Tuesday 20 September

Reminder: Second Hamlet vocabulary quiz Friday.

Parker's notes on Hamlet, so farAct I.i.

For two nights Bernardo and Marcellus have watched guard on the ramparts, for it is feared that Fortinbras the Younger, whose father had been killed in battle and also lost some land to the Danes, will seek to recapture this lost acreage. Whilst on guard they have seen a ghost that seems in the visage much like the old King Hamlet, whose demise was but three months ago.These two have informed Horatio, Hamlet's buddy and a member of a higher social class; hence what he says carries more weight. That there has been a ghost "bodes some strange eruption to our state" (I.i.80), notes Horatio. As well, when the world has been out of kilter, such as when "the mightiest Julius fell / The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead / Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; / As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,/ Disaster of the sun"(I.i.125-30), both entertains and entices the audience. In short, Shakespeare is establishing a connection between Hamlet's father's death and other great historical events. In addition, he establishes a tie between the events of mankind and nature.The ghost comes in, but disappears when the cock crows, or when "the morn in russet mantle clad / Walks o'er the dew of youn high eastern hill" (I.i.180-1).

Act I.ii. King Claudius has announced his marriage to "our sometime sister, now our queen, / Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state"(I.ii.8-9). So much for his "valiant brother;" on to the business of state.We have met Laertes, the son of King Claudius' councillor Polonius. This ertwhile friend of Hamlet's has asked the king for permission to head back the school. It is given. King Claudius then importunes Hamlet to no more "persever / In obstinate condolement" (I.ii.96-7), for "'Tis unmanly grief / ...shows a will most incorrect to heaven"(I.ii.99-100). In other words, Hamlet needs to man up and accept his father's dying a natural process and that even God would be offended by his "impatient mind." Besides, now King Claudius is his father.Note Hamlet's solioquy I.ii.(134-164) He contemplates suicide here and notes "fraility thy name is woman." It seems he has a problem with his mum- and maybe that explains his actions towards Ophelia, Polonius's daughter, Laertes' sister. Hamlet and Horatio catch up. Hamlet isn't stupid; he knows that Horatio came for both the funeral and the wedding: "The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (I.ii.187-88). Also note that Hamlet accepts his father's faults: "He was a man. Take him for all in all" (I.ii.195); still he acknowledges his father was special: "I shall not look upon his like again" (I.ii.196). So Horatio and Hamlet agree to meet upon the ramparts to talk to the ghost. Hamlet is concerned that his father's spirit is "in arms." Nothing can stop the truth from being revealed: "Foul deeds will rise,/ Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's / eyes (I.ii.279-81).

The following are the questions you are responsible for from having finished ActI.ii. For anyone who checks the blog, this is Tuesday's quiz!

1. To what is the following line a reference?
"With mirth in funeral and dirge in marriage."

2. What is the pun in the following said by Hamlet
when asked by Claudius, "How is it that the clouds hang upon [him]?
"Not so my lord, I am too much in the sun."

3. What are Claudius' arguments against Hamlet's
being so morose? (I.ii.90-120)

4. What is Hamlet bemoaning from his soliloquy* in lines 133-135 from Act I, scene ii?
soliloquy * an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present (often used as a device in drama to disclose a character's innermost thoughts)

5. Describe the tone of these words of Hamlet's:
Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables (I.ii.187-8).

6. What does Hamlet mean when he says to Horatio
of his father, He was a man, Take him for all in all /
I shall not look upon his like again (I.ii.195-196).

7. Hamlet will meet Horatio "'eleven and twelve" ; then notes
"All is not well...Foul deeds will rise, / Though all the earth o'erwhelm
them, to men's eyes" (I.ii.277-80). Paraphrase the above.