Note to anyone still needing to make up last Friday's Renaissance intro quiz:  yesterday was Day 1.  Today was Day 2.  Tomorrow BEFORE school--no later than 9:30 a.m.--is Day 3.  After school tomorrow is not an option, because there is a faculty meeting.  If you did not take this on Friday, and you haven't already made it up, I'll be expecting you.

TODAY IN CLASS
We used a back-and-forth strategy between the BBC Hamlet production and some direct work on language and characterization.  We viewed--in steps and stages--from the beginning to the end of Hamlet's "O that this too, too sullied flesh would melt . . ." soliloquy. 

We annotated some of the language and rhetorical strategies of the speech Claudius gives to the court at the beginning of Scene 2, and we tracked the major thought points of his "lecture" to Hamlet.  We also looked at the director's choice to have Claudius double-check Hamlet's university with Gertrude (HOW well does he know the young man he claims to want to keep nearby for his cheer and comfort?), and we played around with ways in which a director could also use emphasis to show Hamlet's willingness to do what his mother begs, but pointedly making it clear that he's not complying because Claudius says so.

Finally, after listening to the Hamlet's soliloquy, we looked at the three basic "complaints' he raises in that speech.  If you were absent, try to figure them out on your own.  Since it was the last thing, and sometimes focus is (ahem . . ) lost by then, we'll review that quickly at the start on Wednesday.

FOR TOMORROW
Read to the end of Scene 2.  Look over at the notes on the left-hand side to help you understand  things that might be difficult.