Hamlet
Vocabulary Assignments
A. Select from the vocabulary list at least ten words that you could use in a love
letter. Write beside each of your words in the margin the unexpected meanings
you would want it to have.
B. Write a poem about some sixteenth-century figure (a young boy in rural England,
the daughter of a great nobleman, a shoemaker’s wife, for example). Imagine the
person in some specific location (for instance, beside a river, in a formal garden,
on a crowded street). As you write the poem, use at least ten words from the
vocabulary list with meanings that are Shakespearean but not modern.
C. Write five or six pages of dialogue for a 2 - 3 minute skit to be performed in front
of the class. Use at least ten of the vocabulary words in your skit as Shakespeare
would have used them. Instruct the class to list the ten words as you perform your
skit. After the performance, ask the class to identify the words and give the
meanings you intended them to have.
D. Select at least ten words from the list and use them in the lyrics of contemporary
songs. Give the original line, the title and the artist of the song.