Act 2, Scene 1:
Polonius is discussing with Reynaldo plans to spy on Laertes while he is at university.
Danskers: Danes
Line 12: you will get more information asking indirectly than directly.
Line 15: pretend you don’t really know him well. You know his father and his friends, but him slightly.
Forgeries: false stories or lies (line 22)
Polonius tells Reynaldo to spread little stories about Laertes gambling, drinking, fencing, swearing, going to brothels - Reynaldo takes exception to the brothel.
The above things: the drinking, the swearing, the fencing are things that a young man should do and is expected to do, but should not do them to excess.
Going to the brothel would indicate too much licentiousness and moral failure (syphilis was not curable at the time and would bring dishonor on the family).
Men are expected to sow their wild oats. Young men should carouse, drink, participate in sports.
Drift: Catch my drift? Drift: Purpose; what I am getting at? Scheme.
Prenominate: already named crimes
Figurative language:
Carp is a fish.
Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth.
Metaphor!!!!!!
Sailing metaphor:
With windlasses and with assays of bias
By indirections find directions out.
Through indirection we will go straight to the truth.
What is the purpose of this scene?
What does this reveal about the character of Polonius?
What does this reveal about the theme, the characters and the plot?
After Ophelia comes in and tells her father what has just happened with Hamlet, what conclusion does Polonius arrive at?
Act 2, Scene 2 HAMLET Notes:
Vocabulary:
Heed: pay attention
Entreaty (noun): to beg or ask for
Entreat (verb): to beg
Trifle: unimportant
Don’t trifle with me! Don’t play with me as if I am not important.
That has made him mad: His love for Ophelia has driven him crazy.
Polonius didn’t expect Hamlet to go crazy. He blames himself for not “cote” or observing him better. He should have realized that by denying Hamlet’s access to his daughter (remember he told Ophelia not to see him nor to speak to him) that Hamlet would go mad.
Do you think Hamlet’s behavior is genuine or feigned (faked)?
Polonius is going to tell the king that Hamlet has been driven mad over unrequited love for Ophelia. Unrequited love means being in love with someone who does not love you back.
Act 2, Scene 2:
Notice how Derek Jacobi says,” O, speak of that! That do I long to hear….” His voice is dripping with irony after Polonius tells him that he knows the reason for Hamlet’s bizarre behavior.
Polonius: “My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.” The feast is the information Voltemand, the ambassador, is going to give Claudius about the situation with Norway. Polonius’ news will be the fruit or dessert to sweeten Voltemand’s news.
What does the Queen say is the reason for Hamlet’s behavior (“…the head and source of all your son’s distemper.”)?
Impotence: lack of power,
Assay: attempt
Do you think Old Norway gave the right response to Fortinbras when he agreed to obey his old uncle?
Levied: drafted; requisitioned by the state
Score: twenty
Entreaty: legal document requesting a favor
Dominion: sovereignty over lands; power and rule over lands
King: “It likes us well.”
How would we say, “It likes us well”? What does Claudius mean by that?
What does the document say?
When Old Norway found out what Fortinbras was doing, he had him arrested. He thought Fortinbras was raising an army against the Poles, but when he found out he was actually raising an army against Denmark(!), an ally, he scolded Fortinbras. Old Norway felt insulted that his nephew would take advantage of his old age, and his ill health.
But he is overjoyed that his nephew is obeying him and so allows him to keep the army he has raised (?) “…gives him three-score thousand crowns in annual fee and his commission to employ those soldiers, as levied before, against the Polack….”
Do you think Old Norway is using good judgment?
Is the name “Old Norway” a metonymy, synecdoche, a metaphor or personification? Why?
He asks Claudius permission for Fortinbras to cross Denmark on his way to attack Poland.
Gartered: stockings are being held up by garters.
Some adjectives the class has chosen to describe Polonius: Obnoxious, arrogant, stupid, officious, pretentious,
Paradox: Seemingly contradictory situation that is strangely true. A genius who is in a special ed class.
Fain: gladly (line 140)
Beseech: to beg, to entreat
Breakfast: to break a fast
Note Polonius’ speech: does he get to the point or does he ramble and say really tedious and pointless things while he says he will be brief? Isn’t there an ironic joke in that?
“Brevity is the soul of wit.” If you want a joke to be funny, make it short.
Polonius says that Hamlet has fallen into the typical spurned lover’s behavior:
He stops eating (falls into a fast)
He sits and stares (thence into a watch)
And by this declension – progression or decline
What does Polonius propose to Claudius? How does this continue the theme of spying?
The Elizabethans believed that the melancholic lover fell into classic stages of depression: not eating, sitting and staring, sighing, writing love letters, going without sleep, becoming pale.
What does Polonius propose to Claudius? How does this continue the theme of spying?
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