This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof

[GeorgeJones]

Why would Hamlet (Shakespeare) call this a paradox? To what works / authors might Shakespeare be referring (Donne - Why are the fairest, falsest, Guazzo - Beauty breedeth temptation)?

There seems to be no paradox, but Hamlet never says anything without a reason, so what is it?

[Pompey Bum]

Because having someone else do your homework for you robs you of the actual learning process? Paradoxical!

[GeorgeJones]

Beauty is similar, if not synonymous, with God's glory, so beauty and honesty go hand-in-hand and it would engender a paradox to think otherwise. Hamlet (mischievously) conflates God's beauty with physical attractiveness when he declares that it is no longer a paradox to think of Beauty and Honesty as combatants, with Beauty having the upper hand.


Any other interpretations?

[Pompey Bum]

No, I'd go with that one. Just be sure to footnote it. ;-)

[stanley2]

As Pompey Bum suggests, a good place to start is a dictionary. That is, look up or review the terms "paradox" and irony. The editors of the new Arden edition wrote that paradox, as used here, means an "absurd statement." John Andrews wrote much the same thing: "a statement to be treated sceptically." The Arden editors also noted that the passage also recalls passages from AS YOU LIKE IT. One also might recall the speech in ROMEO AND JULIET that begins: "O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!"(ROM3.2.75-87). In Sonnet 147 we find: "For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, / Who art as black as hell, as dark as night."

[stanley2]

Dang. The line Mr. Jones asked about is from Act 3, scene 1, line 112 or so from the play. Jones seems to like the idea that Hamlet is presenting once again an "antic disposition"(1.5.179 or so). Isaac Asimov agreed with the idea that Hamlet is aware that his uncle is listening nearby and describes Hamlet's speech to the girl as a "crescendo of cruel sarcasm."