| Act 1. Scene 2. (5-7) yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, that we with wisest sorrow think on him, together with remembrance of ourselves | Speaker: KingSig: We must live on |
| (67) a little more than kin and less than kind | Speaker: HamletTo whom: KingSig: We have too many labels and it is not normal- hamlet with claudius |
| (69) I am too much in the sun | Speaker: HamletTo whom: Queen and KingSig:I don’t want to be your son, pun from sun |
| (79-89) nay it is. I know not “seems”- these but the trappings and the suits of woe | Speaker: HamletTo whom: Queen/KingSig: I am not acting sad, I am sad |
| (124) I shall in all my best obey you madam | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: Clear dig against the king |
| (133-164) O. That this too, too sullied flesh would melt- but break my heart, for I must hold my tongue | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HimselfSig: Very depressed, feeling suicidal, Claudius has faults, hamlet thinks he is weak, he has no strength or courage |
| (278-281) I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come! Till then, sit still, my soul. (foul) deed will rise, though all the earth overwhelm them, to men’s eyes | Speaker: HamletTo whom: AllSig: Foreshadowing |
| Act 1. Scene 3. (6-11) for hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, a violet in the youth or primy nature, forward, not perminant, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliants of a minute, no more | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: OpheliaSig: As for Hamlet and his attentions to you, just consider it a big flirtation, the temporary phase of a hot-blooded youth. It won’t last. It’s sweet, but his affection will fade after a minute. Not a second more. |
| (19-24) the virtue of his will; but you must fear, his greatness weighed, his will is not his own, for he himself is Subject to his birth. He may not, as unvalued persons do, carve for himself, for on his choice depends the safety and [the] health of this whole state | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: OpheliaSig: He can’t choose on his own, duty to state, he has to marry who is best for Denmark |
| (47-48) be wary, then; best safety lies in fear. Youth to itself rebels, though none else near | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: OpheliaSig: You have no chance, best safety lies in fear |
| (50-55) as watchmen to my heart.but. Good my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, whiles, (likes), a puffed and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and decks not his own rede | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: LaertesSig: Don’t be a Hippocrate, practice what you preach |
| (57-59) I stay too long, but here my father comes. A double blessing is a double grace. Occasion smiles upon a second leave | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: PoloniusSig: 2nd goodbye is long too |
| (84) to thine own self me true | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: LaertesSig: Go be yourself |
| (103-107) if it be so (as so tis put on me, and that in way of caution) I must tell you you do not understand yourself so clearly as I behooves my daughter and your honor what is between you? Give me up the truth | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: Laertes and OpheliaSig: Go behave for the families honor |
| (113) I do not know, my lord, what I should think | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: PoloniusSig: She doesn’t know who/what to trust |
| (114-118) Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby that you have taken these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, or(not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, [running] it thus) you’ll tender me a fool | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: PoloniusSig: don’t have a child |
| (134-135) And with a larger tether may he walk than may be given you. | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: OpheliaSig: has longer leash than women |
| (100) Something is rotten in the state of Denmark | Speaker: MarcellusTo whom: HoratioSig: Foreshadowing |
| (36-37) As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GhostSig: Hurry and tell me about it, so I can take revenge right away, faster than a person falls in love. |
| (91-95) But, howsomever thou pursues this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive, against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. | Speaker: GhostTo whom: HamletSig: But however you go about your revenge, don’t corrupt your mind or do any harm to your mother. Leave her to God and her own guilt. Now, good-bye. The glowworm’s light is beginning to fade, so morning is near. Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye. Remember me. |
| (106-111) I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GhostSig: revenge |
| (154) It is an honest ghost– that let me tell you. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: Horatio and MarcellusSig: is the ghost honest? |
| (185-186) O day and night, but this is wondrous strange. | Speaker: HoratioTo whom: HamletSig: welcome it as one would welcome a stranger |
| (189) And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. Here, as before, never, so help you mercy | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GhostSig: he will act crazy |
| (211) That ever I was born to set it right! | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GhostSig: Hamlet was bron to set his father’s death right |
| Act 2. Scene 1. (21-26) Addicted so and so. 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 lips as are companions noted and most known to youth and liberty | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: ReynaldoSig: Make false accusations but not too offensive I.e. what is “normal” for young people |
| (32-39) faith, no, as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him. That he is open to incontinency; that’s not my meaning. 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 unreclaimed blood, of general assault | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: ReynaldoSig: not regularly bad but occasionally due to a zest/enthusiasm for life |
| (44) And I believe it is a fetch of wit | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: ReynaldoSig: clever trick |
| (70-74) Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth; and thus do we of wisdom and of reach, with windlasses and with assays of bias, by indirections find directions out. So by my former lecture and advice | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: ReynaldoSig: low expectations= no disappointment |
| (120) but as you did command | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: PoloniusSig: Polonius meddling in Ophelia’s affairs |
| (123-134) That hath made him mad-More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Come. | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: OpheliaSig: admits Polonius may have been wrong/old people go too far like young people lack judgement/love must be revealed to cause less grief |
| Act 2. Scene 2. (35-36) Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. | Speaker: King and QueenTo whom: R and GSig: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are always together, they are interchangeable people |
| (45) Thou still hast been the father of good news | Speaker: KingTo whom: PoloniusSig: Polonius= father of good news |
| (97-99) Therefore, (since) brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. your noble son is mad. | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: QueenSig: irony- Polonius is never brief |
| (103) More matter with less art | Speaker: QueenTo whom: PoloniusSig: get to the point |
| (148 and 154) What might you think? No, I went round to work. Which done, she took the fruits of my advice | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: King and QueenSig: meddling |
| (164-166) Hath there been such a time (I would fain know that) That I have positively said, “Tis so,” When it proved otherwise? | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: King and QueenSig: Have I ever been wrong? |
| (201-202) Conception is blessing | Speaker: Hamlet To whom: PoloniusSig: Conceiving a baby |
| (217-218) and that they have a plentiful lack of wit | Speaker: HamletTo whom: PoloniusSig: making fun of Polonius, old people lack wit |
| (268-270) Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison | Speaker: HamletTo whom: R and GSig: good and bad are relative |
| (409) Haply he is the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child | Speaker: RosencrantzTo whom: HamletSig: old people are like children |
| (505-522) So as painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood-as low as to the fiends! | Speaker: first playerTo whom: Polonius and HamletSig: Pyrrhus Pause, Pyrrhus//Hamlet |
| (523) This is too long | Speaker: PoloniusTo whom: First playerSig: irony, because Polonius is saying that the first players speech is too long when he is the one that always has long speeches |
| (539) When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport | Speaker: First playerTo whom: Polonius and HamletSig: Hecuba = parallel to Gertrude |
| (550-552) for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live | Speaker: HamletTo whom: Polonius and the first playerSig: double entendre=double meaning, “The Murder of Gonzago” = the beginning of Hamlet’s plan to find out the truth |
| (599-609) Who calls me “villain”? breaks my pate across?- remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! | Speaker: HamletTo whom: talking to himselfSig: he is calling himself a villain |
| (617-621) About, my brains!- Hum, I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have, by the very cunning of the scene, been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: talking to himselfSig: double entendre, like Shakespeare is saying to the audience that plays can make people confess their wrong doings |
| Act 3. Scene 1. (19-20) And there did seem in him a kind of joy to hear of it. They are here about the court. | Speaker: RosencrantzTo whom: QueenSig: double entendre |
| (36) seeing unseen | Speaker: KingTo whom: QueenSig: seeing the truth and what the truth is |
| (56-62) O, ’tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience. The harlot’s cheek beautied with plastering art is not more ugly to the thing that helps it than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden! | Speaker: kingTo whom: talking to himselfSig: is the king feeling guilt? |
| (64-96) To be or not to be- that is the question:- Be all my sins remembered. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OpheliaSig: to live or to die/to be or not to be, that is the question. death=sleep=dream=? It is the fear after death that keeps people living with suffering from suicide |
| (111) Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: HamletSig: your gifts to me were precious to me when you were nice to me |
| (121-125) Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OpheliaSig: paradox= easier for beauty to transform virginity into anti-virginity/its easier to turn evil than good |
| (150) marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them | Speaker: HamletTo whom: betrayed by women- blaming women |
| (155-157) God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you (lisp;) | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OpheliaSig: women are two faces |
| (159) It hath mad me mad. I say we will have no more marriage | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OpheliaSig: Ophelia had made him crazy |
| (178-182) Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul O’er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose will be some danger; which for to prevent, I have in quick determination | Speaker: KingTo whom: PoloniusSig: Foreshadowing |
| (183-189) Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England for the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply the seas, and countries different, with variable objects, shall expel this something-settled matter in his heart, whereon his brains still beating puts him thus from fashion of himself. WHat think you on ‘t? | Speaker: KingTo whom: PoloniusSig: He’s ging to send Hamlet to England |
| (203) Madness in great ones must not (unwatched) go. | Speaker: KingTo whom: PoloniusSig: even great evil leaders can do fantastical thingsex. Hitler |
| Act 3. Scene 2. (21-30) For anything so o’erdone is for the purpose of playing-which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theather of others. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: playerSig: Act natural at all costs. 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. If you handle this badly, it just makes ignorant people laugh while regular theater-goers are miserable—and they’re the ones you should be keeping happy. |
| (56-57) Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man as e’er my conversation coped withal. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Horatio, you’re the best man I’ve ever known. |
| (59-92) Nay, do not think I flatter-in censure of his seeming. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Don’t think I’m flattering you. What could I hope to get from you, who’ve got nothing but your charm to support you in life? Why would anyone flatter a poor person? No, keep flattery for kissing the hands of those who can pay well. You understand? Ever since I’ve been a free agent in my choice of friends, I’ve chosen you because you take everything life hands you with calm acceptance, grateful for both good and bad. Blessed are those who mix emotion with reason in just the right proportion, making them strong enough to resist the whims of Lady Luck. Show me the person who’s master of his emotions, and I’ll put him close to my heart—in my heart of hearts—as I do you. But I’m talking too much. The point is, there’s a play being performed for the king tonight. One of the scenes comes very close to depicting the circumstances of my father’s death, as I described them to you. Watch my uncle carefully when that scene begins. If his guilty secret does not reveal itself, then that ghost was just a devil, and my hunch wasn’t, in fact, worth anything. As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note.For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,And after we will both our judgments joinIn censure of his seeming. |
| (124) I think nothing, my lord | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: PoloniusSig: saying she has no thoughts in her headnothing = female genitalia—Hamlet puns, sexually |
| (138-141) for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OpheliaSig: I’ll get myself a fur-trimmed suit. Good heavens, he died two months ago and hasn’t been forgotten yet? In that case, there’s reason to hope a man’s memory may outlive him by six months. |
| (189-190) And women’s fear and love hold quantity, In neither aught, or in extremity | Speaker: Player QueenTo whom: Player KingSig: You know very well how much I love you, and my fear is just as deep. When someone’s love is great, the little worries become very big. |
| (200-202) O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast in second husband let me be accurst | Speaker: Player QueenTo whom: Player KingSig: Oh, damn everyone else! Remarrying would be treason to my heart. Curse me if I take a second husband. |
| (206-208) Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. A second time I kill my husband dead. When second husband kisses me in bed | Speaker: Player QueenTo whom: Player KingSig: Someone might marry a second time for money, but never for love. Any time I kissed my second husband in bed, I’d kill the first one all over again. |
| (209-238) I do believe you think what now you speak-But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead | Speaker: Player KingTo whom: Player QueenSig: I know that’s what you think now, but people change their minds. Often our intentions are strong at first, but as time goes on they weaken, just like an apple sticks to the tree when it is unripe but falls to the ground once it ripens. The promises we make to ourselves in emotional moments lose their power once the emotion passes. Great grief and joy may rouse us to action, but when the grief or joy have passed, we’re no longer motivated to act. Joy turns to grief in the blink of an eye, and grief becomes joy just as quickly. This world is not made for either one to last long in, and it’s no surprise that even our loves change along with our luck. It’s still a mystery to be solved whether luck controls love, or love controls luck. When a great man has a run of bad luck, watch how followers desert him, and when a poor man advances to an important position, he makes friends with the people he used to hate. Love is unreliable. A person with lots of money will always have friends, while one fallen on hard times makes an enemy of any friend he turns to for money. But back to my original point—what we want and what we get are always at odds. We can have our little dreams, but the fates decide our futures. You think now you’ll never remarry, but that thought will die with me, your first husband. |
| (254) The lady doth protest too much, methinks. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: HamletSig: The lady’s overdoing it, I think. |
| (272-274) You are keen, my lord, you are keen. It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge. | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: HamletSig: Ooh, you’re sharp. |
| (394-402) You would play upon me-you cannot play upon me | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GuildensternSig: Well, look how you play me—as if you knew exactly where to put your fingers, to blow the mystery out of me, playing all the octaves of my range—and yet you can’t even produce music from this little instrument? My God, do you think I’m easier to manipulate than a pipe? You can push my buttons, but you can’t play me for a fool. |
| (422-432) Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood-to give me seals never, my soul, consent. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: PoloniusSig: I could drink hot blood and do such terrible deeds that people would tremble even in the daylight. But I’ve got to go see my mother.—Oh, heart, don’t grow weak, like Nero Let me be cruel, but not inhuman. I’ll speak as sharp as a dagger to her, but I won’t use one on her. And so, my words and thoughts will be at odds. |
| Act 3. Scene 3. (43-62) My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent-Offense’s gilded hand may (shove) by justice | Speaker: KingTo whom: HamletSig: My guilt is stronger even than my intentions. And like a person with two opposite things to do at once, I stand paralyzed and neglect them both. So what if this cursed hand of mine is coated with my brother’s blood? Isn’t there enough rain in heaven to wash it clean as snow? Isn’t that what God’s mercy is for? And doesn’t prayer serve these two purposes—to keep us from sinning and to bring us forgiveness when we have sinned? So I’ll pray. I’ve already committed my sin. But, oh, what kind of prayer is there for me? “Dear Lord, forgive me for my horrible murder”? That won’t work, since I’m still reaping the rewards of that murder: my crown and my queen. Can a person be forgiven and still keep the fruits of his crime? In this wicked world, criminals often take the money they stole and use it to buy off the law, shoving justice aside. |
| (72-76) Help, angels? Make assay. Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel be soft as sinews of the newborn babe. All may be well. | Speaker: KingTo whom: HamletSig: Help me, angels! C’mon, make an effort. Bend, stubborn knees. Steely heart, be soft as a newborn babe, so I can pray. Perhaps everything will turn out okay after all. |
| Act 3. Scene 4. (23) Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: he ties Gertrude up |
| (36) As kill a king? | Speaker: QueenTo whom: HamletSig: she doesn’t know, Killing a king? |
| (37-46) Ay, lady, it was my word.-That it be proof and bulwark against sense | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: all of your meddling has resulted in your death, talking to Polonius’ body |
| (49-60) Such an act that blurs the grace and blush of modesty-Is though-sick at the act | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: her guilt is that she married too quickly after her 1st husbands death |
| (99-102) O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st my eyes into my (very) soul, And there I see such black and (grained) spots as will (not) leave their tinct. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: HamletSig: O Hamlet, don’t say anything else.You turn my eyes into my very soul,And there I see such black and grainy spotsAs will not leave their color. |
| (108) These words like daggers enter in my ears, No more, sweet Hamlet. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: HamletSig: These words like daggers enter in my ears. Please, no more, sweet Hamlet. |
| (110-115) A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the (tithe) of your precedent lord; a vice of kings, a curpurse of the empire and the rule, that from a shelf the precious diadem stole and it in his pocket- | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: A murderer and a villain, a low-life who’s not worth a twentieth of a tenth of your first husband—the worst of kings, a thief of the throne, who took the precious crown from a shelf and put it in his pocket— |
| (130) Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. | Speaker: GhostTo whom: HamletSig: The imagination works strongest in those with the weakest bodies. |
| (162-167) It is not madness that I have uttered-that not your trespass but my madness speaks | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: Im not mad, you can test me. Im not mad because of the ghost, I am mad because of you |
| (172-176) And do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue, For, in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: stop now, stop sinning while you can. In order for you to be good the good have to ask the bad for forgiveness |
| (178-179) O, throw away the worser part of it, and (live) the purer with the other half! | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: you have to cute my heart in half, throw away the bad part and keep the good |
| (185-190) He likewise gives a frock or livery that aptly is put on.] Refrain (tonight,) and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence, [the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature And either | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: Claudius is putting on an act |
| (194-196) I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so to punish me with this and this with me, that I must be their scourge and minister | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: God wanted to punish me with this murder, and this man with me, so I’m both Heaven’s executioner and its minister of justice. |
| (199-200) I must be cruel only to be kind. This bad begins, and worse remains behind | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: foreshadowing, he has to murder in order to be good/set things right |
| (203) Not this by no means that I bid you do | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: Whatever you do, don’t do this, don’t tell him that I am mad, don’t let him do all of these things while you are by his bedside. |
| (214-218) No, in despite of sense and secrecy, Unpeg the basket on the house’s top, led the birds fly, and like the famous ape, to try conclusions, in the basket creep and break your own neck down. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: Choose if you tell Claudius then you will go down with the ship, but if you don’t then you will stay with me |
| (228-233) Let it work, For ’tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petrad; and ‘t shall go hard but I will delve one yard below their mines when in one line two crafts directly meet.] | Speaker: HamletTo whom: QueenSig: R and G are trapping Hamlet but he will mine under then and blow them up |
| (236-240) Mother, good night indeed. This counselor is now most still, most secret, and most grave, who was in life a foolish prating knave.-good night, mother. | Speaker: Hamlet To whom: QueenSig: his obsession with being insane is actually making his sane and killing Claudius is a next step toward being insane. |
| Act 4. Scene 1. (7-12) Which as the sea and wind when both contend which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries “A rat, a rat,” And in this brainish apprehension kills the unseen good old man | Speaker: QueenTo whom: KingSig: As mad as the waves and the wind when they struggle together in a storm. In an insane rage, he hears something behind the tapestry, whips out his sword, shouts, “A rat, a rat!” and in his deranged state of mind he kills the good old man, who is still hidden. |
| (25-28) To draw apart the body he hath killed , O’er who his very madness, like some ore among a mineral of metals base, shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done | Speaker: QueenTo whom: KingSig: to remove the corpse of the man he killed. His madness allows morality to shine through |
| (36) And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him | Speaker: King To whom: QueenSig: Hamlet in his madness has killed Polonius and dragged him out of his mother’s bedroom |
| (46) My soul is full of discord and dismay | Speaker: KingTo whom: QueenSig: dramatic irony= characters are clueless but the audience knows, I’m full of confusion and despair. |
| Act 4. Scene 2. (20) it is but squeezing you and, sponge | Speaker: HamletTo whom: RosencrantzSig: When he needs what you have found out, he can just squeeze you like a sponge |
| (23-24) I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: RosencrantzSig: I’m glad about that. Sly words are never understood by fools. |
| (25-26) My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to the king. | Speaker: RosencrantzTo whom: HamletSig: My lord, you have to tell us where the body is, and then go with us to see the king. |
| (27-28) The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body.The king is a thing— | Speaker: HamletTo whom: RosencrantzSig: The body’s with the king, but the king’s not with the body. The king’s a thing … |
| (29) A “thing,” my lord? | Speaker: GuildensternTo whom: HamletSig: a thing my lord? |
| (30-31) Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide, fox, and all after. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: R and GSig: A thing of no importance. Take me to him. Ready or not, here I come! |
| Act 4. Scene 3. (3-5) Yet must not we put the strong law on him.He’s loved of the distracted multitude,Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes. | Speaker: KingTo whom: RosencrantzSig: But we can’t throw him in jail. The people love him, because they judge based on appearance rather than reason. |
| (7-11) To bear all smooth and even,This sudden sending him away must seemDeliberate pause. Diseases desperate grownBy desperate appliance are relieved,Or not at all. | Speaker: KingTo whom: RosencrantzSig: No, we must seem calm and fair-minded, and our sending him away must seem like a carefully considered move. But a terminal disease requires extreme treatment, or nothing at all. |
| (12) how now what hath fallen? | Speaker: KingTo whom: RosencrantzSig: So what’s happened? |
| (22-28) Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: KingSig: Not where he’s eating, but where he’s being eaten. A certain conference of worms is chowing down on him. Worms are the emperor of all diets. We fatten up all creatures to feed ourselves, and we fatten ourselves for the worms to eat when we’re dead. A fat king and a skinny beggar are just two dishes at the same meal. That’s all I have to say. |
| (37-41) In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ th’ other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: KingSig: In heaven. Send a messager there if you want to be sure. If your messenger can’t find him, you can check hell yourself. But seriously, if you don’t find him within the next month, you’ll be sure to smell him as you go upstairs into the main hall. |
| (55) So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes | Speaker: KingTo whom: HamletSig: Yes, you’d think so, if you knew why I was sending you. |
| (67-70) And, England, if my love thou hold’st at aught—As my great power thereof may give thee sense,Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and redAfter the Danish sword and thy free awe | Speaker: KingTo whom: HamletSig: And you, dear king of England, if you care about me at all—and you should, since you can still feel the damage that Denmark has done to you in the past and, so, fear and respect us—then you won’t ignore my letters instructing you to kill Hamlet immediately |
| Act 4. Scene 4. (18-23) Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it. Nor will it yield to Norway or the PoleA ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. | Speaker: Captain To whom: HamletSig: To tell the truth, we’re fighting to win a little patch of ground that’s not worth anything. I myself wouldn’t pay five ducats for it, if someone offered it to me to farm. And it won’t provide any more profits than that to either the Norwegian or the Pole. |
| (26-30) Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducatsWill not debate the question of this straw.This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,That inward breaks and shows no cause withoutWhy the man dies.—I humbly thank you, sir. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: CaptainSig: (to himself) Even two thousand men and twenty-thousand ducats are just the beginning of what it will cost to settle this pointless matter. This is what happens when countries have too much money and peace. This quarrel is like an abcess that grows inside someone until it bursts and kills them, and no one knows why. (to the CAPTAIN) Thank you very much for the information, sir. |
| (56-59) Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument,But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honor’s at the stake. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: talking to himselfSig: To be truly great doesn’t mean you’d only fight for a good reason. It means you’d fight over nothing if your honor was at stake. |
| (68-69) Oh, from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! | Speaker: HamletTo whom: talking to himselfSig: From now on, if my thoughts aren’t violent I’ll consider them worthless. Your thoughts make you cowardly= thinking too much makes you cowardly |
| Act 4. Scene 5. (2-3) She is importunate,Indeed distract. Her mood will needs be pitied. | Speaker: GentlemenTo whom: QueenSig: she is crazy, talk to her |
| (22-25) (aside) To my sick soul (as sin’s true nature is)Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss.So full of artless jealousy is guilt,It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: talking to herselfSig: each little thing leads up to something big |
| (48-49) Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: KingSig: you can’t predict the future, only you know what’s present |
| (53-60) Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, And dupped the chamber door. Let in the maid that out a maid Never departed more. | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: KingSig: Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day And early in the morning I’m a girl below your window Waiting to be your Valentine. Then he got up and put on his clothes And opened the door to his room. He let in the girl, and when she left She wasn’t a virgin anymore. |
| (63-68) By Gis and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie, for shame! Young men will do ‘t, if they come to ‘t. By Cock, they are to blame. Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.” | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: KingSig: By the name of Jesus and Saint Charity, My goodness, what a shame it is, Young men will do it if they get a chance: By God, they’re very bad. She said, “Before you got me into bed, You promised to marry me.” |
| (69-70) He answers, “So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.” | Speaker: “Hamlet”To whom: OpheliaSig: He answers: “I would have married you, I swear, If you hadn’t gone to bed with me.” |
| (154-155) Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father. | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: KingSig: Whatever happens, happens, but I’ll get revenge for my father’s murder. Laertes // Hamlet= Laertes is like Hamlet |
| (199-201) There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: LaertesSig: Look at my flowers. There’s rosemary, that’s for remembering. Please remember, love. And there are pansies, they’re for thoughts. The queen should remember old Hamlet |
| (204-209) There’s fennel for you, and columbines.—There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it “herb of grace” o’ Sundays.—Oh, you must wear your rue with a difference.—There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end | Speaker: OpheliaTo whom: LaertesSig: (to GERTRUDE ) Here are fennel and columbines for you—they symbolize adultery. (to CLAUDIUS) And here’s rue for you—it symbolizes repentance. We can call it the merciful Sunday flower. You should wear it for a different reason. And here’s a daisy, for unhappy love. I’d give you some violets, flowers of faithfulness, but they all dried up when my father died. They say he looked good when he died. |
| (243-245) So you shall.And where the offense is, let the great ax fall.I pray you, go with me. | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: And you’re right to do so. May the guilty party be punished by death. Please, come with me. |
| Act 4. Scene 7. (60-63)I’m lost in it, my lord. But let him come.It warms the very sickness in my heartThat I shall live and tell him to his teeth,”Thus diddest thou.” | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: KingSig: I have no clue, my lord. But let him come. It warms my weary heart to think I’ll get the chance to look him in the eye and say, “You did this.” |
| (76-79) My lord, I will be ruledThe rather if you could devise it soThat I might be the organ. | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: KingSig: My lord, I’ll let you make the decision. I only ask to be in on your plans, the agent of his death/ you engineered the plan but make sure that I get to kill him |
| (108-120) He made confession of you,And gave you such a masterly reportFor art and exercise in your defense,And for your rapier most especially,That he cried out ‘twould be a sight indeedIf one could match you. The ‘scrimers of their nation,He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye,If you opposed them. Sir, this report of hisDid Hamlet so envenom with his envyThat he could nothing do but wish and begYour sudden coming o’er, to play with him.Now, out of this— | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: He mentioned you to me, giving you such high marks in fencing that he exclaimed it would be a miracle if someone could match you. French fencers wouldn’t be good enough for you, he said, since they don’t have the right moves or skills. Hamlet was so jealous when he heard Lamond’s report that he talked about nothing else but having you come over and play against him. Now, the point is … Flattering Laretes so he can get what he wants, egging on Laertes |
| (126-143) Not that I think you did not love your fatherBut that I know love is begun by time,And that I see, in passages of proof,Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.There lives within the very flame of loveA kind of wick or snuff that will abate it.And nothing is at a like goodness still.For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,We should do when we would, for this “would” changesAnd hath abatements and delays as manyAs there are tongues, are hands, are accidents.And then this “should” is like a spendthrift sighThat hurts by easing.—But to the quick of th’ ulcer:Hamlet comes back. What would you undertakeTo show yourself in deed your father’s sonMore than in words? | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: If you pause too long the passion/fire will die out so act quickly |
| (146) Revenge should have no bounds. | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: Revenge should have no limits |
| (62-63) So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: KingSig: I bought some oil so poisonous that if you dip a knife in it, no medicine in the world can save the person who’s scratched by it. If I even graze his skin slightly, he’s likely to die. |
| (170-186) Weigh what convenience both of time and meansMay fit us to our shape. If this should fail,And that our drift look through our bad performance,’Twere better not assayed. Therefore this project Should have a back or second that might holdIf this should blast in proof.—Soft, let me see.—We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings.—I ha ‘t! When in your motion you are hot and dry,As make your bouts more violent to that end,And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared himA chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,Our purpose may hold there.—But stay, what noise? | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: Let’s think about this, and consider what time and what method will be most appropriate. If our plan were to fail, and people found out about it, it would be better never to have tried it.We should have a backup ready in case the first plan doesn’t work. Let me think. We’ll place bets on you and Hamlet—that’s it! When the two of you have gotten all sweaty and hot—keep him jumping around a lot for that purpose—Hamlet will ask for something to drink. I’ll have a cup ready for him. If by chance he escapes your poisoned sword tip, the drink will kill him. But wait, what’s that sound? |
| (192-196) There with fantastic garlands did she comeOf crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,But our cold maids do “dead men’s fingers” call them. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: LaertesSig: Ophelia made wild wreaths out of those leaves, braiding in crowflowers, thistles, daisies, and the orchises that vulgar shepherds have an obscene name for, but which pure-minded girls call “dead men’s fingers.” |
| (204-208) Or like a creature native and induedUnto that element. But long it could not beTill that her garments, heavy with their drink,Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious layTo muddy death. | Speaker: QueenTo whom: LaertesSig: But it was only a matter of time before her clothes, heavy with the water they absorbed, pulled the poor thing out of her song, down into the mud at the bottom of the brook. |
| Act 5. Scene 1. (67-68) Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He sings at grave- making. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Doesn’t this guy realize what he’s doing? He’s singing while digging a grave. |
| (105-109) Hum! This fellow might be in ‘s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Maybe this guy was once a great landowner, with his deeds and contracts, his tax shelters and his annuities |
| (128-130) Thou dost lie in ‘t, to be in ‘t and say it is thine. ‘Tis for the dead, not for the quick. Therefore thou liest. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: GravediggerSig: But you are lying in it, being in it and saying it’s yours. It’s for the dead, not the living. So you’re lying. |
| (220-223) Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw!But soft, but soft a while. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: The great emperor Caesar, dead and turned to clay, might plug up a hole to keep the wind away. Oh, to think that the same body that once ruled the world could now patch up a wall! But quiet, be quiet a minute. |
| (248-252) Lay her i’ th’ earth,And from her fair and unpolluted fleshMay violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,A ministering angel shall my sister beWhen thou liest howling. | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: Dead OpheliaSig: Lay her in the ground, and let violets bloom from her lovely and pure flesh!I’m telling you, you jerk priest, my sister will be an angel in heaven while you’re howling in hell. |
| Act 5. Scene 2. (4-12) Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fightingThat would not let me sleep. Methought I layWorse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—And praised be rashness for it: let us knowOur indiscretion sometimes serves us wellWhen our deep plots do pall, and that should teach usThere’s a divinity that shapes our ends,Rough-hew them how we will— | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: sometimes it is good to act rash so then you will have a god to guide you |
| (43-52) An earnest conjuration from the king,As England was his faithful tributary,As love between them like the palm might flourish,As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wearAnd stand a comma ‘tween their amities,And many suchlike “as’s” of great charge,That, on the view and knowing of these contents,Without debatement further, more or less,He should the bearers put to sudden death,Not shriving time allowed | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: A sincere plea from the king, who commands the respect of England, and who hopes that the love between the two countries can flourish, and that peace can join them in friendship—and other fancy mumbo jumbo like that—saying that, once they read this document, without any debate, the ones delivering the letter should be put to death immediately, without giving them time to confess to a priest. |
| (54-62) Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.I had my father’s signet in my purse,Which was the model of that Danish seal.Folded the writ up in form of th’ other,Subscribed it, gave ‘t th’ impression, placed it safely,The changeling never known. Now, the next dayWas our sea fight, and what to this was sequentThou know’st already. | Speaker: Hamlet To whom: HoratioSig: Heaven helped me out with that too. I had my father’s signet ring in my pocket, with the royal seal of Denmark on it. I folded up the new document, signed it, sealed it, and put it safely back so that no one noticed any difference. The next day we had our fight at sea, and you know what happened after that. |
| (64-69) Why, man, they did make love to this employment.They are not near my conscience. Their defeatDoes by their own insinuation grow.’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comesBetween the pass and fell incensèd pointsOf mighty opposites. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Man, they were asking for it. I don’t feel guilty about them at all. They got what they deserved. It’s always dangerous when little people get caught in the crossfire of mighty opponents. |
| (71-72) Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon—He that hath killed my king and whored my mother, | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: Don’t you think it’s my duty now to kill him with this weapon? This man who killed my king, made my mother a whore, took the throne |
| (87-88) For by the image of my cause I seeThe portraiture of his. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: His situation is very much like my own. I’ll be nice to him. We are both avenging our fathers |
| (113-116) Exceedingly, my lord. It is very sultry—as ’twere—I cannot tell how. My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter— | Speaker: OsricTo whom: HamletSig: Yes indeed it is, sir. Very humid, I can’t tell you how humid it is. My lord, His Majesty wanted me to tell you that he’s placed a large bet on you. This is what it’s all about— |
| (186-191) Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please His Majesty, ’tis the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose. I will win for him an I can. If not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OsricSig: Sir, I’m going to go for a walk in the hall here whether the king likes it or not. It’s my exercise time. Bring in the swords, if the king still wants to go through with it and if Laertes is still willing. I’ll have the king win his bet if I can. If not, I’ll only have suffered some embarrassment and a few sword hits. |
| (234-238) Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ‘t to leave betimes? Let be. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: HoratioSig: You’ll do no such thing. I thumb my nose at superstitions. God controls everything—even something as trivial as a sparrow’s death. Everything will work out as it is destined. If something is supposed to happen now, it will. If it’s supposed to happen later, it won’t happen now. What’s important is to be prepared. Since nobody knows anything about what he leaves behind, then what does it mean to leave early? Let it be. |
| (240-253) Give me your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong.But pardon ‘t, as you are a gentleman.This presence knows,And you must needs have heard, how I am punishedWith sore distraction. What I have done,That might your nature, honor, and exceptionRoughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.Was ‘t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,Then Hamlet does it not. Hamlet denies it.Who does it, then? His madness. If’t be so,Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged.His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: LaertesSig: to LAERTES) I beg your pardon, sir. I’ve done you wrong. Forgive me as a gentleman. Everyone here knows—and I’m sure you’ve heard—that I’m suffering from a serious mental illness. When I insulted you it was due to insanity. Was Hamlet the one who insulted Laertes? No, not Hamlet. If Hamlet is robbed of his own mind, and insults Laertes when he’s not really himself, then Hamlet’s not guilty of the offense. Who is guilty, then? Hamlet’s mental illness is. |
| (272-274) I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignoranceYour skill shall, like a star i’ th’ darkest night,Stick fiery off indeed. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: LaertesSig: I’m going to make you look sharp, Laertes. I’m so bad at the game that your skill will shine like the brightest star in the darkest night. |
| (286-289) Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.If Hamlet give the first or second hitOr quit in answer of the third exchange,Let all the battlements their ordnance fire! | Speaker: KingTo whom: OsricSig: Put the goblets of wine on that table. If Hamlet makes the first or second hit, or gets back at Laertes by making the third hit, then let my soldiers give him a military salute. |
| (311) Our son shall win | Speaker: KingTo whom: LaertesSig: My son will win |
| (318) I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me | Speaker: QueenTo whom: KingSig: she drinks the poison that is meant for Hamlet, it is too late |
| (340-341) No, no, the drink, the drink!—O my dear Hamlet!The drink, the drink! I am poisoned | Speaker: QueenTo whom: Hamlet, King, Osric, Laertes, HoratioSig: the queen dies |
| (356-339) Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?Follow my mother. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: KingSig: Forcing Claudius to drink the poison |
| (359-363) He is justly served.It is a poison tempered by himself.Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,Nor thine on me. | Speaker: LaertesTo whom: HamletSig: He got what he deserved |
| (388-396) O, I die, Horatio.The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.I cannot live to hear the news from England.But I do prophesy the election lightsOn Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less,Which have solicited. The rest is silence.O, O, O, O. | Speaker: HamletTo whom: OsricSig: Hes got my vote= Fortinbras will win the election |
| (397) Good night, my sweet prince | Speaker: HoratioTo whom: HamletSig: RIP Hamlet |
| (424-228) Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,And, in this upshot, purposes mistookFall’n on th’ inventors’ heads. All this can ITruly deliver. | Speaker: HoratioTo whom: FortinbrasSig: terrible accidents, casual murders, deaths caused by trickery and by threat, and finally murderous plans that backfired on their perpetrators. All this I can explain. |
| (441-449) Let four captainsBear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,For he was likely, had he been put on,To have proved most royally. And, for his passage,The soldiers’ music and the rites of warSpeak loudly for him.Take up the bodies. Such a sight as thisBecomes the field, but here shows much amiss.Go, bid the soldiers shoot. | Speaker: FortinbrasTo whom: HoratioSig: Let four captains carry Hamlet like a soldier onto the stage. He would have been a great king if he had had the chance to prove himself. Military music and military rites will speak for his heroic qualities. Pick up the corpses. A sight like this suits a battlefield, but here at court it shows that much went wrong. Go outside and tell the soldiers to fire their guns in honor of Hamlet. |
| Major Ideas | – Fate vs. Freewill- Loyalty- Honor – Seeing vs. Blindness- Duty- Revenge vs. Forgiveness- Honesty- Obedience- Truth vs. Deception- Love vs. Hate- Madness- Religion- Gender Issues- Deliberate pause- Dream- Weakness |
| Why does Laertes go to Paris? | For school |
Hamlet Important Quote Identification
August 24, 2019