| For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being agod kissing carrion, —Have you a daughter? | Hamlet to Polonius |
| Let her not walk i’ the sun: conception is ablessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.Friend, look to ‘t.(2.2.5) | Hamlet to Polonius |
| Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,Must, like a *****, unpack my heart with words,And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,A scullion!(2.2.58) | Hamlet to himself |
| […] and there put on himWhat forgeries you please; marry, none so rankAs may dishonour him; take heed of that;But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slipsAs are companions noted and most knownTo youth and liberty.(2.1.4) | Polonius to Reynaldo |
| My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;No hat upon his head; his stockings foul’d,Ungarter’d, and down-gyved to his ancle;Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;And with a look so piteous in purportAs if he had been loosed out of hellTo speak of horrors,—he comes before me.[…]He took me by the wrist and held me hard;Then goes he to the length of all his arm;And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow,He falls to such perusal of my faceAs he would draw it. Long stay’d he so;At last, a little shaking of mine armAnd thrice his head thus waving up and down,He raised a sigh so piteous and profoundAs it did seem to shatter all his bulkAnd end his being: that done, he lets me go:And, with his head over his shoulder turn’d,He seem’d to find his way without his eyes;For out o’ doors he went without their helps,And, to the last, bended their light on me. (2.1.1) | Ophelia to Polonius |
| […] The spirit that I have seenMay be the devil: and the devil hath powerTo assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhapsOut of my weakness and my melancholy,As he is very potent with such spirits,Abuses me to damn me: (2.2.58) | Hamlet to himself |
| He knew me not at first; he said Iwas a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: andtruly in my youth I suffered much extremity forlove; very near this. (2.2.8) | Polonius to HIMSELF about Hamlet |
| I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind issoutherly I know a hawk from a handsaw. (2.2.28) | Hamlet to Guildenstern |
| O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!Is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceitThat from her working all his visage wann’d,Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,A broken voice, and his whole function suitingWith forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!For Hecuba!What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her? What would he do,Had he the motive and the cue for passionThat I have? (2.2.58) | Hamlet to himself |
| Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace: butthere is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,that cry out on the top of question, and are mosttyrannically clapped for’t: these are now thefashion, and so berattle the common stages —so theycall them —that many wearing rapiers are afraid ofgoose-quills and dare scarce come thither.(2.2.30) | Rosencrantz to Hamlet |
| For murder, though it have no tongue, will speakWith most miraculous organ. | Hamlet to himself |
| Marry, sir, here’s my drift;And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:You laying these slight sullies on my son,As ’twere a thing a little soil’d i’ the working, Mark you,Your party in converse, him you would sound,Having ever seen in the prenominate crimesThe youth you breathe of guilty, be assuredHe closes with you in this consequence;’Good sir,’ or so, or ‘friend,’ or ‘gentleman,’According to the phrase or the additionOf man and country. | Polonius to Reynaldo |
| At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him:Be you and I behind an arras then;Mark the encounter: | Polonius to Claudius |
| You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your lookswhich your modesties have not craft enough to colour:I know the good king and queen have sent for you.(2.2.25) | Hamlet to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern |
| Brevity is the soul of wit | Polonius to Gertrude (& Claudius) |
| More matter with less art | Gertrude to Polonius |
| How pregnant sometimes his replies are! | Polonius to HIMSELF about Hamlet |
| O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. | Hamlet to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern |
| Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. | Guildenstern to Hamlet |
| “And there put on him / What forgeries you please – marry, none so rank / As may dishonor him, take heed of that, / But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips / As are companions noted and most known / To youth and liberty.” | Polonius to Reynaldo; he is saying he can make up whatever lies he wants (as long as they don’t hurt his image) about Laertes |
| “But breathe his faults so quaintly / That they may seem the taints of liberty, / The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, / A savageness in unreclaimèd blood, / Of general assault.” | Polonius to Reynaldo; his is telling him to describe Laertes’ faults so subtly that will seem like things that come with independence and the sudden urges most men have |
| “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth; / … / … / By indirections find directions out.” | Polonius to Reynaldo; he is saying that by lying you will find out the truth |
| “Mad for thy love?” | Polonius to Ophelia; he is saying that Hamlet is crazy in love with her |
| “By heaven, it is as proper to our age / To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions / As it is common for the younger sort / To lack discretion.” | Polonius to Ophelia; he is saying it is as natural for old people to go too far with their suspicions as it is for younger people to lack good judgement |
| “This must be known, which, being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love.” | Polonius to Ophelia; he is saying if they hide Hamlet’s craziness it will only get worse |
| “To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather / So much as from the occasion you may glean, / Whether aught to is unknown afflicts him thus / That, opened, lies within our remedy.” | King Claudius to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — he’s asking them to spy on Hamlet and find out what’s bothering him |
| “Your visitation shall receive such thanks / As fits a king’s remembrance.” | Queen to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — bribing them |
| “Brevity is the soul of wit” | Polonius to Queen |
| “More matter with less art.” | Gertrude to Polonius; she’s telling him to get to the point |
| “Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move, / Doubt truth to be a liar, / But never doubt I love.” | Polonius to Gertrude (reading a letter from Hamlet to Ophelia) — Hamlet is saying you can doubt everything in this world but the fact that he loves her |
| “You are a fishmonger.” | Hamlet to Polonius |
| “For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion – Have you a daughter?” | Hamlet to Polonius (he’s going from talking about kissing dead flesh to talking about his daughter) |
| “Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive, friend, look to ‘t.” | Hamlet to Polonius (basically saying his daughter is ‘easy’) |
| “Words, words, words.” | Hamlet to Polonius |
| “Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit” | Hamlet to Polonius; he’s telling Polonius that he’s reading a book about lies and then goes to describe the character as Polonius (but Polonius doesn’t realize it) |
| “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.” | Polonius to himself –sometimes Hamlet sounds crazy but sometimes he makes sense |
| “How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of.” | Polonius to himself — starting to doubt whether or not Hamlet is truly crazy |
| “These tedious old fools.” | Hamlet to himself about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and how he knows what’s going on |
| “Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?” | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern |
| “But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?” | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern |
| “O, there has been much throwing about of brains.” | Guildenstern to Hamlet |
| “This is the very ecstasy of love” | Poloninus to Ophelia (believes that Hamlet’s behavior can be explained by him being heartbroken over Ophelia) |
| “Brevity is the soul of wit” | Polonius to Claudius and Gertrude (means that he’ll get straight to the point; ironic because he just rambles on and on and on) |
| “More matter with less art” | Gertrude to Polonius (tells him to just get to the point/ stop rambling about things) |
| “To me it is a prison” | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (referring to not being able to leave Denmark because he is the future heir; he’s also pretending to be mad at this point) |
| “I am but mad north-northwest when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (pretending to be mad, but he’s also trying to hint to them that he’s just pretending) |
| “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it” | Polonius to himself (referring to Hamlet’s strange behavior; he assumes that there is a cause to his madness (Ophelia’s rejection)) |
| “You are a fishmonger” | Hamlet to Polonius (pretending to be mad; basically called him a poor commoner) |
| “O Jephtah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hast thou!?” | Hamlet to Polonius (Jephtah was compelled to sacrifice his daughter; another comment on Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia) |
| When Roscius was an actor in Rome –“ | Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but loud enough for Polonius to hear (said this for Polonius because he knew that Polonius was about to tell him about the players; basically implying that Polonius carries old news) |
| “I doubt it is no other but the main, His father’s death, and our o’erhasty marriage.” | Gertrude to Claudius (Polonius claims to know the real reason behind Hamlet’s strange behavior (heartbroken over Ophelia) but Gertrude believes it’s simply because of his father’s death and how quickly Gertrude and Claudius got married.) |
| “The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” | Hamlet to himself (believes that his plan with the players and the play will reveal that the ghost told the truth and that Claudius did have something to do with his father’s death.) |
| “Am I a coward?” | Hamlet to himself (feeling guilty because he hasn’t done anything yet to get revenge for his father’s death) |
| “Better to have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live” | Said by Hamlet to Polonius; he said that it’s better to have bad things said about you when you’re dead rather than when you’re alive |
| “Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.” | Rosencrantz to Hamlet |
| “I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.” | Rosencrantz to Hamlet |
| “Madam, I swear I use no art at all.That he is mad, ’tis true. Tis true, ’tis pity,And pity ’tis ’tis true—a foolish figure,But farewell it, for I will use no art.” | Polonius to Gertrude |
| “Why then, your ambition makes it one. ‘Tis too narrow for your mind.” | Rosencrantz to Hamlet |
| “Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” | Guildenstern |
| “A dream itself is but a shadow.” | Hamlet to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern |
| “Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.” | Rosencrantz to Hamlet |
| “Then is the world one.” | Rosencrantz to Hamlet (about world as prison) |
Hamlet Act 2 Quotes BIG
September 6, 2019