| Hamlet’s response to Horatio’s lies | ‘Do not do my ear that violence’ |
| If the world has ‘grown honest’ (R) then | it is ‘doomsday’ (H) |
| References to the artifice of theatre: self-aware: | ‘majestical roof fretted with golden fire […] this most excellent canopy of the air’ (Globe), is nothing but ‘foul and pestilent congregation of vapours’ |
| The word ‘seems’ | – ‘Seems,’ madam? Nay it is. I know not ‘seems.’ (H)- ‘my most seeming-virtuous queen.’ (Gh) |
| Hamlet on fake mourning | – ‘Nor customary suits of solemn black,Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,No, nor the fruitful river in the eye.’- ‘The trappings and the suits of woe.’ |
| Hamlet on artifice like acting in a play (fake mourning) | ‘For they are actions that a man might play’ |
| Polonius ironic advice on truth | ‘This above all: to thine own self be true’ |
| Ghost on Claudius fooling others with his words | ‘With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts—O wicked wit and gifts.’ |
| Smiling villain in Denmark | “That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.” |
| Polonius spying on Laertes | Asks Reynaldo to plant rumors ‘slight sullies on my son’ to find out if there’s truth in them. |
| Polonius using Ophelia to spy on Hamlet | ‘At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.[To the King.] Be you and I behind an arras then.’ |
| Hamlet know’s R and G were sent for | ‘there is a kind of confession in your lookswhich your modesties have not craft enough to color.’ |
| Claudius compares his speech/actions to makeup | – ‘The harlot’s cheek beautied with plast’ring art.’- ‘My most painted word’ |
| Ophelia has to lie to Hamlet | HAMLET[…] Where’s your father?OPHELIAAt home, my lord. |
| Hamlet on R and G trying to play him | ‘Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?’ |
| Laertes on the cause of his death | ‘I am justly killed with mine own treachery.’ |
Artifice in Hamlet
November 23, 2019