The action of the play takes place in Denmark, where Hamlet is Prince.

Hamlet's friend Horatio is invited to join the sentries on the ramparts because they've seen a ghost that looks like the late King Hamlet.

Hamlet makes this statement in Act 1, scene 2, while lamenting his mother's whirlwind marriage to Claudius.

The sentry Marcellus makes this statement after the ghost beckons Hamlet to follow it.

Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago.

Polonius forces Ophelia to return Hamlet's love letters to the prince while he and Claudius watch from afar to evaluate Hamlet's reaction.

Hamlet plots to stage a play featuring a death in the style of his father's murder. After seeing the Player King assassinated by his rival pouring poison in his ear, Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the room, proving his guilt in Hamlet's eyes.

As Laertes prepares to depart for France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in this ironic maxim.

Gertrude summons Hamlet to her room to demand an explanation for his strange behavior. Polonius, spying on the conversation from behind a tapestry, makes a noise, and Hamlet kills him, believing it to be his uncle.

Ophelia says this when she returns Hamlet's remembrances and he denies ever having given them.