| In what particular thought to work I know not, But in the gross and scope of mine opinion/ This bodes some strange eruption to our state | Horatio- (speaking to Marcellus and Barnado about how if the dead king’s ghost has appeared that does not appear to be a good sign considering that Denmark may be in the midst of war) |
| Recount of how King Hamlet died | Horatio |
| But to recover of us, by strong hand and terms compulsatory, those foresail lands his father lost | Horatio- (To Barnardo and Marcellus, discussing why the state of Denmark is currently in a precarious position) |
| Nor have we herein barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along. For all, our thanks, Now follows that you know. Young Fortinbras… | King Claudius- (addressing the kingdom, having a quick mourning session for his lost brother, and then on to the matter at hand. Shows that he is simply going through the motions but is much more focused on being king, foreshadowing for the future.) |
| The head is not more native to the heart/ the hand more instrumental to the mouth/ than is the throne of Denmark to thy father | King Claudius- (talking to Laertes about how important his father is) |
| “How is it that the clouds still hang on you””Not so, my lord; I am much too in the sun” | King Claudius (first quote). Hamlet (the second) (Claudius is asking how can Hamlet still be upset when his father has already been dead 2 months) |
| Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off/ And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. all that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity | Gertrude (talking to Hamlet about his dead father) |
| Together with all forms, that can denote me truly. These indeed seem, for they are actions that a man might play, but I have within which passes show, these but the trappings and the suits of woe | Hamlet (to Gertrude about how his demeanor is who he is, he is not simply playing a part) |
| But to persevere in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness. Tis unmanly grief. | Claudius (to Hamlet saying that he needs to man up and stop mourning) |
| And yet, within a month, A little month, or ere those shoes were held with which she followed my poor father’s body | Hamlet- (talking to himself and referring to his mother) |
| It is nor it cannot come to good. But break my heart, I must hold my tongue. | Hamlet (to himself referring to how angry he is about everything, but he cannot show his anger) |
| The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. | Hamlet (speaking to Horatio about how disgustingly quickly the wedding followed the funeral) |
| And keep you in the rear of your affect, out of the shot of danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon. | Laertes- (speaking to Ophelia about how she needs to be wary of Hamlet and not be a target for his lust, that even showing her beauty puts her at risk, and that she does not want to get a bad reputation.) |
| Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar, give every man thy ear, but few thy voice | Polonius (to Laertes telling him all of the things he should and should not do in France) |
| this above all: to thine own self be true | Polonius (to Laertes. After his big speech about what he has to do, he is now saying but just be yourself. Do everything I tell you, but also just be yourself. Shows the contradictory nature of Polonius.) |
| Do you believe his tenders?I do not know my lord what to thinkMarry I will teach you. | Polonius (to Ophelia, basically telling her what to think) |
| Tender yourself more dearly or you’ll tender me a fool. | Polonius (to Ophelia, saying watch yourself more or you’re going to make me look bad) |
| I shall obey my lord | Ophelia (to Polonius, saying she will listen to what he says about Hamlet. She relies on him to tell her what to think and what to do) |
| And to the manner born, it is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance | Hamlet (talking to Horatio about Claudius’s night ride that is more honored by the action but not from actually doing it) |
| Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from Hell, Let me not burst in ignorance | Hamlet (speaking to the ghost asking if he is good or bad, and asking the ghost to tell him because he wants to know the ghost’s intentions, and if they are good or bad) |
| Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self slaughter. How stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! | Hamlet (speaking to himself about how if it were not a cardinal sin to kill oneself he would because he does not see a point to living any longer) |
| Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee. | Hamlet (talking to Horatio about how he does not care if the ghost is dangerous – he wanted to kill himself so his life really does not matter to him) |
| Doomed for a certain term to walk the night till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away | Ghost (to Hamlet about how he is in purgatory because he did not repent for his sins and now has to pay for them in purgatory) |
| O my prophetic soul! My uncle! | Hamlet (exclaiming that the murderer is his uncle, referring to himself as prophetic because he knew his uncle was bad news the whole time) |
| No reckoning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head | Ghost (to Hamlet about how, because he was killed, he did not get a chance to repent and died with his sins and that is why he is in purgatory) |
| Taint not thy mind, not let thy soul contrive against thy moths taught. Leave her to heaven | Ghost (to Hamlet saying not to enact revenge on his mother, but leave her to heaven to decide what happens to her) |
| As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on | Hamlet (talking to his guy friends, saying that now he is going to ask crazy and they will pretend they don’t know why) |
| Sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forgéd process of my death rankly abused. | Ghost (talking to Hamlet about how he was killed and now all of Denmark is being lied to by his murderer) |
| Put on him what forgeries you please, but none so rank as to dishonor him | Polonius (telling these instructions to Reynaldo as he sends him to spy on Laertes and pretend to know Laertes to see what his friends say and to know what Laertes is up to because he does not trust him and enjoys spying on people) |
| I will go seek the king. This is the very ecstasy of love | Polonius (to Ophelia after Ophelia tells him how strange Hamlet is acting. Polonius wants to be the person to figure out what is wrong with Hamlet and relay that to the king because he wants to be in the king’s good graces.) |
| I doubt it is no other but the main- His father’s death and our o’erhesty marriage | Gertrude (speaking to Claudius about Hamlet – she is showing that she knows what she has don’t but maybe the poison of Claudius’s words have finally taken root) |
| More matter with less art | Gertrude (talking to Polonius when he is trying to describe how Hamlet is mad and is struggling to get to the point. He uses lavish speech with little meaning) |
| Excellent well. You are a fishmonger | Hamlet (to Polonius, showing he is feigning madness by making no sense) |
| Let her not walk in the sun. Conception is a blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive, friend, look to it | Hamlet (to Polonius, telling him that he needs to keep an eye on his daughter-why?) |
| Though this be madness, yet there is method in it | Polonius (to the king and queen about how even though Hamlet appears to be mad everything he says holds some sort of meaning) |
| 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 king and queen about the meaning of Hamlets words and how he is hitting on very important matters despite his feigned madness) |
| You cannot sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal – except my life, except my life, except my life | Hamlet (to Polonius, being cunning but what he says hold meaning, and Polonius even commented on that earlier) |
| What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable. And yet, to me, what is the quintessence of dust? | Hamlet (to R and G how amazing man and the world is, and yet it means nothing because eventually it will all return to dust) |
| Oh, what a monstrous rogue am I. Is it not monstrous that this player here, but in a fiction …..with tears in his eyes, a broken voice, with forms to his conceit -and all for nothing! for Hecuba! | Hamlet (to himself, saying how upset he is that this person can show their grief and that not only is he not allowed to but he is not able to and has not shown it properly) |
| Yet I peak, unpregnant of my cause, and can say nothing | Hamlet (to himself, saying how upset he is that this person can show their grief and that not only is he not allowed to but he is not able to and has not shown it properly) |
| For murder, though it have no tongue will speak, with most miraculous organ | Hamlet (to himself, talking about how he is going to figure out if Claudius really murdered his father) |
| We are oft to blame in this that with devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar o’er the devil himself | Polonius (to the king, saying that prayers and saintliness can cover up the work of the devil, so that their duplicity is ok if they are doing it for the greater good, which in this case is Hamlet’s health) |
| To be or not to be- that is the question: whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them | Hamlet (to himself, about whether or not dying is the best way to go and whether or not is it better looked upon to bear this in silence or face it head on) |
| But that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than to fly to others that we know not of. Thus conscience does make cowards of us all | Hamlet (to himself, talking about how people choose to live because no one knows what comes after death and that it is scary to people and they do not want to confront that. His argument then, for suicide, is that it is almost brave because it is confronting the unknown by choice. Also shows how deep his pain is if he is willing to face the unknown because it can’t be worse than his present predicament) |
| Take these again, for the noble mind/ Rich gifts wax pour when givers prove unkind | Ophelia (to Hamlet, about how he gave her certain tokens of her love and she would like to give them back) |
| Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? | Ophelia (to Hamlet, whether or not honesty or beauty is more important) |
| Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst though be a breeder of sinners? | Hamlet (to Ophelia, saying that men are untrustworthy and revengeful and deceitful- this is before he realizes that her father and she have hatched up a plan) |
| marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another | Hamlet (to Ophelia, saying that woman are liars and that even the face G-d gives you they are able to find some way to deceive it and lie about it.) |
| I will speak daggers to her, but use none | Hamlet (to himself, talking about how he is going to speak to his mother in a very harsh tone but does not intend to use violence.) |
| O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven. I stand in pause where I shall first begin and both neglect | Claudius (talking to himself when he believes he is alone, repenting for his sins) |
| Forgive me my foul murderer. That cannot be, since I am still possessed/Of those effects for which I did the murder. May one be pardoned and retain the offense? | Claudius (talking to himself saying that while he would like to be forgiven in all honesty he realizes he can’t because he does not truly feel bad for the murder, he is simply going through the motions since he enjoys the reap of the reward) |
| And so he goes to heaven, and so I am revenged. that would be scanned | Hamlet (talking to himself saying that he cannot kill Claudius when he is free from sins because then he will go to heaven and his father was not awarded the same luxury) |
| My words fly up, my thought remain below; words without thoughts never to heaven go | Claudius (talking to himself about how he is just going through the motions, but that there is no meaning to the words that he prays to heaven) |
| Hamlet, though hast thy father much offended”Mother, though have my father much offended” | Hamlet (to Gertrude about the wrongs she has done to his true father – he is about to lay into her, all that bottled up anger is steaming to the surface) |
| You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife, and would it were not so, thou art my mother | Hamlet (to Gertrude saying that he has not forgotten who is mother is, he never can, despite the fact that he wishes she were not his mother) |
| What devil was it that thus hath cozened you at goodman blind? Eyes without feeling, felling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, or but a sickly part of one true sense could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush | Hamlet (to Gertrude about how she could be so blind to all of these, that her senses must not have been working properly. And why isn’t she blushing, because does she not feel any shame?) |
| Thou turnst my eyes into my very soul, and there I see such black and grain spots as will not leave their tinct | Gertrude (to Hamlet telling him she recognizes the awful things she has done, but she does not outright say what they are so it is unclear if she says this simply to appease Hamlet or if she actually feels remorse and sees her poor actions. We know, thought, that she is aware, because she mentioned it before) |
| O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain”O, throw away the worser part o it, And live the purer with the other half! Good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed.” | Hamlet (to Gertrude, saying that it does not matter if her heart is in pieces, because now that it is broken she may as well throw away the other tainted half) |
| heaven hath pleased it so/ To punish me with this and this with me, | Hamlet (to Gertrude saying that Polonius is a calamity and that heaven meant it to be this way. It is just because the g-ds have ordained it) |
| That I must be their scourge and minister. I must be cruel only to be kind. This bad begins and the worse remains behind | Hamlet (He is both heavens executioner and its minister of justice. The paradox of tragic man. In order to avenge his father sacrifices must be made. This is the first of many bad things to come, however while this is bad the worst act still has not been avenged. Things are bad now but the worse is yet to come) |
| Be thou assured, if words be made of breath and breath of life, I have no life to breath what thou hast said to me. | Gertrude (whether or not she actually means this or is simply saying this for Hamlet’s benefit is unclear.) |
| The body is with the King, but the king is not with the body | Hamlet (to Rosencrantz talking about how he will go to Claudius, but he is not the real king) |
| Diseases desperate grow/By desperate appliance are relieved/ Or not at all | King (to rosencrantz and gildenstern about Hamlet, and how a terminal disease requires lots of treatment, and if you’re not willing to go to those extremes then there is no point in doing anything) |
| Not where he eats, but where he is eaten | Hamlet (talking to Claudius referring to Polonius’ whereabouts) |
| In heaven, send thither to see. If your messenger finds him not there, seek him in the other place yourself | Hamlet (to Claudius, saying that he should send a messenger to heaven to see if Polonius is there, or just wait to see if he goes to hell because that is where Claudius is going so he will be able to see) |
| By letters congruing to that effect, the present death of Hamlet. Do it England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages. Til I know tis done, my joys will ne’er begin | Claudius (to himself, referring to how he needs England to take care of and kill Hamlet for him because he has become a problem and Claudius does not know how and does not have time to deal with him) |
| We gain a little patch of ground/ That hath in it no profit but the name | Captain of Fortinbras army (speaking to Hamlet about how they are going to conquer this little patch of land that has almost no significance) |
| Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats will not debate the question of this straw. | Hamlet (to the captain talking about how hundreds of men will die fighting over this measly piece of territory. It is not worth it) |
| How stand I, then, that have a father killed, a mother stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleep | Hamlet (to himself, about how he can have so much to fight for and yet he is doing nothing, while all of these men are going to die for something that is not important whatsoever) |
| My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth | Hamlet (to himself, talking about how now he is focused now on his mission and that will be the one thought that he thinks about) |
| Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew. Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds | Horatio (to queen about how Ophelia must be spoken too because there is not telling what she may say now that she is in this state and they do not want to cause panic among the people) |
| They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are but know not what we may be. G-d be at your table. | Ophelia (to king, talking as if she is mad. She speaks the same way as Hamlet, where her speech is pregnant with meaning) |
| The people muddied, thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers | The king (to the queen, talking about how the people are starting to talk and that is the last thing that they want. This emphasizes to the king how badly he wants Hamlet gone because he is starting to become more trouble than he is worth) |
| That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard | Laertes (to king, saying that if he is calm then he is not his father’s son because he clearly did not love him if he is getting angry. Juxtaposed against the Hamlet approach) |
| Vows to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation | Laertes (to king- he is such in a frenzy that he is not considering the afterworld. There has been this shift to focus on earthly justice and physical state rather than the afterworld, and Laertes is saying that the does not care how he is viewed in either world he just wants justice for his slain father). |
| Why to a public count I might not go/ Is the great love the general gender bear him, Who, dipping all his faults in their affect, convert his gyves to graces | Claudius (to Laertes explaining that he could not punish Hamlet because the people love him and that would make him look bad. Also the queen would hate him) |
| I will work him/ To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall; and for his death no wind of blame shall breathe | Claudius (to Laertes about devising a plan that he will fall no matter what, and no blame will be put on him whatsoever) |
| My lord, I will be ruled. The rather if you could devise it so/ That I might be the organ | Laertes (Claudius is manipulating him and redirecting his anger towards Hamlet, so that Laertes wants to be the mechanism for Hamlet’s demise) |
| Was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,/ A face without a heart? What would you undertake to show yourself indeed your father’s son/ More than in words? | Claudius (to Laertes, provoking him so that he feels as if he as no other choice but to fight Hamlet in order to prove his love for his father) |
| No place indeed should murder sanctuaries; Revenge should have no bounds | Claudius (to Laertes saying that not even the church is going to protect this murderer because revenge has no bounds and Laertes is entitled to his revenge) |
| As one incapable of her own distress/ Or like a creature native and endued/ Unto that element | Gertrude (to Laertes and the King about Ophelia, who has drowned and appears as a naive creature that could not handle her own distress and died because of it) |
| Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears | Laertes (to king and Gertrude about about how he will not cry because water was the cause of her undoing so he is not going to cry and add more water to a problem caused by water) |
| You lie out not, sir, and therefore tis not yours. For my part, I do not lie int, yet it is mine | Gravedigger (to Hamlet, trying to be as cunning as he is) |
| He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is. Not one now to mock your own grinning? | Hamlet (to gravedigger and Horatio, taking him back to a place of nostalgia where things were easier and simpler and his tragedies did not exist. This is incredibly hard for Hamlet and he probably wishes he could go back in time to experience this, but it will never be like this again) |
| To what base uses we may return | Hamlet (to Horatio about how we may do all of these amazing things in our lifetime and yet after death, we return to such a basic form, so then what is the worth of our life – the legacy, which will come into play later- ironic that this is said to Horatio) |
| Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam. Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. | Hamlet (to Horatio about how we may do all of these amazing things in our lifetime and yet after death, we return to such a basic form, so then what is the worth of our life – the legacy, which will come into play later- ironic that this is said to Horatio) |
| Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well/ When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn us/ There’s divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will. | Hamlet (to Horatio about how the divine shapes how things will turn out, and we often screw up, but they lead us in the direction that we are meant to go) |
| Why, even in that was heaven ordinant | Hamlet (to Horatio about how he happened to have the seal with him, so heaven must have meant for that to happen because it could not have been a coincidence. Helps him not feel guilty about what he has done because it seems as if heaven has ordained it) |
| Why man they did make love to this employment. They are not near my conscience. Their defeat does by their own insinuation grow. | Hamlet (to Horatio, saying that they brought this upon themselves. They chose to work with the king, they were not forced, therefore it does not way heavily on him because their own actions led to their defeat) |
| But I am very sorry that to Laertes I forgot myself. For by the image of my cause I see the portraiture of his. | Hamlet (to Horatio about how he sees himself in Laertes and therefor he does not blame him for being angry with him and wanting to avenge his father, because Hamlet is attempting to do the same thing) |
| 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 its to leave betimes? Let be. | Hamlet (to Heratio saying that what is the point of prolonging something that is bound to happen? Might as well get it over with because there is no way to prevent it) |
| I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wronger Laertes? Never Hamlet. If Hamlet from himself be taken away, And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not | Hamlet (to Laertes saying saying that it was his madness that wronged him, not Hamlet himself. This is the insanity plea, because he was saying that he was not himself) |
| If it be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy | Hamlet (to Laertes, that if anyone is wronged it is Hamlet, because his madness overcame him and forced him to do these despicable acts, so really Hamlet has been wronged by this uncontrollable madness) |
| I will lord; I pray you pardon me | Gertrude (to the king, she is drinking to her son, and the one moment she is loyal to her son it stabs her in the back. Her deed is done she has come full circle in a way so her character is of no more use) |
| I do receive your offered love like love/ And will not wrong it | Laertes (to Hamlet. This is the first time we have seen someone forgive and be accepted in their forgiveness, and this makes us like the characters all the more, and yet they are about to be taken from us which increases the tragedy, because we were starting to hate on Hamlet and Laertes. This way their death has some significance.) |
| I am justly killed with mine own treachery | Laertes (to everyone, saying that he did something wrong and because of that his death is just.) |
| Mine and my fathers death come not upon thee, nor thine on me | Laertes (to Hamlet. This is the first time we have seen someone forgive and be accepted in their forgiveness, and this makes us like the characters all the more, and yet they are about to be taken from us which increases the tragedy, because we were starting to hate on Hamlet and Laertes. This way their death has some significance.) |
| If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart/ absent thee from felicity a while/ and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain/ to tell my story | Hamlet (asking a huge favor of Horatio to prolong his suffering in order to preserve Hamlet’s legacy. Horatio has been given a purpose to tell the true story, and Hamlet is giving the one person who did not abandon him the ability to craft his legacy, which is a huge honor) |
| The rest is silence | Hamlet (to Horatio, this is right before he dies. He is saying that he is done, that he has finally paid his dues in this world and is finished) |
| Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts…..And in this upshot, purposes mistook/ fall upon the inventors heads | Horatio (to Fortinbras. Satisfied that the legacy is going to be preserved by Horatio because this is such a lovely summary of all of the events that have taken place) |
Hamlet quotes
July 7, 2019