| Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. | Halmet- Perform the speech just as I taught you, musically and smoothly. If you exaggerate the words the way some actors do, I might as well have some newscaster read the lines. Hamlet needs Claudius to get the message |
| For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. | Hamlet- Exaggeration has no place in the theater, where the purpose is to represent reality, holding a mirror up to virtue, to vice, and to the spirit of the times. Don’t you dare change the words or overdue it, act with dignity in the play. |
| “Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?”-“Tis brief my lord””As a woman’s love” | Hamlet to Ophelia- Hamlet insults her and means, just like her love and loyalty |
| “In second husband let me be accurst. None wed the second but who killed the first” | Player Queen- You shouldn’t remarry because its a dishonor to your first. This is directed towards Gertrude |
| “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” | Queen- The Queen has had enough of the play as it is getting to her. The Queen may imply that such vows are silly in the first place, to indirectly defend her own remarraige |
| “Call me what instrument you will, thought you (can) fret me, you cannot play upon me” | Hamlet to Guildenstern- He compares deception to playing a musical instrument to mock his frenemies for not being skilled enough to “play” him. |
| “I will speak daggers to her but use none.My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites.” | Hamlet about Queen- I’ll speak as sharp as a dagger to her, but I won’t use one on her. |
| “But oh, what form of prayerCan serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”? | King Claudius soliloquy- what kind of prayer is there for me? “Dear Lord, forgive me for my horrible murder”? |
| “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.And now I’ll do ‘t. And so he goes to heaven.And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.” | Hamlet behind Clauduis praying- I could do it easily now. He’s praying now. And now I’ll do it. (he draws out his sword) And there he goes, off to heaven. And that’s my revenge. |
| “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go” | King Claudius- My words fly up toward heaven, but my thoughts stay down here on earth. Words without thoughts behind them will never make it to heaven.king wasn’t meaning the words that he was saying in the prayer. Claudius believes words without meaning do not reach heaven, and so his words are invalid. |
| “You shall not budge.You go not till I set you up a glassWhere you may see the inmost part of you.” | Hamlet to Queen- You won’t budge until I hold a mirror up to you, where you will see what’s deep inside you. I’m going to shoew you your sins and maliciousness |
| “O Hamlet, speak no more!Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul,And there I see such black and grainèd spotsAs will not leave their tinct.” | Queen to Hamlet- Oh, Hamlet, stop! You’re making me look into my very soul, where the marks of sin are so thick and black they will never be washed away. |
| “Do not forget. This visitationIs but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” | Ghost of King Hamlet to Hamlet- Don’t forget. I’ve come to sharpen your somewhat dull appetite for revenge. Don’t hurt your mother |
| “That I essentially am not in madnessBut mad in craft.” | Hamlet to Queen- my madness is fake, all calculated, it’s all an act |
| “Be thou assured, if words be made of breathAnd breath of life, I have no life to breatheWhat thou hast said to me.” | Queen to Hamlet- You can rest easy, since words are made of breath, and breathing requires that you be alive. I feel too dead to breathe a word of what you’ve told me. Queen would take her sons side over anyone else’s, she’d sacrifice her life for his |
Hamlet Act 3 Quotes
August 2, 2019