Hamlet: Act III review
Quotations
ACT I:
“A little more than kin and less than kind”
speaker: Hamlet
“But you must know your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost his…”
speaker: King Claudius
“O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
…’Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed….”
speaker: Hamlet
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend….”
speaker: Polonius
“I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.”
speaker: Polonius
“The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.”
speaker: King Hamlet’s ghost
ACT II:
Polonius: “…brevity is the soul of wit.…”
Gertrude: “More matter with less art.”
“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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, no, nor women neither….”
speaker: Hamlet
“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly,
I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
speaker: Hamlet
“This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion!”
speaker: Hamlet
“The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
speaker: Hamlet
ACT III:
“To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them.”
speaker: Hamlet
[alternately: summarize the main point of the “To be…” soliloquy]
“Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?
speaker: Hamlet
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
speaker: Queen Gertrude
“What, frighted with false fire?”
speaker: Hamlet
“…though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me”
speaker: Hamlet
“Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.”
speaker: Hamlet
“O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will…”
speaker: King Claudius
“Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.”
speaker: Hamlet
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
speaker: King Claudius
Queen Gertrude: “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.”
Hamlet:
“Mother, you have my father much offended.”
“Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed
and batten on this moor?”
speaker: Hamlet
Hamlet: Act I-III review
Characters
Be able to identify and describe the following names:
Claudius
Polonius
Gertrude
Elsinore
Horatio
Ophelia
Laertes
Fortinbras
Word Association
Think of the different ways each word relates to Hamlet (the play, not just the character) thus far:
Father
Observation/spying
Trust
Secrets
Courage
Honesty
Fate/Fortune
Love
Insanity
Drama (as in a play)
Marriage