Said by: PoloniusTo Who: ReynaldoContext: Find out if Laertes is being a scumbag in France | “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth” |
Said by: Polonius To Who: ReynaldoContext: Find out if Laertes is being a scumbag in France | “By indirections find directions out” |
Said by: OpheliaTo Who: PoloniusContext: Hamlet is acting crazy and they think it’s because Ophelia hasn’t allowed him to have her recently or see her | “I did repel letters and denied his access to me” |
Said by: PoloniousTo Who: KingContext: Polonious thinks he knows why Hamlet is acting crazy and is kissing King’s ass before delivering the news | “I hold my duty as I hold my soul, both to my God and to my gracious King” |
Said by: QueenTo Who: KingContext: Polonious has said he thinks he knows why Hamlet is going crazy and Queen thinks it can only be because of King Hamlet’s death | “His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage” |
Said by: PoloniousTo Who: King and QueenContext: Voltemand just delivered news from Norway, they are moving on to Polonious’ news and he is taking a long time to say that he will be brief (ironic) | “brevity is the soul of wit” |
Said by: QueenTo Who: PoloniousContext: Polonious is being long-winded when talking about why Hamlet is crazy, and Queen just wants to know what’s up | “More matter with less art” |
Said by: Guildenstern To Who: HamletContext: They are catching up, saying they are not totally lucky, but not down on their luck either so they are middle of fortune like at her private parts | “Faith, her privates we” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guildenstern, RosencrantzContext: They are catching up, saying they are not totally lucky, but not down on their luck either so they are middle of fortune like at her private parts, basically a dirty joke c. 1600 | “In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true! She is a strumpet. What news?” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guildenstern, Rosen.Context: Why have you two willingly chosen to come to a place where I feel a prisoner? | “Denmark’s a prison” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guild and RosenContext: Everything is a matter of perception– his prison (Denmark) is not so to his old friends | “For there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guild, RosenContext: Thinking and mentality makes a big difference in how you view a prison | “O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guild, RosenContext: The world seems like a terrible place nowadays, no longer the beautiful place it once was | “it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: Guild, RosenContext: Making a jab at King Claudius bc Claudius is playing the role of a King too | “He that plays the king shall be welcome” |
Said by: Rosen, GuildenTo Who: HamletContext: The pen is mightier than the sword basically | “many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills and dare scarce come thither” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: PoloniousContext: Make the Players comfortable bc they are so important in grand scheme (((and also Hamlet’s scheme))) | “let them well be used, for they are the abstract and brief chroniclers of the time” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: PoloniousContext: the Players’ comfort and enjoyment mean so much to Hamlet that Hamlet does not care what Polonious must do to his personal reputation in order to make them happy | “After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: no one, soliloquyContext: He resents what he must do, but wishes he had the courage to do it still and wants it to be over with already | “To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave’s offal” |
Said by: HamletTo Who: no one, soliloquyContext: Hamlet is afraid he might be being manipulated by the Devil instead of his Father’s ghost so he needs more proof so he hatches this plan | “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” |
Hamlet Act 2 Quotes
August 1, 2019