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’
‘You cannot, sir, take from me…’
‘You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal - except my life, except my life, except my life.’ - H
‘These tedious…’
‘These tedious old fools!’ - H
- who is he addressing? the audience? Ros and Guil? does P hear?
theme of fortune
- death, duty, etc
- will return in the players’ play
- sexualise her in a jokey manner (typical view of fortune)
‘Happy in that we are not…’
‘Nor the…’
‘Happy in that we are not over-happy;/ On fortunes cap we are not the very button.’ - Guil
‘Nor the soles of her shoe?’ - H
- ordinary, not at the peak or the trough of fortune
‘Then you live about her…’
‘Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?’ - H
- sexual, slip into easy joking/playfulness
‘Faith, her…’
‘Faith, her privates we.’ - Guil
- ‘privates’ - private individuals, intimate friends, private parts
‘In the secret parts…’
‘In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet.’ - H
- strumpet = slut
- she was often called this because she grants favours to all men regardless of worth
‘Then is doomsday…’
‘Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true.’ - H
- suspicious, untrusting
‘What have you, my good…’
‘What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?’ - Hamlet
- then ‘Denmark’s a prison.’
- trapped (Wittenburg, drinking, Claudius as king, his own mind/decision to make, constant supervision)
- In Shakespeare’s time prisons confined people while they awaited execution
‘What have you, my good…’
‘What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?’ - Hamlet
- then ‘Denmark’s a prison.’
- trapped (Wittenburg, drinking, Claudius as king, his own mind/decision to make, constant supervision)
- In Shakespeare’s time prisons confined people while they awaited execution
- ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ - Marcellus
‘A goodly one; in which…’
‘[The world is] A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst.’ - Hamlet
- ‘something is rotten in the state of denmark’ - Marcellus
‘for there is nothing either…’
‘for there is nothing either or good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.’ - Hamlet
- very philosophical (no ‘antic disposition’)
- thinking something is bad makes it so, perception
‘I could be bounded in a…’
‘I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.’ - Hamlet
- not because it is physically small (this is a mental state)
‘Then are our beggars…’
‘Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outsretch’d heroes the beggars’ shadows.’ - Hamlet
- comment on the detached nature of the court
- heroes and monarchs are creations of the dreams of common people
- they are only what they are because they are thought of as such
- ‘beggars bodies’ - solid substances (no ambition or dreams)
Hamlet’s reply to R + G’s ‘We’ll wait upon you.’
‘No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended.’ - Hamlet
- has plenty of servants but few friends
‘Were you not…’
‘Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come; nay, speak.’ - Hamlet to Ros and Gil
- insistence shows suspicion and his desire for them to be straight with him
‘you were sent for; and there…’
‘you were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, and which your modesties have not craft enough to colour; I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.’ - Hamlet to Ros and Gil
- explicit and blunt, no madness
‘But let me conjure…’
‘But let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever preserved love’ - Hamlet to Ros and Gil
- uses their childhood friendship to persuade honesty from them
- their evasive answers contrast this almost desperate tone
‘be even and…’
‘be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no?’ - Hamlet to ros and gil
‘[Aside] Nay, then…’
‘[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you, - If you love me, hold not off.’ - Hamlet (about then to ros and gil)
‘I will tell you why; so…’
‘I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather.’ - Hamlet to R and G
- by stating their purpose himself, he saves R and G from having to break faith with the king and queen
‘I have of late…’
‘I have of late - but wherefore I know not - lost all my mirth’ - Hamlet to R and G
‘why, it appeareth no other…’
‘why, [the sky] appeareth no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours’ - Hamlet
‘And yet, to me…’
‘And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?’ - Hamlet
- in Elizabethan Alchemy, quintessence was believed to be a fifth element, the refined essence making up heavenly bodies
- he mentions some of the other elements in this monologue too (‘the earth’ ‘the air’ ‘golden fire’)
- ‘quintessence of dust’ is a paradox, expressing his feelings of emptiness
metadrama
play within a play, or a moment that draws attention to the play’s nature as drama or theatre
Hamlet’s response/feelings toward the mention of ‘players’
- seems wistful about his freer days
- cheers up and is genuinely happy and interested: ‘What players are they?’ ‘How chances it they travel?’ ‘Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city?’
‘These are now the…’
‘These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages - so they call them - that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills and dare scarce come thither.’ - Ros
- “sword-wearing gentlemen are cowed by words (ie. from those who write the child plays)
‘It is not very strange; for my uncle…’
‘It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, an those that would make mow at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a piece for his picture in little.’ - Hamlet
- the same people who mocked Claudius when H sr. was alive now pay for his picture (now flatter him)
‘I am but mad…’
‘I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.’ - Hamlet to R and G
- directly addressing the claims of madness from his uncle and mother
- feigned but a little off
- whether he is mad or not changes with the wind
- ‘I know a hawk from a handsaw’ - knows what is going on
‘that great baby…’
‘that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling cloths’ - Hamlet (making fun of Polonius)
- would have shocked the wealthier members of audience but amused the groundlings
- insulting (can only get away with this because he is the crown prince)
‘Happily he is the second time…’
‘Happily he is the second time come to them; for they say an old man is twice a child.’ - Ros to H about Polonius
- matches Hamlet’s insults
‘O… what a treasure hadst thou!’
‘O Jephthah, judge of Isreal, what a treasure hadst thou!’ - Hamlet to Polonius
- Jephthah is a figure from the Bible who made a vow that if God would help him be victorious in battle, he would sacrifice the first thing he saw when returning home. He was victorious but the first thing he saw was his daughter. He kept his vow and sacrificed her
- suggestion about P and his treatment of O
Pyrrhus-Priam dialogue
‘Priam’s slaughter’ - H
- a king killed by Pyrrhus in front of his wife
‘ominous horse’ - H
- the trojan horse, distrust
‘Pyrrhus stood/ And, like a neutral to his will and matter, did nothing.’ - player
- action vs inaction
‘[a cyclops’ hammer falls] With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword/ Now falls on Priam’ - player
- foreshadowing of Hamlet
‘Now is he total gules…’
‘Now is he total gules, horridly trick’d/ With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons’ - Hamlet
- ‘total gules’ completely red (blood), symbolic colour of revenge
- the blood of Pyrrhus’ victims had dried and caked on the streets
‘Pyrrhus stood/ And…’
‘Pyrrhus stood/ And, like a neutral to his will and matter,/ Did nothing.’ - Player
- action vs inaction
- foreshadowing Hamlet’s inaction around C
- ‘[Cyclops hammers fall] With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword/ Now falls on Priam.’ - Player (eventually does kill him)
‘With less remorse than…’
‘[Cyclops hammers fall] With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword/ Now falls on Priam.’ - Player
- eventually he does kill him (just like Hamlet will kill Claudius)
‘come to Hecuba’
‘come to Hecuba’
- analogue for Gertrude
- shows the right grief (‘bisson rheum’ ‘burst of clamour’)
‘Pyrrhus make malicious sport…’
‘Pyrrhus make malicious sport/ In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs’
- the sound of Hecuba’s grief would have moved the sun and stars to weep
Hamlet asks to insert extra dialogue into the play
‘You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in’t, could you not?’ - Hamlet
- subterfuge
- write extra dialogue depicting H sr’s death to expose claudius
Hamlet’s 2:2 soliloquy
- angry at himself
- compares himself to the player who has acted ‘passion’ so convincingly without feeling or motive while he cannot at
- how these characters mean nothing to the actors but they can cry for them anyway
- but he does not act, or say even a word, for his father
- calls himself a coward (‘Am I a coward?’)
- actually shows morals that would align with that of the elizabethan audience (not lex talionis)
lex talionis
- ‘talionic justice’
- eye for an eye
- this is not Hamlet, he aligns with the elizabethan view not the medieval one
‘But in a fiction…’
‘But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/ Could force his soul to his own conceit’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- actor can change his whole being to anything he wants
- comparison to himself who cannot stir up the passion to kill Claudius
‘What’s Hecuba to…’
‘What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba,/ That he should weep for her?’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- chiasmus
- again, comparison to himself
‘What would he do,/ Had he the motive and the…’
‘What would he do,/ Had he the motive and the cue for passion/ That I have? He would drown the stage with tears’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
‘But I am pigeon…’
‘But I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall/ To make oppression bitter’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- must be physically incapable of producing gall (anger or resentment)
‘or ere this/ I…’
‘or ere this/ I should ‘a fated all the region kites/ With this slave’s offal.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- Promethius - fed to kites, worst punishment
‘Bloody, bawdy…’
‘Bloody, bawdy villain!/ Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- Claudius
‘This is most brave…’
‘This is most brave,/ That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hill,/ Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
‘I have heard/ That guilty creatures…’
‘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 proclaim’d their malefactions’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- beginning to formulate plan to prove Claudius’ guilt so he can kill him
- rationality
‘For murder, though…’
‘For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/ With most miraculous organ.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- “murder will out”
‘I’ll have these…’
‘I’ll have these players/ Play something like the murder of my father/ Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- gives certainty, rational
‘The spirit that I have…’
‘The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- in considering this, Hamlet reveals his rationalism
- Shakespeare is suggesting that H cannot stop himself from considering all possibilities, H considers this cowardice but many would see it as a virtue
‘The spirit that I…’
‘The spirit that I have seen. May be a devil’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- in considering this, Hamlet reveals his rationalism
- Shakespeare is suggesting that H cannot stop himself from considering all possibilities, H considers this cowardice but many might see it as a virtue
‘The play’s the thing…’
‘The play’s the thing/ Wherin I’ll catch the conscience of the King.’ - Hamlet (end of soliloquy and 2:2)
- ends on a strong, decisive line
