Hamlet 4:2 Flashcards
‘What have you…’
‘Compounded…’
‘What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?’ - Ros
‘Compounded it with dust, whereto ‘tis kin.’ - Hamlet
- we are going to see Hamlet avoiding straight answers, is this antic disposition or genuine madness? (he did just kill someone after all)
- Hamlet’s comment alludes to the burial service within the book of common prayer: ‘We therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.’
What does Hamler tell Ros and Guil not to ‘believe’ in 4:2?
‘That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides to be demanded of a sponge - what replication should be made by the son of a king?’ - Hamlet
- no longer keeping up pretences
- a prince being questioned by a ‘sponge’
‘Take you me for…’
‘Take you me for a sponge, my lord?’ - Ros
‘[a sponge] that soaks up the…’
‘[a sponge] that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities.’ - Hamlet to Ros and Guil
- referencing the flattery he has expressed distain for previously
‘But such officers do the King best service…’
‘But such officers do the King best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape an apple in the corner of his jaw; first mouth’d, to be last swallowed’ - Hamlet
- a comment on the court in which less senior members are used until they can offer nothing more and are then discarded
‘when he needs what…’
‘when he needs what you have glean’d,it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry again.’ - hamlet
‘a knavish speech…’
‘a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.’ - Hamlet
‘The body is with the…’
‘The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing -‘ - Hamlet
- a play on Hamlet sr. as the real/true ‘King’ perhaps
- antic disposition/goading them
- ‘thing’ possibly refers to penis
- could also suggest the body politic and how the body (Denmark) is not ‘with’ the head (the King/Claudius)
