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The Ultimate Concise Hamlet Quote Bank!!

John_w_b

right who has got one please haha

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Reply 1

MissD'Arcy

Wish I had one for last fridays exam...I didnt do very well. At all :frown:

Reply 2

The_pink_burglar

"A second time I kill my husband dead / When second husband kisses me in bed"

Reply 3

:):)

to be or not to be!
the baked funeral meats did coldyl furnish forth the marriage tables
here some the morn in russtle matle clad
seems madmam?
theres something rottne in the state of denmark
as kill a king
i am slain
neither a borrower nor a lender be

some are paraphrased sorry

Reply 4

JocastaJackal

Gonna draft from the other thread and add some more:

Hamlet:

'Get thee to a nunnery' [in outburst to Ophelia]
'Be chaste as ice, as pure as snow' [see above]
'I do not set my life at a pin's fee' [When he is persuing the ghost who is beckoning him away - shows that he doesn't put little value on his life]
'Or had the Everlasting not set his canon 'gainst self-slaughter' (need to look that one up again) [Hamlet here is thinking about suicide and how he can't do it as it's forbidden by God]
'I know a hawk from a handsaw' [telling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is not really mad]
'Did you think I meant country matters?' [Basically 'did you think I meant sex?' when he's tormenting Ophelia during the play]
'They are far from my conscience' [Concerning sending R&G to their deaths, when talking to Horatio]
'My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth' [End of another one of his soliloquys when he recognises his procrastination]
'Like Hyperion to a Satyr' [Comparing the old king Hamlet to Claudius (like a god to a monster)]
'The funeral did bake meats which coldly furnished forth the marriage tables' [Criticising how hasty the marriage was]
'There are more things in this world than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio' [Talking about the ghost to Horatio]
'I loved Ophelia.' [When Laertes arrives and challenges Hamlet, after Ophelia dies]
'Whilst memory holds a seat in this distracted globe' [Hamlet in the Hamlet/Ghost scene]

Horatio:

'A spirit of health, or a goblin damned' [shows Horatio's confusion over what the ghost is exactly]
'I did very well note him.' [His diplomatic response in contrast to Hamlet's emotionally charged one in response to Claudius' reaction to the play]

Ophelia:
'Tis in my memory locked, and you shall hold the key' [shows loyalty to her brother Laertes, except she breaks the promise a moment later]
'I think nothing my lord' [her response to Hamlet taunting her, this also shows her weakness at lack of self defense]
'He hath my lord of late made many tenders of his affection to me' [speaking of Hamlet's affection to Polonius]
'You promised me to wed before you tumbled me' [Part of one of her songs when she goes mad, this could suggest that she was 'tumbled' by Hamlet (had sex with) and that she isn't pure after all]
'And with a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell' [Ophelia here is reporting Hamlet's mad behaviour to her father]
'No my good lord; but as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me' [Shows weakness, she is following Polonius' 'commands']
'O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!' [despair for Hamlet in the nunnery scene, shows the seeds for her madness potentially being planted at an early stage]

I'll post more in a bit

Edit: I added little notes for each quote now to make them a little clearer. :biggrin:

Reply 5

supalorlor

Unlike in Unit 6, I think these quotes need some qualification.

To add to the previous Ophelia ones:

"recks not his own rede" [to Laertes - shows she can think for self - ie, not weak!]
"my lord he hath importuned me with love in most honourable fashion" [shows she believes Hamlet loves her]
"i shall obey my lord" [immediate obeyal of Pol. suggests weak]
"have been so affrighted" [about Hamlet's actions - confirms for aud. his "antic disposition" is working]
"at home, my lord" [she LIES to Hamlet - not weak]
"O help him, you sweet heavens" / "O heavenly powers restore him" [pities Hamlet]
"O woe is me, to see what I have seen, see what I see" [ditto]
"pray you mark" [in her madness, ignores the rule of K&Q]

Reply 6

GeorgeC89

I will type mine up tomorrow, a bit tired right now! :s-smilie:

Reply 7

wildforwilde

I thought this might help everyone. We did it in Class picking out what we thought were the most important quotes for their underlaying meanings.

1.1 The Battlements
'This bodes some strange eruption to our state'

1.2 The Court Scene
'The funeral baked mean did coldly furnish the marriage tables'

1.3 The Departure Of Laertes
'Fear it Ophelia'

1.4 Waiting for the Ghost
'It will not speak'

1.5 The Ghost Scene
'Revenge is foul and unnatural'

2.1 Polonius and Reynaldo
'By indirections find directions out'

2.2 The Fishmonger Scene
my mind must have gone astray here..

3.1 The Nunnery Scene
'To be or not to be'.. Claudius: 'How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience'

3.2 The Mousetrap
'The lady doth protest to much methinks'

3.3 The Prayer Scene
'My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent'

3.4 The Closet Scene
'I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft'

4.1 Reactions to Polonius' death
'Hamlet in madness hath polonius slain' 'How small this bloody deed be answered'

4.2 Fetching Hamlet
'A Navish speech sleeps in a foolish ear'

4.3 The Confrontation
'A king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar'

4.4 Fortinbras' Army
'From this time forth, my thoughts be bloody of nothing worth'

4.5 The Madness of Ophelia
'They say the owl was a baker;s daughter'

4.6 The Letter
'I will have words to speak in thine ear'

4.7 The Persuasion of Laertes
'To show yourself in deed your fathers son more than words'

5.1 The Funeral Scene
'Who is they follow? And with such maimed rights?

5.2 Poison, Play and Duel
'Here thou incestuous, murderous, damned dane'

Hope that helps anyone!

Reply 8

supalorlor

wildforwilde

1.5 The Ghost Scene
'Revenge is foul and unnatural'

Is this not part of "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" rather than a quote outright? :s-smilie:

Thankyou for all the quotes, though :smile:

Reply 9

KimS

The themes/characters to focus on are:
-Revenge
-Madness
-Ophelia
-Corruption
But Ive got a list on other themes with quotes just in case...:

madness
"unweeded garden"
"your noble son is mad"
"mad for thy love"
"blasted with ecstasy"
"mad by craft"--by design, suggests NOT mad
"though this be madness, there be method in it"
"my much too changed son"
"o'erhasty marriage"
"madness in great ones must not go unwatched"
"this is the very coinage of your brain"
"i here proclaim was madness"
"o, my prophetic soul"- hamlet saying he already thought what the ghost confirmed, sense of foreboding

revenge
"revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"
"the play's the thing wherein i'll catch the conscience of the king"
"am so i am revenged"
"my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth"

Ophelia/women in general
"i shall obey my lord"
"i shall the effect o this good lesson keep"
"get thee to a nunnery"-hamlet to O
"think yourself a baby"-polonius to O
"we cast away moan"- she is sayin 'it is pointless'..her life? forebodin her suicide?
"passion,hell itself"- laertes saying she is suffering in hell..again foreboding her suicide, suicide is madness
"sister driven into desperate terms"
"a document in madness"
"you must sing"
"frailty..thy name is women"
"she is a strumpet"
"must like a whore unpack my heart with words"
"like a very drab"
"what monsters you make of them"
"clambering to hang"- ophelia hanging something on the tree
"your sister's drowned"

language of flowers
"rosemary"- used both at weddings + funerals-'fidelity in love'
"there is pansies"-thoughts
"fennel for you, and columbines"-'flattery' and 'infidelity'
"there's rue for you"-repentance and regret
"there's a daisy"-changeable and inconstant love
"violets...withered all when my father died"- faithfulness

"of crowflowers,nettles,daisies,and long purples"- died amongst the flowers she loved so much.

corruption
"something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
"unweeded garden"
"rank and gross in nature"
"it will skin and film the ulcerous place,whilst rank corruption,mining all within,infects unseen"
"they clepe us drunkards"-claudius has corrupted denmark
"subject to his birth"
"primal eldest curse"
"the serpent that did sting my fathers life"

fate/religion/death
"this bodes some strange eruption to our state"
"all that lives must die"
"your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his"
"'tis unmanly grief"
"unweeded garden"
"she is a strumpet"-personifing fate as a women...elaborate
"get thee to a nunnery"
"primal eldest curse"-Cain and Able story, one brother killed the other
"the serpent that did sting my fathers life"
"his canon 'gainst self-slaughter"-suicide is BAD
"by Saint Partick but there is"
"your sister is drowned"

manipulation
"your noble son is mad"
"think yourself a baby"
"affection? pooh"
"subject to his birth"
"we may of their encounter frankly judge"
"you'll tender me a fool"

hope this helps, loads of these quotes you can link 2 other sub-themes such as: heroes,love,status and dreams/reality etc

x
"

Reply 10

wildforwilde

Those quotes are fantastic. Thankyou!

Reply 11

KimS

wildforwilde

Those quotes are fantastic. Thankyou!

your welcome :smile:

Reply 12

butterfly_girl_5

Hamlets questions to the ghost:

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned?
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell?
Be thy intents wicked or charitable?
Thou comes in such a questionable shape, that I'll call thee Hamlet--- H projects his own imagination onto the ghost- it is Hamlet's interpretation of the Ghost that is significant in the play- H admits himself it is his imagination....

If his [claudius'] occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech..
It is a damned ghost that we have seen/ And my imaginations are as foul/ as Vulcan's stithy

(feel free to argue w my reading)

gertrudes questions to hamlet in closet scene:
-Have you forgot me?
-What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
-Oh me what hast thou done? (after polonius killed)
-As kill a king?
-Ay me, what act/That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
-Alas, how is it with you?
What shall I do?
aftewards: I have no life to breathe what thou hast said to me

also though it was interesting- both ophelia & gertrude bewail what they have seen in Hamlet

Ophelia after get thee to a nunnery scene- O woe is me that I have seen what I have seen, what I see
Gertrude after closet scene- Ah my lord- what I have seen tonight!

- lost more quotes on seeing/appearance (esp first scene)
also in closet scene- Gertrude: 'Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul/And there I see such black and grained spots/As will not leave their tinct

Reply 13

Dani1989

Thank you everyone for these quotes!

Reply 14

butterfly_girl_5

From RSC (also great for Hamlet in general- context, genre ect)

If you're looking for an apt quotation for an essay or would simply like a thematic overview of the play, read on. Themes covered: Religion; Spying; Madness; Death; Love; Revenge; Corruption/Disease; Gardens. (All references are to the Penguin edition).

religion
HAMLET
[III.i.78-82]

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
KING
[III.iii.36-38]

O, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
KING
[III.iii.98-99]

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
HAMLET
[III.iv.150-151]

Confess yourself to heaven.
Repent what's past.
FIRST CLOWN
[V.i.1-2]

Is she to be buried in Christian burial
when she wilfully seeks her own salvation?
PRIEST
[V.i.232-234]

We sould profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Spying
POLONIUS
[II.i.63-68]

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth,
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So, by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son.
KING
[II.ii.14-18]

so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus,
That, opened, lies within our remedy.
HAMLET
[II.ii.592-595]

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 'a do blench,
I know my course.
POLONIUS
[III.i.179-181]

How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said.
We heard it all.
HORATIO
[III.ii.98-99]

If 'a steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
POLONIUS
[III.iii.27-29]

My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
Behind the arras I'll convey myself
To hear the process.

Madness
POLONIUS
[II.ii.146-150]

And he, repellèd, a short tale to make,
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves
HAMLET

[II.ii.377-378]

I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind
is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
OPHELIA
[III.i.151]

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
KING
[III.i.189]

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
KING
QUEEN
[IV.i.6-7]

What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier.
LAERTES
[IV.v.156-159]

O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight
Till our scale turn the beam.

Death
QUEEN
[I.ii.70-72]

Do not for ever with thy vailèd lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou knowest 'tis common. All that live must die,
HAMLET
[III.i.56]

To be, or not to be - that is the question;
HAMLET
POLONIUS
QUEEN
HAMLET
QUEEN
[III.iv.25-28]

How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
O, I am slain!
O me, what hast thou done?
Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
QUEEN
[IV.vii.163-164]

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow. Your sister's drowned, Laertes.
HAMLET
HORATIO

[V.ii.352-354]

the rest is silence.
Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet Prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
[V.ii.352-354]

Love
OPHELIA
[I.iii.99-100]

He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
Of his affection to me.
HAMLET
OPHELIA
[III.i.115-116]

I did love you once.
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
KING
[III.i.163]

Love? His affections do not that way tend;
HAMLET
[V.i.265-267]

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

R evenge
GHOST
HAMLET
GHOST
[I.v.23-25]

If thou didst ever thy dear father love-
O God!
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
HAMLET
[III.iii.73-75]

Now might I do it pat, now 'a is a-praying.
And now I'll do't. And so 'a goes to heaven.
And so am I revenged.
HAMLET
[IV.iv.65-66]

O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
LAERTES
[IV.v.137-138]

Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged
Most throughly for my father.

Corruption/disease
MARCELLUS
[I.iv.90]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
[III.ii.327-330]

Sir, I cannot.
What, my lord?
Make you a wholesome answer. My wit's diseased.
HAMLET
[III.iv.92-95]

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty -
FIRST CLOWN
[V.i.162-163]

'Faith, if 'a be not rotten before 'a die, as
we have many pocky corses nowadays that will scarce
hold the laying in, 'a will last you some eight year or
nine year.

Gardens
HAMLET
[I.ii.133-137]

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't, ah, fie, 'tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
LAERTES
[V.i.234-236]

Lay her i'th'earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring!

Reply 15

katylkh

Here are all my quotes. They're not exactly concise, but I found I knew a lot of them anyway... And I finished quite late so I think towards the end I was trying to be funny with some of the descriptions, but hey!

Hamlet Quotes.doc171.5KB

Reply 16

Aesop

Some Claudius Quotes I did for class..

> CLAUDIUS: But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
HAMLET: A little more than kin, and less than kind.
CLAUDIUS: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
(Act I Scene II 64-6)
> HAMLET: Hyperion to a satyr.
(Act I Scene II L140)
> HAMLET: My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules.
(Act I Scene II L152-3)
> GHOST: That incestuous, that adulterate beast, / With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts--
(Act I Scene V L41-2)
> HAMLET: O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
(Act I Scene V L106)

> CLAUDIUS: Of Hamlet's transformation – so I call it
(Act II Scene II L5)
>HAMLET: Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
(Act II Scene II L577)

> CLAUDIUS: Love! his affections do not that way tend, / Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, / Was not like madness.
(Act III Scene I L164-66)
> HAMLET: What, frighted with false fire?
(Act III Scene II L260)
> CLAUDIUS: My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent
(ACT III Scene III L39)
> CLAUDIUS: Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens / To wash it white as snow?
(Act III Scene III L44-5)
> CLAUDIUS: My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
(Act III Scene III L55)
> CLAUDIUS: My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
(Act II Scene III L96-7)
> CLAUDIUS: His liberty is full of threat to all --
(Act IV Scene I L14)
> CLAUDIUS: My soul is full of discord and dismay.
(Act IV Scene I L45)
> CLAUDIUS: For like the hectic in my blood he rages.
(Act IV Scene III L69)
> CLAUDIUS: Now must your conscience my acquittance seal.
(Act IV Scene VII L1)
> CLAUDIUS: She is so conjunctive to my life and soul.
(Act IV Scene VII L14)
> CLAUDIUS: A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice / Requite him for your father.
(Act IV Scene VII L136-7)

> CLAUDIUS: Gertude, do not drink.
(Act V Scene II L294)
> CLAUDIUS: She swoons to see them bleed.
(Act V Scene II L314)
> HAMLET: Here. thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane.
(Act V Scene II L330)
> LAERTES: He is justly serv'd.
(Act V Scene II L333)

Reply 17

*Rachie*

I've posted a Hamlet quote bank on another thread, here's the link to save TSR some bandwidth;

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19021214&posted=1#post19021214

:biggrin:

Reply 18

onthejubileeline

I did Hamlet at A2 last year and I just dug out my notes. There are SO many quotes I could include, so I'm just going to include the ones that focus on the character of Hamlet; what he says and what people say about him.

HAMLET
"To die, to sleep / To sleep perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub / For in that sleep what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil / must give us pause" A3 S1 (stuck between action and inaction)

"What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba / That he should weep for her? What would he do / Had he the motive and cue for passion / That I have?" A2 S2 (ashamed of his inaction as a 'revenge hero')

"And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought" A3 S1 (Hamlet battling with his thoughful nature which opposes violent revenge)

"I do not know / Why yet I live to say thus thing's to do / Sith I have cause and will and strength and means / To do't" A4 S4 (inaction)

"Rightly to be great / Is not to stir without great argument / But greatly to find a quarrel in a straw / When honour's at stake" A4 S4 (marvels at Fortinbras' resolution and action and is further made ashamed of his own lack of resolution. The importance of honour and loyalty)

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" Polonius, A2 S2

"Oh what a noble mind is here overthrown!" Ophelia A3 S1

"There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves / You must translate, 'tis fit we understand them / Where is your son?" Claudius A4 S1

"How dangerous is it that his man goes loose / Yet must not we put the strong law on him; / He is loved of the distracted multitude" Claudius A4 S3

"...like the hectic in my blood he rages" Claudius A4 S3

"The queen his mother - / Lives almost by his looks" Claudius A2 S2

"Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage / For he was likely, had he been put on / To have proved most royal" Fortinbras A5 S2

Done! If any more are wanted I can post again, I'm sure I have a lot more stuff lying around. Also, if any explaination is needed on any of the quotes I have included, quote and ask :smile:

Reply 19