Faculty of English

CW: suicidal ideation HAMLET         Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.            (3.1.82-87) Thus conscience does make cowards of us all: so that’s that. We’re paralysed by our fears and by our scruples, lacking […]

CW: suicidal ideation HAMLET         Who would fardels bear To grunt and sweat under a weary life But that the dread of something after death (The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns) puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of.      (3.1.75-81) Who would fardels bear—carry a burden, a […]

CW: suicidal ideation HAMLET         For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of th’unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin.   (3.1.69-75) A catalogue of slights, wounds, scars, and deep aches: for who would bear the […]

CW suicidal ideation HAMLET                     … to die: to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, 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 That makes calamity of so long life.             (3.1.63-68) To die: to sleep—the yearning, so, […]

Enter HAMLET. HAMLET         To be, or not to be – that is the question; Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them; to die: to sleep – No more, and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh […]

CLAUDIUS                              O, ’tis too true. [aside] How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! The harlot’s cheek beautied with plastering art Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden! POLONIUS      I hear him coming – withdraw, my lord. [King and Polonius hide behind an arras]    (3.1.48-54) O, ’tis too […]

POLONIUS      Ophelia, walk you here. (Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves.) Read on this book That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We are oft too blame in this – ’Tis too much proved that with devotion’s visage And pious action we do sugar o’er The devil himself.      (3.1.42-48) Ophelia, walk you here: it’s notable that Polonius doesn’t wait for her to […]

GERTRUDE                I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again To both your honours. OPHELIA                    Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Gertrude.]        (3.1.36-41) I shall obey you: there can be a considering pause before she says this, even […]

CLAUDIUS      Sweet Gertrude, leave us two. For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither That he, as ’twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself – We’ll so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge And gather by him as he is behaved If’t be th’affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.        (3.1.28-36) Claudius […]

POLONIUS                  ’Tis most true, And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter. CLAUDIUS      With all my heart, and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge And drive his purpose into these delights. ROSENCRANTZ          We shall, my lord. Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN [and Lords].             (3.1.21-28) Polonius isn’t going to […]