Hamlet Act 4 Quotes

“Take you me for a spunge, my lord?” Who: R&G to Hamlet;Context:Devices
“The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing-“ Who: Hamlet to R&GContext: Devices: Chiasmus, antithesis
“Yet must not we put the strong law on him: He’s loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And where tis so, the offender’s scourge is weigh’d, But never the offence.” Who: Claudius to CourtContext: But we can’t throw him in jail. The people love him, because they judge based on appearance rather than reason.Devices:
“Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet.” Who: Hamlet to ClaudiusContext: Polonius is being eaten by wormsDevices: Assonance
“My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother.—Come, for England!” Who: Hamlet to KingContext: You’re my mother. When you married my mother, the two of you became one fleshDevices: Traductio
“How all occasions do inform against me,And spur my dull revenge!” Who: Hamlet soliloquyContext: Everything I see shows me how wrong I am and tells me to hurry up and get on with my revenge.Devices:
“To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” Who: Hamlet soliloquyContext: From now on, if my thoughts aren’t violent I’ll consider them worthless.Devices: Heroic couplet
“Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies. Good night, good night.” Who: Ophelia to Claudius and GertrudeContext:Devices: Diacope
“How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with.To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!” Who: Laertes to ClaudiusContext: Laertes demands to know how his father died, and becomes foil to HamletDevices: Doppelganger
“Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,She turns to favor and to prettiness.” Who: Laertes to Claudius and OpheliaContext: Sadness and torment, suffering, hell itself: Ophelia makes them almost pretty.Devices:
“And where the offense is, let the great ax fall.I pray you, go with me.” Who: Claudius to LaertesContext: Wherever there is an offense, let punishment come upon it.Devices: Metonymy