> "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! / Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd / His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! / How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world! / Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely. That it should come to this! / But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: / So excellent a king; that was, to this, / Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother / That he might not beteem the winds of heaven / Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! / Must I remember? why, she would hang on him / As if increase of appetite had grown / By what it fed on: and yet, within a month— / Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!— / A little month, or ere those shoes were old / With which she follow'd my poor father's body / Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she— / (O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn'd longer)—married with my uncle, / My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules: within a month: / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! / It is not nor it cannot come to good: / But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue."
The line you're asking about is: "Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!— / A little month, or ere those shoes were old / With which she follow'd my poor father's body / Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she— / (O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn'd longer)—married with my uncle, / My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules: within a month: / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!"
Claudius's reference to "memory death" is not directly stated. It's implied through Hamlet's speech. He is shocked and appalled by his mother, Gertrude, marrying his uncle, Claudius, so quickly after his father's death. He sees it as a betrayal of his father's memory and a sign of Gertrude's "frailty" and lack of proper mourning.
Here's the breakdown:
* "Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!—": Hamlet can't bear to dwell on his mother's actions, labeling her "frailty" for marrying so quickly.
* "A little month, or ere those shoes were old / With which she follow'd my poor father's body / Like Niobe, all tears;—": He points out how she wore the same shoes to the funeral as to the wedding, emphasizing the haste of her remarriage.
* "why she, even she— / (O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn'd longer)—married with my uncle, / My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules: within a month: / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married.": He compares Gertrude's actions to a beast lacking reason, emphasizing that she should have mourned longer and that her marriage to Claudius is an insult to his father's memory.
"Memory death" can be interpreted as:
* The premature extinguishing of the memory of Hamlet's father by Gertrude's quick marriage. The grief, mourning, and remembrance of the deceased are effectively "killed" by the rushed marriage.
* The "death" of his father's memory in Gertrude's heart. Her actions show a lack of respect for his father and suggest her heart is already "dead" to his memory.
* The "green" imagery is likely a reference to the newness of the grief. Hamlet is struggling with his grief, which is still raw and unprocessed. His mother's actions only amplify this pain.
Ultimately, Hamlet is expressing deep disgust and outrage over his mother's actions, seeing them as a betrayal of his father's memory and a deeply immoral act. The "death" of the memory is metaphorical, highlighting the emotional devastation Hamlet feels as he grapples with his grief and the sudden shift in his family dynamic.