Scene 2
(the King’s court)
Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with Attendants
King Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Despite the fact that we did very much long to see you, our need for your services meant that we were forced to send you away with haste. You will have heard something of Hamlet’s transformation, as I call it, since his character bears little resemblance to what it used to be. What it could be, besides his father’s death, that has affected him this way I cannot imagine. I entreat that you both, having been brought up alongside Hamlet from an early age, and being so familiar with his behaviour, with the type of person he is, accede to remain here in our court for a short while and keep company with him, inviting him to socialise with you in order that you may determine whether there is anything troubling him about which we do not know that, if revealed to us, we can remedy.
Queen Good gentlemen, he has talked much of you, and I am sure there are no two men living to whom he is inclined to stay closer. If it will please you to show us such courtesy and good will as to spend some time with us in the hope that we can profit from this, your visit shall receive such gratitude as befits a king’s remembrance.
Rosencrantz Both your Majesties might, by the sovereign power you have over us, command rather than entreat us to carry out your revered wishes.
Guildenstern But we both obey, and will serve you willingly to the best of our abilities.
King Thank you, gentlemen.
Queen Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. And I beseech you to visit my son right away. Escort these gentlemen to where Hamlet is (to a court Attendant).
Guildenstern May Heaven make our presence and our actions pleasant and helpful to him.
Queen Yes, let us hope so.
Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and an Attendant
Enter Polonius
Polonius Our ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, have returned. They have been successful.
King You have always been the bearer of good news.
Polonius Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege I hold my duty to yourself as I hold matters of the soul; obligations to my God and to my gracious King are of equal concern; and I do think, or else this brain of mine is not as perceptive, not as capable of appreciating what’s going on as it used to be, that I have found the very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
King Speak of it; that I do long to hear.
Polonius Firstly, admit the ambassadors. My news shall be the fruit to that great feast (his news about Hamlet should be heard after that of the ambassadors, which is of far greater importance).
King You may bring them in.
Exit Polonius
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he has found the source of your son’s disordered state of mind.
Queen I doubt the main reason is anything other than his father’s death and our overly hasty marriage.
King Well, we shall question Polonius.
Enter Polonius, Voltemand and Cornelius
Welcome my good friends. Tell us, Voltemand, what news you have from the King of Norway?
Voltemand Our greetings and desires were reciprocated. As soon as we informed him of our business there, he initiated measures to suppress the activities of his nephew, who he was under the impression was raising an army to wage war against the King of Poland; but on looking more closely into the matter he found it was against your Highness. Regretting that his sickness, age and frailty had been taken advantage of and that he had been deceived, he sent out to Fortinbras an official order forbidding him from furthering this purpose, which he, in short, obeyed, receiving rebuke from the King, and finally swearing before his uncle that he will never again endeavour to take up arms against your Majesty; whereupon the King, quite pleased at the opportunity which presented itself, gave him three thousand crowns in annual fee, together with his commission to employ the army he had raised against the King of Poland, with an entreaty, detailed herein (hands over document), that you allow him safe passage through your kingdom for this enterprise, in accordance with the terms set out in the document.
King This is pleasing news; and when we have more time to consider it we’ll deal with this business. In the meantime, we thank you for such fruitful work. Go and rest, at night we’ll feast together.
Exit Voltemand and Cornelius
Polonius This business is now concluded. My liege and madam, to consider what it should mean to hold sovereign power, what duty is, why day is day, night night, and time is time, only for us to waste them. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of intellect, and tediousness the limbs and outward characteristics, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. ‘Madness’ I call it, for how is true madness to be recognised or defined when it is said that it’s the whole world which is mad, except to say that it is simply madness? But we’ll drop that subject.
Queen It would be preferable for you to express what you mean in less elaborate terms.
Polonius Madam, I swear I use no elaborateness at all. That he is mad is true, quite true; a pity, but true. A foolish figure, but disregard it, for I will use no elaborate terms. Mad let us declare him to be then. And now it remains for us to ascertain the cause of this effect, or rather the cause of this defect, for this affliction has a cause. The cause is this: pay heed, I have a daughter, mine until she is married, who in her duty and obedience, has given me this. Now make of it what you will. (begins reading a letter from Hamlet to Ophelia) 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, it implies cosmetic enhancement. But you shall hear, (resumes reading) these; in her excellent white bosom, these, and he clearly intends that the letter be something she treasures.
Queen And this was sent to her by Hamlet?
Polonius Good madam, if you will permit me to read on, that answer will come. (resumes reading) Doubt that 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 my body belongs to me, Hamlet. This, in obedience, my daughter has shown me and, furthermore, has told me of his solicitations, as they occurred, of what took place and where she was at the time.
King But how has she received his love?
Polonius What do you think of me?
King You are a man who is faithful and honourable.
Polonius I would very much hope I am able to prove so. But what might you think, when I had been aware of this passionate love going on, as I had noticed it, I must admit to you, before my daughter told me anything; what might you or my dear Majesty your queen think if I had simply sat working at my desk and paid this no attention, not looking upon his love with such perceptiveness and understanding, what might you think? But no, I went to work immediately and said to my young mistress: “Lord Hamlet is a prince of higher birth. This must not be,” and then gave her prescripts that she was to refrain from meeting with him, to admit no messengers and to receive no gifts. After doing this, she did what I advised and Hamlet, repelled, to put it briefly, sank into a state of depression, subsequently losing his appetite and suffering insomnia, then weakness, then delirium; all of the symptoms classically associated with unrequited love; before finally declining into the madness he now manifests and for which we all mourn.
King Do you think this is what it is?
Queen It may well be.
Polonius Has there ever been a time, I would very much like to know if there has, that I have positively said that something is so, only for it to prove otherwise?
King Not that I know.
Polonius I’ll stake my life on it. If circumstances permit me, I will probe more deeply into this matter.
King How may we test your deduction further?
Polon
ius You know that he sometimes walks for several hours here in the lobby.
Queen He does indeed.
Polonius At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him, while you and I remain behind an arras and observe the encounter. If he loves her not, and I am wrong about the reason underlying his madness, then I will be no minister of state. I will renounce my position and go and keep a farm instead.
King We will try it.
Enter Hamlet reading a book
Queen But look where, studiously, the poor wretch comes reading.
Polonius Away, I do beseech you both to leave. I’ll accost him presently. You must hurry.
Exit King, Queen and Attendants
How is my Lord Hamlet?
Hamlet Well, God have mercy on you.
Polonius Do you know me, my lord?
Hamlet Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
Polonius Not I, my lord.
Hamlet Then I would say you were an honest man.
Polonius Honest, my lord?
Hamlet Ay, sir. To be honest in this world is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Polonius That’s very true, my lord.
Hamlet (reading from his book) For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion (a carcass for the sun to shine on (kiss, as in ‘sun-kissed’)). Have you a daughter?
Polonius I have, my lord.
Hamlet Let her not go around in public. Conception is a blessing but as your daughter may conceive, friend, be attentive to it.
Polonius (aside) What do you mean by that? Still harping on about my daughter. Yet he knew me not, at first, saying I was a fishmonger. He is far gone. And truly in my own youth I suffered intensely for love, very much like this. I’ll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet Words, words, words.
Polonius What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet Between who?
Polonius I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
Hamlet Slanders, sir. For the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes exuding thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak thighs; all of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, I consider improper to have thus set down. For you, sir, shall grow as old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
Polonius Though this be madness, there is method in it (aside). Will you come out of the air, my lord?
Hamlet Into my grave?
Polonius Indeed, that’s out of the air. (aside) How pregnant sometimes his replies are. His madness often hits upon certain truths, which could not be expressed so well by a reasoned and sane mind. I will leave him and immediately contrive a meeting between him and my daughter. My lord, I will take my leave of you.
Hamlet You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part with; except my life, except my life, except my life (except for freedom from this life, and the suffering it entails, he is saying he would like nothing better than for Polonius to go away).
Polonius Farewell, my lord.
Hamlet These tedious old fools (aside as Polonius is leaving).
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Polonius You’re seeking Lord Hamlet. There he is.
Rosencrantz God save you, sir.
Exit Polonius
Guildenstern My honoured lord.
Rosencrantz My most dear lord.
Hamlet My good friends. How are you Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz. How are you both?
Rosencrantz We can’t complain.
Guildenstern Happy in ourselves, but not overly happy. We are not unusually or especially fortunate; certainly not at the very top of Fortune’s cap.
Hamlet Nor on the soles of her shoe?
Rosencrantz Neither, my lord.
Hamlet Then you live about her waist, in the middle of Fortune’s favours?
Guildenstern Yes, at her private parts, we do.
Hamlet In the secret parts of Fortune? O Fortune is most fickle. What news?
Rosencrantz None, my lord, but the world has grown more honest.
Hamlet Then doomsday is near. But your news is not true. Let me ask a more specific question. What have you done, my good friends, that you deserve, at the hands of Fortune, being sent here to this prison?
Guildenstern Prison, my lord?
Hamlet Denmark’s a prison.
Rosencrantz Then the whole world is one.
Hamlet A quite large one, in which there are many confines, cells and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst.
Rosencrantz We do not agree, my lord.
Hamlet Why, then it is simply not to you; for nothing is intrinsically either good or bad, it is our perception of it that makes it what it is. To me, it is a prison.
Rosencrantz Why, then is it your ambition to make it one. Such thinking is too narrow for your mind.
Hamlet O God, I could be enclosed within a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
Guildenstern Dreams are indeed ambition; for the very achievements of the ambitious are merely the shadows of what they dream, of what they truly desire.
Hamlet What we can accomplish is but a shadow of what we can dream.
Rosencrantz Truly, and I regard ambition to be so immaterial and unreal that in practical terms it is but a shadow’s shadow.
Hamlet Then real people, people of substance, must be the beggars, those without any realistic ambitions, while the truly ambitious, our monarchs and heroes, are merely their shadows. Shall we proceed to the court? For, by my faith, I can reason this argument no further.
Rosencrantz We’ll escort you.
Hamlet I’ll not hear of it. I do not regard you as my servants; for, to speak to you as an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But if I may address you as friends, for what reason have you come to Elsinore?
Rosencrantz To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.
Hamlet Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you. And sure, dear friends, my thanks are not worth a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Are you really here of your own volition? Come, come, be honest with me. Come, tell me.
Guildenstern What should we say, my lord?
Hamlet You’re probably inclined to tell me anything but your real purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which, though you are discreet, you have not the craft to disguise. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.
Rosencrantz To what end, my lord?
Hamlet That I have yet to learn. But let me ask you quite seriously, by the rights of our fellowship, by the agreement of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what one of your closest and most loyal friends can ask of you, to be truthful and direct with me as to whether or not you were sent for.
Rosencrantz What shall we tell him (aside to Guildenstern)?
Hamlet I’m watching you. (he is highly suspicious of their motives) If you love me, do not keep the truth from me.
Guildenstern My lord, we were sent for.
Hamlet I will tell you why. You need not disclose anything; I have anticipated your purpose so your obligation of secrecy to the King and Queen need not be breeched. I have of late, but for what reason I know not, lost all my cheerfulness. I have forgone all my usual exercises; and indeed, I am in such a profoundly dejected state that this whole country seems to me nothing more than a large and sterile mass of land which juts out into the sea. Look at this immense canopy of air, this magnificent firmament overhanging us, this majestic roof (observing the sky) adorned with golden fire (the sun); why, it appears as nothing to me but a place of foulness and pestilence, of infectious diseases borne by the very air which surrounds us. What a masterpiece of work man is; how superbly we can reason, how infinite in faculties we are, h
ow admirable in form and skilful in action; in apprehension, how like a god. Look at the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals; and yet, to me, what is any of this but the quintessence of dust (biblical allusion: Genesis: 3: 19: dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return). I have little faith in humanity. In man I find no source of encouragement or inspiration, nor in woman neither; though by your smiling it seems you think otherwise.
Rosencrantz My lord, I thought no such thing.
Hamlet Then why did you laugh when I said ‘in man I find no source of encouragement’?
Rosencrantz To think, my lord, if you are not gladdened or encouraged by man, what a poor reception the players shall receive from you. We overtook them on the way; they’re coming here to offer you their service. (Hamlet is delighted by this news)
Hamlet He that plays the king shall be welcome; ‘his Majesty’ shall receive tribute from me; the adventurous knight shall use his sword and shield, the lover will have good reason to feel sadness; the passionate man shall end his part having overcome the obstacles before him; the clown (actor who performs the comic roles) shall amuse those who are easily entertained, and the lady shall speak her mind freely, or the blank verse shall falter for it (he is referring to the standard characters of an acting company). What players are they?
Rosencrantz You know them well; they are the tragedians (actors who specialise in tragedies) of London.
Hamlet Why are they touring? Their home theatre, both in reputation and profit, was a more favourable venue for their performances.
Rosencrantz I believe they’re no longer able to perform there due to a recent uprising.
Hamlet Do they command the same degree of respect and admiration as when I was in the city? Are they enjoying the same level of popularity?
Rosencrantz No, indeed they are not.
Hamlet How is this so? Are they out of practice?
Rosencrantz No, their effort and commitment maintains their exceptionally high standards; but there is, sir, a number of young children; they’re like young hawks that squawk noisily and incessantly, their voices louder and higher in pitch than anyone else and they’re applauded most immoderately for it. These are now the fashion and so spoil the common stages (public theatres), as they call them, that many gentlemen actors hardly dare to perform on them for fear of being ridiculed in material penned for these child actors.
Hamlet Who looks after these children? How are they provided for? Will they still pursue the profession after their voices have deepened and they can no longer sing as they do when they are young? Will they not then say, should they graduate to ordinary acting, as is most likely if they can find no better means of earning a living, that the playwrights are doing them a disservice? They will have cause to protest against this situation.
Rosencrantz Well, there has been much rivalry between the private companies using child actors and the companies which employ adult actors to perform in the public theatres; and audiences are not opposed to the incitement of controversy. For a while, plays tended not to attract large audiences unless there was some controversy, unless, because of this issue, a play had become the centre of a dispute between the writer and the actors.
Hamlet That’s unbelievable.
Rosencrantz Both sides have had to rely greatly upon their cunning and ingenuity to try and protect their own interests.
Hamlet Were the child actors successful?
Rosencrantz Yes they were, my lord. This has also adversely affected companies which perform at the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare’s own acting company, the Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men, performed at the Globe Theatre in London).
Hamlet The fickleness of public tastes and preference is something I’m used to; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those who never admired or respected him while my father lived are now prepared to pay twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, even a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in miniature. God’s blood, there is something of a metaphysical nature in this, if only philosophy could determine it.
A flourish of trumpets
Guildenstern Here are the players.
Hamlet Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore (to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). Your hands; come then (shakes hands with them). This accompaniment of welcome is customary practice. Let me welcome you in this way lest the greetings I extend to the players, which I tell you will be ardent, might appear warmer than those I have shown you. You are most welcome. But my uncle-father and my aunt-mother are deceived.
Guildenstern In what way, my lord?
Hamlet If the mind of a madman is influenced by the weather then I am only mad when the wind blows north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I am as balanced and reasonable as any man.
Enter Polonius
Polonius How do you do, gentlemen.
Hamlet Listen, Guildenstern, and you too; listen carefully. That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clothes.
Rosencrantz Perhaps he is wearing them for the second time, for they say an old man has become a child for a second time.
Hamlet I predict he has come to inform me of the players. Mark it. You are correct, sir, a Monday morning, it was then indeed (pretends to be engaged in conversation).
Polonius My lord, I have news to tell you.
Hamlet My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius (one of the greatest actors in ancient Rome) was an actor in Rome…..
Polnius The actors are here, my lord.
Hamlet Really (he is contemptuous towards Polonius, who has brought him news of which he is already well aware)?
Polonius Upon my honour.
Hamlet Then each actor arrived on his ass.
Polonius They are the best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, plays centred on a single location and plays where the action moves between a number of places. Seneca (the plays of Seneca, one of the most eminent Roman playwrights), cannot be too tragic, nor Plautus (Roman comic dramatist, who enjoyed huge popular appeal), too comical. Whether performing a play of a serious nature, one which is true-to-life, or whether it is something done with more artistic licence, these are the only actors to see.
Hamlet O Jephthah, judge of Israel (in the Bible - Judges: 11: 30 - 40, Jephthah sacrificed his only daughter, who died unwed, in order to fulfil the vow he had made to God); what a treasure he had.
Polonius What a treasure he had, my lord?
Hamlet Why (quotes from a ballad about Jephthah),
One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.
Polonius Still on about my daughter (aside).
Hamlet Am I not correct, old Jephthah?
Polonius If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I do have a daughter that I love very much.
Hamlet No, that does not follow.
Polonius What follows then, my lord?
Hamlet Why (resumes quoting), as by lot God wot, the next line you know, it came to pass, as most like it was. The first stanza of this religious ballad will show you more; this diversion is abridged, for look, here come the players.
Enter the Players
You are welcome, masters. Welcome, all. I am glad to see you are well. Welcome, good friends. O, old friend, why, you’ve grown a beard since I saw you last. Have you come to beard (oppose or confront) me in Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress (greets the boy actor who assumes the female roles)! By Our Lady, your ladyship is nearer to Heaven than when I saw you last, by several inches. Pray God your voice be not, as it would had it grown deeper, like a gold coin cracked within the ring and thus no longer of value. Masters, you are all welcome. It is my intention that we endeavour, like French falconers, to hunt a particular quarry. We’ll have a speech straight away. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Let us hear a passionate speech.
&n
bsp; First Player What speech, my lord?
Hamlet I heard you deliver a speech once, but it was never performed publicly, or if it was, not more than once, for the play, I remember, was not seen by a mass audience; it was staged privately for those of high social standing. But it was considered by both myself, and others, whose judgement in such matters is superior to mine, an excellent play; well organised, without too much grandeur, yet written with skill and ingenuity. I remember someone saying it did not rely on any lewd or salacious material, nor any fancy language which might invite accusations of affectation; rather it was all quite serious, wholesome and enjoyable, and performed with such natural ability, such talent. One of the speeches in it I particularly liked was the story Aeneas told to Dido, especially when he speaks about Priam’s murder. (he refers to characters in Greek mythology; the odyssey of Aeneas is the subject of the Roman poet Virgil’s Aeneid) If you still remember it, begin at this line; let me see, let me see, the rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast; no that’s not right. It begins with Pyrrhus -
The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared
With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their lord’s murder. Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus oversized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandshire Priam seeks.
So you continue it.
Polonius Well spoken, my lord, with good intonation and an accomplished style.
First Player
Anon he finds him,
Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seemed in the air to stick;
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
And like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But as we often see against some storm
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold wind speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region; so after Pyrrhus’ pause
Aroused vengeance sets him new awork,
And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall
On Mars’s armour, forged for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you Gods
In general synod take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends.
Polonius This is too long.
Hamlet It shall be to the barbers with your beard. Prithee (used to introduce a request) carry on. He wants to see a jig or a tale which contains vulgar and lewd language, otherwise he’s bored. Carry on; move on to the part about Hecuba.
First Player
But who - ah woe - had seen the mobbled queen…..
Hamlet ‘The mobbled queen’?
Polonius That’s good.
First Player
Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
With bisson rheum, a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and, for a robe,
About her lank and all overteemed loins
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped,
Against Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced.
But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
And passion in the gods.
Polonius Look how his face has paled; there are tears in his eyes (speaking of Hamlet). Please, no more.
Hamlet It’s allright. I’ll have you speak the rest of this soon. Will you see that the players are well accommodated (to Polonuis)? Do you hear? Make sure they are well treated, for they know all the major plays of our time. It would be preferable for you to have a bad epitaph after your death than their disfavour while you live.
Polonius My lord, I will treat them according to what they deserve.
Hamlet By God, man, you’ll treat them much better. Treat them according to what they deserve, as you see it, and they could be perceived as vagabonds and receive a whipping. Treat them as you would a person of your own privilege and high rank; the less they deserve, the more generosity you can show them. Take them in.
Polonius Come, sirs.
Hamlet Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. Listen, old friend (to First Player, attracting his attention). Can you perform The Murder of Gonzago?
First Player Yes, my lord.
Hamlet We’ll have it tomorrow night. You could, if required, learn a speech of some twelve to sixteen lines, which I would write down and insert into it, could you not?
First Player Yes, my lord.
Hamlet Very well. Follow that lord, and be sure not to mock him (to all of the Players).
Exit Polonius and Players
My good friends, we’ll part company until tonight. You are welcome in Elsinore.
Rosencrantz Very good, my lord.
Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Hamlet Yes, goodbye to you. Now I am alone. O, what a dishonourable and scheming slave I am! Is it not monstrous that one of these actors could, in a fiction, feigning emotion, display passion so convincingly, with such mastery, that the colour would drain from their face, that they would have tears in their eyes, anguish conveyed in their look, their voice broken and faltering? And all for nothing! Just to represent some character who experiences tragedy; to show us their torment, their grief. But what’s that individual to the actor, or he to them, that he should weep for them? What would the actor do had he the motive, the provocation, for passion that I have? He would drown the stage with tears, and deafen everyone with horrifying revelations which would make mad the guilty and appal the innocent; confound the ignorant, those oblivious to any notion or inkling of the truth, and amaze indeed the very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet here am I, dull and lacking in strength of character; indecisive, irresolute; like someone obsessed by their own dreams and imaginings rather than being spurred into action for my cause, and can say nothing; no, not about my father upon whose body and most dear life such a terrible death was inflicted. Am I a coward? Who would call me a villain or attack me, pluck off my beard and blow it in my face, mock and insult me, or accuse me of being a downright liar? Who would do this to me? By God’s wounds, I would take it if they did, for it is not my true nature to allow abuse or harsh treatment to give rise to bitter feeling or resentment. I would rather fatten all of the region’s kites (small, slim hawks) with my own flesh. Bloody, depraved villain (turning his attention to the King)! R
emorseless, treacherous, lecherous, villain; vile enough to murder his brother to further his own selfish ambitions! What a fool I am! It is most admirable that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by Heaven and Hell, reduced to committing an act of evil, though for an honourable cause, must, as might anyone who would do something immoral because it is necessary, pour out my feelings with words; that I seek to assure myself that mine is a righteous course and fall cursing at my destiny. Fie (expresses annoyance or disgust) upon it! I must consider this most carefully. I have heard of guilty men who, while watching a play, have by the very way in which a particular scene is presented been so struck by their own conscience as to immediately proclaim their crimes. Murder, perpetrated in secret and otherwise remaining concealed, is suddenly and manifestly exposed. I’ll have these actors play out before my uncle something like the murder of my father. I’ll observe his facial expressions, his reactions; I’ll probe his deepest, most guarded and private emotions. If he reacts, if he should blench, I will have confirmed the course I must take. The ghost I have seen may be an evil spirit, possessing, as evil spirits do, the power to assume a familiar and pleasing form, and is perhaps taking advantage of my depressed and melancholy state, as its power to exploit such moods would be very potent, to tempt me into evil and lead me to my eternal damnation. I’ll have more substantial grounds for pursuing action than what this spirit alone has told me. The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.