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"dreadfully attended"
Wordplay
Act 2,
Scene 2
Line 267

An explanation of Hamlet’s wordplay in the phrase “dreadfully attended” in Act 2, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Hamlet   

most dreadfully attended. – But in the beaten way of    

Hamlet’s wordplay means this line can be read in two ways—only one of which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern understand:

  • Hamlet is dreadfully (poorly) waited on by his servants. This is the meaning he intends for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
  • But he has also been visited—or attended—by something dreadful, the ghost.