Bookstore Puzzle - cont.

Difficulty: Hard

This is the text of the memo next to the door:
Intro: In here is a tragedy ---
art thou player or audience?
Be as it may, the end doth remain:
all go on only toward death.

1: The first word at thy left hand:
a false lunacy, a madly dancing man.
Hearing unhearable words, drawn
to a beloved's grave --- and there,
mayhap, true madness at last.

2: As did this one playing at death,
find true death at last.
Killing a nameless lover, she pierced a heart rent by sorrow.
3: Doth lie invite truth?
Doth verity but wear the mask of falsehood?
Ah, thou pityful, thou miserable ones.

4: Still amidst lies, though the end cometh not,
wherefore yearn for death? Will thou attend thy beloved?
Truths and lies, life and death: a game
of turning white to black and black to white.

5: Is not a silence brimming with love
more precious than flattery?
A peaceful slumber preferred
to a throne besmirched with blood?

6: One vengeful man spilled blood for two;
Two youths shed tears for three;
Three witches disappeared thusly;
And only the four keys remain.

Outro: Ah but veryly...
In here lies a tragedy.
Art thou player or audience?
There is something which cannot become a puppet of fate or an onlooker,
peering into a cage.

HINT 1: This puzzle requires a certain amount of Shakespeare knowledge. If you don't have that, try searching the web for Shakespeare summaries, you'll get some pages that can be of great use.

HINT 2: The intro and outro don't really matter. Verse 1 to 5 refer to the five books you picked up. Verse 6 has got some crucial information.

HINT 3: First try finding out which book belongs to which verse. They tell you something about the order of the code. Than try to figure out the 6th verse.

SOLUTION: The intro, as said, doesn't matter, so skip it. Verse 1 to 5 refer to Shakespeare works. Each of the five books you picked up is a work by Shakespeare. You have to match the verses with the books, and put them in that order. You might first want to note down what every book is about. Now let's look at the verses. We're not going to explain why a verse is about that particular book, if you want to know, look for the summaries of Shakespeare's works on the internet.

Verse 1 - Hamlet - IV
Verse 2 - Romeo and Juliet - I
Verse 3 - Othello - V
Verse 4 - King Lear - II
Verse 5 - Macbeth - III

Put the books on the shelf in THIS order (IV-I-V-II-III). If you translate these Roman numbers to Arabic numbers now, you will get a five-digit code. But the door only requires four numbers. This is where the 6th verse comes in. Let's analyze verse 6:

One vengeful man spilled blood for two; (this is about Hamlet)

Two youths shed tears for three; (that must be Romeo & Juliet)

Three witches disappeared thusly; (a famous scene from Macbeth)

And only the four keys remain.

One man spilled blood for two, this means you got to multiply the number of the vengeful man (Hamlet) by two! Since Hamlet is book number 4 (IV), the number will be 8.

The two youths, Romeo and Juliet, cried for three. Meaning you should multiply the number of the R&J book, 1 (I) by three. So it becomes 3.

The three witches from Macbeth disappeared, so let's forget about the Macbeth number. Scratch away number 3.

After putting the books in place, you got this code: 4-1-5-2-3 (IV-I-V-II-III) Now apply the hints from verse 6: multiply the first number (Hamlet) by 2, the second by 3 (R&J), and lose the last number (Macbeth). You'll now get this code:

8-3-5-2