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And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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Ophelia’s opinion of Hamlet’s love-notes–that they were sweet and well-composed–differs sharply from her father’s in 2.2. Perhaps both have their biases?

(Given the sharp contrast between Hamlet’s eloquence and Polonius’s throughout the play, audiences have tended to believe Ophelia.)

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8 years

The words she refers to here were not in love notes but rather spoken, with “sweet breath”, in the act of giving other gifts. This sweet breath gave the things a sort of perfume which spoke of the true intention of the giver.

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But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2
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We’re not surprised to find the hyperliterate Hamlet reading, but we never learn what the book is. To Hamlet it’s all “Words, words, words.” Gertrude perhaps senses that he is reading less out of enthusiasm or curiosity than “wretchedness.”

See Polonius’s instructions to Ophelia in the following scene:

Read on this book;
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness.

Imogen Stubbs on playing this line in Trevor Nunn’s 2004 production:

…instead of saying it with an undertone of ‘Oh, what a heartbreaking sight, what a terrible crisis this is for us and for him!’ I put my head slightly to one side as if to say ‘Aaaah!’, as if it were much more a matter of ‘And her comes my little darling now, and isn’t he sweet, even if he is having a bit of a tantrum.’

–Performing Shakespeare’s Tragedies Today: The Actor’s Perspective (2006), Michael Dobson ed., p. 32

Hamlet, often seen as being like Shakespeare himself (Keats, Romantics etc…), is fittingly seen coming reading here, perhaps much like the Bard

Made in his own image

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Funny how he’s reading when he previously stated he would only keep in his head the ghost’s message.

“I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past…” (Act 1, Scene 5)

By reading a book, even when its all “Words, words, words.” is literally the opposite of what he had previously sworn to do.

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so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.

OPHELIA
Madam, I wish it may. William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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And so I hope your virtues will do you both honor by bringing Hamlet around to his usual self again.

Madam, I hope so.

wonted way: usual manner.

Gertrude at this point still hopes Hamlet and Ophelia can work things out between them. She reveals in V.i that: “I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife.” Ophelia perhaps harbors the same hopes, though she is never definitive on the matter.

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Did you assay him to any pastime? William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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Did you convince him to try any kind of recreation?

Whereas Claudius (above) wants to know what information they got out of Hamlet, Gertrude wants to know if they succeeded in taking his mind off his woes.

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'Tis most true:
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter. William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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Very true–and he requested that I ask your majesties to see the play [with him].

the matter: the actors' material, i.e., the play.

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Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him; William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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Rosencrantz and Polonius bring the king and queen up to speed on the events of the previous scene, setting up the “play within a play” in the scene to come.

fell out: happened.

o'er-raught: overtaken. Rosencrantz means they passed the troupe of players on the way to Elsinore.

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QUEEN GERTRUDE
Did he receive you well?

ROSENCRANTZ
Most like a gentleman. William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
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See the exchange of greetings in 2.2. Hamlet does receive them warmly, but warmth soon turns to hard questioning and even accusation.

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What, frighted with false fire! William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 2
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Hamlet mocks Claudius for being afraid of a mere fictional story.

false fire: any of several natural phenomena which used to be associated with ghost stories and frightening legends, e.g. slowly combusting methane (“will-o'-wisp”) or plasma from static electric discharge (“St. Elmo’s fire”).

https://youtu.be/P1luqXNqC1c?t=2m23s

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Begin, murderer;
Pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 3 Scene 2
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Pox: syphilis. (The use of the term for other infections is more recent.) Here used as a curse.

damnable faces: grotesque expressions, “execrable grimaces” (Arden Shakespeare).

Different editions of the play have either “Begin, murderer…” or “Pox, leave…” In this text they are both included.

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Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba! William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2
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Hamlet is amazed and dismayed that an actor could show such emotion toward a fictional character (Hecuba) in a fictional situation–when he himself can’t show (or act on) the equivalent for his own situation.

force…conceit: “i.e. bring his innermost being into such consonance with his conception of the part.” [G. R. Hibbard’s gloss, via Arden Shakespeare]

all…wann’d: his whole face turned pale.

distraction: madness.

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jdog
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4 years

suck your mum

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