..."distraction in his aspect" (2.2.554-55) display and provoke a "dream of passion" for "nothing": "What's Hecuba to him, or he to [Hecuba] / That he should...the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?" (2.2.559-62). Hamlet's complaint recalls the Augustinian criticism so popular among the Reformers:...

...Pre-Raphaelite movement were influential sources for Aestheticism. Shakespeare, Hamlet II. ii. 559-560: "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, / That he should weep for her?" The last doctrine is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art....

...transient, and vaguely aimed at eternity. All this has been noticed many times, not least in Hamkt ("What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?"). I can only say that it became something of a personal revelation to me. I did not confuse myself by...

...into the dry, red earth, it all seemed both perfectly possible and of no real consequence. "What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba that he should weep for her?" said Hamlet, after an actor had performed the Trojan queen's grief at the murder of her husband, Priam....

...who is able to express a powerful lament for Hecuba in the play he is rehearsing and asks: "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?" (II, ii, 532-33). Think what this actor would be able to say, Hamlet goes on, if he had my real-world...

...was also deeply appreciated; but most of all my wife, Dolly, who suffered my need to write this book. That he should weep for her? What would he do, had...he the motive and the cue for passion that I have? William Shakespear 'Hamlet' Contents Acknowledgment v Prologue xi Epilogue 191 Prologue We experience...

...was also deeply appreciated; but most of all my wife, Dolly, who suffered my need to write this book. That he should weep for her? What would he do, had...he the motive and the cue for passion that I have? William Shakespear 'Hamlet' Contents Acknowledgment v Prologue xi Epilogue 191 Prologue We experience...

...performed weeping seems to have more force than his own inaction: What's Hecuba to him, or he to her, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? (2.2.494-7) Both Hamlet and the play as a whole are obsessed by the idea of performance. Polonius'...

...was also deeply appreciated; but most of all my wife, Dolly, who suffered my need to write this book. That he should weep for her? What would he do, had...he the motive and the cue for passion that I have? William Shakespear 'Hamlet' Contents Acknowledgment v Prologue xi Epilogue 191 Prologue We experience...

...on doing so). After hearing the Player's passionate delivery of "Priam's slaughter," Hamlet wonders, "What would he do had he the motive and the cue for passion/ That I have?" (2.2.554—6). And he gives the answer, "He would drown the stage with tears, / And cleave the ear...