Moon’s Day, November 2: The Soul of Wit
EQ: How do others try to figure Hamlet out – and do they succeed?
 Welcome! Gather
Green Book,
Reading Guide for
Hamlet II, i-ii,
pen/cil, paper, wits!
 Reading, Text, and
Subtext: Hamlet II, ii
ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or
events interact and develop
ELACC12RL4-RI4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text
ELACC12RI5: Analyze and evaluate effectiveness of the structure an author uses
ELACC12RI6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text
ELACC12RI7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources to address a question or solve a problem
ELACC12RI8: Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal British texts
ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas
ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames
ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing.
ELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases
Reading Guide: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
II, i: “What Forgeries You Please” – What sort of man, and dad, is Polonius?
Remember that in I, iii Polonius sent his son Laertes to France with a “few precepts” of fatherly
advice, like “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Now Polonius gives his assistant a mission.
1. Polonius tells Reynaldo to find “Danskers” (Danes) in Paris who know Laertes, and tell them
Laertes is “very ___________, / ________________ so and so,” and to tell them “what
_____________ you please – marry, none so __________/ As may ___________ him,”
about Laertes. Such “As gaming, my lord,” says Reynaldo; Polonius adds “Ay, or
_____________, _______________, _____________, ______________, ___________.”
2. Look up that last one. What does it mean? __________________________________
3. How, according to Reynaldo, does this command fit with Polonius’ instructions earlier?
4. After a moment where he appears to forget what he was going to say, Polonius tells
Reynaldo his reason for spreading lies about his son. Put this reason in your own words:
5. After Reynaldo leaves, Ophelia comes in, “affrighted.” Briefly tell how Hamlet scared her:
6. Polonius assumes that “This is the very _____________ of ___________” and that it has
made Hamlet “___________” (he uses the word several times in this scene).
7. He says they must tell whom, and why?
8. Polonius apologizes to Ophelia for underestimating the situation: “I feared he did but trifle /
And meant to ______________ thee.” So what, exactly, is he calling a “trifle”?
Reading Guide: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
II, ii: “The Soul Of Wit” – How do characters assess causes and effects of Hamlet’s behavior?
1. Hamlet’s childhood friends, ______________________ and _____________________, are
recruited to discover the reason for what the King calls “Hamlet’s ____________________.”
2. According to Claudius, Hamlet is upset because of _______________________________.
3. After these friends leave, Polonius tells the King that he has two sorts of news:
a. “Th’ ambassadors from ________________ … are joyfully returned”; and
b. “I have found / The very cause of ______________ _______________.”
4. Which of these does the King want to hear about first – and what does this tell you about him?
5. Gertrude says that she believes Hamlet’s “distemper” to be caused by two things:
“His ______________ _____________ and our ________________ ______________.”
6. Polonius gives the King a letter in which Norway’s king swears that Fortinbras will leave
Denmark’s borders and return to Norway if Denmark will let Fortinbras and his army do what?
7. The King says he will read this letter “At our ________ __________________ _________.”
What does this tell you about him?
8. Saying that he does not wish “to waste ___________, _________, and ____________,” and
that “_____________ is the soul of wit,” Polonius promises that he “will be __________.”
What is ironic about his saying all of this this way?
9. He says that Hamlet “is _________,” and that “to define true _____________” is “to be
nothing else but ____________.”
10. The Queen has a request: “More ____________ with less _______.” What does she mean?
11. Polonius says that he believes Hamlet’s madness has been caused by __________________.
12. So – how many different explanations for Hamlet’s madness have we so far in this scene?
Reading Guide: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
II, ii (continued): “The Soul Of Wit” –causes and effects of Hamlet’s behavior
13. The King wants to “try it further,” so Polonius suggests that he and the King hide behind an
arras to watch how _______________ and ________________ interact.
The exchange that follows is too awesome for fill-in-the-blank; instead, note“text” and “subtext.”
LORD POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
LORD POLONIUS Not I, my lord.
HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS Honest, my lord!
HAMLET Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.
LORD POLONIUS That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS I have, my lord.
HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing:
but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't.
LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still
harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near
this. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET Words, words, words.
LORD POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET Between who?
LORD POLONIUS I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that
old men have grey 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: all which,
sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be
old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there
is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' the air. Aside How
pregnant sometimes his replies are! …My honourable
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.
Reading Guide: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
II, ii (continued): “The Soul Of Wit” –causes and effects of Hamlet’s behavior
14. After Polonius leaves, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter. They joke with Hamlet,
who tells them that he believes “Denmark’s a ______________.”
15. Rosencrantz says this is not true, and Hamlet replies, “Why then … there is nothing
either _________ nor _________ but _______________ makes it so.”
16. Rosencrantz says that Hamlet thinks this because his “_______________ makes it one.”
17. Hamlet replies, “I could be bounded in a ______________ and count myself a __________ of
__________________ ___________, were it not that I have had _______ _____________.”
Put this idea into your own words:
18. After a bit, Hamlet confronts them with his suspicion that they were “sent for,” meaning:
19. He warns his friends that they are “deceived….I am but _________ north-north-west. When
the wind is southerly, I know a _________ from a ________________” – meaning what?
20. After the actors come in and audition, Hamlet takes one aside and makes what request?
21. Because he has “heard / That _____________ creatures sitting at a ___________” have been
known to suddenly confess their crimes, he hits upon a plan to “have these players / Play
something like the ___________ of my ________________ / Before mine uncle ….If he do
_____________, / I’ll know my course.” Summarize his plan:
22. He will try this because, he says, “The ___________ that I have seen / may be the _______.”
23. He concludes, “The ___________ the ______________ / Wherein I’ll catch the
__________________ of the ______________.”
TURN IN TODAY:
 Reading Guide II i-ii thru ii 12
o No need to unstaple!