Hamlet Soliloquies PDF

SEVEN SOLILOQUIES—THE HEART OF HAMLET father’s death, is left alone to vent his despair over what he Lynne Kelsey, MA for OLLI UNT regards as his mother’s all too hasty marriage to his uncle. Synopsis and text f...

SEVEN SOLILOQUIES—THE HEART OF HAMLET father’s death, is left alone to vent his despair over what he Lynne Kelsey, MA for OLLI UNT regards as his mother’s all too hasty marriage to his uncle. Synopsis and text from the Folger Shakespeare Library O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, Events before the start of Hamlet set the stage for tragedy. When the Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, king of Denmark, Prince Hamlet’s father, suddenly dies, Hamlet’s Or that the Everlasting had not fixed mother, Gertrude, marries his uncle Claudius, who becomes the new His canon ’gainst ⟨self-slaughter!⟩ O God, God, king. How ⟨weary,⟩ stale, flat, and unprofitable A spirit who claims to be the ghost of Hamlet’s father describes his Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on ’t, ah fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden murder at the hands of Claudius and demands that Hamlet avenge the killing. When the councilor Polonius learns from his daughter, That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature Ophelia, that Hamlet has visited her in an apparently distracted state, Possess it merely. That it should come ⟨to this:⟩ Polonius attributes the prince’s condition to lovesickness, and he sets But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two. a trap for Hamlet using Ophelia as bait. So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother To confirm Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet arranges for a play that mimics That he might not beteem the winds of heaven the murder; Claudius’s reaction is that of a guilty man. Hamlet, now Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and Earth, free to act, mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking he is Claudius. Must I remember? Why, she ⟨would⟩ hang on him Claudius sends Hamlet away as part of a deadly plot. As if increase of appetite had grown After Polonius’s death, Ophelia goes mad and later drowns. Hamlet, By what it fed on. And yet, within a month who has returned safely to confront the king, agrees to a fencing (Let me not think on ’t; frailty, thy name is woman!), match with Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, who secretly poisons his own A little month, or ere those shoes were old rapier. At the match, Claudius prepares poisoned wine for Hamlet, With which she followed my poor father’s body, which Gertrude unknowingly drinks; as she dies, she accuses Like Niobe, all tears—why she, ⟨even she⟩ Claudius, whom Hamlet kills. Laertes and then Hamlet die, both (O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason victims of Laertes’ rapier. Would have mourned longer!), married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father There are three existing versions of Hamlet. The “First Quarto” is Than I to Hercules. Within a month, largely discounted as being an incomplete version, perhaps written Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears out by a player. The “Second Quarto” and “First Folio” are complete, Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes, but there are words in one that do not appear in the other. The editors She married. O, most wicked speed, to post of the Folger Edition indicate words found only in the Folio version With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! by pointed parentheses and those only found in the Second Quarto by It is not, nor it cannot come to good. squared brackets. But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. 1) ACT I, SCENE 2: In an audience chamber at the castle of 2) ACT I, SCENE 5: Hamlet has encountered what appears to be Elsinore, Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the new king of the Ghost of his late father, the former king. The Ghost tells Denmark, holds court. Claudius denies Hamlet’s request to Hamlet how Claudius murdered him and demands that Hamlet return to the university at Wittenberg. Hamlet, mourning his avenge him. After the Ghost exits, Hamlet reacts to this knowledge. O all you host of heaven! O Earth! What else? A broken voice, and his whole function suiting And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold, my heart, With forms to his conceit—and all for nothing! And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, For Hecuba! But bear me ⟨stiffly⟩ up. Remember thee? What’s Hecuba to him, or he to ⟨Hecuba,⟩ Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat That he should weep for her? What would he do In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Had he the motive and ⟨the cue⟩ for passion Yea, from the table of my memory That I have? He would drown the stage with tears I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, Make mad the guilty and appall the free, That youth and observation copied there, Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed And thy commandment all alone shall live The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, Within the book and volume of my brain, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, O most pernicious woman! And can say nothing—no, not for a king O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain! Upon whose property and most dear life My tables—meet it is I set it down A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? That one may smile and smile and be a villain. Who calls me “villain”? breaks my pate across? At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? ⌜He writes.⌝ Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i’ th’ throat So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? It is “adieu, adieu, remember me.” Ha! ’Swounds, I should take it! For it cannot be I have sworn ’t. But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should ⟨have⟩ fatted all the region kites 3) ACT II, SCENE 2: Hamlet feigns madness to disguise his With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! intentions of seeking revenge, confounding members of the Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! court. A company of players known to Hamlet enter, and he ⟨O vengeance!⟩ convinces the lead player to deliver a speech about the death of a Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, king from Greek legends. When he is alone, Hamlet recognizes That I, the son of a dear ⌜father⌝ murdered, to his shame that he has shown less intensity in avenging his Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, father’s death than the actor has done in performance. He Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words decides to stage a play that mirrors the events told to him by the And fall a-cursing like a very drab, Ghost to determine whether Claudius is responsible for the A stallion! Fie upon ’t! Foh! former king’s death. About, my brains!—Hum, I have heard O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! That guilty creatures sitting at a play Is it not monstrous that this player here, Have, by the very cunning of the scene, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Been struck so to the soul that presently Could force his soul so to his own conceit They have proclaimed their malefactions; That from her working all ⟨his⟩ visage wanned, For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks; And thus the native hue of resolution I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench, Is ⟨sicklied⟩ o’er with the pale cast of thought, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen And enterprises of great pitch and moment May be a ⟨devil,⟩ and the ⟨devil⟩ hath power With this regard their currents turn awry T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, And lose the name of action. Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds 5) ACT III, SCENE 2: Hamlet is exuberant that the play More relative than this. The play’s the thing portraying the king’s murder has had the desired effect on Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King. Claudius. His mother has called him to her sitting room, and he promises himself he will only harm her with words. 4) ACT III, SCENE 1: Hamlet muses on the value of life. ’Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself ⟨breathes⟩ out To be or not to be—that is the question: Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer And do such ⟨bitter⟩ business as the day The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother. Or to take arms against a sea of troubles O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom. No more—and by a sleep to say we end Let me be cruel, not unnatural. The heartache and the thousand natural shocks I will speak ⟨daggers⟩ to her, but use none. That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites: Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep— How in my words somever she be shent, To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, To give them seals never, my soul, consent. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There’s the respect 6) ACT III, SCENE 3: Claudius, in a soliloquy of his own, That makes calamity of so long life. expresses remorse for killing his brother and kneels to pray for For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, forgiveness. Hamlet encounters him in this vulnerable state but Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, ultimately decides to kill him later, when he is committing a sin. The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns Now might I do it ⟨pat,⟩ now he is a-praying, That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes, And now I’ll do ’t. ⌜He draws his sword.⌝ When he himself might his quietus make And so he goes to heaven, With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, And so am I ⟨revenged.⟩ That would be scanned: To grunt and sweat under a weary life, A villain kills my father, and for that, But that the dread of something after death, I, his sole son, do this same villain send The undiscovered country from whose bourn To heaven. No traveler returns, puzzles the will Why, this is ⟨hire⟩ and ⟨salary,⟩ not revenge. And makes us rather bear those ills we have He took my father grossly, full of bread, Than fly to others that we know not of? With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; Thus conscience does make cowards ⟨of us all,⟩ And how his audit stands who knows save heaven. But in our circumstance and course of thought Makes mouths at the invisible event, ’Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged Exposing what is mortal and unsure To take him in the purging of his soul, To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great No. Is not to stir without great argument, Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. But greatly to find quarrel in a straw ⌜He sheathes his sword.⌝ When honor’s at the stake. How stand I, then, When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, That have a father killed, a mother stained, Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed, Excitements of my reason and my blood, At game, a-swearing, or about some act And let all sleep, while to my shame I see That has no relish of salvation in ’t— The imminent death of twenty thousand men Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, That for a fantasy and trick of fame And that his soul may be as damned and black Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays. Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain? O, from this time forth My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth! 7) ACT IV, SCENE 4: As he is escorted to his conveyance to England, Hamlet comes across soldiers of Fortinbras of Norway’s army, who have been given permission to march BONUS - ACT V, SCENE 2: Hamlet comes to terms with his fate, across Denmark to invade Poland. He sees in them a model for understanding that the fencing match to which he has been invited is himself in avenging his father’s murder and resolves upon no doubt a trap. bloody action. HORATIO How all occasions do inform against me If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will And spur my dull revenge. What is a man forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit. If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. HAMLET Sure He that made us with such large discourse, Not a whit. We defy augury. There is ⟨a⟩ Looking before and after, gave us not special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be That capability and godlike reason ⟨now,⟩ ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be To fust in us unused. Now whether it be now; if it be not now, yet it ⟨will⟩ come. The Bestial oblivion or some craven scruple readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves Of thinking too precisely on th’ event knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be. (A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward), I do not know Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,” Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means To do ’t. Examples gross as Earth exhort me: Witness this army of such mass and charge, Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed