GERTRUDE Good Hamlet cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailèd lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common, all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. HAMLET Ay madam, it is common. GERTRUDE If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee! HAMLET Seems madam? nay it is, I know not seems. "Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play, But I have that within which passes show - These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Probably my favourite exchange from the whole piece. Even though it’s some of the first lines by Hamlet himself. Generally, love the whole first act in the castle. It feels very polished and quotable, while doing a really fine job of exposition. (Though, thinking about it, maybe not for Laertes)

I see why of course. There are so many pieces in this play that might or might not be important depending on the acting or emphasis. So much you can just skip for a particular production and then there are different versions of text. There’re so many potential plays and Hamlets there.

Screenshot from a book showing a quote before a chapter starts. Reading: “Lastly, let me entreat, and beseech, and adjure, and implore you not to write an essay on Hamlet. In the catalogue of a library which is very dear to me, there are about four hundred titles of separate editions, essays, commentaries, lectures, and criticisms of this sole tragedy, and I know that this is only the vanguard of the coming years. To modify the words, on another subject, of my ever dear and revered Master, the late Professor Child, I am convinced that were I told that my closest friend was lying at the point of death, and that his life could be saved by permitting him to divulge his theory of Hamlet, I would instantly say, 'Let him die! Let him die! Let him die!'” Thus spoke Horace Howard Furness, one of our many distinguished predecessors as an editor of Hamlet, when he addressed the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard University almost one hundred years ago in 1908

I finally got (overly)interested in Shakespeare and getting acquainted.

This quote before the introduction in Arden’s Hamlet is hilarious.