Frigga s Day, 12/5: Look at the skull LOOK AT IT! EQ: Whattup with the skull? Welcome! Gather pen/cil, paper, wits! Viewing/Discussion: Hamlet V i Yorick Reading Journal Resource: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/ 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 ELACC12RL5: Analyze an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a 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
V, i: A fine revolution Note: in Shakespeare, clowns are not red-nosed-big-shoed Bozos but funny simpletons, usually working-class in manner, accent, and outlook. 1. The first clown is surprised that a burial will occur for this apparent suicide. 2. The second clown says that the hath sat on it meaning what? 3. He asserts that, if this had not been a -woman, she d not receive a Christian burial. 4. According to the first clown s joke, a builds stronger than any other craftsman. 5. The First Clown is doing what as he digs a grave? 6. Hamlet assumes that it s because he has no of his business, but Horatio says that, to the contrary, hath made it in him a property of meaning what? 7. According to the bracketed stage directions, at this point the first clown throws up a. 8. Name two of the sorts of people Hamlet supposes this might belong to:, 9. When Hamlet says, here s a fine, what point is he making? 10. Finally, Hamlet asks the clown whose grave this is;, sir, says the clown. 11. Hamlet tries to clarify What dost thou dig it for? For, sir, says the clown. 12. Hamlet tries again What, then? For, says the clown. 13. What is the clown s point? 14. When Hamlet asks the clown how long he s been a gravedigger, the clown says that he started on that day that our last overcame which was, he says, the very day that was born. 15. Finally, the clown says he s been sexton here, man and boy, years. 16. So do the math how old is Hamlet? 17. Hamlet asks what question? 18. By way of answer, the clown shows a skull that hath lien you i th earth how long? 19. Do the math: how old was Hamlet when this person died? 20. This same skull, sir, says the clown, was, sir, s skull, the king s. V i 151 ff: Clown Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth three and twenty
years. HAMLET Whose was it? Clown A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was? HAMLET Nay, I know not. Clown A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester. HAMLET This? Clown E'en that. HAMLET Let me see. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' the earth? HORATIO E'en so. HAMLET And smelt so? pah! [Hamlet and Horatio hide behind a gravestone as a funeral procession comes; it is, of course, Ophelia s funeral. The service is short, prompting Laertes to ask, What ceremony else? The
priest says that suicides don t deserve funerals; Laertes threatens him, then jumps into Ophelia s grave to embrace her once more, and asks to be buried with her because his grief is so great. At this point Hamlet leaps out from behind the headstone.] V i 263 HAMLET What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane! [Hamlet leaps into the grave, and he and Laertes fight over Ophelia s body. They are pulled apart, and Gertrude asks Hamlet why he s fighting Laertes. Hamlet speaks to Laertes:] HAMLET I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?... 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do: Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I: And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well as thou. The two agree to settle their differences like gentlemen, at fencing. Hamlet leaves; Claudius and Laertes plot to poison Laertes sword and Hamlet s drink at the tournament. V ii Horatio tells Hamlet that this is a bad idea because Laertes is a good swordsman; Hamlet protests that he has been in continual practice with his sword, and overcame a ship s crew to escape from England. The match begins, and Hamlet quickly goes up 2 hits to none, then he and his mother share a drink. Claudius, who has poisoned Hamlet s cup, begs Gertrude not to drink; she defies him, and drinks anyway. Laertes stabs Hamlet during the timeout; Hamlet wrestles the poisoned sword from Laertes and stabs him. Suddenly Gertrude falls, crying The drink! The drink! Laertes, dying, tells Hamlet of the poisoned sword and cup, and dies. Hamlet, dying, forces Claudius to drink the rest of the poisoned cup, and then lays down to die. Horatio laments, Good night, sweet prince, and flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest. Then Fortinbras comes in with his army and asks to speak to whomever is in charge; when Horatio explains the situation, Fortinbras expresses sympathy, and orders his soldiers to salute the dead: Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
Turn In Today: i. Reading Guide: Hamlet V i ii. Reading Journal Entry from the discussion between Hamlet and the Grave Digger