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All Site ContentHamletAct 3Scene 1
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"beck"
Language
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 122-131

An explanation of “beck” in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Hamlet

Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a 
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet
I could accuse me of such things that it were better my
mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have
thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape,
or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do
crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant 
knaves all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. –     
Where's your father?

A “beck” is a head or hand gesture used to summon someone; you "beckon" someone using this gesture. Someone "at your beck and call” will respond to either your silent gesture (“beck”), or your verbal command (“call”).