Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act II-III Quotes

For the following quotes: • Identify the speaker • Who are they speaking to? • Rewrite the quote in your own words • Why is this quote important?

Quote 1 • “He took me by the wrist and held me hard,Then goes he to the length of all his arm,And with his other hand thus o'er his brow,He falls to such perusal of my faceAs ‘a would draw it. Long stay'd he so;At last, a little shaking of mine arm,And thrice his head thus waving up and down,He raised a sigh so piteous and profoundAs it did seem to shatter all his bulkAnd end his being: that done, he lets me go,And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,He seem'd to find his way without his eyes,For out a' doors he went without their helps,And to the last bended their light on me.” (II.i.84-98)

Quote 2 “…I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firma- ment, this majesticalroof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pesti- lent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in facul- Ties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- nor woman neither…” (II.ii.292-308)

Quote 3 • “Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd, Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, an’ his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing,For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty, and appall the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing…” (II.ii.543-561)

Quote 4 • “To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep- No more, and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to; ‘tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep- To sleep, perchance to dream- ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause, there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.” (III.i.55-68)

Quote 5 “If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunn’ry, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.” (III.i.134-139)

Quote 6 • “O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven, It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, A brother's murther. Pray can I not,Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. What if this cursed handWere thicker than itself with brother's blood, Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow?” (III.iii.36-46)

Quote 7 • “And now I'll do't- and so ‘a goes to heaven, And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd:A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain sendTo heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. ‘A took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May, And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?But in our circumstance and course of thought 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then reveng'd, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for his passage? No.” (III.iii.74-86)

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark