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heavenly guards: angels. Compare Hamlet’s reaction to the Ghost in 1.4:

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Richard Dadd, Hamlet and his Mother; The Closet Scene, 1846.

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sure: surely.

Sense…motion: “Sense” here means “use of the five senses, ability to perceive things.” Hamlet means that she must have some perception, otherwise she wouldn’t still be functional and moving around.

apoplex’d: thrown wildly off or incapacitated, as in a state of apoplexy.

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barren: inane.

question: plot point.

Hamlet is forbidding the clowns (comic actors) from ad-libbing in order to get cheap laughs–still a frowned-on practice in many theatrical circles.

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Hamlet continues to set his taste in theater apart from that of the “unskilful” (less sophisticated)–perhaps the groundlings or “barren spectators,” perhaps poseurs like Polonius.

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i.e., “Enough of that,” “I’ve said too much.”

Hamlet reacts as if with slight embarrassment at his outpouring of kindness toward Horatio–probably the closest human connection we’ll see him make in the play–and quickly changes the subject.

https://youtu.be/HtYCXO-jAJg?t=2m50s

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before the king: to be performed in the king’s presence.

Daniel Maclise, The Play Scene in “Hamlet,” 1842

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I ask you: when you see that part of the play, observe my uncle as closely as you possibly can.


very…soul: “your most intense critical observation” (Riverside Shakespeare).

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Well: equivalent to “Very well” or “Sounds good.”

“Steal” here is used in the sense of, say, “stealing a glance”–doing anything subtle, covert, or suspicious. Horatio means that he will watch Claudius like a hawk, not missing anything.

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How fares…Hamlet?: i.e., How’s our cousin Hamlet doing? (But Hamlet puns on “fares” as in “dines.”)

Cousin was then a general term that could mean “relative” in addition to the more specific sense in which we use it today. Claudius is still playing the solicitous uncle, concerned for his nephew’s well-being.

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How can you lack opportunity for advancement when the King of Denmark himself has named you as his heir?

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