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In this dialogue from Hamlet which comes right after the
famous "To be or not to be" nothing is clear. Why Ophelia
returns the letters? Are both of them just making a spectacle
for the  "viewers" (Claudius and Polonius)? Is Hamlet saying:
"I never gave you aught (anything)" or is he saying "I never
gave you ought" (I never gave you what you deserved).
She says "when givers prove unkind" - why she accuses
him of  being unkind? Does Hamlet start a play of words and
double-meaning  with words honest and fair ?


----------------------------------
OPHELIA

Good my lord,
How does your honor for this many a day?

OPHELIA

Hello, my lord, how have you been doing lately?

HAMLET

I humbly thank you. Well, well, well.

HAMLET

Very well, thank you. Well, well, well.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have longèd long to redeliver.
I pray you now receive them.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have some mementos of yours that I’ve been meaning
to give back to you for a long time now. Please take them.

HAMLET

No, not I. I never gave you aught.

HAMLET

No, it wasn’t me. I never gave you anything. ( Or "I never gave you what you deserved.")

OPHELIA

My honored lord, you know right well you did,
And with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
Take these again, for to the noble mind Rich gifts
wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.

OPHELIA

My lord, you know very well that you did, and wrote letters to go along
with them, letters so sweetly written that they made your gifts even more
valuable. Their perfume is gone now, so take them back. Nice gifts lose
their value when the givers turn out not to be so nice.
There, my lord.

HAMLET

Ha, ha, are you honest?

HAMLET

Ha ha, are you good?  (Or   "Are you kidding me?")

OPHELIA

My lord?

OPHELIA

Excuse me?

HAMLET

Are you fair?

HAMLET

Are you beautiful?   (Or   "Are you fair to me?")

OPHELIA

What means your lordship?

OPHELIA

My lord, what are you talking about? (she clearly doesn't get it)

HAMLET

That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should   
admit no discourse to your beauty.

HAMLET

I’m just saying that if you’re good and beautiful,   (Oscar Wildish switch to a word-play)
your goodness should have nothing to do with your beauty.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Here  Laurence Olivier and Judi Dench play as if they are spied on and  they pronounce some parts as actors on stage (which seems a correct way to do)
but still the dialogue is cut and not all the remarks make sense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DcoiAAuoeg

Here Mel Gibson and Helena Bonham Carter play very shortened version, which doesn't make sense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO-wxlavDQI

A weird "modernised" performance of Kenneth Branagh and Kate Winslet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PcUQyXNYe0

Close to the text but doesn't make a lot of sense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwbwzMe1Uss

There are also a couple of "analysis" videos and blog-posts which explain this as an ordinary quarrel scene.

I wonder if there is a good line-by-line commentary which
gets into details and word-play, like Lotman's for EO.

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