Working with the play – Hamlet – Act I, scene 3
If your class didn’t finish Act I, scene 2, take a minute and finish reading it now.
As scene 3 opens (page 39 – in most books), Laertes is headed to Paris for school. Before he goes he speaks with his sister
Ophelia, warning her about her new boyfriend, Prince Hamlet. Begin reading the scene. (Reading aloud will definitely help
with understanding.)
1. In lines 5-10, what does Laertes say about Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia?
2. In lines 17-27, what is the warning he is giving about Hamlet’s love in this section?
3. In lines 33-36, (“Then weigh…importunity.”) What is Laertes warning Ophelia about in this section?
Before Laertes leaves, his father, Polonius, gives him some life advice. Explain each piece of the advice. (I’ve numbered 1-9
for you.) (page 43—in most books)
Act I, scene iii
Polonius’s advice to Laertes (as Laertes leaves for France):
Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame! (1.3.55)
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. 1.Give thy thoughts no tongue, (1.3.59)
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
2. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
3. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. 4. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
5. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
6. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
7. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man, (1.3.72)
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
8. Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, (1.3.76)
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
9. This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. (1.3.80)
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
3. Read the rest of the scene, and write a short paraphrase of the conversation between Polonius and his daughter Ophelia.
Also try to feel the emotional tone of the scene.