| Avouch | to cite as authority (verb)”Without the sensible and true avouchOf mine own eyes.” Horatio sees ghost 1st time |
| Martial | related to or suited for war (adjective)”Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.” Marcellus sees ghost 2 times |
| Portentous | eliciting amazement or wonder; shadowy or ominous (adj)”Well may it sort that this portentous figureComes armèd through our watch so like the king” Bernardo describes reason ghost is here to haunt them |
| Harbingers | foreshadows what is to come (noun)” And even the like precurse of feared events,As harbingers preceding still the fates” Horatio suspects ghost is here to foreshadow future war |
| Dirge | a song of grief/ mournful piece of music (noun)”With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” Hamlet monologue on mother’s marriage to uncle |
| Impious | lacking in reverence or proper respect (adj)”but to persevere in obstinate condolement is a courseOf impious stubbornness; ’tis unmanly grief” King Claudius calls Hamlet stubborn for thinking of his father |
| Jocund | marked by or suggestive of high spirits/mirth (adj)”No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day” King Claudius goes to drink |
| Circumscribed | to surround by a boundary (verb/adj)”And therefore must his choice be circumscribedUnto the voice and yielding of that bodyWhereof he is the head” Laertes warns Ophelia of Hamlet’s “love” |
| Dalliance | frivolous action or act of delay/ flirtation (noun)”Show me the steep and thorny way to heavenWhiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,Himself the primrose path of dalliance treadsAnd recks not his own rede.” Ophelia warns Laertes to not be the one that he tells her to avoid |
| Precepts | to take beforehand/instruct (verb)”And these few precepts in thy memoryLook thou character.” Polonius gives life advice to Laertes before he leaves. |
Hamlet Act 1 Vocab
November 29, 2019