Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.Claudius: I ha ’t: When in your motion you are hot and dry,— As make your bouts more violent to that end,— And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepar’d him A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck, Our purpose may hold there.
Read the passage from Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii.Gertrude: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz; And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed son. Go, some of you, And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Laertes: Be wary then; best safety lies in fear: Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.Ophelia: I shall th’ effect of this good lesson keep,As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,And recks not his own rede.
Read the passage from Hamlet, Act IV, Scene v.Laertes: How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I’ll be reveng’d Most throughly for my father.
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Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Hamlet: My fears forgetting manners—to unsealTheir grand commission; where I found, Horatio, O royal knavery! an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reasons Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s too, With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.
Read the excerpt from Act I of Hamlet.Bernardo: ’Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Claudius: Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim’d them.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet.Hamlet: No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it; as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam, and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay,Might stop a hole to keep the wind away
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Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet.Ophelia: Alas! my lord, I have been so affrighted.Polonius: With what, in the name of God?Ophelia: My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
Read the excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.ROS I want to go home.GUIL Don’t let them confuse you.ROS I’m out of my step here—GUIL We’ll soon be home and high—dry and home—I’ll—ROS It’s all over my depth—GUIL —I’ll hie you home and—ROS —out of my head—GUIL —dry you high and—ROS (cracking, high) —over my step over my head body!—I tell you it’s all stopping to a death, it’s boding to a depth, stepping to a head, it’s all heading to a dead stop—GUIL (the nursemaid) There! . . . and we’ll soon be home and dry . . . and high and dry.
Read the excerpt from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.ROS Shouldn’t we be doing something—constructive?GUIL What did you have in mind? . . . A short, blunt human pyramid . . . ?ROS We could go.GUIL Where?ROS After him.GUIL Why? They’ve got us placed now—if we start moving around, we’ll all be chasing each other all night.Hiatus.ROS (at footlights) How very intriguing! (Turns.) I feel like a spectator—an appalling business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute. . . .GUIL See anyone?ROS No. You?GUIL No. (At footlights.) What a fine persecution—to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.
Read the excerpt from Act II of Hamlet. Hamlet: I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick: if he but blench I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy— As he is very potent with such spirits— Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this: the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet. Voltimand: . . . On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give the assay of arms against your majesty. Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee, And his commission to employ those soldiers, So levied as before, against the Polack; With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Giving a paper.]
A student analyzing the appearance of the ghost in Act I of Hamlet includes this sentence in the analysis.Death conquers everyone.
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Read the excerpt from an analysis of Hamlet’s "To be or not to be” speech in Act III of Hamlet.Shakespeare begins the speech with the line "To be, or not to be: that is the question” and then proceeds to ask multiple questions throughout the speech.
Read an excerpt from an analysis of Act III of Hamlet.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern follow orders without question throughout the play. In this scene, Claudius tells them his life is in danger from Hamlet, and they must take Hamlet away. They agree immediately.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet. Hamlet: Let me see.—[Takes the skull.]—Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning?
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