIP: Father—

Philip Hamilton enters, now nineteen years old. PHILIP: And y’all look pretty good in ya frocks. PHILIP: Pops, if you had only heard the shit he HAMILTON: Promise me. You don’t want this
How ’bout when I get back, we all strip down to said about you Young man’s blood on your conscience.
2
PHILIP: Meet the latest graduate of King’s our socks? I doubt you would have let it slide and I was not
College! about to— PHILIP: Okay, I promise.
I prob’ly shouldn’t brag but dag I amaze BOTH: OK!
and astonish! HAMILTON: Slow down. HAMILTON: Come back home when you’re
The scholars say I got the same virtuosity Philip struts. done.
1 and brains as my pops! PHILIP: I came to ask you for advice: This is Take my guns. Be smart. Make me proud, son.
This song was
originally called “Ya The ladies say my brain’s not where the RECORDING: Blo- blo- blo- my very first duel.
Boy Is Killin’ Em”—a resemblance stops! They don’t exactly cover this subject in boarding Hamilton hands his guns to Philip and exits.
hip-hop-inspired title
that felt too on the I’m only nineteen but my mind is older, COMPANY: Blow us all away! school.
nose. The beat was the Gotta be my own man, like my father PHILIP: My name is Philip
same, though. This is
but bolder. The theater. George Eacker with a friend in HAMILTON: Did your friends attempt to I am a poet 5
the brightest, happiest
3
music in the show— I shoulder his legacy with pride, the balcony. Philip enters behind him. negotiate a peace? And I’m a little nervous, but I can’t show it.
4
happy flutes and rock This was an actual
I used to hear him say I’m sorry, I’m a Hamilton with pride.
basslines—but all slight- technique in dueling
ly dissonant. I’m trying That someday PHILIP: George! PHILIP: He refused to apologize, we had to let You talk about my father, I cannot let it slide. called the “delope.” It
to ratchet up tension I would— the peace talks cease. allowed for everyone to
and contrast for what show up and prove they
will follow. GEORGE: Shh. Philip & George face off. were men, and go home
ENSEMBLE: Blow us all away. HAMILTON: Where is this happening? alive.
2
I always thought of
PHILIP: George! PHILIP: Mr. Eacker! How was the rest of your 5
this scene as the talk To go back to Philip’s
between Salt-N-Pepa in Philip approaches two young women, Martha PHILIP: Across the river, in Jersey. show? nine-year-old rap here is
the song “Shoop:” “And & Dolly. GEORGE: Shh! I’m tryin’ to watch the show! almost cruel of me, but
he’s coming this way God it’s effective.
Oooohhh!” HAMILTON, PHILIP: Everything is legal in GEORGE: I’d rather skip the pleasantries.
PHILIP: Ladies, I’m lookin’ for a Mr. George PHILIP: Ya shoulda watched your mouth before New Jersey . . . Let’s go.
3
The name of the play
Eacker. you talked about my father though! Grab your pistol.
George Eacker was
watching: The West Made a speech last week, our Fourth of July HAMILTON: Alright. So this is what you’re
Indian. Given speaker. GEORGE: I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. gonna do. PHILIP: Confer with your men.
Hamilton’s origin in the
West Indies, it’s too He disparaged my father’s legacy in front of You father’s a scoundrel, and so, it seems, Stand there like a man until Eacker is in front The duel will commence after we count to ten.
good not to mention. a crowd. are you. of you.
I can’t have that, I’m making my father proud. When the time comes, fire your weapon in the ENSEMBLE: Count to ten!
ENSEMBLE: Ooooooooooh! air.
MARTHA: I saw him just up Broadway a couple This will put an end to the whole affair. 4 PHILIP: Look ’im in the eye, aim no higher.
of blocks. PHILIP: It’s like that? Summon all the courage you require.
He was goin’ to see a play. PHILIP: But what if he decides to shoot? Then Then slowly and clearly aim your gun towards
GEORGE: Yeah, I don’t fool around. I’m a goner. the sky—
PHILIP: Well, I’ll go visit his box. I’m not your little schoolboy friends.
HAMILTON: No. He’ll follow suit if he’s truly a MEN: One two three four
DOLLY: God, you’re a fox. PHILIP: See you on the dueling ground. man of honor.
That is, unless you wanna step outside and To take someone’s life, that is something you ENSEMBLE: Five six seven—
go now. can’t shake.
Eacker fires early. Philip goes down.

100 101
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

S TA Y A L I V E ENSEMBLE MEN:
Stay alive . . .
ELIZA: Who did this, Alexander, did you know?

Eliza enters. PHILIP: Mom, I’m so sorry for forgetting what

( R E P R I S E ) you taught me.
ELIZA: No!
ELIZA: My son—
HAMILTON: Eliza.
The scene changes, as Philip’s body is pulled PHILIP: I did exactly as you said, Pa. PHILIP: We played piano.
away. We segue to a doctor’s house. Hamilton I held my head up high. ELIZA: ENSEMBLE MEN:
1
bursts in. Is he breathing? Is he Stay alive . . . ELIZA: I taught you piano.
HAMILTON: going to survive this?
ENSEMBLE I know, I know. Shh. PHILIP: PHILIP: You would put your hands on mine.
WOMEN: I know, I know. High.
2
Stay alive . . . Shh. I know you did ELIZA: You changed the melody every time.
HAMILTON: ev’rything just right.
Stay alive . . . Where’s my son? Even before we got to ten— PHILIP: Ha. I would always change the line.
Shh.
DOCTOR: Mr. Hamilton, come in. I was aiming for the sky. ELIZA: Shh. I know, I know.
They brought him in a half an hour ago. I know, I know. Shh.
He lost a lot of blood on the way over. I know, I know. PHILIP: I would always change the line.
I know, I was aiming for the sky.
1 2
As a new father, this is ENSEMBLE ELIZA: I know, I know. This is why I never
the hardest scene to play got good at piano—I
WOMEN: HAMILTON: Save your strength was always changing
every night. Not even
what’s about to follow, Stay alive . . . Is he alive? and Eliza sings with Philip. the written melodies.
but the frenzy of not This is tough to get
Stay alive . . . through every night.
knowing.
DOCTOR: Yes. But you have to understand ELIZA:
The bullet entered just above his hip and lodged Un deux trois
in his right arm. quatre PHILIP:
Cinq six sept huit Un deux trois quatre
HAMILTON: Can I see him please? neuf.
Cinq six sept huit
DOCTOR: I’m doing ev’rything I can but the neuf.
wound was already infected when he arrived— Good.

They enter the room. Philip is in Un deux trois quatre

agony on the table. Cinq six sept Un deux trois . . .
Huit neuf.
HAMILTON: Philip. Sept huit neuf–
Sept huit . . .
PHILIP: Pa.
Philip dies. The music takes over.
Hamilton rushes over
to his bedside and kisses
his forehead.

102 103
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

IT’S QUIET UPTOWN

We push away what we can never understand, Hamilton shatters.
ANGELICA: There are moments that the words Eliza enters. We push away the unimaginable.
don’t reach. COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND
There is suffering too terrible to name. HAMILTON: Look at where we are. Hamilton & Eliza stand side by side. ELIZA): Forgiveness. Can you imagine?
You hold your child as tight as you can Look at where we started.
And push away the unimaginable. I know I don’t deserve you, Eliza. ANGELICA: They are standing in the garden, Forgiveness. Can you imagine?
The moments when you’re in so deep But hear me out. That would be enough. Alexander by Eliza’s side. If you see him in the street, walking by her side,
It feels easier to just swim down. She takes his hand. talking by her side, have pity.
If I could spare his life They are going through the unimaginable.
ANGELICA, ENSEMBLE: The Hamiltons move If I could trade his life for mine, Eliza takes Hamilton’s hand.
uptown He’d be standing here right now
And learn to live with the unimaginable. And you would smile, and that would be enough. ELIZA: It’s quiet uptown.
I don’t pretend to know
HAMILTON: I spend hours in the garden. The challenges we’re facing.
I walk alone to the store. I know there’s no replacing what we’ve lost and
And it’s quiet uptown. you need time.
I never liked the quiet before. But I’m not afraid.
I take the children to church on Sunday. I know who I married.
A sign of the cross at the door. Just let me stay here by your side,
And I pray. That would be enough.
That never used to happen before.
COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND
ANGELICA, WOMEN: If you see him in the ELIZA): If you see him in the street, walking by
street, walking by himself, talking to her side, talking by her side, have pity.
himself.
Have pity. HAMILTON: Eliza, do you like it uptown? It’s
quiet uptown.
HAMILTON: Philip, you would like it uptown.
It’s quiet uptown. COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND
ELIZA): He is trying to do the unimaginable.
ANGELICA, WOMEN: He is working through See them walking in the park, long after dark,
the unimaginable. taking in the sights of the city.

ALL MEN (EXCEPT HAMILTON): His hair HAMILTON: Look around, look around, Eliza.
has gone grey. He passes every day. They say he
walks the length of the city. COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND
ELIZA): They are trying to do the unimaginable.
HAMILTON: You knock me out, I fall apart.
ANGELICA: There are moments that the words
COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND don’t reach.
ELIZA): Can you imagine? There is a grace too powerful to name.

104
104 105
 The ELECTION MALE VOTER: I don’t like Adams. John Adams
doesn’t
We know it’s
lose-lose
We know it’s
lose-lose

OF 1800
FEMALE VOTER: Well, he’s gonna lose, that’s stand a
just defeatist. chance so Jefferson or
who are you Burr? Jefferson or
ANOTHER MALE VOTER: And Jefferson— promoting? Burr?
But if you But if you But if you
TWO MEN: In love with France! had to had to had to
COMPANY: The election of eighteen hundred. JEFFERSON: Who did you have in mind? choose. choose. choose.
ANOTHER FEMALE VOTER: Yea, he’s so elitist!
Jefferson & Madison enter. MADISON: Don’t laugh. Burr appears.
TWO WOMEN: I like that Aaron Burr!
1
JEFFERSON: Can we get back to politics? JEFFERSON: Who is it? HAMILTON: Well, if it isn’t Aaron Burr. Sir!
A WOMAN: I can’t believe we’re here with him!
MADISON: Please? MADISON: You used to work on the same staff. BURR: Alexander!
1 A MAN: He seems approachable?
There are so many
emotional extremes in
JEFFERSON: Yo. Ev’ry action has an equal, JEFFERSON: Whaaaat. HAMILTON: You’ve created quite a stir, sir!
this show—it’s great opposite reaction. ANOTHER MALE VOTER: Like you could
3
when you find the line For a bizarre period
John Adams shat the bed. I love the guy, MADISON: It might be nice. It might be nice. grab a beer with him! 3 BURR: I’m going door to door!
that does the job in our contemporary
just so. This is one of but he’s in traction. To get Hamilton on your side. history, this actually
those lines. Poor Alexander Hamilton? He is missing ENSEMBLE: Dear Mr. Hamilton: Your fellow HAMILTON: You’re openly campaigning? mattered to voters.

2
And now Burr’s initial
in action. JEFFERSON, MADISON: It might be nice. Fed’ralists would like to know how you’ll be voting. 4
And Burr’s transfor-
advice to Hamilton is So now I’m facing— It might be nice. BURR: Sure! mation is complete.
our nation’s first He has thrown caution
To get Hamilton on your side. HAMILTON: It’s quiet uptown. to the wind. It’s fun
campaign slogan, in our
telling. It’s fun to play JEFFERSON, MADISON: Aaron Burr! HAMILTON: That’s new. playing Hamilton’s
with how familiar Burr reaction to this every
Burr campaigns in earnest. ENSEMBLE: Dear Mr. Hamilton: John
is in his shamelessness night: This never
here. You can feel the JEFFERSON: With his own faction. Adams doesn’t stand a chance so who are you BURR: Honestly, it’s kind of draining. happened, historically,
audience relaxing, as if BURR: ENSEMBLE: promoting? but what would he
to say, “Now this looks have made of it?
like our era.” MADISON: He’s very attractive in the North. Talk less! HAMILTON: Burr—
New Yorkers like his chances. Burr! HAMILTON:
Smile more! It’s quiet uptown. BURR: Sir!
JEFFERSON: He’s not very forthcoming on any Burr!
particular stances. Don’t let ’em know MEN WOMEN: HAMILTON: Is there anything you wouldn’t do?
what you’re against or Jefferson or Burr? Jefferson or Burr?
2
MADISON: Ask him a question: It glances off, what you’re for! We know it’s lose-lose We know it’s lose-lose. BURR: No. I’m chasing what I want. And you
he obfuscates, he dances. Burr! Jefferson or Burr? Jefferson or Burr? know what?
Shake hands with
JEFFERSON: And they say I’m a francophile: him! But if you had to But if you had to HAMILTON: What?
At least they know I know where France is! Burr! choose. choose.
Charm her! BURR: I learned that from you. 4
MADISON: Thomas, that’s the problem, see, Burr! EVEN MORE
they see Burr as a less extreme you. It’s eighteen hundred, VOTERS: MEN ENSEMBLE: If you had to choose
ladies, tell your Dear Mr. Jefferson or If you had to choose
JEFFERSON: Ha! husbands: Vote Hamilton: Burr? WOMEN:
for—Burr! Burr! Jefferson or MADISON: It’s a tie!
MADISON: You need to change course, a key Burr?
endorsement might redeem you.

106 107
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

ENSEMBLE: If you had to choose Hamilton steps forward. JEFFERSON, MADISON, ENSEMBLE: Oh! JEFFERSON: Ha. Yeah, right.
If you had to choose
HAMILTON: Yo. HAMILTON: We have fought on like seventy- You hear this guy? Man openly campaigns
JEFFERSON: It’s up to the delegates! five diff’rent fronts. against me, talkin’ ’bout, “I look forward to our
ENSEMBLE: Oh! partnership.”
5
This used to read, ENSEMBLE: If you had to choose JEFFERSON, MADISON, ENSEMBLE: Oh!
“And if you were to ask If you had to choose HAMILTON: The people are asking to hear MADISON: It’s crazy that the guy who comes in
me who I’d prefer—
don’t vote Burr.” I my voice. HAMILTON: But when all is said and all is done. second becomes vice president.
changed it because I JEFFERSON, MADISON: It’s up to Hamilton! Jefferson has beliefs. Burr has none.
thought “prefer” might
tip my hand to the
ENSEMBLE: Oh! JEFFERSON: Yeah, you know what? We can
decision, so I ended the VOTERS: MADISON, ENSEMBLE: ENSEMBLE: Oooooooooooooh. change that. You know why?
line with a word that
If you had to ENSEMBLE: HAMILTON: For the country is facing a
didn’t rhyme with either
last name. choose, difficult choice. Madison & Jefferson exchange a glance, as MADISON: Why?
If you had to Jefferson or the company hurries away.
choose, Burr? ENSEMBLE: Oh! JEFFERSON: Cuz I’m the President. Burr,
If you had to Jefferson or MADISON, JEFFERSON: Well, I’ll be damned. when you see Hamilton, thank him for the
Burr? HAMILTON: And if you were to ask me who Well, I’ll be damned. endorsement.
choose, Choose, Choose, I’d promote— 5
choose, choose, choose, MADISON: Hamilton’s on your side. Jefferson exits with Madison. Burr is alone.
choose! choose! choose! ENSEMBLE: Oh!
ENSEMBLE: Well, I’ll be damned.
HAMILTON: Jefferson has my vote. Well, I’ll be damned.

JEFFERSON, MADISON, ENSEMBLE: Oh! JEFFERSON: And?

HAMILTON: I have never agreed with MADISON: You won in a landslide.

Jefferson once.
Burr enters.

BURR: Congrats on a race well-run.

I did give you a fight.

JEFFERSON: Uh-huh.

BURR: I look forward to

our partnership.

JEFFERSON: Our partnership?

BURR: As your vice president.

108 109
 YOUR OBEDIENT Hamilton writes a
letter in response.

S E R VA N T HAMILTON:
President,
Mr. Vice

I am not the reason no

one trusts you.
No one knows what you
BURR: How does Hamilton, BURR, COMPANY: The room where it happens. believe.
An arrogant, The room where it happens. I will not equivocate on
Immigrant, orphan, my opinion,
Bastard, whoreson BURR: You’ve kept me from— I have always worn it on
Somehow endorse my sleeve.
Thomas Jefferson, his enemy, BURR, COMPANY: The room where it happens. Even if I said what you
1
Sometimes there’s A man he’s despised since the beginning, think I said,
a perfect reprise so
quickly. Burr should
Just to keep me from winning? BURR: For the last time. You would need to cite a
1
be happy—he’s ascended I wanna be in the room where it happens— more specific
to the second-highest
Burr begins to write a letter. grievance.
office in the land. But
it’s an empty victory. Here’s an itemized list of
Jefferson has just made Dear Alexander: thirty years of
clear that while Burr
may be vice president, disagreements. 3
Jefferson trusts him 2
I am slow to anger,
about as far as he can
throw him. “The Room But I toe the line BURR: Sweet Jesus.
Where It Happens” As I reckon with the
is the only thing to
evoke here.
effects HAMILTON: Hey, I have
Of your life on mine. not been shy
2
Originally, my lyrics I look back on where I am just a guy in the
for these letters were
super historically I’ve failed, public eye
accurate, but I could And in every place Tryin’ to do my best for
feel us losing the
audience. I figured, if
I checked, our republic.
they can’t speak plainly The only common thread I don’t wanna fight. It’s what you do.
here, then when?
has been your But I won’t apologize for doing what’s right. I can’t apologize because it’s true.
disrespect. 3
This is my Parks &
Now you call me I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant, BURR: Then stand, Alexander. Recreation homage—
such a Leslie Knope
“amoral,” A dot Ham. Weehawken. Dawn. thing to do.
A “dangerous disgrace,” Guns. Drawn.
4
This is a fun one
If you’ve got something BURR: Careful how you proceed, good man.
to play, because
to say, Intemperate indeed, good man. HAMILTON: You’re on. Hamilton understands
Name a time and place, Answer for the accusations I lay at your feet or the consequences of
not apologizing, yet
Face to face. prepare to bleed, good man. BURR, HAMILTON: I have the honor to be refuses to back down.
your obedient servant, That allows me to
calibrate the degrees
I have the honor to be HAMILTON: Burr, your grievance is of stubbornness, anger,
Your Obedient Servant, legitimate. HAMILTON: A dot Ham. and regret differently
every night. Playing
A dot Burr. I stand by what I said, every bit of it. 4 contradictions is fun.
You stand only for yourself. BURR: A dot Burr.

110 111
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

1
In the musical of my
life after I’m long gone,
my wife Vanessa is
going to be the one
B E S T O F W I V E S and
who steps forward as

BEST OF WOMEN
the hero. Vanessa is not 1
particularly fond of
musicals—she only likes
good ones. She is not
effusive in her praise,
or boastful. But when
I looked up from that
Chernow book and said
“I think this is a Hamilton is writing. Eliza enters. HAMILTON: I know. I just need to write
hip-hop musical,” she something down.
didn’t laugh, or roll her
eyes. She just said, ELIZA: Alexander come back to sleep.
“That sounds cool.” And ELIZA: Why do you write like you’re running
that was all I needed to 2
get started. As I fell in HAMILTON: I have an early meeting out of town. out of time? I wept the whole time I
love with the idea of a wrote this scene—again,
love triangle between I can’t tell you how many
Eliza, Alexander, and
ELIZA: It’s still dark outside. HAMILTON: Shhh. times my wife has woken
Angelica, she said, “Can up to me writing. She is
you have Angelica rap? the sleepiest.
ELIZA: Come back to bed. That would be enough.
That would be cool.”
I am someone who is
so averse to travel that HAMILTON: I’ll be back before you know I’m gone.
I wrote a whole musical
about not wanting to
leave my block in ELIZA: Come back to sleep.
Washington Heights.
It was Vanessa who
booked us trips and HAMILTON: This meeting’s at dawn.
time away from New
York. “You don’t get
any writing done here ELIZA: Well, I’m going back to sleep.
because life keeps
popping up.” Thanks
to her, Hamilton was Hamilton kisses Eliza’s hand.
written in Mexico,
Spain, Nevis, Sagapo-
nack, St. Croix, Puerto HAMILTON: Hey. Best of wives
Rico, The Dominican 2
and best of women.
Republic—long trips
where Vanessa would
take me there and then
leave me alone to write
while she explored. She
is my first audience,
and she’s a tough
audience, so I know if I
impress her I’ve cleared
the highest possible bar.
She’ll come home from
work and say, “Your
king tune was stuck in
my head all day—that’s
probably a good sign.”
This started out as a
note trying to explain
how my wife really is
the ‘best of wives and
best of women,’ but I’m
trying to get at something
more important—this
show simply doesn’t
exist without Vanessa.
It’s a love letter to her.

112 113
 W O R L D WA S
The This man will not make an orphan of my
daughter.
Laurens leads a soldiers’ chorus on the other
side.
My son is on the other side.

WIDE ENOUGH
1
COMPANY: Number nine. He’s with my mother on the other side.
Washington is watching from the other side.
BURR: Look him in the eye, aim no higher.
Summon all the courage you require. Teach me how to say goodbye.
Then count:
MALE COMPANY: One two three four BURR: Now I didn’t know this at the time, but Rise up, rise up, rise up,
1
Much later in life, we were— COMPANY: One two three four five six seven Eliza
Burr read Laurence
FULL COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON AND eight nine
Sterne’s novel Tristram 3
Sometimes Tommy
Shandy. The book has a BURR): Five six seven eight nine— BURR, PHILIP: HAMILTON: Number ten paces! Fire— My love, take your time. Kail just calls ’em right.
scene wherein somebody Near the same spot Near the same spot I’ll see you on the other side. At the end of 2014, we
catches an annoying fly were making our final
but decides not to kill BURR: There are ten things you need to know. your son died, is that my son died, is that Burr fires a shot. Before Hamilton is hit, the
push in rehearsal before
it, saying, “This world why— why— action freezes. Hamilton raises his pistol. starting tech at the
surely is wide enough Public, and I still hadn’t
to hold both thee and COMPANY: Number one!
written Hamilton’s side
me.” Burr reportedly COMPANY: Six! HAMILTON: I imagine death so much it feels HAMILTON: Raise a glass to freedom . . . of the duel. He looked
said, “Had I read Sterne
more and Voltaire less,
BURR: We rowed across the Hudson at dawn. more like a memory. 3 at me and said, “I feel
like it’s going to be a
I should have known My friend William P. Van Ness signed on BURR: He examined his gun with such rigor? Is this is where it gets me, on my feet, several BURR, COMPANY: He aims his pistol at the sky. New Year’s Baby.”
the world was wide
as my— I watched as he methodically fiddled with the feet ahead of me? Which meant he
enough for Hamilton thought that the answer
and me.” If he was trigger. I see it coming, do I run or fire my gun or BURR: Wait! would come to me on
joking, it was a wicked BURR AND COMPANY: Number two! let it be? my only day off. Well,
joke. But sometimes the cut to January 1, 2015.
jokes we choose to tell COMPANY: Seven! There is no beat, no melody. Burr fires a shot. Hamilton goes down.
My infant son is asleep
are the ones in which BURR: Hamilton arrived with his crew: Burr, my first friend, my enemy, on my chest, my wife
we reveal ourselves. asleep, our dog between
The notion of the world Nathaniel Pendleton and a doctor that he knew. BURR: Confession time? Here’s what I got. May be the last face I ever see? BURR: I strike him, right between his ribs.
us on the bed. And as I
being wide enough for My fellow soldiers’ll tell you I’m a terrible shot. If I throw away my shot, is this how you I walk towards him, but I am ushered away. lay there with only the
all of us is a heartbreak- sound of Sebastian’s
er, because it’s true.
COMPANY: Number three! remember me? They row him back across the Hudson.
breathing, I realize that
So I took out Sterne COMPANY: Number eight! What if this bullet is my legacy? I get a drink. silence is the one thing
and Voltaire and kept
BURR: I watched Hamilton examine the terrain. we haven’t done. The
the heartbreaker. whole show. It’s been,
I wish I could tell you what was happ’ning in BURR, HAMILTON, MEN: Your last chance to Legacy. What is a legacy? COMPANY:
to borrow from Act
2
This is historically his brain. negotiate. It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get Aaaah One, non-stop. I place
true. It also requires the Sebastian back in the
actor playing Hamilton
This man has poisoned my political pursuits! Send in your seconds see if they can set the to see. Aaaah
bed and walk the dog,
to wear glasses on and record straight. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song Aaaah beginning to put
off throughout the together this final
COMPANY: Most disputes die and no one someone will sing for me.
show, so the detail soliloquy.
doesn’t come out of shoots! Number four! Pendleton & Van Ness meet in the middle to America, you great unfinished symphony, BURR: I hear wailing in the streets.
nowhere at the duel. speak, but it is Burr & Hamilton we see, You sent for me.
The number of times
I’ve misplaced my BURR: Hamilton drew first position. staring at each other across the way. You let me make a difference. COMPANY:
glasses offstage.... Looking, to the world, like a man on a mission. A place where even orphan immigrants can Aaaah
This is a soldier with a marksman’s ability. BURR: They won’t teach you this in your leave their fingerprints and rise up. Aaaah
The doctor turned around so he could have classes, I’m running out of time, I’m running and my Aaaah
deniability. But look it up, Hamilton was wearing his time’s up.
2
glasses. Wise up. Eyes up. BURR: Somebody tells me, “You better hide.”
COMPANY: Five! Why? If not to take deadly aim? I catch a glimpse of the other side.
It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.
I had only one thought before the slaughter:

114 115
 H A M I L T O N : T h e R e v o l u t i o n C H A P T E R 

COMPANY: BURR: Were both at his side when he died. At the sky, I should’ve known.
Aaaah Death doesn’t discriminate He may have been the first one to die, I should’ve known
Aaaah Between the sinners and the saints, But I’m the one who paid for it. The world was wide enough for both
Aaaah It takes and it takes and it takes. Hamilton and me.
History obliterates. I survived, but I paid for it. The world was wide enough for both
BURR: They say In every picture it paints, Hamilton and me.
It paints me and all my mistakes. Now I’m the villain in your history.
BURR, ANGELICA: Angelica and Eliza— When Alexander aimed I was too young and blind to see.

116 117
 WHO LIVES, ELIZA, ANGELICA: We tell your story. COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON):
The orphanage.

WHO DIES, WHO TELLS ELIZA: She is buried in Trinity Church, 3

ELIZA: I help to raise hundreds of children.

YOUR STORY?
ELIZA, ANGELICA: Near you. I get to see them growing up.

ELIZA: When I needed her most, she was right on— COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON):
The orphanage.
ELIZA, COMPANY: Time.
ELIZA: In their eyes I see you, Alexander.
WASHINGTON: Let me tell you what I wish I’d BURR, MEN: ANGELICA, WOMEN: ELIZA: And I’m still not through. I see you every—
known Who tells your story? Who tells your story? I ask myself, “What would you do if you had more—
1 When I was young and dreamed of glory. ELIZA, COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON):
It’s unusual to end a
You have no control: Who tells your story? Your story? ELIZA, COMPANY: Time?” Time 3
musical with somebody This fact kills me. It’s
other than the the line that made me
protagonist, but I felt cry the hardest in the
like I had permission to WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Who lives, Eliza enters. ELIZA: The Lord, in his kindness, ELIZA: And when my time is up? writing of it—Angelica,
end with Eliza after Who dies, He gives me what you always wanted. Have I done enough? near Alexander but not
seeing Tony Kushner 1 with him, for eternity.
and Jeanine Tesori’s Who tells your story? WOMEN: Eliza. He gives me more—
Caroline, or Change. At ELIZA: COMPANY: 4
If this were a work of
the end of the show, fiction, any screenwriting
Caroline’s daughter BURR: President Jefferson: ELIZA: I put myself back in the narrative. ELIZA, COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON): Will they tell my story? Will they tell your story?
teacher would say, “Take
comes forward to tell us Time. it out, it’s too on the
how she will work for a nose.” But Eliza’s true
JEFFERSON: I’ll give him this: His financial WOMEN: Eliza. Hamilton enters.
better world because of legacy is in the futures
her mother’s sacrifices. system is a work of genius . . . I couldn’t ELIZA: I raise funds in D.C. for the of those children. She
You can tell that she’ll
undo it if I tried. ELIZA: I stop wasting time on tears. Washington Monument. ELIZA: Oh, I can’t wait to see you again. was the director of this
go on to have an orphanage for 27 years.
incredible life. It made And I tried. I live another fifty years. It’s only a matter of— The orphanage still
me want to see her It’s not enough. WASHINGTON: She tells my story. exists in the form of
musical. the Graham Windham
WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Who lives, ELIZA, COMPANY: Time.
organization.
2
The heartbreaking Who dies, COMPANY: Eliza. ELIZA: I speak out against slavery.
truth is that she did not 5
Who tells your story? You could have done so much more if you Eliza sees Hamilton. He takes her hand and Again, I’m so grateful
live to see her husband’s that these words showed
biography published. ELIZA: I interview every soldier who fought by only had— leads her to the edge of the stage. up for Washington to say
One of her sons finally BURR: President Madison: your side. way back in Act One.
completed the work, but I knew they’d come in
not until she had passed ELIZA, COMPANY: Time. COMPANY: COMPANY:
handy when we needed
away. MADISON: He took our country from bankruptcy MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS: She Will they tell your story? them.
to prosperity. I hate to admit it, but he doesn’t get tells our story. ELIZA: And when my time is up, have I Time . . .
enough credit for all the credit he gave us. done enough? Who lives, who dies,
ELIZA: I try to make sense of your thousands of COMPANY (EXCEPT who tells your story? 5
2
WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Who lives, pages of writings. ELIZA: HAMILTON): Time . . .
Who dies, You really do write like you’re running out of— Will they tell our story? Will they tell your story? Will they tell your story?
Who tells your story? Time . . .
ELIZA, COMPANY: Time. ELIZA: Oh. Can I show you what I’m proudest of? Who lives, who dies—
ANGELICA: Every other Founding Father story
gets told. ELIZA: I rely on— COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON): FULL COMPANY: Who tells your story?
Every other Founding Father gets to grow old. The orphanage.
ELIZA, ANGELICA: Angelica.
BURR: And when you’re gone, who remembers ELIZA:I establish the first private orphanage in THE END.
your name? ELIZA: While she’s alive— New York City. 4
Who keeps your flame?

118 119
CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
lin-manuel miranda (Book, Music, and Lyrics/Alexander Hamilton)
is the Tony and Grammy award–winning composer-lyricist-star of Broadway’s In
the Heights—winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best
Orchestrations, and Best Choreography with Miranda receiving the award for Best
Score. Additionally, he is the co-composer and co-lyricist of Broadway’s Tony-nom-
inated Bring It On: The Musical and provided Spanish translations for the 2009
Broadway revival of West Side Story. Miranda, along with Tom Kitt, won the 2014
Creative Arts Emmy for Best Original Music and Lyrics for their work on the 67th
Annual Tony Awards. In 2015, Miranda was named as a Fellow of the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He lives with his family in New York City.
jeremy m c carter wrote cultural criticism for New York magazine and
Newsweek before spending five years on the artistic staff of the Public Theater,
where he created, directed, and produced the Public Forum series. He served on
the jury of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is writing a book about young
American radicals during World War One. He lives with his family in Chicago.
The authors would like to thank: Candi Adams, Jason Bassett, Andy Blanken-
buehler, Julie Bosman, John Buzzetti, Maddie Caldwell, Ron Chernow, Oskar
Eustis, Kaitlin Fine, Jimmy Franco, Joanne Freeman, Ben Greenberg, Jennifer
Joel, Tommy Kail, Stephanie Klemons, Alex Lacamoire, Derik Lee, Karen Leeds,
Josh Lehrer, Tom McCann, Ginger Bartkoski Meagher, Luis Miranda, Luz
Miranda-Crespo, Riggs Morales, Vanessa Nadal, Lauren Nathan, Justin Nichols,
Owen Panettieri, Jamie Raab, Sam Rudy, Jeffrey Seller, James Shapiro, Bill Sher-
man, Victoria Spencer, Nevin Steinberg, Ahmir Thompson, Tarik Trotter, Patrick
Vassel, and Deanna Weiner
B o o k , Mu s i c a n d Ly r i c s b y
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA
I n s p i r e d b y t h e b o o k A l e x a n d e r Ha m i l t o n b y
RON CHERNOW
All songs music & lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
© 5000 Broadway Music (ASCAP) administered by WB Music Corp.
“My Shot” contains elements of “Shook Ones Pt. II” written by Al-
bert Johnson, Kejuan Waliek Muchita, published by Universal Mu-
sic - MGB Songs obo itself and Juvenile Hell (ASCAP) / Univer-
sal Music - Careers obo itself and P. Noid Publishing (BMI); and
“Going Back To Cali” written by Osten Harvey, Jr., Roger Troutman,
Christopher Wallace, published by EMI April Music Inc., Big Poppa
Music, Justin Combs Publishing Company Inc. (ASCAP). All rights
administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church
Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219/ © 1997 Songs Of Lastra-
da (BMI) / Rubber Band Music (BMI). Worldwide rights adminis-
tered by Grow Your Own Music (BMI), a division of “A” Side Music,
LLC d/b/a Modern Works Music Publishing (BMI) / R2M Music
(BMI). All rights administered by BMG Rights Management (US)
LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission; and “You’ve Got To
Be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific. Music by Richard Rodgers.
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. This selection is used by special
arrangement with Rodgers & Hammerstein: an Imagem Company,
www.rnh.com. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission
“Right Hand Man” contains elements of “The Modern Major Gen-
eral” from The Pirates of Penzance written by W.S. Gilbert and Ar-
thur Sullivan. Original production premiered at Opéra Comique,
London in April, 1880.
“Ten Duel Commandments” contains elements of “Ten Crack
Commandments” written by Christopher E. Martin (ASCAP),
Khary Kimani Turner (ASCAP), published by EMI April Music
Inc., Hertzrentatune, and Weblife Music (ASCAP). All rights
administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church
Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219 / Gifted Pearl Music, Inc.
(ASCAP). Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“Meet Me Inside” contains elements of “Party Up (Up In Here)”
written by Kasseem Dean, Earl Simmons, published by Universal
Music Corp. obo itself, Boomer X Publishing, Inc. and Swizz Beatz
(ASCAP) / Dead Game Publishing (ASCAP) All rights obo Dead
Game Publishing administered by WB Music Corp.
“Cabinet Battle #1” contains elements of “The Message” written by
Clifton Nathaniel Chase, Edward G. Fletcher, Melvin Glover, Syl-
via Robinson, published by Songs Of Universal, Inc. obo Twenty
Nine Black Music and Sugar Hill Publishing Ltd. (BMI).
“Say No To This” contains elements of “Nobody Needs To Know”
from The Last Five Years. Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.
© 2001 Semolina Farfalle Music Co. (ASCAP). Used by permission.
“Cabinet Battle #2” contains elements of “Juicy (It’s All Good)”
written by Sean Combs, James Mtume, Jean-Claude Olivier, Chris-
topher Wallace, published by EMI April Music Inc., Big Poppa Mu-
sic, Justin Combs Publishing Company Inc. (ASCAP). All rights
administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church
Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219 / Jumping Bean Songs,
LLC, Courtesy of Jumping Bean Songs, LLC (BMI) / Mtume Mu-
sic (BMI). All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“Blow Us All Away” contains elements of “Ten Crack Command-
ments” written by Christopher E. Martin (ASCAP), Khary Kimani
Turner (ASCAP), published by EMI April Music Inc., Hertzren-
tatune, and Weblife Music (ASCAP). All rights administered by
Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200,
Nashville, TN 37219 / Gifted Pearl Music, Inc. (ASCAP). Admin-
istered by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Used by permission; and “Shook Ones Pt. II” written by Albert John-
son, Kejuan Waliek Muchita, published by Universal Music - MGB
Songs obo itself and Juvenile Hell (ASCAP) / Universal Music - Ca-
reers obo itself and P. Noid Publishing (BMI).
“The World Was Wide Enough” contains elements of “Ten Crack
Commandments” written by Christopher E. Martin (ASCAP),
Khary Kimani Turner (ASCAP), published by EMI April Music
Inc., Hertzrentatune, and Weblife Music (ASCAP). All rights
administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church
Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219 / Gifted Pearl Music, Inc.
(ASCAP). Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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