Hamlet: Act 2, Scene II
Thanks to my crazy crazy sleeping schedule, I didn't post a Hamlet scene yesterday, but this one is so freakin' EPIC it ought to make up for it. Normally I knock these things out over a couple of hours, but this one's taken me all day. I'm dividing it up in two posts and putting the first half up while I work on the second so I don't have to worry about the computer eating all my efforts.
Also, GIP: infiniteviking made it based on the commentary for Act 1, Scene II. Is it not marvelous? You'll have to check with her whether it's for general ganking. I do feel special when people quote me in icons.
Previous post:
First Act:
Scene I: The Crazy Occult Forays of Marcellus and Horatio.
Scene II: Claudius is the villain, but he's still hotter than you.
Scene III: Ophelia's virginity is a national treasure. Just ask her dad and brother.
Scene IV: That a ghoooooooooost?
Scene V: "'Who's your daddy?' Now that's just inappropriate."
Second Act:
Act 2, Scene I: Happy families are all alike---they're totally fucked up.
KING CLAUDIUS
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was.
Strange that Hamlet's madness already feels like such accomplished fact to us, and yet we actually have still to see him thus.
What it should be,
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from the understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of:
Compare this to what Gertrude will say to Claudius in a few lines: "his father's death and our o'erhasty marriage." They think the same way, in most matters, but Claudius' guilt keeps him from acknowledging aloud that he married with inappropriate speed.
Claudius is such a careful and savvy person in most respects that you have to consider what it says about the depth of his feelings for Gertrude that he didn't put a better face on his actions by waiting just a little while.
I entreat you both,
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time: so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
For some reason I'd always thought of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as being friends of Hamlet's from Wittenburg, but on re-consideration they don't interact with Horatio, and Claudius is talking as though they grew up with Hamlet and he's known them for many years, which makes their betrayal a little more significant.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
And sure I am two men there are not living
To whom he more adheres.
Isn't it weird how Gertrude and Claudius apparently don't even think to approach Horatio on this issue? Either they're too canny to try it, knowing he'll refuse them, or Horatio's keeping himself pretty scarce, or Hamlet keeps his friendship with Horatio carefully out of their eye, all of which have interesting possibilities attached to them.
ROSENCRANTZ
Both your majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN
But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.
Is it possible to distinguish between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Dialogue's divided between them more or less equally. Rosencrantz strikes me as marginally more clever, with a readier wit, but cagier---he's the one who asks Guildenstern "what should we say?" when Hamlet questions them later on. But the differences are very slight. Everyone who isn't Claudius and Gertrude is running together in Hamlet's mind now, with occasional mental pitstops at Horatio and Ophelia?
KING CLAUDIUS
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
I love how in the Branagh version, Gertrude's inversion of their names is taken to imply that Claudius mixed them up. If the idea that they're interchangeable bothers you, of course you could choose not to read it that way, but it amuses the hell out of me.
LORD POLONIUS
The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully return'd.
KING CLAUDIUS
Thou still hast been the father of good news.
I shit you not, I once read a critical essay that contended Ophelia was pregnant by Claudius at the time of her death based on that line. I prefer to just imagine that Claudius is fond of her. Or that the line has nothing to do with her, but I'm prejudiced.
LORD POLONIUS
Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king:
And I do think, or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
KING CLAUDIUS
O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
I confess, it still baffles me that Claudius thinks Polonius is any good at all. Perhaps he's struck with amazement at the fact that all seven lines of Polonius's speech above are one sentence, and only the last six words actually make any sense.
KING CLAUDIUS
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I doubt it is no other but the main;
His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
AWKWARD.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
Welcome, my good friends!
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLTIMAND
Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But, better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
That so his sickness, age and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack:
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
EVERY TIME I READ THAT I HOWL WITH LAUGHTER. Fortinbras is like, "Sorry I went all up in arms against Denmark, Uncle. By the way, thanks for the three thousand crowns and safe passage through Denmark, which I will totally not use to take up arms against Denmark!" I tell myself that Claudius was really distracted wondering whether Polonius is about to say "Hamlet's nuts 'cause you killed his dad! Do I get a cookie?" Otherwise I'd have to reconsider my theory about how smart he is.
KING CLAUDIUS
It likes us well;
And at our more consider'd time well read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Yes, I think that supports it. "I really ought to be paying attention to this right now, but I'm distracted because Polonius is probably just stupid enough to have stumbled on evidence of my crimes without knowing what he's seeing. Put it in my In tray."
LORD POLONIUS
This business is well ended.
'Cause it's not like he's got any advisors who are going to suggest he do any differently.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
More matter, with less art.
Perhaps the one moment of Gertrude's in the whole play where I find it easy to believe she's related to Hamlet.
LORD POLONIUS
Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
POLONIUS YOU'RE SO DUMB YOU'RE ALMOST SMART although nobody is ever that funny on purpose.
I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
"I mean, if you guys wanted her to, you know, marry your son or something, I could hand her over---"
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
beautified Ophelia,'--
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
'In her excellent white bosom, these, & c.'
Oh my god, that is humiliating. Mostly for Ophelia, but for Hamlet too, I think---Jesus Christ, their parents! are reading their sexy scribblins! On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be a picnic for Polonius either. Claudius' mind is on other matters, and Gertrude probably thinks it's sweet. Pfft. Girls.
By the way, Hamlet? Not much of a poet.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Came this from Hamlet to her?
LORD POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means and place,
All given to mine ear.
But at least he's self-aware about it. Like Benedict, but less light-hearted. I wish we could have seen some of the letter that was less with the poetry and more with actual content. I had a teacher once who attempted to settle an argument over whether Hamlet really loved Ophelia by pointing to that little quatrain of his, and while I do think Hamlet loved her, this is not something I'd name as proof.
KING CLAUDIUS
But how hath she
Received his love?
"'Cause I'm totally hoping those two wacky kids are gonna make it work."
LORD POLONIUS
What do you think of me?
KING CLAUDIUS
As of a man faithful and honourable.
"...but not smart. No, not even a little bit."
LORD POLONIUS
I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me--what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
Polonius is apparently very sincere in not being able to imagine any alliance between his daughter and the king's son; a dishonest man would have encouraged Ophelia in the hopes of using her to advance his own career, and at least we can't accuse him of that. But nothing seems to indicate that Claudius or Gertrude disapproves of their relationship; Polonius is probably projecting his own class anxieties on them.
And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
"Basically, your Majesties, your son is suffering from blue balls."
KING CLAUDIUS
Do you think 'tis this?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
It may be, very likely.
"Dude, I killed my brother just to get a little play, this makes total sense to me." LOL. No, in all honesty, I don't think Claudius buys this story for a second.
LORD POLONIUS
Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
When it proved otherwise?
KING CLAUDIUS
Not that I know.
LORD POLONIUS
[Pointing to his head and shoulder]
Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
Thanks! Don't mind if Hamlet does.
KING CLAUDIUS
How may we try it further?
LORD POLONIUS
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
So he does indeed.
LORD POLONIUS
At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
That word, "loose". Loose, loose, loose. What, Polonius, do you have her on a leash? Nevermind, don't answer that.
Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter: if he love her not
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.
KING CLAUDIUS
We will try it.
"We aren't even a little bit convinced, but we are desperate."
QUEEN GERTRUDE
But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
This is an image Ophelia will mirror, at her father's command, in another scene or so. If you trust the way most directors seem to stage them, Hamlet actually is reading when Polonius comes up to bug him, whereas Ophelia is only pretending to read while waiting for Hamlet to notice her. A little like how later Ophelia will run mad in truth, while Hamlet has largely been playing at it. Is she imitating him, subconsciously? She loves him, no doubt admires him, he's surely older than she is, and she sees that he answers to no one and can quite literally get away with murder, so why shouldn't she? Once Polonius dies she has nothing to lose.
Um, these lines had nothing to do with Ophelia, and yet, there I went. I might be fixated or something.
O, give me leave:
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET
Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS
Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET
Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
LORD POLONIUS
Not I, my lord.
HAMLET
Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS
Honest, my lord!
HAMLET
Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.
LORD POLONIUS
That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS
I have, my lord.
HAMLET
Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Friend, look to 't.
This is the first time Hamlet and Polonius speak to each other directly in the play. Heaven knows what their interactions were like before the whole murder-incest debacle went down, but this sounds like the kind of conversation any intelligent smart ass might have with a moron. But then, it's not like evidence ever persuaded Polonius out of one of his ideas.
Also, I think of that last comment as proof that Hamlet's bitter for Polonius coming between him and Ophelia, but that's neither here nor there. :-)
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
What do you read, my lord?
"Truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love." OH POLONIUS. I don't know why that made me like him for a split second, but it did. Don't worry, I'm over it now.
HAMLET
Words, words, words.
Sometimes I feel like Hamlet's mask slips a tiny bit and we see Shakespeare behind him. That would be one of those moments. I mean, most of you are writers to some degree, you know what he means.
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET
Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS
Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET
You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.
Ever since his father's ghost scared the Purgatory out of him, we get references to wanting to die, rather than wanting to kill himself. A safer wish to express, since it entails no implication of immediate action.
GUILDENSTERN
My honoured lord!
ROSENCRANTZ
My most dear lord!
HAMLET
My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
That greeting is ever bit as true and sincere in its enthusiasm, I think, as the one he gave to Horatio, though as the conversation proceeds it becomes plain he was never so close to them as he was to Horatio.
ROSENCRANTZ
As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN
Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
...dude. They're a couple. Why did I only just notice it? Who answers a question like "how are you" with "we're fine" unless it's a question directed to you and your spouse/petit amie?
Also, "on fortune's cap we are not the very button" ASDFGHJKL;' COULD THAT BE ANY MORE WONDERFUL.
HAMLET
Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ
Neither, my lord.
HAMLET
Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
her favours?
GUILDENSTERN
'Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET
In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
is a strumpet. What's the news?
In a second, the players will come in, and Hamlet will ask the lead player to deliver that beautiful, heartbreaking speech about Hecuba and Priam, the apex of which is the line "Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune!"---and here, Hamlet uses it for a joke. This, to indicate that even when he's fooling around, all his thoughts have desperate undercurrents?
ROSENCRANTZ
None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
HAMLET
Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
Let me question more in particular: what have you,
my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?
That first is a really weird line. Why does Rosencrantz say it? I'd rather think it not for the exclusive purpose of setting up Hamlet's reply. What on earth would make anyone say the world's grown honest, let alone a riddle like Rosencrantz? And why would Hamlet not question it? Or, no, I understand that, it's because he's more interested in making a witty rejoinder. Okay, officially overthinking this, moving on.
GUILDENSTERN
Prison, my lord!
HAMLET
Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Then is the world one.
HAMLET
A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
ROSENCRANTZ
We think not so, my lord.
Again with the "we"! Also, this dialogue is the absolute apex of Hamlet's sulky brat stage, but we'll be moving along to the "definitely gonna kill someone, and it might be you" stage here in a second, so that's alright.
HAMLET
Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
narrow for your mind.
In other words, Hamlet is basically Satan, to the Miltonic mind.
HAMLET
O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
have bad dreams.
Every actor has his own take on which lines Hamlet speaks in earnest and which are those he uses to make people think he's mad(der than he actually is), but I've always taken this line at face value, probably because I have a lot of nightmares myself.
GUILDENSTERN
Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET
A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
HAMLET
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows.
There's a strange quality to all Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's dialogue in this scene, where they say clever and enigmatical things that seemed designed to give Hamlet an excuse for all his dreamy philosophical metaphors. Like they're the voices in Hamlet's head. They remind me of Lear's fool in that sense; it would almost be appropriate to think of them as Hamlet's clowns, considering what clowns are usually like in Shakespeare, which is to say totally bizarre and kind of creepy.
ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
We'll wait upon you.
HAMLET
No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
"Most dreadfully attended"---oddly, none of the Hamlet productions I've seen have put that line into action. People come up to Hamlet and talk to him when it's their turn in the script, but he generally wanders around the set alone---"most dreadfully attended" sounds to me like he ought to have a crowd of helpful servants bumping elbows with him at every turn. It would contribute to the sense of claustrophobia that any proper Hamlet must feel.
HAMLET
Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
GUILDENSTERN
What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET
Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ
To what end, my lord?
HAMLET
That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
whether you were sent for, or no?
ROSENCRANTZ
[Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you?
HAMLET
[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN
My lord, we were sent for.
Do they tell him the truth because they know they're crappy liars and the evidence is against them, or because they really would rather be honest with Hamlet? They do take a lot of persuading, and the force of Hamlet's personality probably shouldn't be underestimated, but people who are crappy liars are usually honest by nature. It's worth considering in light of their later actions---Hamlet swears "they did make love to this employment" but that's not necessarily proof they knew they were helping Claudius try to kill him.
HAMLET
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.
If you take Hamlet at face value here, then he values R & G enough to not wish to put them in a false and difficult position with the king and queen, which makes his about-face shortly hereafter rather more sad. I do take him at face value, because when he says "I have of late...lost all my mirth" I believe he is telling the honest truth, not trying to support the insanity defense.
ROSENCRANTZ
My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET
Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
ROSENCRANTZ
To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
coming, to offer you service.
HAMLET
He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
for't. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ
Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
tragedians of the city.
Hamlet wanted to audition for summer stock a few years ago, but his dad wouldn't hear of it, so he had to go to Harvard and become a doctor keep on being a prince. LOL.
Hamlet's affinity with the players, along with the deep impression Yorick made on him as a boy, adds interestingly to the picture of his character in former times. Being royalty, he no doubt learned how to play himself at a young age, and thus may have felt he had more in common with performers than with lower ranking members of the nobility. He doesn't seem to have any friends of that rank, actually---Horatio is acknowledged to be quite poor, and R & G likewise no more than gentlemen.
HAMLET
How chances it they travel? their residence, both
in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ
I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
late innovation.
HAMLET
Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
in the city? are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ
No, indeed, are they not.
HAMLET
How comes it? do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
that cry out on the top of question, and are most
tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET
What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
longer than they can sing? will they not say
afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
players--as it is most like, if their means are no
better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ
'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
cuffs in the question.
The significance of this odd little interlude on the subject of children's theater troups quite frankly baffles me, although I suppose that, as the players become a mirror to the royal court a little later on, the idea that their rightful, ahem, artistic supremacy has been usurped by children is a further parallel on the overthrow of the rightful order of things---incompetents are running the show, destroying their own future, etc. Whatever. Bueller?
HAMLET
It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
'Sblood, there is something in this more than
natural, if philosophy could find it out.
Suggesting Claudius was around and known to the people before the murder, and apparently people made fun of him. I wonder why?
COMING UP: The Players, some more crap from Polonius, and Hamlet's Really Fucking Long Monologue. No, not that one, the other one. No, not that one either---oh, nevermind.
Also, GIP: infiniteviking made it based on the commentary for Act 1, Scene II. Is it not marvelous? You'll have to check with her whether it's for general ganking. I do feel special when people quote me in icons.
Previous post:
First Act:
Scene I: The Crazy Occult Forays of Marcellus and Horatio.
Scene II: Claudius is the villain, but he's still hotter than you.
Scene III: Ophelia's virginity is a national treasure. Just ask her dad and brother.
Scene IV: That a ghoooooooooost?
Scene V: "'Who's your daddy?' Now that's just inappropriate."
Second Act:
Act 2, Scene I: Happy families are all alike---they're totally fucked up.
KING CLAUDIUS
Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was.
Strange that Hamlet's madness already feels like such accomplished fact to us, and yet we actually have still to see him thus.
What it should be,
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from the understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of:
Compare this to what Gertrude will say to Claudius in a few lines: "his father's death and our o'erhasty marriage." They think the same way, in most matters, but Claudius' guilt keeps him from acknowledging aloud that he married with inappropriate speed.
Claudius is such a careful and savvy person in most respects that you have to consider what it says about the depth of his feelings for Gertrude that he didn't put a better face on his actions by waiting just a little while.
I entreat you both,
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time: so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
For some reason I'd always thought of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as being friends of Hamlet's from Wittenburg, but on re-consideration they don't interact with Horatio, and Claudius is talking as though they grew up with Hamlet and he's known them for many years, which makes their betrayal a little more significant.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
And sure I am two men there are not living
To whom he more adheres.
Isn't it weird how Gertrude and Claudius apparently don't even think to approach Horatio on this issue? Either they're too canny to try it, knowing he'll refuse them, or Horatio's keeping himself pretty scarce, or Hamlet keeps his friendship with Horatio carefully out of their eye, all of which have interesting possibilities attached to them.
ROSENCRANTZ
Both your majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN
But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.
Is it possible to distinguish between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Dialogue's divided between them more or less equally. Rosencrantz strikes me as marginally more clever, with a readier wit, but cagier---he's the one who asks Guildenstern "what should we say?" when Hamlet questions them later on. But the differences are very slight. Everyone who isn't Claudius and Gertrude is running together in Hamlet's mind now, with occasional mental pitstops at Horatio and Ophelia?
KING CLAUDIUS
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
I love how in the Branagh version, Gertrude's inversion of their names is taken to imply that Claudius mixed them up. If the idea that they're interchangeable bothers you, of course you could choose not to read it that way, but it amuses the hell out of me.
LORD POLONIUS
The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully return'd.
KING CLAUDIUS
Thou still hast been the father of good news.
I shit you not, I once read a critical essay that contended Ophelia was pregnant by Claudius at the time of her death based on that line. I prefer to just imagine that Claudius is fond of her. Or that the line has nothing to do with her, but I'm prejudiced.
LORD POLONIUS
Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king:
And I do think, or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
KING CLAUDIUS
O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
I confess, it still baffles me that Claudius thinks Polonius is any good at all. Perhaps he's struck with amazement at the fact that all seven lines of Polonius's speech above are one sentence, and only the last six words actually make any sense.
KING CLAUDIUS
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I doubt it is no other but the main;
His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
AWKWARD.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
Welcome, my good friends!
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLTIMAND
Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But, better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
That so his sickness, age and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
And his commission to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack:
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
EVERY TIME I READ THAT I HOWL WITH LAUGHTER. Fortinbras is like, "Sorry I went all up in arms against Denmark, Uncle. By the way, thanks for the three thousand crowns and safe passage through Denmark, which I will totally not use to take up arms against Denmark!" I tell myself that Claudius was really distracted wondering whether Polonius is about to say "Hamlet's nuts 'cause you killed his dad! Do I get a cookie?" Otherwise I'd have to reconsider my theory about how smart he is.
KING CLAUDIUS
It likes us well;
And at our more consider'd time well read,
Answer, and think upon this business.
Yes, I think that supports it. "I really ought to be paying attention to this right now, but I'm distracted because Polonius is probably just stupid enough to have stumbled on evidence of my crimes without knowing what he's seeing. Put it in my In tray."
LORD POLONIUS
This business is well ended.
'Cause it's not like he's got any advisors who are going to suggest he do any differently.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
More matter, with less art.
Perhaps the one moment of Gertrude's in the whole play where I find it easy to believe she's related to Hamlet.
LORD POLONIUS
Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
POLONIUS YOU'RE SO DUMB YOU'RE ALMOST SMART although nobody is ever that funny on purpose.
I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
"I mean, if you guys wanted her to, you know, marry your son or something, I could hand her over---"
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
beautified Ophelia,'--
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
'In her excellent white bosom, these, & c.'
Oh my god, that is humiliating. Mostly for Ophelia, but for Hamlet too, I think---Jesus Christ, their parents! are reading their sexy scribblins! On the other hand, it doesn't seem to be a picnic for Polonius either. Claudius' mind is on other matters, and Gertrude probably thinks it's sweet. Pfft. Girls.
By the way, Hamlet? Not much of a poet.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Came this from Hamlet to her?
LORD POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means and place,
All given to mine ear.
But at least he's self-aware about it. Like Benedict, but less light-hearted. I wish we could have seen some of the letter that was less with the poetry and more with actual content. I had a teacher once who attempted to settle an argument over whether Hamlet really loved Ophelia by pointing to that little quatrain of his, and while I do think Hamlet loved her, this is not something I'd name as proof.
KING CLAUDIUS
But how hath she
Received his love?
"'Cause I'm totally hoping those two wacky kids are gonna make it work."
LORD POLONIUS
What do you think of me?
KING CLAUDIUS
As of a man faithful and honourable.
"...but not smart. No, not even a little bit."
LORD POLONIUS
I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me--what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
What might you think? No, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
Polonius is apparently very sincere in not being able to imagine any alliance between his daughter and the king's son; a dishonest man would have encouraged Ophelia in the hopes of using her to advance his own career, and at least we can't accuse him of that. But nothing seems to indicate that Claudius or Gertrude disapproves of their relationship; Polonius is probably projecting his own class anxieties on them.
And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
"Basically, your Majesties, your son is suffering from blue balls."
KING CLAUDIUS
Do you think 'tis this?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
It may be, very likely.
"Dude, I killed my brother just to get a little play, this makes total sense to me." LOL. No, in all honesty, I don't think Claudius buys this story for a second.
LORD POLONIUS
Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
When it proved otherwise?
KING CLAUDIUS
Not that I know.
LORD POLONIUS
[Pointing to his head and shoulder]
Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
Thanks! Don't mind if Hamlet does.
KING CLAUDIUS
How may we try it further?
LORD POLONIUS
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
So he does indeed.
LORD POLONIUS
At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
That word, "loose". Loose, loose, loose. What, Polonius, do you have her on a leash? Nevermind, don't answer that.
Be you and I behind an arras then;
Mark the encounter: if he love her not
And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.
KING CLAUDIUS
We will try it.
"We aren't even a little bit convinced, but we are desperate."
QUEEN GERTRUDE
But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
This is an image Ophelia will mirror, at her father's command, in another scene or so. If you trust the way most directors seem to stage them, Hamlet actually is reading when Polonius comes up to bug him, whereas Ophelia is only pretending to read while waiting for Hamlet to notice her. A little like how later Ophelia will run mad in truth, while Hamlet has largely been playing at it. Is she imitating him, subconsciously? She loves him, no doubt admires him, he's surely older than she is, and she sees that he answers to no one and can quite literally get away with murder, so why shouldn't she? Once Polonius dies she has nothing to lose.
Um, these lines had nothing to do with Ophelia, and yet, there I went. I might be fixated or something.
O, give me leave:
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET
Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS
Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET
Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
LORD POLONIUS
Not I, my lord.
HAMLET
Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS
Honest, my lord!
HAMLET
Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.
LORD POLONIUS
That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS
I have, my lord.
HAMLET
Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Friend, look to 't.
This is the first time Hamlet and Polonius speak to each other directly in the play. Heaven knows what their interactions were like before the whole murder-incest debacle went down, but this sounds like the kind of conversation any intelligent smart ass might have with a moron. But then, it's not like evidence ever persuaded Polonius out of one of his ideas.
Also, I think of that last comment as proof that Hamlet's bitter for Polonius coming between him and Ophelia, but that's neither here nor there. :-)
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
What do you read, my lord?
"Truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love." OH POLONIUS. I don't know why that made me like him for a split second, but it did. Don't worry, I'm over it now.
HAMLET
Words, words, words.
Sometimes I feel like Hamlet's mask slips a tiny bit and we see Shakespeare behind him. That would be one of those moments. I mean, most of you are writers to some degree, you know what he means.
LORD POLONIUS
[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET
Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS
Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET
You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.
Ever since his father's ghost scared the Purgatory out of him, we get references to wanting to die, rather than wanting to kill himself. A safer wish to express, since it entails no implication of immediate action.
GUILDENSTERN
My honoured lord!
ROSENCRANTZ
My most dear lord!
HAMLET
My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
That greeting is ever bit as true and sincere in its enthusiasm, I think, as the one he gave to Horatio, though as the conversation proceeds it becomes plain he was never so close to them as he was to Horatio.
ROSENCRANTZ
As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN
Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
...dude. They're a couple. Why did I only just notice it? Who answers a question like "how are you" with "we're fine" unless it's a question directed to you and your spouse/petit amie?
Also, "on fortune's cap we are not the very button" ASDFGHJKL;' COULD THAT BE ANY MORE WONDERFUL.
HAMLET
Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ
Neither, my lord.
HAMLET
Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
her favours?
GUILDENSTERN
'Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET
In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
is a strumpet. What's the news?
In a second, the players will come in, and Hamlet will ask the lead player to deliver that beautiful, heartbreaking speech about Hecuba and Priam, the apex of which is the line "Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune!"---and here, Hamlet uses it for a joke. This, to indicate that even when he's fooling around, all his thoughts have desperate undercurrents?
ROSENCRANTZ
None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
HAMLET
Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
Let me question more in particular: what have you,
my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?
That first is a really weird line. Why does Rosencrantz say it? I'd rather think it not for the exclusive purpose of setting up Hamlet's reply. What on earth would make anyone say the world's grown honest, let alone a riddle like Rosencrantz? And why would Hamlet not question it? Or, no, I understand that, it's because he's more interested in making a witty rejoinder. Okay, officially overthinking this, moving on.
GUILDENSTERN
Prison, my lord!
HAMLET
Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Then is the world one.
HAMLET
A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
ROSENCRANTZ
We think not so, my lord.
Again with the "we"! Also, this dialogue is the absolute apex of Hamlet's sulky brat stage, but we'll be moving along to the "definitely gonna kill someone, and it might be you" stage here in a second, so that's alright.
HAMLET
Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
narrow for your mind.
In other words, Hamlet is basically Satan, to the Miltonic mind.
HAMLET
O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
have bad dreams.
Every actor has his own take on which lines Hamlet speaks in earnest and which are those he uses to make people think he's mad(der than he actually is), but I've always taken this line at face value, probably because I have a lot of nightmares myself.
GUILDENSTERN
Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET
A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
HAMLET
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows.
There's a strange quality to all Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's dialogue in this scene, where they say clever and enigmatical things that seemed designed to give Hamlet an excuse for all his dreamy philosophical metaphors. Like they're the voices in Hamlet's head. They remind me of Lear's fool in that sense; it would almost be appropriate to think of them as Hamlet's clowns, considering what clowns are usually like in Shakespeare, which is to say totally bizarre and kind of creepy.
ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
We'll wait upon you.
HAMLET
No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
"Most dreadfully attended"---oddly, none of the Hamlet productions I've seen have put that line into action. People come up to Hamlet and talk to him when it's their turn in the script, but he generally wanders around the set alone---"most dreadfully attended" sounds to me like he ought to have a crowd of helpful servants bumping elbows with him at every turn. It would contribute to the sense of claustrophobia that any proper Hamlet must feel.
HAMLET
Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
GUILDENSTERN
What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET
Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ
To what end, my lord?
HAMLET
That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
whether you were sent for, or no?
ROSENCRANTZ
[Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you?
HAMLET
[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN
My lord, we were sent for.
Do they tell him the truth because they know they're crappy liars and the evidence is against them, or because they really would rather be honest with Hamlet? They do take a lot of persuading, and the force of Hamlet's personality probably shouldn't be underestimated, but people who are crappy liars are usually honest by nature. It's worth considering in light of their later actions---Hamlet swears "they did make love to this employment" but that's not necessarily proof they knew they were helping Claudius try to kill him.
HAMLET
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.
If you take Hamlet at face value here, then he values R & G enough to not wish to put them in a false and difficult position with the king and queen, which makes his about-face shortly hereafter rather more sad. I do take him at face value, because when he says "I have of late...lost all my mirth" I believe he is telling the honest truth, not trying to support the insanity defense.
ROSENCRANTZ
My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET
Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
ROSENCRANTZ
To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
coming, to offer you service.
HAMLET
He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
for't. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ
Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
tragedians of the city.
Hamlet wanted to audition for summer stock a few years ago, but his dad wouldn't hear of it, so he had to go to Harvard and become a doctor keep on being a prince. LOL.
Hamlet's affinity with the players, along with the deep impression Yorick made on him as a boy, adds interestingly to the picture of his character in former times. Being royalty, he no doubt learned how to play himself at a young age, and thus may have felt he had more in common with performers than with lower ranking members of the nobility. He doesn't seem to have any friends of that rank, actually---Horatio is acknowledged to be quite poor, and R & G likewise no more than gentlemen.
HAMLET
How chances it they travel? their residence, both
in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ
I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
late innovation.
HAMLET
Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
in the city? are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ
No, indeed, are they not.
HAMLET
How comes it? do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
that cry out on the top of question, and are most
tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET
What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
longer than they can sing? will they not say
afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
players--as it is most like, if their means are no
better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ
'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
cuffs in the question.
The significance of this odd little interlude on the subject of children's theater troups quite frankly baffles me, although I suppose that, as the players become a mirror to the royal court a little later on, the idea that their rightful, ahem, artistic supremacy has been usurped by children is a further parallel on the overthrow of the rightful order of things---incompetents are running the show, destroying their own future, etc. Whatever. Bueller?
HAMLET
It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
'Sblood, there is something in this more than
natural, if philosophy could find it out.
Suggesting Claudius was around and known to the people before the murder, and apparently people made fun of him. I wonder why?
COMING UP: The Players, some more crap from Polonius, and Hamlet's Really Fucking Long Monologue. No, not that one, the other one. No, not that one either---oh, nevermind.