To Follow Up on Marley's Hilarious Hamlet Post
A few weeks ago, the entire tea room was so taken by "Shakespeare in the Bush" that we waited for Hastie to finish reading it aloud to us before we went to get free borscht. True fact. So in case you haven't run across it yet, it's the story of someone trying to relate the plot of the play to an isolated West African tribe. There's a bit of an intro, but the fun really begins here, if you want to skip down to it:
'I began in the proper style, "Not yesterday, not yesterday, but long ago, a thing occurred. One night three men were keeping watch outside the homestead of the great chief, when suddenly they saw the former chief approach them."
"Why was he no longer their chief?"
"He was dead," I explained. "That is why they were troubled and afraid when the saw him."
"Impossible," began one of the elders, handing his pipe on to his neighbor, who interrupted, "Of course it wasn't the dead chief. It was an omen sent by a witch. Go on." '
What drives men mad? Who killed Ophelia and why? Can omens talk!? All the questions you never thought to ask about Hamlet are explained by wise elders in
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/idris/Essays/Shakes_in_Bush.htm
'I began in the proper style, "Not yesterday, not yesterday, but long ago, a thing occurred. One night three men were keeping watch outside the homestead of the great chief, when suddenly they saw the former chief approach them."
"Why was he no longer their chief?"
"He was dead," I explained. "That is why they were troubled and afraid when the saw him."
"Impossible," began one of the elders, handing his pipe on to his neighbor, who interrupted, "Of course it wasn't the dead chief. It was an omen sent by a witch. Go on." '
What drives men mad? Who killed Ophelia and why? Can omens talk!? All the questions you never thought to ask about Hamlet are explained by wise elders in
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/idris/Essays/Shakes_in_Bush.htm