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read the passages.

excerpt from the danish history by saxo grammaticus

amleth beheld all this, but feared lest too shrewd a behaviour might make his uncle suspect him. so he chose to feign dulness, and pretend an utter lack of wits. this cunning course not only concealed his intelligence but ensured his safety. every day he remained in his mother's house utterly listless and unclean, flinging himself on the ground and bespattering his person with foul and filthy dirt. his discoloured face and visage smutched with slime denoted foolish and grotesque madness. all he said was of a piece with these follies; all he did savoured of utter lethargy. in a word, you would not have thought him a man at all, but some absurd abortion due to a mad fit of destiny. he used at times to sit over the fire, and, raking up the embers with his hands, to fashion wooden crooks, and harden them in the fire, shaping at their lips certain barbs, to make them hold more tightly to their fastenings. when asked what he was about, he said that he was preparing sharp javelins to avenge his father. this answer was not a little scoffed at, all men deriding his idle and ridiculous pursuit; but the thing his purpose afterwards. now it was his craft in this matter that first awakened in the deeper observers a suspicion of his cunning.

excerpt from act ii, scene 1, in hamlet by william shakespeare

the ghost of hamlet’s father tells hamlet that claudius murdered him to take his throne and his wife, the queen. hamlet tells his friends that he is going to act strangely and swears them to secrecy. hamlet and ophelia have a romantic relationship. after seeing hamlet in his disheveled state, she goes to her father, polonius.

ophelia
o, my lord, my lord, i have been so affrighted!

polonius
with what, i’ th’ name of god?

ophelia
my lord, as i was sewing in my closet,
lord hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,
pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
and with a look so piteous in purport
as if he had been loosèd out of hell
to speak of horrors—he comes before me.

which statement best describes one way that shakespeare drew upon the danish history and incorporated this content into hamlet?

a. shakespeare copied specific words and phrases from grammaticus’s writing.
b. the descriptions of amleth’s actions were the inspiration for the character of ophelia.
c. hamlet’s madness and behavior as described by ophelia comes from a description of amleth.
d. the story of amleth’s life and actions inspired the sequence of events in hamlet.