ACT IV Questions 4.11. Does Gertrude tell Claudius the truth about what happened between her and Hamlet (4.1.7-12)? Is she following Hamlet's advice at the end of 3.4? 2. How does Claudius respond to the death of Polonius? Does he understand the implications of what happened? What will he do now?   4.21. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern learn from Hamlet?   4.31. Why does Claudius believe he can't simply arrest Hamlet? 2. What is the result of Hamlet's joking about death and worms? Keep the whole "worm" discussion in mind when you get to 5.1, the graveyard scene. This discussion is a prelude to that one. 3. Is Hamlet going to England as a prisoner or in the guise of a royal representative? 4. What do Claudius' letters tell England (i.e., the king of England) to do with Hamlet? Why does Claudius expect to be obeyed? (The situation is more or less historical, since England was ruled by a Danish king from 1016-1042. The original Hamlet story seems to date from about this time.)   4.41. Why is Fortinbras' army passing through Denmark? (Remember 2.2.60-80.) 2. What sort of judgment does the Captain make about the place they are fighting for? How does Hamlet describe it? 3. Where is Hamlet going when he meets the Captain? 4. Do a close reading of Hamlet's seventh soliloquy.  (Act 4 Scene 4 Lines 32-66)      How all occasions do inform against me,And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,If his chief good and market of his timeBe but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,Looking before and after, gave us notThat capability and god-like reasonTo fust in us unused. Now, whether it beBestial oblivion, or some craven scrupleOf thinking too precisely on the event,A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdomAnd ever three parts coward, I do not knowWhy yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'Sith I have cause and will and strength and meansTo do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:Witness this army of such mass and chargeLed by a delicate and tender prince,Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'dMakes mouths at the invisible event,Exposing what is mortal and unsureTo all that fortune, death and danger dare,Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument,But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honour's at the stake. How stand I then,That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,Excitements of my reason and my blood,And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I seeThe imminent death of twenty thousand men,That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plotWhereon the numbers cannot try the cause,Which is not tomb enough and continentTo hide the slain? O, from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!