Some wisdom from Hamlet

Hamlet és un dels llibres que estic llegint per l'examen d'accés al màster de literatura.

Abans de les frases sàvies, una curiositat. Pels catalans (Visca Catalunya! <-amb la mà al pit). Cul de sac no és l'única expressió catalana incorporada per la llengua de Shakespeare -mai més ben dit. Vet-ho aquí una altra:

Quan Horatius explica a Hamlet que ha vist el fantasma del seu pare -del pare de Hamlet-, diu el següent:

Two nights together had these gentlemen
(Marcellus and Bernardo) on their watch
In the dead vast and middle of the night
Been thus encountered. A figure like your father
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them.

CAP-A-PE!?!?!?!?!?


Look your character. Give your thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

(...)

Those friends you have, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto your soul with hoops of steel.

(...)

Give every man your ear, but few your voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve your judgement.

(...)

Costly your habit as your purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy.

(...)

This above all- to your own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
You can not then be false to any man.


(Polonius: Act I, Scene III)