2006-10-12 23:56:27 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
Many of you have fallen for a misrepresentation of the quote. It is not I knew him well.
The line is...
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
it."
And to answer the question, we know it is Yorick because the clown tells Hamlet.
"A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a
flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester."
2006-10-13 09:30:41 · answer #1 · answered by Charles 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hamlet’s constant brooding about death and humanity – as well as the number of deaths we witness – makes Yorick’s skull the most famous image of the play. Yorick’s dead head shows up towards the end of the play, when Hamlet is chatting with some gravediggers and realizes that the skull they’ve just tossed up out of the ground belonged to the court jester he knew and loved as a child. " He can no longer see death as though it were some intangible event that he claims to look forward to; now he has to look it in the face. He knew Yorick, he says, which means he understands what it means to lose a person. From Shmoop Lit/Symbols in Hamlet
2016-03-28 07:17:29 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That of his old friend, Yorick!
As a child Hamlet found the jester Yorick amusing and entertaining. They used to play and frolic in an intimate but innocent way. Now that Yorick is a smelly corpse the memory of touching him seems revolting and makes Hamlet feel ill.
2006-10-13 02:53:21 · answer #3 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It IS Yorick, as already quoted: 'Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well...'
What Hamlet fails to say is that he doesn't look so well any more . Perhaps the bard thought it was stating the obvious, what with Yorick being a skull...
2006-10-13 04:31:16 · answer #4 · answered by Antics 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yorick
2006-10-13 10:17:55 · answer #5 · answered by Cary Grant 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yoricks' -- he was Hamlets' fathers' court jester when Hamlet was a child.
2006-10-13 15:21:49 · answer #6 · answered by rjr 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio - a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung these lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?
2006-10-16 01:03:55 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
he doesn't address the skull, he addresses horatio and the grave digger, about the skull of yorrick the former jester at his father's court, who entertained Hamlet when Hamlet was a young child.
the quote is not "i knew him well" but rather, "i knew him, horatio"
2006-10-13 07:14:52 · answer #8 · answered by Paul S 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yorick as in the quote - "Alas poor yorick i knew him well ..."
2006-10-14 01:58:32 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yorick - I believe that he was the court jester.
2006-10-13 01:16:17 · answer #10 · answered by Jeannie 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋