Great Danes
This flamboyant, sycophantic courtier brings Hamlet the invitation to the fencing match and agrees with Hamlet about the weather changing from hot to cold to hot again.
Osric
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern probe Hamlet for his secrets, he famously tells them that Denmark is the worst type of this specific structure.
prison
Showing zero remorse after stabbing Polonius, Hamlet tells his mother goodnight and announces, "I'll lug the..." this crude, specific word for entrails "...into the neighbor room."
guts
Old King Hamlet is legendary for having slain this specific rival king in single combat on the day Hamlet was born.
King Fortinbras of Norway
Who came up with the idea to poison the sword used in the duel?
Laertes
In the play's opening scene, this watchman speaks the iconic line, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
Marcellus
Hamlet angrily yells at Ophelia to go to this specific location—a word that carried a double meaning in Elizabethan slang for both a convent and a brothel.
nunnery
When Claudius asks Hamlet where Polonius is, Hamlet tells him that the counselor is "at supper," referring to this specific metaphorical meal eating his body.
diet of worms
Polonius gives his servant Reynaldo money and notes, instructing him to travel to Paris to do this to Laertes.
spy on him... and spread minor rumors to test his reputation. What a jerk.
Hamlet is able to perfectly seal the forged execution orders for his schoolmates because he happens to be carrying this specific object belonging to his father.
royal signet (seal)
As he dies from a poisoned rapier wound, he admits, "I am justly killed with mine own treachery."
Laertes
Hamlet intercepts his execution orders and escapes back to Denmark by boarding the ship of these attackers.
pirates
Hamlet hints to Claudius's attendants that they will eventually find Polonius's body because they will be able to do this bodily function as they go "up the stairs into the lobby."
smell him (or "nose him")
To seal Hamlet's death during the fencing match, Claudius drops a poisoned "union" into the wine goblet—"union" being an Elizabethan term for this precious object.
pearl
Why did Hamlet get so angry when the sword cut him during the duel?
She concisely critiques the heavily melodramatic acting of the Player Queen by stating, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Gertrude
Gertrude describes Ophelia’s death occurring near this specific type of tree, which grows "ascaunt the brook."
willow tree
In the graveyard, Hamlet watches a skull get knocked about by a spade and wonders if it is the jawbone of this biblical figure, "that did the first murder."
Cain
Polonius ironically declares that "brevity is the soul of..." this, right before launching into a long-winded, rambling speech.
wit
Hamlet asks the traveling players to insert a custom speech into their play; he specifically asks that the speech be this exact number of lines long.
A dozen or sixteen lines
Hamlet greets his uncle and mother with this sharply punning line, muttering that he is "A little more than kin..."
"...and less than kind"
Polonius meets his bloody end while hiding behind an arras in this highly intimate room of the castle.
Queen's closet
The gravedigger asserts that a tanner's body will last exactly nine years in the earth because his trade keeps this substance out of his corpse.
water
What flower did Ophelia say withered when her father died?
Violets
The play that was performed in Hamlet was called "The Murder of Gonzago," also known as what?
The Mousetrap