Faculty of English

ROSENCRANTZ          My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King. HAMLET         The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing. GUILDENSTERN        A thing, my lord? HAMLET         Of nothing. Bring me to him.             (Exeunt.)         (4.2.23-28) Rosencrantz tries […]

HAMLET         Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! What replication should be made by the son of a king? ROSENCRANTZ          Take you me for a sponge, my lord? HAMLET         Ay, sir – that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the end: he keeps […]

Enter Hamlet. HAMLET         Safely stowed! But soft, what noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come! [Enter Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and others] ROSENCRANTZ          What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? HAMLET         Compound it with dust, whereto ’tis kin. ROSENCRANTZ          Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence and bear it […]

CLAUDIUS      Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends And let them know both what we mean to do And what’s untimely done. [            ] Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank, Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name And hit the woundless air. O come away, My soul is full of discord and dismay. (Exeunt.)     (4.1.38-45) Claudius […]

CLAUDIUS      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! Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain And from his […]

CLAUDIUS      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? GERTRUDE     To draw apart the body he hath killed, O’er whom – his very madness like some ore Among a mineral of metals base Shows itself pure […]

CLAUDIUS                  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 everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered? It will be laid to us whose providence Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt This mad young man.            (4.1.12-19) O heavy deed! That’s a disaster! But Claudius […]

Enter CLAUDIUS with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. CLAUDIUS      There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves. You must translate; ’tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? GERTRUDE     Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen tonight! CLAUDIUS      What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? GERTRUDE     Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, […]

HAMLET                                 Let it work. For ’tis the sport to have the enginer 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, goodnight indeed. This […]

GERTRUDE    Be thou assured, if words be made of breath And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. HAMLET         I must to England – you know that. GERTRUDE    Alack, I had forgot; ’tis so concluded on. HAMLET         There’s letters sealed and my two schoolfellows – Whom I will […]