Hamlet Read-Along: Act I, Scene 4

This scene opens with one of my favorite lines to quote:  "The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold" (1).  I have a great tendency to say that during the winter, and also Horatio's rejoinder, "It is a nipping and an eager air" (2).  I don't get to say it very often now that we've moved to Virginia, but I used to say it a lot when we lived in colder climes.

Anyway!  This is an exciting scene, and it ends with a cliffhanger.  Now, Shakespeare didn't actually chop up his plays into scenes and acts when he wrote them -- the people who collected and printed them did that, and they do make sense in that each scene is in a different place or whatever, so you'd probably need a break there to change scenery, etc.  But that means this scene ends in a terrible place.  Feel free to just zip right on into Scene 5.  If I can, I will post the next scene's commentary later today or tomorrow.  I'll do my best.

So Hamlet and Horatio and Marcellus are out on the battlements, same spot as the previous night, waiting for the Ghost to show up.  It's very noisy inside the castle because Claudius is observing a rowdy custom where every time he gives drinks a toast, people beat drums and blow horns to celebrate.  Hamlet finds this practice disgusting, but it gives him something to chat about to cover his nervousness about the whole Ghost thing.  Notice we get two really common phrases from this scene:  "to the manner born" (15) and "more honored in the breach than the observance" (16).  Except nowadays both of them get used a little differently.  A lot of people write/say "to the manor born" as in someone is born in a wealthy family, not that they're native to a place where something is practiced.  And "honored in the breach" anymore means something good that isn't getting done, whereas Hamlet is saying it's a bad thing that it would be better not to do.

Sorry.  I'm wordy today.  Hamlet must be rubbing off on me.  So the Ghost shows up, and Hamlet freaks out, but in kind of an excited way.  He's not at all sure what this apparition is -- "spirit of health or goblin damned" (40), but he wants to talk to it anyway because it looks like his dad.  He calls it everything he can think of:  "Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane" (44-45), but it doesn't answer to any of those, so he's still not sure what or who it is.  But he talks to it a bunch anyway, because that's what Hamlet does.  It beckons for him to follow it somewhere else, which Hamlet tries to do, but Horatio and Marcellus hold him back.  (Random Hamlette thing:  I have a huge penchant for scenes where someone desperately wants to go somewhere and gets physically restrained from doing it.  So I love this.)

Horatio repeatedly tells him this is a bad idea:  "No, by no means" (62), "Do not, my lord" (64), and "Be ruled.  You shall not go" (81).  But Hamlet completely rejects Horatio's wise counsel, shakes them both off, and pulls his sword, saying, "By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me" (85).  'Lets' there meaning 'prevents,' because English is an ever-evolving language and gets tricksy that way.  Off goes the Ghost, with Hamlet in pursuit and... that's the end of the scene because Cliff Hangers Are Fun and In No Way Annoying!

BTW, my copy says "toys of desperation" (75) means "thoughts of suicide," which I don't remember reading before, so that's interesting in light of how Hamlet's going to be pondering being and not being in a couple of acts.

(More) Favorite Lines:

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" (39).

"He waxes desperate with imagination" (87).

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (90).

Possible Discussion Questions:

Hamlet says "My fate cries out" (81) when he struggles away from Horatio and Marcellus' protecting hands.  What do you think Hamlet believes the Ghost is going to say or do, at this point?  How could it involve his own fate?

Random fun idea:  What if Hamlet had heeded Horatio and not spoken to the Ghost?  What might have happened differently?

If you've never read this before, what do you think of it so far?  Is it what you expected?

Hamlet Read-Along: Act I, Scene 3

First off, does anyone have ideas for guest posts for this read-along?  I have Carissa down for reviewing two versions, but no one else so far.  You can sign up on any read-along post, or on this page, which also shows what's "taken."  You can review a movie version (negative and positive reviews welcome), do a character sketch, whatever you dream up.

So this is the scene in which Polonius and his children give each other lots of advice.  Really, that's about all that happens here, other than establishing that Hamlet's been professing to love Ophelia.  Did this start before or after his father's death?  I kind of think before, but certainly it's been a fairly recent development, since Polonius seems only peripherally aware of it.  Either that or they've been keeping it a secret really well.

When talking about Hamlet choosing a bride, Laertes says, "on his choice depends The safety and health of this whole state," (19-20) and he's saying something wiser than he knows, isn't he?  The health and safety of Denmark and especially its heads of state depend on Hamlet's choices of what to do with the information he'll receive from the Ghost.

I always get a kick out of Polonius' idea of what "few" means.  His "few precepts" for Laertes to remember run on for 22 lines.

Favorite Lines:

"I shall the effect of this good lesson keep

As watchman to my heart" (44-45).

"Those friends thou has, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel" (61-62).

"Give every man thy ear but few thy voice" (67).

"This above all:  to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man" (77-79).

Possible Discussion Questions:

A lot of times, Polonius gets portrayed as very abrupt and terse toward Ophelia, but I think you can also read this section as him being very caring and concerned for her welfare.  The same goes for his interaction with Laertes -- Polonius may be a tedious old windbag, but he gives good advice.  I think his "to thine own self be true" (77) gets quoted at least as much as "To be or not to be."  What do you think?  Is he concerned about their welfare, or only about how their behavior reflects on himself?

What My Kids are Reading #2

Time again to share some of the books my kids have been enjoying lately.

Sarah (5) and Tootie (3)

Rhoda's Rock Hunt by Molly Beth Griffin, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell -- a little girl goes on a long hiking and camping trip with her aunt and uncle, collecting so many rocks along the way that she eventually can't carry them all.  It's a nice way of explaining that sometimes we have to let go of things in order to get on with our lives.  Sam actually liked this one better than the girls, and read it over and over himself.

Toe Shoe Mouse by Jan Carr, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell -- a sweet little story of a mouse who finds a home and a friend at a theater.

Rescue Bunnies by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Scott Menchin -- a new firefighter bunny tries really hard to be helpful but keeps complicating things instead.  Then she ends up rescuing a giraffe.  I laugh over this one because the bunnies say a lot of movie quotes as dialog, like, "You can't handle the truth!" and "I'm the king of the world!"

The Cowboy ABC by Chris Demarest -- A is for Appaloosa, B is for Buckaroo, and so on.  The illustrations are lovely, and mostly I got this one for myself because I love cowboys.  At first none of the kids wanted to read it, but then I started to read it to Tootie during school instead of just our read-some-books time, and all of a sudden she loved it.

Sam (7)

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Ronne Randall -- this is part of the "Illustrated Classics for Children" collection, which you can find at Barnes & Noble, and I think I saw some at Books-a-Million too.  They have gorgeous full-page, full-color illustrations, and are easier to read yet than the "Great Illustrated Classics," so kind of a nice bridge to those.  They usually run about $6 each, but sometimes (especially around Christmas) they go on sale for 2 for $10 or even 2 for $8, which is when I bought a whole bunch.  They keep adding titles, too.  Sam's really moved beyond these in reading ability, but we have a whole bunch of them and he still reads them quite a bit.  He's going through a pirate phase right now, and wants to be a pirate for Halloween, so that's probably why he pulled this out.

The Champions of Appledore by Romayne Dawnay -- Sam says this one is funny, and read it at least three times before we took it back to the library on Saturday.

A Journey to the New World:  The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple by Kathryn Lasky -- I made him read this for school, as we're studying the early colonists right now.  He said it was "okay," but then I caught him reading it a second time later on, so maybe he liked it better than he was letting on.

Hamlet Read-Along: Act I, Scene 2

Well, here he is at last:  Hamlet himself.  And don't worry, there won't be many more scenes without him.  This isn't just Shakespeare's longest play (running about 4,000 lines), but Hamlet is the biggest role in any single Shakespearean play -- about 1,500 lines in an uncut version.  Chatty fellow.  

Random cool thing I want to quick share with you:  a stick figure dramatis personae for this play, if you want help remembering who all these people are.  It's from a wonderful Shakespearean comic blog, Peace, Good Tickle-Brain.  I'm going to be linking to some of their Hamlet-related posts now and then.

There's SO MUCH going on in this scene, isn't there?  First, we learn all about how Hamlet's dad died recently (aka King Hamlet, aka the Ghost), and in a very short period of time, Hamlet's mom Gertrude married her dead husband's brother, Claudius.  And now Claudius has been proclaimed King of Denmark.  Not Prince Hamlet, who probably would have been crowned if Claudius hadn't sidled into the throne that way.

Now, before I dig into the text, I want to share a little background stuff from my edition, which was edited by Jeff Dolven.  Your copy might have similar info, or even different info -- feel free to discuss!  Anyway, my copy says, "Denmark, unlike England, was an elective monarchy.  Young Hamlet is treated throughout the play as the likely next king, but there is no violation of Danish law or custom in the fact that Claudius follows his brother on the throne; he was presumably elected by the nobles to the role" (p. 62).  I didn't know that before, so I find that pretty fascinating.

Also, my copy's notes say that "English law prohibited marriage between a man and his brother's wife, viewing such a marriage as technically incestuous... Under Germanic law, however, it was not uncommon for a new king to marry the former king's widow" (p. 62).  So Shakespeare and his audience would see Gertrude and Claudius' marriage as incestuous, which means Hamlet does too because Shakespeare and his audience expect him to.  But everyone else in Elsinore in the play seems to be fairly cool with it, which this would explain. 

(BTW, you do all know that Shakespeare didn't entirely make this story up, right?  It's based on a Scandinavian legend, which you can read about here on Wikipedia.  He did change a lot about it, though.)

Okay, so anyway, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude are hanging out with their courtiers, dealing with some political stuff like this Fortinbras guy and young Laertes, both of whom get used as foils for Hamlet throughout the play.  Like Hamlet, Fortinbras' dad was the king and has died, and his uncle is controlling him.  He wants to march through Denmark with his army to get to Poland, but Claudius suspects him of duplicity.  Laertes is the son of chief courtier/advisor Polonius, and he wants to go back to Paris, where he was presumably attending a university the way Hamlet had been at university in Wittenberg, Germany.  Claudius tells Laertes he can go, but he makes Hamlet stay, which he says is because Gertrude doesn't want him to leave.  This makes Hamlet grumpy, because the whole my-mom-married-my-uncle-right-after-my-dad-died situation has upset him.  A lot.  Claudius wants us all to get over King Hamlet's death already, wants to forget about it, but he can't because Hamlet is hanging around in his black mourning clothes looking mopey all the time.

Now, at this point, I don't think Hamlet suspects that his uncle killed his father, do you?  He's bored and annoyed and grieved, not so much angry, I think.  He spends most of his "too, too sallied/sullied/solid flesh" soliloquy freaking out that his mom has married his uncle and forgotten all about his father.  That's what's bugging him:  that no one besides himself seems to care that his father is dead.  He doesn't like Claudius, but it's because he cheated him out of the kingship and is sleeping with his mother, and is trying to make everyone forget about King Hamlet, that's all.  As Sir John Gielgud put it, "He's down -- a very sad boy, but not morose"  (p. 23, John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet).  Also, he's stuck here and can't put any of this behind him because Claudius just said he can't go back to school.

Right, so then Horatio and the two soldiers show up.  I love the meeting between Horatio and Hamlet here -- Horatio seems to know Hamlet very well, doesn't he?  He approaches him quietly, I think, expecting that if Hamlet is alone, he's probably lost in thought, and Horatio doesn't want to startle him.  He's not all loud and, "Hey, Hamlet, buddy!  How's it going?"  He says a very noncommittal thing:  "Hail to your lordship" (160).  And Hamlet, who has definitely been lost in thought, for a minute doesn't recognize him.  He just says the equivalent of "How're you?"  And then bam!  He realizes it's Horatio, and is all happy to see a friend.  Finally someone he can confide in!

So I've always had a little bit of a difficulty figuring Horatio's history out (and so have other people), because in Scene 1 he recognizes the Ghost as looking just like King Hamlet and seems to know quite a bit about him, but then here he says, "I saw him once" (186).  But then he says, "I knew your father; These hands are not more like" (212-13).  So I've always been like, "Which is it?  Had he met him often enough to know him pretty well by sight, or had he only seen him once?"  But just today, a couple of alternative readings came to me, and I want to lay them on you and see what you think.  When Horatio says, "I saw him once," is he trying to clue Hamlet in that he's seen him once recently?  And when he says, "I knew your father," by "knew" does he mean "recognized" him?  What do you think -- do either/both of those make sense, and make the question of "how often has Horatio hung out at Elsinore?" kind of go away?


Favorite Lines:

"A little more than kin, and less than kind" (65).

"I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe' (85-86).

"Oh, that this too, too sallied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew" (129-30)(I love the wordplay here, with "a dew" sounding like "adieu.")

"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! (133-34)

"But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue" (159).

"He wore his beaver up" (229). (I like this line because of this comic.)


More Possible Discussion Questions:

I ran across this new-to-me idea in Hamlet:  Poem Unlimited by Harold Bloom.  He suggests, "Is there an anxiety that Hamlet actually my be Claudius's son, since he cannot know for certain exactly when what he regards as adultery and incest began between Claudius and Gertrude?" (p. 7-8).  What do you think?

I'm a little bit sorry that this post has gotten REALLY LONG, but at the same time, I have so much to say that these posts are probably just going to be massive.  Is that okay with everyone?  Or would you rather I break up long stuff like this into a couple posts?

Hamlet Read-Along: Act I, Scene 1

I'd like to begin by stating right out that despite the fact that I call myself Hamlette, I'm not an expert on Hamlet.  I'm not going to be able to answer every question people have on the text.  There are things in this play I don't get yet.  

Every time I read the play, or watch it, I learn new things about it.  New ways of looking at a character or scene, new readings of a line or two, new angles to consider.  I hope to learn new things from all of you participants too, because I'm sure you're going to have insights that are wildly different from mine, which is what I love best about read-alongs.

The copy I'm using is the one pictured here.  It takes its text from the Second Quarto, so if you're reading one based on the First Quarto, we might have some textual differences, just so you know.  I haven't read this edition before, but I love that it's a trade paperback instead of pocket, and there's LOTS of room for me to write notes.

I'll be quoting two books a lot during this read-along:  John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet by Richard L. Sterne and Hamlet:  Poem Unlimited by Harold Bloom.  They both have some amazing insights into this play that I want to share.  I've spent the last couple weeks re-reading them and taking notes.

Also, I'm not going to mark spoilers.  Anywhere.  Ever.  I assume you are at least familiar with the play's plot.  

So, on to the discussion!  Sorry for all those preliminaries.

The play opens with a couple of soldiers, Bernardo and Francisco, switching places.  A changing of the guard, no big deal, or so it would seem.  But everyone seems to be on edge, right from Bernardo's initial "Who's there?" and Francisco's rejoinder, "Nay, answer me.  Stand and unfold yourself."  It's pretty logical for the guy already on guard to do the whole "Halt!  Who goes there?" routine to someone approaching him, but for the guy coming to relieve him to also ask for identification... these guys are uneasy and being over-cautious as a result.  Francisco also says he is "sick at heart" (9), but we the audience don't know why.  He doesn't seem to have seen any ghosts like Marcellus and Bernardo -- he's just uneasy and unhappy.  Already we have a sense of impending doom, don't we?

And then, of course, the Ghost arrives.  According to Bloom, Shakespeare himself played the Ghost and the Player King (p. 4), which I find intriguing.  I don't know how many other characters Shakespeare played in his own productions, but in this, he played both of Hamlet's father-figures -- the ghost of his father, and an older adult man he clearly reveres and wants to learn from.  Just something to think about.

Anyway, isn't the Ghost is mysterious at this point?  He's showing up here, somewhere outside the castle where no one hangs out except some soldiers.  He's not imparting any messages.  What's the point of going to all the trouble of coming back from the dead if you're not going to do or say anything?  And why not appear directly to the person you want to talk to?  It's like he wants Hamlet to have to decide to come to him, to want to know what's wrong.  That's my take, anyway.

I find it interesting that Hamlet's not in this first scene, but Horatio is.  In fact, Horatio basically bookends this play, doesn't he?  He's the only character who's in both the first and last scenes.  I like how Bloom puts it, that in a way, "we are Horatio, Hamlet's perpetual audience" (p. 14).  Horatio sometimes gets portrayed as very boring, which I dislike -- he's a wonderful guy, so loyal and intelligent.  Always watching, observing, thinking.  Very much an audience, but very much not boring.

Gielgud says, "At the beginning of this scene Horatio is trying to be calm, but I think that underneath he's terrified and anxious" (p. 24).  I agree -- he's trying to pooh-pooh this whole ghost thing, but he also seems uneasy.  He's being skeptical, a good scholar not believing something he can't see or explain, but he comes outside in the wee small hours of the morning to see what's going on.  Hamlet doesn't seem to know Horatio is here, so he must have only just arrived, tired from a long trip from Germany, but willing to accompany two low-level soldiers on a quest to see a ghost.  And then when he does see it, he says, "it harrows me with fear and wonder" (46).  Not surprise, wonder.  As if he'd half believed them all along.

Oddly, though Horatio seems to have only just arrived in Elsinore, he knows more about what's going on in Denmark than Marcellus, a Danish soldier.  What's up with that, other than a convenient way for Shakespeare to catch the audience up on the political situation in the story?  I'm not sure.

Okay, that's all I've got for today.

Favorite Lines:

"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye" (114).

"But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, 
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill"  (168-69).

Possible Discussion Questions:

Have you read Hamlet before, or seen it performed?

Why do you think the Ghost appears over and over to these guards, but won't talk to them?

2015 Tolkien Giveaway Winners!

Thank you again to all the prize donors -- without you, this party would be much less fun.

And congratulations to this year's winners!  By now, you should have received an email from me at the address you provided, asking for shipping address info and so on.

Thank you to everyone who participated this year!

US-Only

Grace -- The Hobbit Book Cover mug from Caesar's Forum 

Olivia -- Gandalf Quote bookmark from Elf Script 

Rachelle J. -- Bag End bookmark from The Fig and Thimble 

Jacqueline -- Winner's choice of any ONE Tolkien-related ornament from Holly and Her Hobbies 

Edith -- Arwen Evenstar iron-on patch from Lynellen 

Lois J. -- Winner's choice of any ONE item up to $35 with the "Food, Cheer, and Song" logo from Pie Towel 

Heidi P. -- 1.5-cup pottery bowl "for herbs and stewed rabbit" from The Ring and the Lion 

Carissa -- Winner's choice of ONE Tolkien candle holder from Vieve La Rein


Worldwide

Bzee -- Dragon Charm thong bookmark from Book Niche

Hannah W. -- "Food and cheer and song" print -- digital download from A Crescendence 

Grace -- Winner's choice of any ONE Tolkien-related digital download from Elemental Digital

Patricia T. -- "Not all those who wander are lost" print digital download from Ilze Lucero Designs

Ayesha H. -- Complete set of 22 Hobbit stickers from Lonely Full Moon

Morgan M. -- Hobbit Bingo game -- digital download from Wormwood Apothecary

Jacqueline -- Set of 4 Hobbit movie-related buttons donated by me

See you next year!

Answers to LOTR Characters Word Search

Just in case you got stuck, here's the solution to the word search: