Shakespeare’s Use of the Word Play in Hamlet

In Act III, Scene II of The Tragedy of Hamlet, the young prince discusses his views on the art of acting, or playing a role, with the players who are about to perform The Mousetrap. “Suit the action to the word,” he tells the First Player, “the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” (3.2.16-21).

“O there be players I have seen play…have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably” (3.2.26-33). The most obvious meaning of play now and in Shakespeare’s time was “To act a drama, or a part in a drama; to perform” (Oxford English Dictionary, sense VI.36 a.). This definition is most central to the play itself as it is a tragic drama, and one in which acting is a primary concern and tool at that.

A small twist on the usual definition of play would be “fig. in real life: To sustain the character of; to perform the duties or characteristic actions of; to act as if one were, act or behave as or like, act the part of” (Oxford English Dictionary, sense VI.34). This understanding of the verb has particular importance within the context of Hamlet; the repetition would remind the audience that it is not only the actors in “The Murder of Gonzago” who are playing, but Hamlet and Claudius as well. Claudius is sustaining the character of a king, while Hamlet is acting the part of the obedient son.

Hamlet continues to lecture the players, saying “Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them” (3.2.36-37). As a rare meaning of to play is “To make sport or jest at another’s expense; to mock” this line becomes a pun on making fun of others while simultaneously portraying a humorous character (Oxford English Dictionary, sense II.14 a.). Similarly, to play is defined as “To engage or take part in a game” (Oxford English Dictionary, sense III.17).

The audience would recognize and respond to the fact that Hamlet is most definitely playing games; his orchestration of The Mousetrap and his sexual innuendo with Ophelia are just two examples of Hamlet’s many amusements in this scene alone. With play taken as “To stake or wager in a game; to hazard at play,” a common meaning in Shakespeare’s time, dramatic irony is found in Hamlet’s use of a play in order to expose his uncle (Oxford English Dictionary, sense III.21. a.). Hamlet is risking it all in order to prove that his uncle was indeed his father’s murderer.

As for Hamlet’s playing with Ophelia, the repeated use of the word at the beginning of the scene implies the upcoming dialogue between the pair. A now obsolete meaning of the verb play is “To sport amorously; euphem. to have sexual intercourse” (Oxford English Dictionary, sense III.10. c.). Elizabethan audiences would have been extremely familiar with this definition, and so the connection would easily have been made once Hamlet began to jest with Ophelia.
It is clear that a philological study of the word “play” within The Tragedy of Hamlet can provide immense insight into not only relationships between characters, but relationships between the actors and the audience as well. The Oxford English Dictionary provides ample meanings and connotations in order to understand Shakespeare’s masterpiece within a new context.