Look Upon This Picture, by William Shakespeare

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Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine* in a matron’s bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire : proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will.*

Queen: Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct.

by William Shakespeare 1564-1616

From Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1603) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), as given in ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: with an Introduction and Notes’ (1891, 1919) edited by K. Deighton.

* An older spelling of mutiny, pronounced in the same way.

* ‘If thou canst... panders will’. This passage assumes a Christian belief, that the devil first tempts people, and then charges them with the crime so he can claim power over them. Hamlet is saying that if even mature women can lose their heads over sex, then the devil has no business making young women feel guilty for doing so. The young have the excuse that desire is still hot them; mature women such as his mother do not.

Précis

But no, Hamlet corrected himself, a blind person, a person with just one sense left, would have chosen better. To lose one’s head in love is excusable in the young, as their passions are still hot, but not for in a woman of mature years. The Queen heard it all, and assured him pitiably that his words had struck home.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

People let love go to their heads. Young people may be excused. Old people may not.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

IAge. IIJudgment. IIIReprove.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Jigsaws

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