Act 1 Flashcards
In what particular thought to work I know not; But, in the gross and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Speaker: Horatio
Listener: Marcellus
Setting: guarding the castle
Meaning: Foreshadowing. This is a sign of some upheaval in Denmark.
Horatio worries that the King has been murdered since his ghost reappears. For one thing, the guards are worried about young Fortinbras of Norway seeking revenge for King Hamlet’s slaying of his father; they fear that the son will want to reclaim lands lost by his father, Fortinbras.
A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell.
Speaker: Harotio
Listener: Bernardo
Setting: platform, guarding the castle
Meaning: Allusion, a list of unnatural occurrences that happened in Rome prior to Julius Caesar’s assassination
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:If thou art privy to thy country’s fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
Speaker: Horatio
Listener: Ghost
Setting: platform
Meaning: asks 3 questions: are you here to tell us something good to be done? do you know about future of Denmark? have you done wrong on earth, spirit can’t rest?
“And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,–”
(Aside) “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
“How is it that the clouds still hang on you?”
“Not so, my lord; I am too much i’ the sun.”
Speaker: King & Hamlet
Listener: Hamlet
Setting: in a room
Meaning: Claudius refers to Hamlet as “cousin” and “son”
-Speaks to audience only
“…kin…kind” - Play on words
“…sun” - Pun: sun/son (Hamlet bitter about step father)
I know not ‘seems.’
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak…
Speaker: Hamlet Listener: King & Queen Setting: in a room Meaning: Appearance vs. Reality (Main theme of book) - Black cloak is not as it appears
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ah fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month–
Let me not think on’t–Frailty, thy name is woman!–
Speaker: Hamlet
Listener: none
Setting: in a room
Meaning: He wishes he could disappear, he is depressed. suicidal; The world is “…weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable”
“….unweeded garden” Metaphor of Denmark; 2 months since father passed; “Hyperion to a satyr” - Father=sun-god and Claudius=promiscuous goat (Allusion); “Frailty, thy name is woman!” - Women (his mother) are weak
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Speaker: Hamlet
Listener: Haratio
Meaning: sarcasm, Food from funeral would be used for the wedding
My father’s spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
Speaker: Hamlet
Listener: none
Setting: in a room
Meaning: - Rhyming couplet (End of scene and important lines)
- Fouls things will happen but we can’t see them
“For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood,
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.”
Speaker: Laertes
Listener: Ophelia
Setting: a room in Polonius’ house
Meaning: Laertes warns sister about her relationship with Hamlet
Think it no more;
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weigh’d, 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 health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster’d importunity.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Speaker: Laertes
Listener: Ophelia
Setting: a room in Polonius’ house
Meaning: Hamlet has responsibilities to country and choice of wife is limited; Don’t lose virginity or heart; Watch your affections, use your head not your heart
There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
Speaker: Polonius
Listener: Laertes
Setting: P gives L advices before he leave to France for school
Meaning: 1) Listen more, talk less 2) Be friendly, but pick your friends carefully
3) Pick your fights carefully
4) Listen to others
5) Don’t spend my on fancy clothing
6) Don’t lend/borrow money (Ruin relationships)
7) Be true and honest to yourself
That you have ta’en 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: Polonius
Listener: Ophelia
Setting: P gives O advices about Hamlet
Meaning: Polonius cares more about his reputation (Characterization); Polonius tells daughter to end relationship with Hamlet
I do not set my life in a pin’s fee;
And for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?
Speaker: Hemlet
Listener: Horatio
Setting: platform
Meaning: Life has as much value as the tip of a pin (Hamlet has lost his self esteem)
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”
Speaker: Marcellus
Listener: Haratio
Setting: platform, the guards have to follow Hamlet
Meaning: Foreshow, something evil and vile is afoot.
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Speaker: Ghost
Listener: Hamlet
Setting: alone, Ghost is telling Hamlet what really happened
Meaning: Revenge (Drives rest of plot)
