Quotes Flashcards
Horatio
with that fair
and war-like form … this bodes some strange eruption to our state
Claudius
Our dear brother’s
death […] the memory be green
Claudius + Hamlet
My cousin Hamlet, and my
son
H: A little more than kin, a little less than kind
C: How is it that the clouds still hang over you?
H: No, so my lord, I am too much in the sun
Hamlet
This too too
solid flesh would melt … or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon against self-slaughter
Hamlet
So excellent
a king that was to this Hyperion to a Satyr … my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules
Hamlet
Like Niobe
all tears … she married. O most wicked speed
Friendship
Horatio + Hamlet vs R+G
Horatio: Hail to your Lorship!
Hamlet: Sir, my good friend
+ “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince.”
Vs.
Hamlet: Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?
Polonius’ parenting
P: Like a green girl
O: I shall obey my lord
vs. Laertes: ‘my father’ = close realtionship: Polonius’ advice to Laertes = “give thy thoughts no tongue” — think before you speak — yet sends Reynaldo to spy on him to make sure he follows his advice
Polonius cares for the family reputation = order of pronouns in ‘my daughter and your honour’
vs. Ophelia is witty with Laertes - rebuffs his advice by saying that he should not be hypercritical as a ‘puff’d and reckless libertine’
Marcel
Something is rotten
in the state of Denmark
Ghost/Hamlet Snr.
Telling Hamlet to revenge him
If thou didst ever thy dear father love … revenge his foul and most unatural murder
Hamlet
Am I a
coward? … Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face
— questioning masculinity = C describes Hamlet as having ‘unmanly grief’
Hamlet
Bloody
Bawdy villain!
Hamlet + Ophelia
Get thee
to a nunnery
O help him high heavens!
Claudius
O my offense is rank, it …
smells to heavens … my crown, mine own ambition, and my Queen
— praying so Hamlet does not kill him vs. Laertes as a foil to Hamlet states he will kill Hamlet in the chapel, which is where Hamlet could not = I’d cut this throat in the chapel
Hamlet reacts to Claudius praying
Like a mildewed ear … a bloody deed
Gertrude reacts to Hamlet killing Polonius
O what a rash and bloody deed this is
O gentle son … sweet hamlet … How is’t with you?
As kill a king!
Claudius
Where is
your son
vs. ‘our son’ in public
+ criticises his ‘unamnly grief’ = too emotive and not masculine enough
Claudius 4:2 banishes Hamlet…
Like the hectic
in my blood he rages and thou must cure me!
Ophelia mad
Good night, ladies, good night. Sweet ladies, good night, good night
Claudius reacts to Ophelia being mad
- O this is the poison of deep grief; it springs all from her father’s death
–> draws attention away from Hamlet who she suggests in her song that she misses him, with the mention of ‘tomorow is Saint Valentine’s day’ - What sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions
- Poor Ophelia, divided from herself and her fair judgement
(vs. ‘fair Ophelia)
Laertes angry at the King/reaction to father’s death
O thou vile king, give me my father!
To hell allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil
Claudius manipulates Laertes
What would you undertake to show yourself your father’s son deed more than in words?
Hamlet’s old life and apology quote
Claudius “has thrown out his angle for my proper life”
I am sorry, good Horatio; that to Laertes I forgot myself
Gertrude drinks
Gertrude do not drink!
I will, my lord
The drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am piosoned!
Laertes dieing words
The king’s to blame
+ L quote to include “I am justly kill’d with my own treachery”
Hamlet quickly murders Claudius
= some morals left
[he wounds the king] … drink off this poison
Inevitability of the play + Hamlet realises his fate
The time is out of joint
O cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right
heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and this with me
Foul deeds will rise [1:2 so early on foreshadowing]
Hamlet’s death foreshadowed quotes
“to die — to sleep” –> 3:1 ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy
“for in that sleep of death dreams may come”
“were it not that I have bad dreams” = ‘O God, I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, we’re it not that I have bad dreams”
“— the rest is silence”
= accomplished his long awaited task so can be at peace
Comedic quote
What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
The houses that he makes last till doomsday.
— The comedian Billy Crystal as a gravedigger in 1996 KB
Hamlet loved Opehlia
‘forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.’
I loved her vs. ‘Get thee to a nunnery’
Performance quotes
Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know, not seems
To catch the conscience of the King
Ophelia’s reaction to madness = O what a noble mind is here overthrown
Kate Winslet in KB’s ‘96 ‘Hamlet’ carries a camera = appearance vs. reality
Hamlet’s madness seen by Ophelia = no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled
Gertrude’s description
by Hamlet Snr [vs. Caudius who tempted her]
Radiant angel
leave her to heaven
vs. Serpant that did sting thy father’s life
‘Adulterate beast’ ‘wicked’
vs. Hamlet states towards his mother - ‘frailty, thy name is woman! … married. O most wicked speed.’
Hamlet emotive/depressive quotes + comparison to Fortinbras
I have of late … lost all my mirth
Describes Fortinbras as having ‘divine ambition’ = fights to claim land in Poland for honour — prompts Hamlet to act = ‘from this time forth my thoughts be bloody’
