Scansion: Hamlet Act III, Scene ii

HAMLET

(This text is featured in our interview with John Douglas Thompson)

Scansion-Hamlet-32

Additional Notes
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●       Assonance – the long e sound.
●       Line 59 is highly irregular – mid line ending.  Funky meter – is it a bit of prose…or is it an aside?
●       Line 60 is irregular…
●       Line 62 mid line stop, mid foot (this happens a lot in this speech.) – still scans.
●       Line 63 why mistress – look it up?  Lots of feminine endings and alliteration.
●       Line 74 – he backs off.  New beat here  starts with an irregularity after full stop – trochee.
●       Line 80 mid stop at explanation of Horatio’s task.  Elision on occulted?
●       Line 82 “we” – repeats his rogue and peasant slave speech, but uses we not I.
●       what is depth of feeling between hamlet and horatio?
●       why this speech?  no new information, except his feeling for horatio.
●       Line 84 “vulcan’s stithy”  nice solid metaphor.