Hamlet Act 2

Quotes from Act 2

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;

2.1.63 Polonius to Reynaldo on stalking Laertes

O! my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!

2.1.75 Ophelia to Polonius after Hamlet freaks her out

Ungarter'd, .. Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other

2.1.80 Ophelia on Hamlet’s dishevelled, unguarded appearance

Mad for thy love?

2.1.85 Polonius questioning why Hamlet is mad

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk / And end his being.

2.1.95 Ophelia distraught over Hamlet, but Polonius ignores to comfort her 

might move / More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

2.1.120 Polonius saying that hiding Hamlet’s love would cause more trouble than hatred caused by revealing it

The need we have to use you did provoke / Our hasty sending.

2.2.3 Claudius taking action on Hamlet, sending for childhood friends reveals the distant relationship

I doubt it is no other but the main; / His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.

2.2.56 Gertrude underlying guilt suggested, but quickly dismissed by Claudius as the play moves on

More matter, with less art

2.2.95 Queen says get on with it, but Polonius is secretly pleased by mention of ‘art’

she is mine; / Who, in her duty and obedience, mark, / Hath given me this:

2.2.106 Polonius flexing he has authority as a man while talking ab Hamlet’s love letter

Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, / Thence to a watch, thence to a weakness

2.2.147 Polonius explaining how love is the reason Hamlet is mad

It may be, very like

2.2.152 Gertrude agreeing to dismiss her own potential faults and behaviour

At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him;

2.2.162 Polonius once again establishing possession over Ophelia

you are a fishmonger

2.2.174 Hamlet not in iambic pentameter, a sign of disrespect and madness, making fun of him with references P doesn’t understand

You cannot, sir, take from me anything that / I will more willingly part withal; except my life

2.2.217 Hamlet repeating this, very willing to part with Polonius, and much more his own life

O! most true; / she is a strumpet

2.2.287 Hamlet calls fortune a whore

to me it is a prison

2.2.252 Hamlet abt Denmark, Rosen suggests it’s Hamlet’s ambition that imprisons him, being “too narrow for [his] mind'“ 2.2.256

I could be bounded in a nutshell, / and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams

2.2.257 Hamlet’s psyche as of now, constant state of worry, anxiety regarding Claudius

it appears no other thing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours

2.2.306 Hamlet sees everything as such, then Rosen suggests if he does not like reality, then “entertainment the players shall / receive from [him]”

God's bodikins .. Use them after your own honour and dignity

2.2.531 Hamlet in response to Polonius treating players below him, shows Hamlet’s virtue

What would he do / Had he the motive and the cue for passion / That I have

2.2.563 Hamlet about not taking action at Claudius, Latin verb ‘passio”, to suffer, he endlessly examines his own actions

Like a John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause

2.2.562 soliloquy Hamlet condemning his own person for being a dreamer not a do-er, calls himself a ‘coward’ and ‘rascal’

I’ll observe his looks …. The spirit I have seen / May be the devil

2.2.601-604 Hamlet revealing his plan to audience, wanting proof before taking action, being wary of supernatural