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31 maj 2020 · Claudius begins his soliloquy by describing his ‘offence’ – killing his brother, Old Hamlet – as ‘rank’, i.e. foul-smelling and offensive. His crime is the very first murder in the Bible: Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, from the book of Genesis, and the subsequent curse placed upon mankind.
- My Offence is Rank Soliloquy
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Hamlet is not...
- Hamlet
Hamlet’s ‘What a piece of work is a man’ speech is among the...
- William Shakespeare
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) If...
- My Offence is Rank Soliloquy
Actually understand Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1. Read every line of Shakespeare’s original text alongside a modern English translation.
Read Shakespeare’s ‘O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven’ soliloquy from Hamlet below with modern English translation and analysis, plus a video.
Hamlet enters and sees Claudius praying. He is grateful to at last be alone with the man, believing now is the chance to kill him and take his revenge. Hamlet, however, finds himself in a conundrum—if he kills Claudius while the king is praying, Claudius’s soul will go to heaven.
Morris LeRoy Arnold, in his book The Soliloquies of Shakespeare, argues that Claudius' soliloquy is similar to King Henry's prayer before battle in Henry V (4.1.306-322). They both "give the impression of rhetorical pageantry rather than sincere contrition."
10 That live and feed upon your majesty. 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. ROSENCRANTZ. The single and peculiar life is bound. With all the strength and armor of the mind.
‘To be, or not to be’ is the opening line of a monologue spoken by the character Hamlet in Act III, scene 1, of William Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy Hamlet (c. 1599–1601).
