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"This quarry cries on havoc"
Metaphor
Act 5,
Scene 2
Lines 304b-314a

An explanation of the phrase “This quarry cries on havoc” in Act 5, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Fortinbras   

Where is this sight?

Horatio

                                      What is it you would see? 
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fortinbras

This quarry cries on havoc. Oh proud Death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes, at a shoot,
So bloodily hast struck?

Ambassador

                                        The sight is dismal.
And our affairs from England come too late 
(The ears are senseless that should give us hearing)
To tell him his commandment is fulfilled,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

Quarry originally referred to the deer or other animals killed during a hunt. Fortinbras uses it metaphorically to refer to the human corpses strewn about the stage. The verb, to cry, is used in two senses:

  • “Havoc” was the signal given to soldiers at the end of a battle indicating that the fighting was over, and that they were free to pillage and plunder. To “cry havoc” meant to yell out this signal. This scene of destruction is what you might expect after someone has cried havoc.
  • “To cry on” means to proclaim against, to protest. The revolting sight of the corpses protests against the massacre which has occurred.