Haml Con Sel Seven
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[edit] Ham Con Sel Seven
[edit] The Concordance to the Seventh Selection of the text of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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[edit] Annotations to the Seventh Selection of the Text of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Nero - A Roman emperor, remarkable for his inhumanity and cruelty.
Reputedly insane.
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My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites; how in my words soever
she be shent, to give them seals never, my soul, consent! -
Paraphrase: Though my tongue and soul be false, and my mother rebuked by my words, still, let them be unsealed: spoken and heard.
hypocrites - false, duplicitous
shent - hurt, rebuked, blamed
[edit] 10011
Shent: 1. to put to shame. 2. to reproach or scold. 3. to destroy or injure; damage. - Dictonary.com
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I like him not, nor stands it safe with us to let his madness range.
Therefore prepare you; I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And he
to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may
not endure hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow out of his lunacies.
Paraphrase: I am not fond of him, nor is it a good idea to roam freely,
going where it may. Therefore, I authorize you and send you, and he along
with you. He is a danger to our kingdom and us, and these are the direct
result of his illness.
range - go free
terms - The relationships between people or countries, particularly
the Danes
estate - The lords of Denmark, also the realm of Denmark
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We will ourselves provide: Most holy and religious fear it is to keep those
many many bodies safe that live and feed upon your majesty - We will
require and move for the ends you desire (to carry Hamlet to England). It
is a great and Holy burden to keep safe the state of Denmark.
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Thesingle and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
Paraphrase: Each and every individual is bound, with all that they have
learned, as well as their rational faculties, to keep themselves from being
a general nuisance, and certainly more importantly, from troubling that
noble spirit upon whom the general common good depends. The death of a king
is not a personal event. Rather, the king, in dying, must bring or drag
down with him all those around him. The sovereign is like a great and heavy
wheel, placed on the summit of the highest mountain, to the spokes of which
are attached a thousand lesser people, and when this wheel falls, each life
so related is affected by the wild calamity. A king never sheds a single
tear, without the people being sad, or sighs without the populace giving
forth with a general groan.
noyance - vexation, problem - in this case causing trouble,
etc.
cease of majesty - death of a king
doth - does
weal - wellbeing
massy - heavy, weighty, massive
mortised and adjoin'd - crafted, joined, worked
annexment, petty consequence - satellite, small affair
of state
boisterous - rough and stormy; wild; turbulent
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Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; for we will fetters put upon
this fear, which now goes too free-footed.
Paraphrase: Arm yourself, I beg of you, for your journey. We will force the object of our fears to
submit. It shan't fly free for much longer.
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My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.
Paraphrase: My lord, he's on his way to his mother's private quarters.
I'll hide myself behind the screen and so be in the position of overhearing
the conversation and guaranteeing that she force Hamlet to admit
what is bothering him. As you stated before, it's fit and proper
that someone else than his mother (since nature makes mother's partial to
their children), should overhear the conversation, so that some advantage
may be had from it. Farewell, my lord: I'll see you before you retire
and inform you as to the outcome of their meeting, and what I have learned.
closet - private quarters
arras - decorative screen
warrant - guarantee
tax - force, compell, extract, bring from him
tax him home - cause Hamlet to admit to what is bothering:
him. forcibly bring something home to someone: similar to the modern expression:
bring something home to someone | To make it clear or obvious to them, so
that there is no avoiding the conclusion.
'Tis meet - It's fit and proper
o'erhear- overhear
vantage - To use a circumstance, situation, etc in such a way
as to get some benefit from it
liege - lord, my lord
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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:
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.
Paraphrase: My crime is foul, and it's stench rises to heaven. It has
the curse of God upon it, that against murderers of their brothers. I can't
pray, even though my desire to do so is as acute as my will. My guilt is
felt to greatly, and it defeats me. Like one who is doing service to two
masters, I stand stock still, uncertain which to follow first, and must
fail both.
rank - foul, putrid, stinking, offensive, nauseating, reeking.
primal eldest curse - The curse of God upon Cain for having slain
Abel. Reference also is to the First Commandment, Thou shall not kill.
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What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being down?
Then I'll look up;
My fault is past.
Paraphrase: What if my hands ran with blood thicker than my hands, themselves?
Would all the rain in the world wash them clean? What's the good of mercy,
except to show up my offence, and expose me? And what's the good of prayer,
except that it might bring us up short before we should fall, or having
fallen, bring us some pardon? And should I fall and pray for pardon, and
my prayers be heard, then I'll turn my eyes to heaven in gratitude, for
my fault will be past.
visage - appearance, particularly the appearance of the face
forestalled - delayed
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But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
Paraphrase: But what kind of prayer can serve my present turn of mind
as well as win me forgiveness for my crime? There can be none, since I retain
the profits of my crime, my crown and my queen, and still I am ambitious!
Is it possible to be pardoned and still embrace the offence for which they
are charged? Perhaps in the helter-skelter of corruption, a criminal enriched
may silence the voices of justice and retribution, the crime's profits,
themselves, paying the bribe and making the law unwitting accomplices. But
heaven knows, and sin and crime cannot endure in paradise.
effects - goods, the crown and the queen
offence - the murder of King Hamlet, but also the usurpation of
the crown, and ongoing crime.
gilded - golden, gold, rich, monied.
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There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
repentance - that of the nature of apology, confession and forgivenes,
especially clerical or eccesiastical forgiveness, such as those forgiven
by the Church.
Paraphrase: There, in heaven, the saints will not hesitate to condemn
the sinner and criminal, and the cause of their condemnation will be in
a sinner's true nature, for we, ourselves, will be compelled to give witness
in our crimes and sins. What can a sinner do then? Where might they retreat
to? They can do what and rest where the penitent can, and what can't the
repentent accomplish? But if one can't repent? What then?
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O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
Retires and kneels
Paraphrase: O unhappy me, my heart as black as coal! O my trapped and
snared soul, which while struggling uselessly to be free becomes more enmired,
entrapped and caught in hellish sands. Help me, angels on high. Make a test,
a trial of my soul. Bend my stubborn knees, and let my heart, now steely
hard, make it soft as a newborn infant's limbs. Do this that all may be
well once more.
limed - lime, or bird-lime, is an adhesive product made to ensnare
small birds by being smeared on branches where they roost or alight. It
is a sticky goo, which never dries out. It's use mostly died out as the
market for small birds for eating evaporated.
Make assay - Make a test or trial.
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Lime in this sense means "glue-trap" or any sticky substance used to catch small animals.
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Now might I do it pat - I could do it now, immediately easily.
pat - immediately and easily
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scann'd - investigated, studed, scrutinized, considered, read:
his crime would appear in the light of...
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O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May
Paraphrase: O, these thoughts are just as mercenary as those of my uncle,
not the revenge I seek. He killed my father in broad daylight, having just
eaten his fill and in full repose. My father was not ready: he had not confessed
himself and his crimes were there for all the saints to see.
blown - revealed
flush as May - Abundant or plentiful.
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But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
Paraphrase: But in our circumstances and by our habits and customs,
my uncle's guilt is very serious, indeed: However, will I be justified and
properly revenged to kill him while he is in the act of purging his soul,
fit for passage to the hereafter? No!
purging - exoneration through an act of faith, such as praying,
fasting, confessing, and other acts of penitence.
10114
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hent - hold, as in a hold on a tool, or to take hold of something
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This physic but prolongs thy sickly days - this medicine (the murder
of Claudius) only lengthens your unhappy life.
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He will come straight. Look you lay home to him. Tell him his pranks
have been too broad to bear with, And that your grace hath screen'd and
stood between much heat and him.
Paraphrase: He'll come soon enough.
You make as if you are right at home. Tell him his behavior is past putting
up with, and that your majesty has concealed what she could, and otherwise
protected him.
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I'll sconce me even here. Pray you, be round with him.
Paraphrase: I'll hide myself right here. Please, your majesty, occupy
him with some conversation, or other. Don't let him see me.
sconce me - hide myself
be round - occupy him
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I'll warrant you, Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming. -
I guarantee you, sir. Have no fear. Now, please, hide yourself. I hear him
coming.
warrant - guarantee
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idle - good-for-nothing
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Go, go... - go on... (expression of disbelief, rejection)
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Why, how now? - How now is that possible?
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by the Rood - By the Cross upon which Christ was crucified.
Rood - Christ's cross
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Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. - I don't believe your
words or reassurance. I'm going to hand you over to some people who you
can speak to in this manner.
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Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge; you go not till I set
you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you - No, mother,
you're not going anywhere, not until I make you a mirror where you might
see your soul, and what you have really done.
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What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho! </I>- (Growing
panicky) What are you going to do? You're not going to murder me, are you?
(Calling out) Help, help!
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Makes a pass through the arras - Hamlet passes or thrusts his sword blindly
through the screen behind which hides Lord Polonius.
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Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Addressing himself first to the prostrate form of Lord Polonius
Paraphrase: Wretch! Careless, intruder! Fool! Goodbye and good riddance!
I mistook you for the king, so now you must accept your fate. You've found
that being a busybody is dangerous.
penetrable - understandable, comprehensible
brass'd - covered with brass, armored.
proof and bulwark - repellent, impervious, resistant, impenetrable,
strong, tight, fortified
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Then, to his mother, the queen:
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
Paraphrase: Stop worrying. Quiet! Sit and stop crying so I may wring you of what pity thats left in you, if you be flesh and blood and the accursed ways of our court have not so hardened you that common sense and kindness cannot find in you a place to reside.
penetrable - admitting of feeling
proof and bulwark - resistant to
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rude - impertinent, ill-mannered, insolent, fresh, blunt, brusque,
churlish, surly, gruff,
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Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
Paraphrase: Hamlet describes his feelings concerning the murder of his
father:
It was an act that dims and darkens the virtue of humility, insults the
name of Virtue, strips away the flower of innocent love and puts in its
place a terrible sore: makes of the holy sacrament of marriage something
less than the promises of gamblers.
Your deed, like the body in labor, pulls at the soul, and causes the
pious to loose a torrent of emotional words. The face of heaven burns: Yes,
the greatness on high, with sorrowful faces, as if they looked on doomsday,
itself, is sick with the contemplation of it.
blurs - dims, obscures, masks, darkens
modesty - The quality of being restrained and inoffensive
constraint, reserve, decorum, discreetness, seemliness, decency: humility.
grace - free of sin
blush - A pink rosy glow, the hue of joy
dicers' oaths - gamblers' promises
contraction - labor, the contraction of the uterus at the time
of birth
rhapsody - highly emotional outburst
tristful visage - unhappy face
thought-sick - ill through contemplation
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Ay me, what act, that roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
Paraphrase: Always me! What are you talking about, that causes you to
bellow so, and point your finger.
Ay - Always
index - first finger, pointer. Also, table of contents, the guide
of the book. Figuratively, that roars directions.
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Hamlet takes up and displays a portrait of the two brothers, Hamlet, the
King, and Claudius
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Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this?
Paraphrase: Look, mother, at this portrait, here hanging. What is it
but the false and fraudulent depiction of two brothers. (Pointing to the
portrait of his father). This one, free from all sin, the curl of his hair
like that of a Greek god, his aspect like that of the king of gods. His
eyes flash with the fire of war, made on high to threaten our enemies and
command our troops. A pose like the messenger-god, Mercury, high as heaven
upon a hill blessed by the light of the rising sun. A man of many good and
wonderful traits, and an even more beautiful form, one upon which the gods
smiled and heaped their blessings, and so assured us of their presence and
beneficence, their eternal mercy. Now, look here. Here is your present husband,
the infectious ruin of his healthy brother. Can't you see? How could you
abandon the godlike aspect of my father, to roam the desolate wasteland
which is his brother. Are you blind? You cannot claim love as your excuse,
for at your age, the blood runs with dispassion, it quietly awaits the day
when flesh and all its ills will pass, and judgement be done. And now what
judgement can we expect?
(To conclude the paraphrase of this speech, click or scroll down to line_10246
counterfeit - forged, false, fictitious, spurious, ersatz, bogus,
fake, pseudo.
Hyperion - The sun_god, the all-seeing, all-knowing one. A Titan.
Mars - The god of War
Mercury - The messenger god, Hermes
blasting - infecting
batten - live, habitate, from batten down - to prepare
for crisis, as in with the storm coming, we moved to batten down the
hatches.
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counterfeit presentment of two brothers - false and misleading
presentation of two brothers.
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Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself - Hamlet likens his father
to Greek gods, particularly, Hyperion, sometimes called the Sun god, and
Jove, also called Jupiter and Zeus. Interestingly, Hyperion, probably just
another Titan (old pre-Olympian god) in Greek times, has in more recent
times become exalted as an all-seeing, all-knowing deity by neo-pagans).
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Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.
Paraphrase: Oh, you've no lack of brains, or else you couldn't have conceived
and carried out this crime, but certainly that intelligence is diseased,
for even the insane would not make such a poor choice, or common sense was
such a slave to pleasure, that it did not reserve some semblance of free
will and rational choice to be a guide in this dispute. (the following said
sarcastically) What devil was it that cheated you at blind-man's-bluff?
Even a person with a fraction of their senses would not sulk and carry on
as you have. O, shameless wretch. Where is your color of innocence? Hellions,
rebels to God, if you can rise up in a old woman's bones, let her virtues
be as wax and melt in the fires of her crimes, and let the young look on
and witness. Don't say its a shame that her romantic and licentious compulsions
have caused the blame, since ice will as soon burn as her reason gratify
and serve her will.
motion - intent, motive, the will to carry out
apoplex'd - disabled
thrall'd - held prisoner
difference - debate, dispute, quarell
cozen'd - cheated
hoodman-blind - the game now called blindman's-buff
mope - A habitually sulky or depressed person
mutine - rise up
panders - gratifies, serves, usually in vicious sense, here not.
[edit] 10248
[edit] 10249
[edit] 10250
[edit] 10251
[edit] 10252
[edit] 10253
[edit] 10254
[edit] 10255
[edit] 10256
[edit] 10257
[edit] 10258
[edit] 10259
[edit] 10260
[edit] 10261
[edit] 10262
[edit] 10263
[edit] 10264
[edit] 10265
[edit] 10266
[edit] 10267
[edit] 10268
As will not leave their tinct. - As will not give up their stain.
tinct - stain
[edit] 10269
[edit] 10270
Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stew'd in corruption,
honeying and making love over the nasty sty,-
Paraphrase: No, I will go on. You have nothing to look forward to but
to spend your nights in the smells and rank odors of an unrighteous bed,
wallowing in a pigsty of corruption, while exchanging your pleasantries
of love overtop of a foul sewer,
[edit] 10271
[edit] 10272
[edit] 10273
[edit] 10274
[edit] 10275
[edit] 10276
[edit] 10277
[edit] 10278
[edit] 10279
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
Paraphrase: (Speaking with regard to Claudius) He is a murderer and a
villain, a slave that is not a fraction of the man that my father was. He
is a villain among the vicious, a thief of empire and a usurper, who from
the kingdom's treasures stole the crown from the shelf upon which it rested,
and hid it in his pocket.
tithe - usually the tenth owed the Church. In this case used to
mean value. Not as twentieth as valuable. Not good for even a
twentieth part of that which your previous husband was good for.
[edit] 10280
[edit] 10281
[edit] 10282
[edit] 10283
[edit] 10284
[edit] 10285
[edit] 10286
[edit] 10287
[edit] 10288
[edit] 10289
[edit] 10290
[edit] 10291
[edit] 10292
[edit] 10293
[edit] 10294
[edit] 10295
Do you not come your tardy son to chide, that, lapsed in time and
passion, lets go by the important acting of your dread command? O, say!
Paraphrase: Please do not say that you have come to chide me for being
slow to follow your command to slay my uncle. Please don't accuse me of
having flagged and failed you through delay and losing heart.
chide - berate
[edit] 10296
[edit] 10297
[edit] 10298
[edit] 10299
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
Paraphrase: Hamlet, do not forget what I told you at first. Now, I have
come, as you say, to urge you to your mission. Look, how your mother sits
amazed and in wonderment. Bring her to her senses with words that will play
upon her conceit, for it is that vice which works best where the weak are
concerned.
Conceit - arrogance, vanity, narcissism, egotism, self-importance,
swagger, smugness, complacency, self-satisfaction
[edit] 10300
[edit] 10301
[edit] 10302
[edit] 10303
[edit] 10304
[edit] 10305
[edit] 10306
[edit] 10307
[edit] 10308
[edit] 10309
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
Paraphrase: I'm so sorry, Hamlet. But how do you feel, such that you
turn your eyes on empty space, and with empty air hold a conversation? Let
me describe you to yourself. Your eyes are starting from their sockets,
and like soldiers rising because of an alarm, your smooth hair stands on
end. My son, be patient, for you are ill. Tell me now, what are you looking
at?
incorporal - empty, untouchable
hold discourse - hold a conversation
Forth - from out of (your eyes)
peep - start, pop
bedded - combed
life in excrements - maggots such as might live in horse manure,
etc.
distemper - illness
[edit] 10310
[edit] 10311
[edit] 10312
[edit] 10313
[edit] 10314
[edit] 10315
[edit] 10316
[edit] 10317
[edit] 10318
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
Paraphrase: Look at him! Look at my father! Can't you see how pallid
he appears? If only his cause and person could put together once again,
he would be heard, even if it was to rocks and dirt he addressed himself.
Don't look at me. I don't want to take the risk that your pitiable aspect
will divert me from my mission, and the grave actions I must soon undertake.
The results must run red, not drip like the teary morning dew.
[edit] 10319
[edit] 10320
[edit] 10321
[edit] 10322
[edit] 10323
[edit] 10324
[edit] 10325
[edit] 10326
[edit] 10327
[edit] 10328
[edit] 10329
[edit] 10330
[edit] 10331
[edit] 10332
[edit] 10333
[edit] 10334
[edit] 10335
[edit] 10336
[edit] 10337
[edit] 10338
[edit] 10339
[edit] 10340
This the very coinage of your brain: this bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in.
Paraphrase: This is a figment of your imagination.
Your delerium is deceiving you into seeing it.
ecstasy - delerium
cunning - tricking, deceiving
[edit] 10341
[edit] 10342
[edit] 10343
[edit] 10344
[edit] 10345
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
Paraphrase: Delerium! I'm as sound as you, and my pulse keeps time as
well as yours. It isn't insanity that drives me on. Take me to your doctors
and clergy, and I will state my case so that insanity will flee the room!
Mother, for the love of God, don't sully your soul with that affected sincerity,
that your crime counts for nought, and my supposed madness is the cause
of all. All that will be accomplished is that the virulent cause of all
will be skinned over, while ruination continues to breed within. Confess
yourself. Repent your crimes. Now is your chance to avoid what must soon
befall us all. Don't manure the weeds so as to make sure they thrive and
spread. If you must revel in feelings of false pity, forgive me for my honesty
and loyalty to my father, for in these days of luxury and ostentation, virtue
must beg pardon from vice. Yes, the virtuous must hold their tongue and
beg for permission to do a favor for the vicious.
temperately - moderately
gambol - run, run sportingly
unction - Affected charm, sincerity or religious feeling. mattering
unction - important affectation of piety
ranker - more luxuriant, thicker
pursy - money-conscious, luxurious, spendthrift, ostentatious
curb - hold, as in to hold one's tongue, restrain
[edit] 10346
[edit] 10347
[edit] 10348
[edit] 10349
[edit] 10350
[edit] 10351
[edit] 10352
[edit] 10353
[edit] 10354
[edit] 10355
[edit] 10356
[edit] 10357
[edit] 10358
[edit] 10359
[edit] 10360
[edit] 10361
[edit] 10362
[edit] 10363
[edit] 10364
[edit] 10365
[edit] 10366
[edit] 10367
[edit] 10368
[edit] 10369
[edit] 10370
[edit] 10371
[edit] 10372
[edit] 10373
[edit] 10374
[edit] 10375
[edit] 10376
a word is missing here - "master" (old favorite), "trounce" - this writer's selection
[edit] 10377
[edit] 10378
[edit] 10379
[edit] 10380
[edit] 10381
[edit] 10382
[edit] 10383
[edit] 10384
[edit] 10385
[edit] 10386
[edit] 10387
[edit] 10388
[edit] 10389
[edit] 10390
[edit] 10391
[edit] 10392
[edit] 10393
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.
Paraphrase: (Hamlet begins sarcastically, by saying: Don't do what I
tell you to do.) Let the fat king woo you between the sheets once more.
Let him pinch you and call you sweet things, and for a couple of pecks on
the cheek or kisses that might make you gag, persuade you to tell him what
transpired here. Tell him that I am not actually insane, but feigning madness
to accomplish my ends. Your story will be credible, and you will appear
to be on his right side, since you have let him know these things, for who
but a fair and upright queen would hide such important facts from such a
base creature as is my uncle? No, whatever your feelings as to the propriety
of divulging, let the caged birds fly, and like the mythological ape that
through its desire to experiment, crept into the bird cage, break your neck
in a consequent fall, as it did.
bloat - fat, bloated
wanton - immoral, without scruples, sinful
reechy - pukey, revolting
paddling - petting, spanking
ravel - recount, show the matter in all its complications
craft - cunning, sharp practice
dear concernings - important facts and circumstances
paddock - toad
gib - castrated male cat
[edit] 10394
[edit] 10395
[edit] 10396
[edit] 10397
[edit] 10398
[edit] 10399
[edit] 10400
[edit] 10401
[edit] 10402
[edit] 10403
[edit] 10404
[edit] 10405
[edit] 10406
[edit] 10407
[edit] 10408
[edit] 10409
Queen Gertrude assures her son that she will do as he says.
[edit] 10410
[edit] 10411
[edit] 10412
[edit] 10413
[edit] 10414
[edit] 10415
[edit] 10416
[edit] 10417
[edit] 10418
[edit] 10419
There's
letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing:
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
Letters of introduction have been drawn up, and my schoolmates, whom
I trust as much as I would place faith in viperous snakes, have been given
the authority to carry me off to Enland, and set me to some wicked ways
or other. Let that be as it may. It will be good sport to see the engineer
lifted by the cannon he intends to raise. And it will go hard for them when
I bore a mine a yard below theirs and blow them sky-high. I shall make my
plans with that much more subtlety than they. It will be a matter of sweet
revenge when our two cunningly laid traps meet. This man (Lord Polonius)
is the one to have set me packing my bags. I'll lug his guts into a neighboring
room. Mother, good night. This counsellor is very quiet, very secret and
serious, he who when living was a foolish, babbling good-for-nothing. (To
Polonius) Come, sir, I must finish with you once and for all. Goodnight,
mother.
adders - poisonous snakes, vipers
mandate - order by the authority of...
marshal - escort, carry along by implied force
knavery - mischief, behaviour such as might be expected of scoundrels
petard - cannon
mines - tunnels built below the walls of castles by attackers
to cause the walls to collapse when the tunnels do, sometimes because the
timbers supporting them have been set afire, or because explosives placed
in them have been detonated.
crafts - strategems, behavior characterized by cunning and
stealth
lug the guts - haul the corpse
prating knave - blithering scoundrel, loquacious rogue
[edit] 10420
[edit] 10421
[edit] 10422
[edit] 10423
[edit] 10424
[edit] 10425
[edit] 10426
[edit] 10427
[edit] 10428
[edit] 10429
[edit] 10430
[edit] 10431
[edit] 10432
[edit] 10433
[edit] 10434
[edit] 10435
[edit] 10436
[edit] 10437
[edit] 10438
[edit] 10439
[edit] 10440
[edit] 10441
[edit] 10442
[edit] 10443
[edit] 10444
[edit] 10445
[edit] 10446
[edit] 10447
[edit] 10448
[edit] 10449
[edit] 10450
[edit] 10451
[edit] 10452
[edit] 10453
[edit] 10454
brainish - hotheaded
[edit] 10455
[edit] 10456
[edit] 10457
[edit] 10458
O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
Paraphrase: What a grave matter this is now before us. He would have
killed me, had I been there. To leave him at liberty, free to roam wherever
he wants now cannot be allowed. He is a threat to you, to me, to everyone.
How can we make amends for the death of Lord Polonius? The task of righting
this terrible wrong will certainly be laid at our door. We, whose prudence
and foresight should have kept Hamlet on a short leash, restrained and out
of trouble, will be blamed. We refused to understand what was best for him
and us, but like one afflicted by a detestable and regrettable disease,
let it go untreated rather than risk the taint and shame that would certainly
attend it being widely known how we suffered. And now we must pay the consequences.
Where has he gone off to?
providence - prudence and foresight
haunt - trouble
divulging - becoming widely known
pith - the very core, essence, center
[edit] 10459
[edit] 10460
[edit] 10461
[edit] 10462
[edit] 10463
[edit] 10464
[edit] 10465
[edit] 10466
[edit] 10467
[edit] 10468
[edit] 10469
[edit] 10470
To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
Paraphrase: To take away the body of the one murdered; over whom his
condition, like some glittering golden ore entwined in a rock of base metal,
shows itself to be as true as it is grave. Ask you why? Even as he drags
away the poor man's corpse, he sheds tears for his deranged acts and its
sorry consequences.
[edit] 10471
[edit] 10472
[edit] 10473
[edit] 10474
[edit] 10475
[edit] 10476
[edit] 10477
O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
Paraphrase: O, Queen, come away with me! This very night we will spirit you son from
these parts, and with all our royal might and skill settle the matter of
Polonius' and both endure the murderer and tolerate his crimes, born, as
they are of his diseased mind.
countenance - tolerate, approve, condone, endure, sanction
[edit] 10478
[edit] 10479
[edit] 10480
[edit] 10481
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
Paraphrase: You two friends, please seek out assistance, for Hamlet in
his insane delerium has slain Lord Polonius. He dragged the poor man's corpse
from his mother's bedroom. Find out where he has gone with it, retrieve
the body, and carry it to the chapel. Please, act in haste!
[edit] 10482
[edit] 10483
[edit] 10484
[edit] 10485
[edit] 10486
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done. O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
Paraphrase: Come, Gertrude, we'll summon our best counsel, and tell them
what has happened. We'll tell them our intentions, and what has so unfortunately
transpired. Come away from this place. My spirit sags, and my soul seems
to shrink with unhappiness and disharmony.
[edit] 10487
[edit] 10488
[edit] 10489
[edit] 10490
[edit] 10491
[edit] 10492
[edit] 10493
[edit] 10494
[edit] 10495
[edit] 10496
[edit] 10497
[edit] 10498
[edit] 10499
[edit] 10500
[edit] Credits
Definitons courtesy of AOL Dictionary Mirriam-WebsterDictionary.comAllwords.comMorewords.comBrewer'sBartleby's
