Read the excerpts from Hamlet by William
Shakespeare and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are
Dead by Tom Stoppard.
Excerpt 1
HAMLET. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks;
but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your
own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal
ustly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
GUIL. What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET. Why anything, but to the purpose. You were
sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
know the good king and queen have sent for you.
OS. To what end, my lord?
HAMLET. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no!
ROS. [Aside to GUILDENSTERN.] What say you?
HAMLET. [Aside] Nay, then. I have an eye of you. If you love me,hold not off.
GUIL. My lord, we were sent for.
Excerpt 2
GUIL Draw him on to pleasures— glean what afflicts him.
ROS Something more than his fathers death—
GUIL He’s always talking about us—- there aren’t two people living whom he dotes on more than us.
ROS We cheer him up— find out whats the matter—
GUIL Exactly, ifs a matter of asking the right questions and giving away as little as we can. Its a game.
Tom Stoppard uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's
dialogue in Hamlet to develop characters who are
O dishonest with Hamlet.
O concerned about Hamlet.
O unsure about what they are doing.
O in disagreement about what to do.
