Antony, Hamlet & Clouds

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One uses the clouds to mock the sycophancy of an attendant lord, the other to highlight his own dissolution in the world. Both are standing outdoors and looking up at the evening sky.

Hamlet: Do you see that cloud, that's almost in shape like a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks, it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or, like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.


ANTONY: Eros, thou yet behold'st me?

EROS: Ay, noble lord.

ANTONY: Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish,
A vapour sometime, like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon't that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs,
They are black vesper's pageants.

EROS: Ay, my lord.

ANTONY: That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.

EROS: It does, my lord.

ANTONY: My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body...



And a bonus: If you want to do Shakespeare at home, with only string for a playing partner, here's your chance: Hamlet and Macbeth.