ACT II

POLONIUS (Sc 1) See you now Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth; And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out.
QUEEN GERTRUDE More matter, with less art. POLONIUS Madam, I swear I use no art at all. That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure; But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect, Or rather say, the cause of this defect, For this effect defective comes by cause: Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter? POLONIUS I have, my lord. HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but, as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't. POLONIUS (Sc. 2, Ln. 222) Though this be madness, yet there is method int. HAMLET (Sc. 2, Ln. 268-271) Why, then, tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison. HAMLET (Sc. 2, Ln. 273-275) Polonius showing how his mind works. He says lying and scheming are the best ways to uncover the truth. (Compare this wiith to thine ownself be true. . .

Gertrude asking Polonius to get to the point Polonius rambling on about the madness of Hamlet

Hamlet talking to Polonius, pretending madness these lines connects the incongruous topics of dead flesh and pregnancy.

. Poloniuss comment on Hamlet hes mad yet his words seem intelligent

These two passages Hamlet is talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In both passages he says that your perception is your reality a man is free if he thinks hes free.

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams

HAMLET (Sc. 2, Ln. 318-332) I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, foregone 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 oerhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden firewhy it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. 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 animalsand yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? HAMLET (Sc. 2, Ln. 577- 585) O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! 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 wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceitand all for nothing! For Hecuba HAMLET (Sc. 2, Ln. 627-634) The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power T 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. Ill have grounds More relative than this. The plays the thing Wherein Ill catch the conscience of the King.

In this passage Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that hes depressed and disillusioned. The world seems worthless to him. Man is just dust despite the beauty and potential of human nature. MIRTH: joy; laughter PROMONTORY: an outcropping of land such as a peninsula. Here used to suggest that earth is just an insignificant little piece of land. FIRMAMENT: the dome of heaven; sky PARAGON: the highest or best in a category; i.e man is the highest of the animals.

ROGUE: a villain; disreputable character; in Shakespeares language, KNAVE is a synonym, also SLAVE. In our time rogue is a milder term usually for someone who is a rule breaker but not evil. WAN OR WANNED: pale, as in a face that has gone white. Can also mean wasted away such as someone is ill or malnourished. Hamlets second soliloquy. In the first part he expresses shame that he cant seem to generate as much emotion over his fathers death at the player generates about a fictional story. Here Hamlet worries that the devil might have used the ghost to fool him. He will put on the play of his fathers death in order to test the guilt of Claudius. ADDITIONAL VOCAB NOT SHOWN HERE VOUCHSAFE: to grant or give; to bestow vouchsafe your rest here in our court --give us the pleasure of your company for a while