(2)+O+all+you+host+of+heaven!


 * (2nd soliloquy-- Act 1, Scene 5, lines 99-116,**
 * Folger Edition)**

//INTRODUCTION: //

//This soliloquy is spoken by Hamlet after what is believed to be King Hamlet's Ghost reveals to Hamlet how Claudius murdered Hamlet's father. Hamlet is completely overwhelmed by hate towards his uncle Claudius and vows to obey the ghost's wishes. Hamlet also expresses his anger towards his mother and how she remarried so quickly to a villain and the brother of her own husband. //

//ANNOTATED SOLILOQUY: //


 * HAMLET: **

And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart! 100 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,**
 * O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
 * But bear me stiffly up.**

//In these Lines Hamlet doesn't know whether he should look to heaven or hell to help him understand the revelations of the ghost. And he calls upon his "sinews" or muscles/strength to keep holding him up so that he can deal with this news.//

In this distracted globe.**
 * Remember thee?**
 * Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat

//Hamlet states that he will remember the ghost and its wishes at all times, despite the distractions of the world. Shakespeare's use of "globe" for head is an interesting allusion to the actual Globe Theatre in which this play was originally performed.//

Yea, from the table of my memory 105 I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,** That youth and observation copied there; And thy commandment all alone shall live** Unmix'd with baser matter.**
 * Remember thee?
 * All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
 * Within the book and volume of my brain, 110

//Hamlet also states that records or memories of any sort will no longer concern him. He will forget the "trivial" thoughts of the past, especially from his "youth," which is treated here as if it were a waste to time filled with nonsense and immature matters.// //What the ghost of his father has told him will be the only thing he will think of and use as the fuel for his actions. Everything else is now "baser matter" or inconsequential.//

O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!**
 * Yes, by heaven!

//Now, even though the Ghost made it clear that his mother had nothing to do with the murder, Hamlet sees his mother as pernicious, which has an original definition of evil. His uncle is now a villain, and smiling at the same time.//

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; 115** ** At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. ** **//[He writes.]// So, uncle, there you are.**
 * My tables—meet it is I set it down

//Claudius shows no signs that he commited a murder and he acts as if nothing ever happened. Hamlet is seen writing// this down as if he could actually forget this. But what this does at the very beginning of the play is show that there are those who "act" in order to play a role that suits their goals.

It is ‘Adieu, adieu! Remember me.’ I have sworn't.** // Hamlet clearly swears to remember the ghost's revelation and uphold avenging his father's murder!!! //
 * Now to my word:

104. **globe:** Hamlet perhaps gestures to his head. He may may also be punning with the actual theater itself, in which this play was performed. 105. **table:** table-book or slate, used here metaphorically (Hamlet wants to wipe his memory clean, as one would erase a slate or table-book. Later [lines 114-16], he takes out actual “tables.”) 106. **fond records:** foolish jottings (**records** accented on the second syllable) 108. **youth and observation:** youthful observation 114. **meet it is:** it is appropriate that

//CONCLUSION: //

//The importance of this soliloquy is twofold.

1. Hamlet has even more reason to be completely unnerved by the current events at Elsinore: his father's death and his mother's recent marriage to his uncle. The ghost's revelation is simply throwing fuel on an already hot and powerful fire.

2. We also now know that everything that Hamlet does is for the sole purpose of avenging his father's murder. The "table" of his memory is completely wiped clean, and the only thing that resides there is the notion of avenging his father. We know that the "antic disposition" is all an act, since he reveals that to Horatio and the others, but the audience knows why he is acting. Every encounter Hamlet has in the play, no matter the character, is fueled by the ghost's revelation and the current situation in Denmark. And we must not forget that.//