Choose a line from Act II in Hamlet that is particularly fresh,
engaging, or beautiful. Cite the line properly using MLA format. Identify who
said it, what it means, and why you think it is particularly fresh, engaging,
or beautiful.
How to Cite Shakespeare inMLA
¦ Italicize the titles of plays:
Richard III or Othello.
¦ Cite line and page numbers up to 101 like this: 34-37; above 100,
you repeat only the last two figures: 211-12 (but of course, 397-405 and
96-109). Use arabic numerals rather than roman numerals for citations of acts,
scenes, and line numbers:
Twelfth Night (1.5.268-76).
¦ Always use arabic numerals to refer to acts and
scenes:
In 3.1, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy.
(Do NOT say: In Act III, scene i, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy.)
¦ Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks:
“Periods and commas,” says Dr. Womack, “ALWAYS go inside quotation
marks.”
¦ If a prose quotation runs four lines or less, put it in quotation
marks and incorporate it in the text:
The immensely obese Falstaff tells the Prince: “When I was about thy years,
Hal, I was not an eagle’s talon in the waist; I could have crept into any
alderman’s thumb ring” (2.4.325-27).
¦ If a prose quotation runs to more than four lines, set it off from
your text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch from the left margin, and
type it double-spaced, without adding quotation marks. A colon generally
introduces an indented quotation.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Benedick reflects on what he has overheard
Don Pedro, Leonato, and
This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady. It seems her affections have their
full bent. Love me? Why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured. They
say I will bear myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her; they say
too that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. (2.3.217-24)
¦ If you quote all or part of a single line of verse, put it in
quotation marks within your text:
Berowne’s pyrotechnic line “Light, seeking light, doth light of light
beguile” is a text-book example of antanaclasis (1.1.77).
¦ You may also incorporate two or three lines in the same way, using
a slash with a space on each side ( / ) to separate them:
Claudius alludes to the story of Cain and Abel when he describes his crime:
“It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, / A brother’s murder” (3.3.37-38).
¦ Verse quotations of more than three lines should begin on a new
line. Indent each line one inch from the left margin and double-space between
lines, adding no quotation marks that do not appear in the original. If the
quotation starts in the middle of a line of verse, reproduce it that way, do
not shift it to the left margin:
Jaques begins his famous speech by comparing the world to a theater:
All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. (2.7.138-42)
He then proceeds to enumerate and analyze these ages.
¦ If you quote dialogue between two or more characters in a play, set
the quotation off from your text. Begin each part of the dialogue with the
appropriate character’s name indented one inch from the left margin and written
in all capital letters. Follow the name with a period, and start the quotation.
Indent all subsequent lines in the character’s speech an additional quarter
inch. When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented
one inch from the left margin. Maintain this pattern throughout the entire
quotation.
A short time later, Lear’s daughters try to dismiss all of their father’s
servants:
GONERIL. Hear me, my lord.
What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have command to tend you?
REGAN. What need one?
LEAR. O, reason not the need! (2.4.254-58)
Polonius was talking to Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. He said to get the truth out of saying a lie. “Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: And thus do
we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By
indirections find directions out:” (2.1.68-71). I think this quote is true
because in reality, to get the truth you have to catch people in a lie.
Sometimes I actually do this.
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