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Speeches (Lines) for Guildenstern
in "Hamlet"

Total: 29

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

II,2,1114

Rosencrantz. Both your Majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern. But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.


2

II,2,1123

Gertrude. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son.- Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern. Heavens make our presence and our practices
Pleasant and helpful to him!


3

II,2,1325

(stage directions). Exit [Polonius].

Guildenstern. My honour'd lord!


4

II,2,1330

Rosencrantz. As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guildenstern. Happy in that we are not over-happy.
On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.


5

II,2,1336

Hamlet. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
favours?

Guildenstern. Faith, her privates we.


6

II,2,1344

Hamlet. Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me
question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison
hither?

Guildenstern. Prison, my lord?


7

II,2,1356

Hamlet. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guildenstern. Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.


8

II,2,1374

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, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.

Guildenstern. What should we say, my lord?


9

II,2,1388

Hamlet. [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold
not off.

Guildenstern. My lord, we were sent for.


10

II,2,1443

Hamlet. Is't possible?

Guildenstern. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.


11

II,2,1452

(stage directions). Flourish for the Players.

Guildenstern. There are the players.


12

II,2,1459

Hamlet. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th'
appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply
with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which I
tell you must show fairly outwards) should more appear like
entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father
and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.

Guildenstern. In what, my dear lord?


13

III,1,1689

Rosencrantz. He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause he will by no means speak.

Guildenstern. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.


14

III,1,1695

Rosencrantz. Most like a gentleman.

Guildenstern. But with much forcing of his disposition.


15

III,2,2183

Hamlet. Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
For if the King like not the comedy,
Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Guildenstern. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.


16

III,2,2185

Hamlet. Sir, a whole history.

Guildenstern. The King, sir-


17

III,2,2187

Hamlet. Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd.


18

III,2,2189

Hamlet. With drink, sir?

Guildenstern. No, my lord; rather with choler.


19

III,2,2193

Hamlet. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to
the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps
plunge him into far more choler.

Guildenstern. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start
not so wildly from my affair.


20

III,2,2196

Hamlet. I am tame, sir; pronounce.

Guildenstern. The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit
hath sent me to you.


21

III,2,2199

Hamlet. You are welcome.

Guildenstern. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.
If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do
your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return
shall be the end of my business.


22

III,2,2204

Hamlet. Sir, I cannot.

Guildenstern. What, my lord?


23

III,2,2230

Hamlet. Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows'- the proverb is something
musty.
[Enter the Players with recorders. ]
O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with you- why do
you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me
into a toil?

Guildenstern. O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.


24

III,2,2232

Hamlet. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guildenstern. My lord, I cannot.


25

III,2,2234

Hamlet. I pray you.

Guildenstern. Believe me, I cannot.


26

III,2,2236

Hamlet. I do beseech you.

Guildenstern. I know, no touch of it, my lord.


27

III,2,2240

Hamlet. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your
fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will
discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guildenstern. But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I
have not the skill.


28

III,3,2284

Claudius. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.

Guildenstern. We will ourselves provide.
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your Majesty.


29

IV,2,2704

Hamlet. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.
The King is a thing-

Guildenstern. A thing, my lord?


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