Hamlet 2:2 Flashcards
first part of 2:2
- mirrors 1:2
- theme of espionage
- rosencrantz and guildenstern
‘Something you have heard…’
‘Something you have heard/ Of Hamlet’s transformation; so I call it,/ Sith nor th’ exterior nor the inward man/ Resembles what it was.’ - King
- something in Hamlet has changed
- wants R and G to figure out why
‘I entreat you both…’
‘I entreat you both,/ That, being of so young days brought up with him,/ And sith so neighboured to his youth and/ haviour’ - King
- they are childhood friends of Hamlet
- Claudius things this means H will share with them but he actually trusts Horatio much more
‘he hath much…’
‘he hath much talk’d of you;/ And sure I am two men there is not living/ To whom he more adheres.’ - King
- not that we’ve seen!
- in reality, he trusts Horatio much more
‘But we both…’
‘To lay our service…’
‘But we both obey’
‘To lay our service freely at your feet,/ To be commanded.’
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have little choice
- they are insipid characters
Queen corrects King on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
‘Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.’ - K
‘Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz’ - Q
- did he attribute the name to the wrong person?
- is she echoing or correcting?
‘Have I, my lord…’
‘Have I, my lord? I assure you, my good liege,/ I hold my duty, as I hold my soul’ - Polonius
- repetition of ‘I’
- trying to cement himself in court
‘I have found…’
‘I have found/ The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.’ - Polonius
‘He tells me, my dear…’
‘He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found/ The head and source of all your son’s distemper.’ - K
- over-explaining (she was in the room too)
‘I doubt it is no other..’
‘I doubt it is no other but the main,/ His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.’ - Queen
- sees these as the key reasons for Hamlet’s behaviour (does understand him)
- recognises the speed and impact
- little sign of sympathy (public)
what news do the ambassadors bring?
- F’s uncle thought he was arming against the Poles
- upon learning he was not, he recalled F and F obeyed
- Norway will attack Poland and have requested the King allow them passage through
HOWEVER: - this feels too convenient (temporary)
- how long can F suppress Fortinbras? (‘Whereat griev’d,/ That so his sickness, age, and impotence’)
‘Makes vow before his…’
‘Makes vow before his uncle never more/ To give th’assay of arms against your Majesty.’ - ambassador Voltemand
Polonius delaying before saying Hamlet is mad
- uses floral language and flatters
- ‘to expostulate’
- ‘Why day is day, night is night, and time is time’
- ‘since brevity is the soul of wit,/ And tediousness the limbs and outward/ flourishes’ - ironic/hypocritical
how does Polonius tell the King and Queen of Hamlet
‘I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.’ - P
- shockingly insensitive
- seems strange to be so brief given his over-talking just before
‘More matter with…’
‘More matter with less art.’ - Queen
- sharp and impatient
- effectively telling him to explain further but without the flowery-language
‘That he’s mad, ‘tis true…’
‘That he’s mad, ‘tis true ‘tis pity;/ And pity ‘tis ‘tis true.’ - P
- more delaying
‘and now remains…’
‘and now remains/ That we find out the cause of this effect;/ Or rather say the cause of this defect’ - P
‘I have a daughter…’
‘I have a daughter - have while she is mine -/ Who in her duty and obedience, mark,/ Hath given me this’ - P
- something Hamlet could have predicted
- if she marries she’ll belong to someone else
- goes on to read a letter from H to O
the significance of the letter from H to O
- although we may assume this ws deliberately written to ‘fool’ others, Ophelia says she has refused his letters since her father told her to
- so was this written earlier and intended solely for Ophelia - in which case is this evidence of H’s feelings for O?
‘Came this from…’
‘Came this from Hamlet to her?’ - Queen
- interrogative, no emotion, public
the letter
- ‘To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia’
- ‘In her excellent white bosom’
- ‘doubt that the sun doth move;/ Doubt truth to be a liar;/ But never doubt I love.’
- ‘I am ill at these numbers’ (explicit evidence for love-sickness)
‘This, in obedience hath…’
‘This, in obedience hath my daughter shown me’ - P
- focus on obedience of O (‘in her duty and obedience’ earlier)
- trying to establish that he has raised her well
‘But how hat she…’
‘What do you…’
‘But how hath she/ Receiv’d his love?’ - King
‘What do you think of me?’ - P
- blames Ophelia/ shifts focus
- this is the idea that a daughters behaviour reflects her father hence the previous stress on O’s ‘obedience’
‘No, I went…’
‘No, I went round to work,/ And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:/ ‘Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star’ - P
- saying he got straight to deal with it
- flattery, not entirely true
‘And then I prescripts gave..’
‘And then I prescripts gave/ her,/ That she should lock herself from his resort,/ Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.’ - P
- that he told O not to admit any messages from H which is true
‘And he repelled, a short…’
‘And he repelled, a short tale to make,/ Fell into a sadness, then into a fast […] and, by this declension,/ Into this madness wherein now he raves/ And all we mourn for.’ - P
- rejection by Ophelia is the causr
Polonius’ plan
‘At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him./ Be you and I behind an arras then;/ Mark the encounter’ - P
the relevance of ‘behind an arras’
- polonius dies behind one later
‘Do you know me…’ (and response)
‘Do you know me, my lord?’ - P
‘Excellent well; you are a fish-monger.’ - H
- putting on the ‘antic disposition’
- mildly insulting (slang for a pimp)
- using his madness to annoy P
‘For if the sun breed maggots…’
‘For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,/ being a good kissing carrion - Have you a/ daughter?’ - H
- carrion - dead skin/flesh
- sexual connotations
- insulting mention of his daughter in the context
‘Let her not walk i’…’
‘Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a/ blessing. But as your daughter may conceive - friend, look to’t.’ - H
- double meaning of conception
- connecting P’s daughter and pregnancy
‘And truly in my youth I…’
‘And truly in my youth I suff’red much extremity for love.’ - Polonius
‘Though this be madness…’
‘[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.’ - Polonius
- “method to the madness”
- H has some rational thought
- links to two lines later when he says people in madness sometimes hit on something rational
‘Into my grave?’
‘Into my grave?’ - H
- Hamlet’s response to P asking him if he will come inside (fresh air was believed to be harmful to the sick)
- H takes ‘out of the air’ to mean into the earth ie dead
- lack of trust (‘except my life, except my life, except my life’)
‘How pregnant sometimes…’
‘[Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on’ - P
- people in madness sometimes hit on something rational
- ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t’
