Alas Poor Yorick Trivia Quiz

Answer:

This monologue comes from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". It appears in Act 5 Scene 1 and these famous words are spoken by Hamlet himself. Yorick was the old King's jester, whom Hamlet knew well and played with as a child, and who had died more than 20 years ago. Horatio is Hamlet's friend.

The scene takes place in a cemetery after Hamlet has returned to Denmark from London and he is trying to decide what to do next with the knowledge that it was his uncle who killed the King, Hamlet's father. His girlfriend, Ophelia, has committed suicide and while Hamlet and Horatio are walking through the cemetery they come across two gravediggers, preparing Ophelia's grave. Hamlet and Horatio stop to talk to them, and in particular they comment on the skulls lying on the ground. Hamlet asks about the identity of a particular skull and the gravedigger tells him it is Yorick, the King's jester, which has been in the ground for 23 years. Hamlet picks it up and so the soliloquy begins as Hamlet tells Horatio of the history he had with Yorick.

The beginning of the monologue is very often misquoted as 'Alas poor Yorick! I knew him well'? The correct quote is 'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio', This kind of misquotation is common with quite a few Shakespeare quotes.