-
24 BCE
Laertes does not blame Hamlet for his fathers death. Hamlet appoint Fortinbras as the new king and Hamlet dies.
"But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice." (5.2.353-355) -
23 BCE
Hamlet makes Claudius drink from the poisoned drink. Claudius dies.
"Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother." (5.2.320-322) -
22 BCE
Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup and dies. Hamlet and Laertes are both struck by the poisoned blades
"Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery" (5.2.301-302). -
21 BCE
Laertes challenges Hamlet to a fencing match and with help from the king, plan on killing Hamlet
". Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart. But it is no matter." (5.2.197-200) -
20 BCE
Hamlet finds put about Ophelia's death and fights with Laertes
"Lay her i' th' earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! " (5.1.213-215) -
19 BCE
Ophelia drowns after grieving for Polonius
"One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
So fast they follow.—Your sister’s drowned, Laertes." (4.7.159-160) -
18 BCE
Laertes and Claudius plot to kill Hamlet for revenge of Polonius's death.
"My lord, I will be ruled
The rather if you could devise it so
That I might be the organ" (4.7.67-69) -
17 BCE
King plans to send Hamlet to England, and wishes for the King of England to have Hamlet killed
"The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England,
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me." (4.3.67-69) -
16 BCE
Hamlet kills Polonius
"How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!" (3.4.23) -
15 BCE
King Claudius's soliloquy shows his guilt. Hamlet has the opportunity to kill him, but does not.
"Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not." (3.3.36-38) -
14 BCE
The play represents the murder of King Hamlet, and Claudius gets angry and leaves the play
"Give o'er the play." (3.2.257) -
13 BCE
Hamlet rejects Ophelia
"You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not." (3.1.117-119) -
12 BCE
Hamlet's to be or not to be soliloquy
"To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? " (3.1.57-61) -
11 BCE
Hamlet asks the players if he can write something for the nights production in order to prove Claudius is guilty
"We’ll ha ’t tomorrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in ’t, could you not?" (2.2.500-502) -
10 BCE
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to spy on Hamlet.
" Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come. Nay, speak." (2.2.258-260) -
9 BCE
Polonius tells the king the reason for Hamlets behavior. He is in love with Ophelia
"Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
And he, repelled—a short tale to make—
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves
And all we mourn for." (2.2.136-142) -
8 BCE
Ophelia tells Polonius about her strange interaction with Hamlet
"Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosèd out of hell
To speak of horrors—he comes before me." (2.1.81-84) -
7 BCE
Hamlet hears about his fathers murder
"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." (1.5.25) -
6 BCE
Hamlet goes to talk to the Ghost of his father
"It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone" (1.4.61-62) -
5 BCE
Polonius tells Ophelia to avoid hamlet
"I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to ’t, I charge you. Come your ways." (1.3.132-135) -
4 BCE
Horatio tells Hamlet about his fathers ghost
"Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encountered: a figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-à-pie," (1.2.196-200) -
3 BCE
Hamlets recites first soliloquy
"Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!" (1.2.129-134) -
2 BCE
Claudius and Gertrued talk to Hamlet about his grief
"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not forever with thy vailèd lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust." (1.2.68-71) -
1 BCE
The ghost first appears
"Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night,
That if again this apparition come
He may approve our eyes and speak to it" (1.1.24)
