Analyze the 2.2 soliloquy over vacation. (Due Monday, April 23.)
Here are the questions:
1.
In lines 556-576 Hamlet thinks/talks about the player
(actor). In your own words, what does he say about the actor? How does Hamlet
contrast the actor with himself?
2.
What do the questions that Hamlet asks in lines 576-580
mean? How might you answer the questions?
3.
Write down a quotation from lines 581-594 that
tells what Hamlet thinks he should do. Then, explain.
4.
Write down a quotation from lines 581-594 that
tells what Hamlet thinks about himself and his inaction. Then, explain.
5.
Write down a quotation from lines 581-594 that
tells what Hamlet thinks about Claudius. Then, explain.
6.
In lines 595-610 Hamlet explains an idea he has to
“catch the conscience of the king”. In a few sentences explain Hamlet’s
idea in your own words.
Here's the soliloquy:
Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! (555)
Is it not monstrous that this
player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, (560)
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do, (565)
Had he the motive and the cue for
passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty
and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze
indeed (570)
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled
rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life (575)
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate
across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? (580)
Ha!
'Swounds, I should
take it: for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-liver'd
and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region
kites (585)
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, (590)
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!
Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard (595)
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their
malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak (600)
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;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen (605)
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds (610)
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Here are the notes:
rogue ] Useless vagrant.
peasant ] A person of little integrity (see The Taming of the Shrew 4.1.113).
player...Hecuba ] This passage is often very difficult for
students, and standard annotations leave them wanting. So it is best
paraphrased:
Is it not horribly unfair that
this actor, pretending to feel great passion, could, based on what he has
conceived in his own mind, force his own soul to believe the part that he is
playing, so much so that all the powers of his body adapt themselves to suit
his acting needs, so that he grows agitated ("distraction in's
aspect"), weeps, and turns pale ("wann'd")? And why does he
carry on so? Why does he pretend until he truly makes himself weep? For Hecuba! But why? What
are they to each other?
Hamlet wishes he could arouse his passions so.
Hecuba ] Trojan queen and heroine of classical mythology.
Earlier in 2.2 Hamlet asks the First Player to recite a monologue retelling
Hecuba's response to the death of her husband, King Priam. The Player tells us
that Hecuba's grief was profound and "Would have made milch the burning
eyes of heaven/And passion in the gods" (505-6). The contrast between
Gertrude and Hecuba should be noted. To Hamlet, Hecuba has responded
appropriately to her husband's death, while Gertrude has not.
cue for passion ] The reason for strong feelings.
Make mad the guilty ] "By his description of the crime he
would drive those spectators mad who had any such sin on their conscience, and
would horrify even the innocent" (Kittredge 68),
amaze ] Plunge into confusion.
muddy-mettled ] Dull-spirited.
peak ] Moping about; languishing, unable to act.
John-a-dreams ] A nickname for a dreamer.
unpregnant ] "Pregnant" here does not mean "with
child", but rather, quick or ready. Thus to be "unpregnant" is
to be unable to act quickly.
pate ] Head.
swounds ] God's wounds.
pigeon-liver'd ] In the Renaissance, the gentle disposition of
the Dove was explained by the argument that it had no gall and thus no capacity
to feel resentment or to seek revenge. The liver also was seen as the body's
storehouse for courage.
region kites ] The birds of prey in the region, circling in the
sky, waiting to feed. If Hamlet were not "pigeon-liver'd" (583) he
would have long ago fed Claudius to the hawks.
kindless ] Unnatural.
drab ] A whore.
scullion ] A kitchen helper, either man or woman but usually a
woman. It was a term used to show contempt. One should note that in the second
quarto, scullion was actually "stallyon", which means a male whore.
Scholars are still undecided on the matter, but scullion is the more generally
accepted of the two.
proclaim'd their malefactions ] Announced their evil deeds.
blench ] Flinch.
Here are filmed performances of the soliloquy:
Click here to watch Branagh, Gibson, Hawke, and other perform the soliloquy.
(Scroll down a bit to see the videos.)
Here is the whole text of Hamlet with notes:
Click here for the Hamlet eText. (Look to the left margin for the acts. Click on the one you want.)
