Poetic terms
couplet
pair of rhymed lines.
“I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall;
And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
But even his mother shall uncharge the practice
And call it accident.”
Claudius to Laertes in Act 4 Scene 7 as he plans to kill Hamlet in collaboration with Laertes. Claudius has previously manipulated an angry Laertes to be his conspirator. This quote comes from earlier in the scene when he's laying out the plan of the duel to Laertes, who later suggests that he poison his sword. Claudius later decides to also poison a drink as a failsafe and at the end of the scene they learn of Ophelia's death.
alliteration
repetition of sounds, usually the first letters of successive words, or words that are close together
“Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress
Or like a creature native and endued
Unto that element.”
Gertrude to Laertes and Claudius in Act 4 Sc 7 after the two men have been plotting to kill Hamlet in the duel and after Ophelia has come in "distracted" earlier in Act 4. Before we have Ophelia's funeral at the start of Act 5.
"Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed
And batten on this moor? Ha! Have you eyes?
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble
And waits upon the judgment"
Hamlet to Gertrude in 3.4 in her "closet"/bedchamber when he's trying to get her to see how awful Claudius is in comparison to his dead father by showing her images of the two men and contrasting them. He has already killed Polonius and he is upsetting his mother so much that she begs him to "speak no more" and sees spots on her soul before Ghost Dad shows up to make Hamlet be kinder to her.
enjambment
the use of run-on lines in poetry. Instead of stopping or pausing at the end of a line of poetry, the line carries onto the next line, in both punctuation and meaning.
"O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain.
My tables--meet it is I set it down
That one may smile an be a villain.
At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark."
Hamlet to himself (in soliloquy) after he's talked with his ghost father in Act 1 Sc 5 and has committed to his revenge. He has just said that he will "wipe away all trivial, fond records" from his brain to make room for his father's "commandment" of revenge to "all alone live / within the book and volume" of his brain. He is fully committed to revenge and goes on to make Horatio and Marcellus swear not to tell anyone what they saw that night.
persona
A dramatic character, distinguished from the poet, who is the speaker of a poem.
“I hope all will be well. We must be patient,
but I cannot choose but weep to think they would
lay him i’ th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of
it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come,
my coach! Good night, ladies, good night, sweet
ladies, good night, good night.”
Ophelia to Gertrude and Claudius and Horatio. She leaves the scene after saying these lines and after singing songs related to her father's death and her own romantic betrayal by Hamlet. After she leaves at this moment, Laertes comes in with an angry mob and she re-enters after he is in the room and he is deeply upset by her distraction.
"Why, man, they did make love to this employment.
They are not near my conscience. Their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow.
'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensèd points
Of mighty opposites."
Hamlet to Horatio in Act 5 Sc 2 talking about what he did to R&G (sending them to their deaths by swapping out the letter to England with a forgery so that they will die with no time to confess their sins). Horatio responds with possible horror asking "Why, what a king is this!" and Hamlet goes on to talk about his recommitment to killing his uncle. Osric enters shortly after and sets up the fatal duel that ends the play.
turn/volta
distinctive movement of change in mood or thought or feeling. In an Italian sonnet, the volta usually occurs between the octave and the sestet, though the closing couplet in an English sonnet often constitutes the turn.
"Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue."
conceit
The central metaphor of a poem.
"The cess of majesty
Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
What's near it with it; or it is a massy wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined [...]"
Rosencrantz to Claudius (with Guildenstern also present) in 3.3 when they are both doing their best to suck up to Claudius and do his bidding. Claudius opens the scene by ordering the two of them to take Hamlet to England with them and after this conversation Claudius unsuccessfully tries to pray to clear his conscience.
"And let me speak to th' yet unknowing world
How these things came about. So you shall hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts [...] All this can I
Truly deliver."
Horatio to Fortinbras and the Ambassador from England [and Osric and attendants - big crowd] at the end of 5.2 and close to the very end of the play after all the main characters have died in the duel and aftermath. After Fortinbras and the English Ambassador have come in and wondered at all the bodies. Horatio is fulfilling the duty that Hamlet asked him to tell the real story of what happened to protect his legacy.
consonance
the repetition of a consonant sound.
"old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams [...] for yourself, sir, shall grow as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward."
Hamlet to Polonius in Act 2 Sc 2 as he's making fun of the old man and pretending to be "mad" by putting on an "antic disposition" and evade Claudius's surveillance. This happens right before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter the scene in order to spy on Hamlet following the orders of the King and Queen.
apostrophe
A figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality or absent person, is addressed as if capable of understanding.
"My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief."
"'Tis now the very witching time of night [...]
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none."
Hamlet to himself at the end of 3.2 as he plans to follow Polonius's request to go to see his mother after the drama went down and ended the play when the King stormed out. He is planning to make Gertrude feel really bad about her remarriage to the murderous Claudius, but has to remind himself not to physically hurt her. This happens before 3.3 with his almost murder of Claudius and 3.4 when he does use his sword to kill Polonius after Gertrude cries out in fear that Hamlet will actually physically harm her.
pastoral poem
a poem that celebrates the rural life, in an often idealized vision of charming simplicity and carefree rusticity.
"O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe."
Claudius to himself in soliloquy in 3.3 as he tries to pray to relieve his guilty conscience after watching the play that Hamlet staged to determine Claudius's guilt. He tries to pray and Hamlet enters and almost kills him, but decides not to because he doesn't want him to go straight to heaven if killed while purging his soul to Heaven. But at the end of the scene the King acknowledges that his prayers are empty as his thoughts are occupied "below" with all of his worldly gains from his sinful murder of his brother.
antecedent scenario
The situation that prompts the poet to write the poem.
"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 [...]
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on"
Horatio to Barnardo and Marcellus (the other night watchmen) in Act I Sc I. Horatio begins the scene doubting the other men's recounting of seeing the ghost, but here he has seen and accepted that the ghost is real and a sign of some "strange eruption" to the state of Denmark. The ghost returns right after this speech and Horatio tries to get it to speak to him and then decides that they need to tell Hamlet as the ghost will likely speak to him. The quote develops the suspense and foreshadowing of tragedy from the first scene of the play.
"The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
A second time I kill my husband dead
When second husband kisses me in bed."
The Player Queen to the Player King (and the audience of the play which includes Hamlet and the royal court including Ophelia, King Claudius, and Gertrude). She's acting out the prologue to the scene that Hamlet wrote to add to the players' play to "catch the conscience of the king." The very exaggerated chastity of the Queen is also meant to make Gertrude feel guilty and Gertrude responds "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" after this short pre-scene. Then the players pantomime the poison in the ear murder and Claudius runs out. This happens in the middle of the play when Hamlet wants to be certain of C's guilt and C's reaction convinces H to continue with revenge.