OSRIC   You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is. HAMLET         I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself. OSRIC  I mean, sir, for his weapon. But in the imputation laid on him by them in his meed he’s […]

HAMLET         The concernancy, sir – why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? OSRIC  Sir? HORATIO        Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do’t, sir, really. HAMLET         What imports the nomination of this gentleman? OSRIC  Of Laertes. HORATIO        His purse is empty already – all’s golden words are spent. HAMLET         […]

HAMLET         Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dazzle th’arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail; but in the verity of extolment I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion of such dearth and […]

OSRIC  Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes – believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing. Indeed, to speak sellingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would […]

HAMLET         Your bonnet to his right use: ’tis for the head. OSRIC  I thank your lordship, it is very hot. HAMLET         No, believe me, ’tis very cold; the wind is northerly. OSRIC  It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. HAMLET         But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot, or my complexion – OSRIC  Exceedingly, […]

HAMLET         [aside] Thy state is the more gracious, for ’tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be lord of beasts and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess. ’Tis a chough but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt. OSRIC Sweet lord, if your […]

HAMLET         But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself, For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his. I’ll count his favours; But sure the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. HORATIO        Peace, who comes here? Enter OSRIC, a courtier. OSRIC Your lordship is right welcome back to […]

HAMLET         Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon? He that hath killed my King and whored my mother, Popped in between th’election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life And with such cozenage. Is’t not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil? HORATIO        It must be shortly known to […]

HORATIO        So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t. HAMLET         They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow. ’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites. HORATIO                    Why, what a king is this!       (5.2.56-61) Horatio’s oddly euphemistic, even evasive, at least to modern ears: so Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t. That is, you […]

HORATIO        How was this sealed? HAMLET         Why even in that was heaven ordinant: I had my father’s signet in my purse – Which was the model of that Danish seal – Folded the writ up in the form of th’other, Subscribed it, gave’t th’impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known. Now the next day Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent Thou knowest already.          (5.2.47-55) How was this sealed? Horatio’s asking the question […]