Comedy Flashcards
1
Q
“The funeral bakes meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables”
A
- Reflects Hamlets frustration over his mother’s hasty marriage to Claudius after Old Hamlet’s death
2
Q
“Excellent well; you are a fishmonger”
A
- Hamlet openly mocking Polonius, calling him foolish
3
Q
"”Yonder cloud”, first, is “like a camel”
A
- Hamlet toys with Polonius, exposing his submissive nature and role as a “yes man”
4
Q
“A chough…spacious in the possession of dirt”
A
- Hamlet accused Osric of being like a bird that collects many things of little value, suggesting that his obsession with favour in the court is foolish
5
Q
“I mean, the matter that you read, my lord”
A
- Polonius leans into Hamlet’s madness, falling into his covaluted subversion of meaning
6
Q
“Yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backwards”
A
- Like a crab, Polonius’ faculties are declining with age as time goes on, Hamlet suggests that his methods are backwards
7
Q
“Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens”
A
- Hamlet is expressing a sarcastic outrage at his mothers apparent betrayal
8
Q
“Do you think I meant country matters?”
A
- Hamlet uses sexual innuendos when talking to Ophelia
9
Q
“And believe, it is a fetch of wit”
A
- Polonius is foolish in his belief that his plan is a stroke of genius
10
Q
“Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit”
A
- Polonius is foolish in his assertion that his dialogue will be swift, this is contradicted by his following lengthy rambling
