Act 1

Text of Book

Act 1, page 1

Act 1, page 2

Act 1, page 3

Act 1, page 4

Act 1, page 5

Questions

1)	What is this act mainly about?

2)	What is the ghost wearing?

3)	Whose tragic death does Horatio compare King Hamlet's to?

4)	Who is the father of Laertes?

5)	Nearly how many months have passed since the death of King Hamlet?

6)	What "followed hard upon" the funeral of King Hamlet?

7)	When Hamlet decides to speak with the ghost, what does he tell Horatio and the others to do?

8)	When speaking with Ophelia, what does Polonius compare Hamlet's vows to?

9)	What does Claudius customarily spend his nights doing?

10)	What does Horatio worry the ghost might do?

11)	How did King Hamlet die?

12)	What does Hamlet say he will pretend to be?

13)

What does Claudius mean in the quote below? "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves."

14)	What does Hamlet mean in the quote below? "But I have that within which passeth show– These but the trappings and the suits of woe."

15)	What does Ophelia mean in the quote below? "Do not as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own rede.

16)	What does the ghost mean in the quote below? "But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd, Will sate itself in a celestial bed And prey on garbage.

17)	What does Hamlet mean in the quote below? "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

18)	Look where Horatio says that Fortinbras is gathering thugs "For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in't." What does "enterprise" mean in this context?

19)	Look where Claudius says to Hamlet, "You are the most immediate to our throne, And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son Do I impart toward you." What does "impart" mean in this sentence?

20)	Look where the ghost says "My hour is almost come, When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames Must render up myself." What does "render" mean in this context?

21)	Were there any events that weren't clear to you?