‘Hamlet’ Act I, Scene I
• Blank verse – unrhymed. Iambic pentameter – 5 stresses per line.
• Source material is an Old Danish story.
• Open Globe stage – often, the language paints the scene.
• L1 “Who’s there?”: sense of tension introduced by a question, which is existential.
No direct answer to the question given afterwards.
• L3 “Long live the King”: immediate political aspect – they are helping to uphold the
state.
• L3 stichomythic.
• Francisco and Bernardo are guarding.
• L5 “twelve”: ‘the witching hour’.
• L7 “sick at heart”: bad start, something about the ghosts gives a sense of anxiety.
• L8 “Not a mouse stirring”: like tempting fate, foreshadowing.
• L11 “bid them make haste”: afraid of being alone.
• L13 “Friends”: versus enemies → fearing danger; later discuss fear of war from
Norway – rational explanation for fear, also.
• L18 “A piece of him”: sardonic.
• L20 “think”: first mention of the ghost is ambiguous.
• L20 Ho’s function is as the rationalist, so that when he changes his opinion it is more
impactful, and makes the audience trust him.
• L26 “sight twice seen of us”: much more difficult to deny and ignore – seeing it again
would suggest a platform.
• L28 “approve”: test.
• L34-8 “Last night of all, / When yond same star that’s westward from the pole / Had
made his course t’illume that part of heaven / Where now it burns, Marcellus and
myself, / The bell then beating one”: clear blank verse, regular meter.
• L40 “figure like the King”: don’t assume it’s the king – think differently about ghosts.
• L41 “scholar”: he knows Latin, which is what ghosts would speak.
• L43 “harrows me with fear and wonder”: worried both about the ghost, and the fact it
is in armour – what that might mean for the country.
o “harrows”: very powerful word, associated with ‘Harrowing of Hell’ (Jesus
descended to Hell then rose to Heaven, Medieval belief).
• L45 “usurp’st”: means someone taking the throne which is not theirs; used
symbolically – usurp the night – rather than the brother, being addressed to the king.
Night is for rest, peace: the night has now become troubled; Claudius is a usurper;
buried implication, political irony.
• L47 “buried Denmark”: and armour, has returned warlike in the role of king and ruler.
Synecdoche.
• L49 “It”: not ‘he’.
• L55 “Before my God”: like making an oath, very formal.
• L56 “sensible” → of the senses.
• Blank verse – unrhymed. Iambic pentameter – 5 stresses per line.
• Source material is an Old Danish story.
• Open Globe stage – often, the language paints the scene.
• L1 “Who’s there?”: sense of tension introduced by a question, which is existential.
No direct answer to the question given afterwards.
• L3 “Long live the King”: immediate political aspect – they are helping to uphold the
state.
• L3 stichomythic.
• Francisco and Bernardo are guarding.
• L5 “twelve”: ‘the witching hour’.
• L7 “sick at heart”: bad start, something about the ghosts gives a sense of anxiety.
• L8 “Not a mouse stirring”: like tempting fate, foreshadowing.
• L11 “bid them make haste”: afraid of being alone.
• L13 “Friends”: versus enemies → fearing danger; later discuss fear of war from
Norway – rational explanation for fear, also.
• L18 “A piece of him”: sardonic.
• L20 “think”: first mention of the ghost is ambiguous.
• L20 Ho’s function is as the rationalist, so that when he changes his opinion it is more
impactful, and makes the audience trust him.
• L26 “sight twice seen of us”: much more difficult to deny and ignore – seeing it again
would suggest a platform.
• L28 “approve”: test.
• L34-8 “Last night of all, / When yond same star that’s westward from the pole / Had
made his course t’illume that part of heaven / Where now it burns, Marcellus and
myself, / The bell then beating one”: clear blank verse, regular meter.
• L40 “figure like the King”: don’t assume it’s the king – think differently about ghosts.
• L41 “scholar”: he knows Latin, which is what ghosts would speak.
• L43 “harrows me with fear and wonder”: worried both about the ghost, and the fact it
is in armour – what that might mean for the country.
o “harrows”: very powerful word, associated with ‘Harrowing of Hell’ (Jesus
descended to Hell then rose to Heaven, Medieval belief).
• L45 “usurp’st”: means someone taking the throne which is not theirs; used
symbolically – usurp the night – rather than the brother, being addressed to the king.
Night is for rest, peace: the night has now become troubled; Claudius is a usurper;
buried implication, political irony.
• L47 “buried Denmark”: and armour, has returned warlike in the role of king and ruler.
Synecdoche.
• L49 “It”: not ‘he’.
• L55 “Before my God”: like making an oath, very formal.
• L56 “sensible” → of the senses.
