Page (4 of 4) Quotes:
1 2 3 4
How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Scene.Line) according to the Norton edition
| Quote #10 HAMLET
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
the top of my compass: and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
cannot play upon me.
(3.2.56) |
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to get Hamlet to confide in them (so they can report back to the king), Hamlet is furious. Here, he makes an analogy between deception and playing a musical instrument to demonstrate why his friends can't "play" him – they're simply not skilled enough. This, as we know, is what gets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed.
| Quote #11 HAMLET
An earnest conjuration from the king,
As England was his faithful tributary,
As love between them like the palm might flourish,
As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.
HORATIO
How was this seal'd?
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 form of the other,
Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
The changeling never known. Now, the next day
Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.
HORATIO
So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
HAMLET
Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow.
(5.2.6) |
Hamlet gleefully describes to Horatio how he got revenge on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by sending them to their deaths. He says this is fair repayment for the way they treated him and the deceit they practiced. Horatio, by the way, is Hamlet's only loyal friend. He's also the only main character to survive the bloodbath at the end of the play.
| Quote #12 LAERTES
I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
(5.2.12) |
It is poison that ultimately brings down Laertes, Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet, both Laertes and Claudius die as a result of the poison they prepared for the Prince. The literally poisonous deception they practiced turns against them, and Laertes admits that they are fairly punished by their own dirty scheme.
