Hamlet Act 2 Quotes

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”
August 1, 2019