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Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief

Hamlet is a play that is famously about multiple ideas. These include uncertainty, self-doubt, madness, performance, revenge, familial relationships, and male-female dynamics, just to name a few. With so much going on, one aspect of the play that sometimes gets overlooked is how it is also a play that is very much about the use of language and words. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, and Hamlet speaks more lines than any other Shakespearean character, so “brevity is the soul of wit” could be read as Shakespeare’s ironic (and comic) comment on his own play. The next quote in Act 2, Scene 2 (see below) will be another comment that could be a reference to the play’s verbosity when Hamlet will say, “Words, words, words.”

As the explanation for this quote in Quotes by Character: Polonius (the third quote) discusses, Polonius is himself no stranger to verbosity, which makes him saying that “brevity is the soul of wit” particularly ironic. It is yet another example of Polonius uttering something that is superficially wise, but backing it up by setting a personal example.

Words, words, words

In Act 2, Scene 2, as Hamlet amuses himself by making fun of Polonius (without Polonius being aware of it) while he feigns madness, he utters this line, ostensibly in response to Polonius condescendingly asking him what he is reading. On its surface, “Words, words, words” can be read as Hamlet’s snarky retort to an insincere question posed by someone for whom he has no respect. Also, as discussed in the quote above, it could also be interpreted as an example of the play’s almost meta-level focus on the role of language and words.

However, on another level, “Words, words, words” represents Hamlet’s annoyance with his own inability to definitively act upon the Ghost’s command that he kill Claudius in revenge for Claudius’s crimes. It clearly frustrates Hamlet that instead of acting decisively, uncertainty has driven him to take up time pretending to be mad and engaging in inane wordplay at court as he ponders various doubts.

For the satirical rogue says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams

During their prolonged encounter in Act 2, Scene 2 in which Polonius attempts to interrogate Hamlet to figure out if he is truly insane or only pretending to be, Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading. Hamlet teases (and insults) Polonius by pretending that his book is about old men. Hamlet frequently dwells on the physical and mental deterioration that comes with age. In other ways, too, this scene reveals Hamlet’s obsession with decay. Just prior to this quote, Hamlet had compared human conception and childbearing to “maggots in a dead dog.”

Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.

In this famous quote from Act 2, Scene 2, Polonius delivers what might be the most astute description of Hamlet’s mental condition in the entire play. In essence, he is saying that Hamlet is probably not mentally stable, but that this isn’t preventing him from scheming—and indeed that he might be employing his madness to achieve some goal. This is spot on, but since it is delivered by a character who a source of Hamlet’s scorn and derision, the accuracy of his assessment here might get overlooked. You can read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Polonius (the fourth quote).

I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
 

In this extended quote from Hamlet’s Act 2, Scene 2 encounter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the character’s philosophical nature strongly comes through. As the explanation to this quote in Famous Quotes Explained discusses, Hamlet’s philosophical perspective is quite dark, as he concludes that life on earth is ultimately merely a “quintessence of dust.”

I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is
southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
 

The “method” in Hamlet’s madness, which Polonius referenced earlier in Act 2, Scene 2 becomes a bit clearer here as Hamlet lays out a couple of quirks of his condition to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The refence to the wind is his way of saying that his madness comes and goes, and by using the colloquial phrase from the time “I know a hawk from a handsaw,” he means that he’s only slightly disrupted when the condition does strike him. You can read more about this quote in Quotes by Theme: Madness versus Cunning (the second quote).

What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba
That he should weep for her?

This quote—the first of many from a long soliloquy by Hamlet at end of Act 2, Scene 2—is spoken after Hamlet has just seen the troupe of players perform an emotional scene. It is pivotal to the plot Hamlet in that it triggers Hamlet’s consideration of the potential power of performance which will lead him to devising the plan to stage a play to trick Claudius into revealing his guilt in the murder of Hamlet’s father. It is also significant in that it marks another occasion where Hamlet berates himself for indecision and his seeming inability to take quick action to avenge his father. You can read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Hamlet (the third quote) and in Quotes by Theme: Performance versus Reality (the third quote).

I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks.
I'll tent him to the quick. If 'a do blench,
I know my course.
 

Later in Hamlet’s soliloquy at the close of Act 2, Scene 2, he comes up with his plan to stage a play with a scene that mimics the description of his father’s murder that was given to him by the Ghost to implicate Claudius. This quote is further explained in Quotes by Character Hamlet (the fourth quote).

I’ll have grounds
More relative than this

In this quote from later in Hamlet’s lengthy Act 2, Scene 2 soliloquy, he focuses on the fact that he has begun to have doubts about the veracity of the Ghost and thus wants the proof of Claudius’s guilt that he believes the staged play will bring before he kills him. This quote is also discussed in Quotes by Theme: The Impact of Uncertainty (the first quote).

The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King
 

In these, the concluding words of Hamlet’s famous Act 2, Scene 2 soliloquy, he conveys that the play that he’s planning to stage will be the device (the secret weapon) through which he will gain definitive proof of his uncle’s guilt in his father’s murder. Today, the phrase “The play’s the thing” is commonly evoked to convey the tremendous power of acting and theater in general. Some observers believe that the wider connotation about the power of theater was not Shakespeare’s intention, but that might be selling him a bit short since arguably no one has ever had a deeper understanding of the impact of theater.

The explanations of this quote in Quotes by Character: Hamlet (the fifth quote) and in Quotes by Theme: Performance versus Reality (the second quote) discuss the possibility that Hamlet’s “play” strategy to implicate his uncle has obvious flaws and suggest that Hamlet may in fact just be kidding himself or creating yet another delay in avenging his father’s murder.

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