Hamlet - Final Study

To be or not to be—that is the question

Hamlet

Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?

Hamlet to Ophelia

I have heard of your paintings well enough. God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another.
(III.i.)

Hamlet to Ophelia

the purpose of playing whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to Nature
(III.ii.)

Hamlet

Do you think I meant country matters?
(III.ii.)

Hamlet to Ophelia

The lady doth protest too much, methinks
(III.ii.)

Gertrude in response to Hamlet regarding the play

You would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery

Hamlet, to rosencratz and guildenstern

O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven
(III.iii.)

Claudius

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days
(III.iii.)

Hamlet, when he went to kill claudius while he was praying

Words without thoughts never to heaven go
(III.iii.)

In claudius sililoquy where he fears his prayer doens’t have meaning

You go not til I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you
(III.iv.)

Spoken by Hamlet to his mother

How now! A rat! Dead for a ducat, dead!
(III.iv.)

Spoken by Hamlet, when he heard the russling of Polonius, then kills him

Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul
And there I see such black and grieved spots
(III.iv.)

Gertrude, when hamlet is talking to her and she begins to feel the guilt

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty
(III.iv.)

Hamlet to his mother, disgusted by her marrying Claudius

Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier
(IV.i.)

Gertrude to Hamlet after he confronted her

A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear
(IV.ii.)

Hamlet says "A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear." He says this to Rosencrantz after Rosencrantz claims not to understand Hamlet's words, implying that Rosencrantz is too foolish to comprehend the deceitfulness of Hamlet's speech. 

The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body
(IV.ii.)

Hamlet, refusing to give the two men a straightforward answer

Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to feed us, and we fat ourselves for maggots.
(IV.iii.)

Hamlet to Claudius

if indeed you find him not within this month you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.
(VI.iii.)

Hamlet

Sure he that made us with such large discourse
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
(IV.iv.).

Hamlet

Goodnight, ladies, goodnight. Sweet ladies, goodnight, goodnight.
(IV.v.)

Ophelia

Her brother[…]
wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father’s death
(IV.v.)

This line is part of Claudius's speech to Gertrude, where he expresses his fear and anxiety about Laertes's return and the potential for him to be swayed by rumors regarding Polonius's death. 

Claudius is essentially saying that Laertes, upon his secret return from France, is surrounded by people who are eager to spread malicious gossip about Polonius's death, effectively poisoning his mind against Claudius. He fears that Laertes will be easily manipulated by these "buzzers" and their "pestilent speeches," leading him to believe that Claudius is responsible for Polonius's death. Claudius is concerned that these rumors could lead to Laertes seeking revenge against him. 

This nothing’s more than matter
(IV.v.)

Laertes. He says it in response to Ophelia's mad song and actions in Act IV, scene v.

The Queen his mother
Lives almost by his looks
(IV.vii.)

King Claudius. He says this to Laertes while explaining why he hasn't punished Hamlet for Polonius's death. Claudius is trying to manipulate Laertes by highlighting the Queen's affection for Hamlet, suggesting that punishing Hamlet would be difficult due to her influence. 

I know love is begun by time
And that I see in passages of proof
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
(IV.vii.)

King Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene VII. He says this to Laertes, explaining his belief that love is a gradual process influenced by time. 

Her clothes spread wide
And mermaid-like they awhile they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds
As one incapable of her own distress
(IV.vii.173-6)

Queen Gertrude describes Ophelia's drowning. The quote "Her clothes spread wide / And mermaid-like they awhile they bore her up, / Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds / As one incapable of her own distress" is spoken by Gertrude as she recounts how Ophelia's clothing kept her afloat for a brief time, during which she sang what Gertrude calls "old lauds". 

your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
(V.i.)

a gravedigger (also referred to as a sexton). He says it during a conversation with Hamlet about the process of decay in the earth. The gravedigger is explaining that even though a tanned hide might resist water for a while, ultimately, water will break down a body. 

Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
(V.i.)

Hamlet

I loved Ophelia—forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
(V.i.)

Hamlet

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
(V.ii.)

specifically spoken by the character Hamlet in Act V, Scene II. It's a reflection on fate and free will, suggesting that while humans may plan and act, there's a higher power that ultimately guides the outcome.

He’s fat and scant of breath. (V.ii.)

He's fat, and scant of breath." This line is spoken as she watches Hamlet and Laertes fencing, and it highlights Hamlet's physical condition as he struggles in the fight

The rest is silence.
(V.ii.)

hamlet; These are his last words before he dies.