2. I,2,260. Even with everything he has warned Laertes about, Polonius clearly does not trust him and wants to keep updated on everything that Laertes does while abroad. Get free homework help on William Shakespeare's Hamlet: play summary, scene summary and analysis and original text, quotes, essays, character analysis, and filmography courtesy of CliffsNotes. See all. Quotes about Polonius. (Annoying!) By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. Claudius on his love for Polonius, Act 4 Sc. Claudius, as he appears in the play, is not a criminal...He is..a good and gentle king, enmeshed by the chain of causality linking him with his crime Rebecca Smith on Polonius actions Polonius seems to love his children; he seems to have the welfare of the kingdom in mind. 7 Written Quotes. Be thou a spirit of health or a goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee: I’ll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!”, Hamlet (to self as Ghost makes its first appearance), “I do not set my life at a pin’s fee; And set my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?”, Hamlet (to Horatio and the guards, about how he knows the ghost cannot harm him), “Unhand me, gentlemen. As Hamlet himself memorably puts it: “Words, words, words” (II.ii.). Polonius frequently makes long-winded, tedious speeches and proves himself incapable of following his own advice about being succinct. When Hamlet himself enters, he is confronted first by Polonius and then by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom he quickly identifies as Claudius’s spies. Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then; they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.”, Marcellus (to Horatio, about the Ghost leaving when the cock crows), “But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.”, Horatio (to Marcellus, about the morning after the Ghost appears), Claudius (to court, in remembrance of King Hamlet), “With an auspicious and dropping eye, With north in a funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole.”, Claudius (to court, about moving on from the grief for King Hamlet and cementing his rule as king), “The head is not more native to the heart.”, Claudius (to Laertes, addressing him instead of Hamlet), “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”, Hamlet (aside, about Claudius being both uncle and father), “All that lives must die passing through nature to eternity.”, Gertrude (to Hamlet, trying to comfort his grief), “But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe.”, Hamlet (to Gertrude, about his grief and depression), “Tis a fault to Heaven A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To reason most absurd.”, Claudius (to Hamlet, referring to “unmanly grief” and how the death of a father is a common theme), “O, that this too too sallied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself to dew! The Hamlet quotes below are all either spoken by Claudius or refer to Claudius. When Gertrude tells Claudius of Polonius’ death, Claudius responds by saying: O heavy deed! Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Polonius defamation of his son portrays his own trust issues with his family. The funeral bak’d meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”, Hamlet (to Horatio, referring to the speed of the wedding after his father’s funeral), Hamlet (to Horatio, referring to how he sees his father in his head), “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.”, Hamlet (to Horatio, speaking highly of his father), Horatio (to Hamlet, describing his encounter with the Ghost), “In the dead waste and middle of the night”, “All is not well; I doubt some foul play.”, Hamlet (soliloquy, referring to how he suspects some foul play in the death of his father after hearing of his Ghost), “A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.”, Horatio (to Hamlet, describing the Ghost’s countenance), “Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.”, Hamlet (soliloquy, referring to how he is the only one in the castle who suspects foul play), “A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute.”, Laertes (to Ophelia, warning her of Hamlet’s fleeting love), “And keep you in the rear of your affection, Our of the shot and danger of desire, The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmasks her beauty to the moon.”, Laertes (to Ophelia, warning her not to be seduced by Hamlet), “Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And decks not his own rede.”, Ophelia (to Laertes, telling him to practice what he preaches), Polonius (to Laertes, advising his son before he departs), “The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to hoops of steel.”, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For a loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”, “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”, Polonius (to Laertes, instructing him to serve himself and his needs before he helps others), “You speak like a free girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.”, Polonius (to Ophelia, dismissing the legitimacy of Hamlet’s love for her), Polonius (to Ophelia, warning her that Hamlet’s declarations of love are meant to deceive her), “When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows.”, Polonius (to Ophelia, warning her of Hamlet’s intentions in courting her), “Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.”, Polonius (to Ophelia, warning her to stay away from Hamlet), Horatio (to Hamlet, about how cold it is), “But to my mind – though I am native here And to the manner born, – it is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance.”, Hamlet (to Horatio, about Claudius throwing parties and celebrating despite the 6 month mourning period), “Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! 7 quotes have been tagged as polonius: William Shakespeare: ‘If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.’, William Shakespeare: ... CLAUDIUS Alas, alas. As each character is presented in the play all appear to be good and honest, making it a difficult task for Hamlet to uncover the hidden truth about the nature of … For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ). Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. However, the ghost of the late King Hamlet informs Hamlet, and the audience, about the true cause of the king’s death. How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!”, Hamlet (soliloquy, referring to how he would kill himself if it were not a sin against God), Hamlet (soliloquy, lamenting the death of his father and marriage of his mother), “My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.”, “I prithee thee do not mock me, fellow studient, I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.”, Hamlet (to Horatio, mocking him and the wedding), “Why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on.”, Hamlet (soliloquy, lamenting why his mother married so early to Claudius), Hamlet (soliloquy, accusing his mother of being weak), Hamlet (soliloquy, oxymoron satirizing how quickly his mother was wed), “She married – O most wicked speed: to post With such dexterity to investors sheets.”, Hamlet (soliloquy, lamenting his mother’s quick marriage), “So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr.”, Hamlet (soliloquy, comparing King Hamlet to Hyperion and Claudius to a satyr), Hamlet (soliloquy, referring to Gertrude), “My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules”, Hamlet (soliloquy, referring to himself as Hercules), “It is not, nor it cannot come to good, But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”, Hamlet (end of soliloquy, lamenting how he cannot speak against his mother’s marriage), Horatio (to Hamlet, referring to his time in Wittenberg and why he has returned), “Thrift, thrift, Horatio! Lord Polonius… Played by the right actor, self-absorbed, long-winded, and dull becomes completely hilarious. Act 3, scene 1 Claudius suggests that Hamlet may be a danger with his “ turbulent and dangerous lunacy ” and concludes that “ Madness in great ones must not unwatched go ”. He is sceptical of Polonius’ explanation of Hamlet’s madness (he is lovesick) but goes along with Polonius’ plan to spy on a meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet. Polonius’s words thus foreshadow significant events in the play, such as Hamlet’s attempt to use the performance of a fictional play to determine whether or not Claudius is truly guilty. Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! “In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.”, Horatio (to Barnardo, comparing Denmark to the Fall of Rome), “And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons.”, Horatio (to Barnardo, about the Ghost leaving when the cock crows), “It faded on the crowing of the cock. Downfall Polonius doesn’t necessarily change as the play progresses. After Claudius runs screaming for light, Hamlet follows his mother to her confront her about what she has done. Like his other pithy proclamations, this statement both conveys Polonius’s sense of self-importance as well as revealing how inaccurate his perception of himself actually is. Can you paraphrase this passage? _____ 1. And you ... friend, nor can you help heartily recognizing me as a friend. Claudius’s questions echo Hamlet’s earlier doubts about the grief of his own mother, Gertrude, and in this sense Claudius’s questions speak to the play’s larger anxiety about the mismatch between appearance and reality. SparkNotes is brought to you by Barnes & Noble. Votes: 4. The neurotic thinks himself both Hamlet and Claudius, in a world that belongs to Polonius. Combined with the quote below, Polonius believes that if you appear to be honest, people will believe you. He becomes extremely obedient and will do whatever it takes to reach a good status, even if it means hurting his It had been so with us, had we been there. Method in the madness. O God! blogspot.com helpful non helpful. Act, Scene, Line (Click to see in context) Speech text: 1. Why do you think Claudius now thinks it is necessary to "call up" his "wisest friends?" K. Deighton. Claudius lies to the entire state of Denmark by killing King Hamlet. To thine own self be true. By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!”, Hamlet (to Horatio and the guards, instructing them to let him go follow the ghost), “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”, Marcellus (to Horatio, after Hamlet leaves with the ghost), “I am thy father’s spirit: Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away.”, Ghost (to Hamlet, describing who he is and why he is here), “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther”, “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!”, Hamlet (aside, remarking about encountering the Ghost), “There’s never a villain dwelling in Denmark. Polonius is a verbose, faltering old man whose servile devotion to Claudius renders him slimy, untrustworthy, and pathetic in the eyes of Hamlet. More matter with less art. 6. 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