Smith's Hyper Hamlet
|
Annotated Hamlet with Hypertext Links to Related Lines,
Plot Summary, Themes, Motifs & Symbolism & Word-Play, Character
Analysis, Historical Context, and Essays
Complete
Text of Hamlet Annotated with Hypertext Links (This is useful for
searching within the play without bumping into my notes, which are discreetly
linked via hypertext.) Complete
Text of Hamlet Annotated with Interleaved Notes and Links Hamlet Plot Summary Hamlet Themes Hamlet Motifs & Symbolism
& Word-Play
Hamlet Character
Analysis
Hamlet in Historical Context Be All My Sins Remembered - Essays on Hamlet, with
hypertext links to the play
Be
All My Sins Remembered
Essays on Hamlet by Ray Eston
Smith Jr facebook: facebook.com/RayEstonSmithJr email: thyorisons@gmail.com
"To be or not to be" . . . . "so
like the king that was and is the question of these wars"
- Hamlet "for look, where my abridgement comes."
- Hamlet "We need more light to find your meaning out."
- Love's Labor Lost "They will scarcely believe this without
trial: offer them instances." - Much Ado About Nothing 
Come my friend, sit down a
while, and let me Assail your eyes with that which I have seen On the
printed page, on the living stage, In sparkling pixels, on the giant
screen, And on sleepless nights, and in restless dreams.
Acknowledgements: In memory of my
father, Lt. Col. R Eston Smith Bookstores, the continuing frontier.
Libraries, I only wish they were privatized so I would not have to acknowledge
so great a debt to government. Mrs. Black, my 10th-grade English
teacher. When I first set foot in her classroom, I was expecting the usual
stale rules of grammar and pretentious babble about Literature. Instead, she
taught me how to think. George Polya, author of "How to Solve
It". It works. Michael Malone and his novel, "Handling
Sin", about a father's lively legacy to his son. In the darkest part of my
life, before I had seen the light in Hamlet, his book gave me a ray of hope.
To Elle, with almost all the holy vows of heaven.
A
Prologue to My Brain
What more can be said about Hamlet? After you read this book
you will ask, "How could so many critics have missed so much?". Past
critics have failed to find the answers in Hamlet because they have failed to
ask the right questions. They have been blinded to the mysteries in Hamlet by
that ever-prematurely rhetorical question, "What more can be said?"
But there is a necessary question of the play yet to be considered: To be or
not to be -- what? That is the question. To live and to love living.
That is the answer. In search of that answer, we constantly question the world.
And the answer comes, more than from any other part of the world, from the
minds of men (and womb-men). This book is an attempt to find part of the answer
in one work conceived in the mind of one man -- in Hamlet by William
Shakespeare. Note: "womb-man" -> "woman" might
be only "folk etymology" but it might have been believed by
Shakespeare. I use it here mainly because there is a very significant
"womb" motif in Shakespeare's Hamlet. (Please see The Rebirth of Hamlet.) There was discussion of "womb-man" at least as
far back as 1605, just a few years after Hamlet appeared.
Grammar and Gendes, Dennis E. Baron, 1986, page 32-33.
Again Verstegan (1605) is perhaps the earliest to offer a detailed analysis of woman,
finding it a compound of womb and man that, perhaps because of
its presumed transparency, is superior in structure to its Latin equivalent:
The name of Mulier hath no dependence is sound with
the name of Homo, as our name of woman with man. It should in deed be
written womb-man for so it is of antiquitie and rightly, the b. for
easynesse and redynesse of sound beeing in the pronountiation left out: and how
apt a composed woord this is, is plainly seen. And as Homo in Latin doth
signifie both man and woman, so in our toung the feminyne creature also hath as
wee see, the name of man, but more aptly in that it is for due distinction
composed with womb, shee being that kynde of man that is wombed, or hath the
womb of conception, which the man of the male kynde hath not [193-94]
I am about to reveal to you a secret that has been hidden in
plain sight for over four hundred years. Most of the clues are in the most
performed, most written-about play in the English language. Other clues, though
less obtrusive, can be found in any large library. Clues such as: 1.
The English Pope and his fertility well, and Henry VIII and his first queen.
2. A divorce decreed at Blackfriars. 3. An imaginary kick from an
imaginary fetus when the Pole Star danced. 4. The day the canon
disseminated "seminary". 5. A brass door-knocker shaped
like a nose. 6. The mole under William Allen's right eye.
7. A 16th-century cannon called a "falcon" (but not Maltese).
8. A bunghole. 9. Domini canis will have his day. 10. Two
provincial roses. 11. A Strange baker and his "daughter."
12. The steward that stole his master's daughter, and the baby born from the
womb of earth. 13. The name of a forest or Shakespeare's kin, an
anonymous play and a hamlet that destroyed itself, and two games of backgammon
interrupted by murders. 14. Black Will and George Shakebag.
15. "When a man's verses cannot be understood...it strikes a man more dead
than a great reckoning in a small room." 16 "And for my
means, I'll husband them so well, they shall go far with little."
17. A printer named Woodcock. 18. Christopher Marlowe's father's
hometown, a messenger's mistress who did Yeoman's service, and a dagger in
Christopher Marlowe's eye. 19. The twice-told tale of a St
Valentine's Day murder. 20. Much ado about talking out at windows
into men's souls. 21. A painfully inquisitive man named Topcliffe, a
place called Marshallsea, and a chilling tale of two shoulder bones.
22. A loose cannon, eight crushed bodies, and a bride-to-be. 23. A
cannon salute to "Henry VIII", Global warming, back to Blackfriars.
In "Part 2 - Where Truth Is Hid" I will use the
foregoing clues to reveal what Hamlet tells us about Shakespeare, but first, in
"Part 1 - So Like the King," I will investigate
what Shakespeare told us about Hamlet. Finally, in "Part 3 - Whither Wilt Thou Lead Me?," in lieu of academic
credentials, I offer my Hamletonion autobiography.
Contents
Invitation Acknowledgements A Prologue to My Brain Clues Part 1 - So Like the King How to Love Hamlet The Last Act of Hamlet Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play The Madness of Hamlet Summary of the Themes of Hamlet Motifs in Hamlet To Be Or Not To Be A Most Pitiful Ambition Three Famous Quotations from Hamlet Hamlet's Divided Soul Hamlet's Tragic Flaw Thinking Makes It So The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical Context Terms Compulsatory How Old Is Hamlet? Doomed to Walk the Night Fine Revolution How the Wheel Becomes It The Mole of Nature An Honest Ghost? Hell Itself Breathes Out Contagion The Rest Is Silence The Voice of Denmark Tis a Vice to Know Him I Know a Hawk from a Handsaw - Hamlet and the Spanish Armada To Inherit the Earth Must the Inheritor Himself Have No More? Epitaph for a King Epitaph for a Peacemaker The Honey of His Music Vows He Himself is Subject to his Birth Unforced Accord? A Breeder of Sinners Chaste Treasure in the Womb of Earth Elegy for the Kissing Carrion The Drama Filial The Rebirth of Hamlet The Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy Reflections in a Broken Mirror The Ugly Truth To Thine Ownself Be True The Time Is Out of Joint Hamlet's Transformation Or I Do Forget Myself The Election of His Soul Unpacking the Whore in His Heart's Core - Whore Rational - Horatio Where Kings Lead, Folly Follows Horatio vs Rosencrantz & Guildenstern The Cloud, the Cannon, and in the Cup a Union The Cannon May Miss Our Name Extorted Treasure in the Womb of Earth My Uncle, More Like My Father Usurp Your Sovereignty of Reason Mad in Craft Old Men in the Book of his Brain Remembrances in the Book of Their Brains A Document in Madness A Camel in My Mind's Eye Bell, Book, and Candle Leave It To Karma Three Sons Fond and Winnowed Opinions The Womb of Earth Was Hamlet Guilty of Murder? When Your Clowns Speak How If I Answer No? Look Where My Abridgement Comes St Gertrude in the Garden Jointress to this Warlike State Polonius Well-Ended An Envious Sliver The Diet of Worms and the Aborted Rebirth of Polonius Shakespeare and Foxe's Book of Martyrs Old Stock Questions of the Play A Piece of Work God-like Reason Unused In the Whirlwind of Passion, Show his Form and Pressure Confess Thyself The Majesty of Buried Denmark Shakespeare's Audience - You the Judges Part 2 - Where Truth Is Hid Why Will? (The Godfather) Shakespeare, Breakspear, and Broken Pole (The Prophesy) Dangerous Conjectures in Ill-Breeding Minds (The Oath) Be All My Sins Remembered (The Politics of Purgatory) You the Judges Bear a Wary Eye (Of Kings and Commoners) Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be The Strange Baker's Daughter (The Drama Ophelia) When the Wind Is Southerly Shakebag, Falstaff, and Woodcock (The Springe) Princess of Denmark, James VI, and the Ur-Hamlet It Began With a Lass (The False Steward) Did Shakespeare Help Write the King James version of the Bible? - The Clue That Wasn't A Chilling Tale of Two Shoulder Bones How Henry's Divorce Led to Global Warming (The Dog Has His Day) Part 3 - Whither Wilt Thou Lead Me? More Things Dreamt of in My Philosophy Is Your Union Here? Your Father Lost a Father, and That Father Lost, Lost His Born To Set It Right Mud in My Mind's Eye Dynamite Dawn in the Land of the Rising Sun Unopened Presents Where There's a Will There's a Ray An Offense to Reason Most Absurd What's in a Name? Whirling Words A Springe to Catch Woodcocks Here Comes Thy Sun And in the Cup a Dis-Union My Father's Union The Scope Of These Delated Articles To Stop a Bunghole He Hath Borne Me on His Back Muddy Water Blues The Dog Will Have His Day The Ghost of Venice This Bud's For You Whither Wilt Thou Lead Me? Swear He Hath Borne Me on His Back The Battlefield of Ideas Old Dynamite In the Womb of Earth So Hallow'd and So Gracious Is the Time A Voice on the Radio True Madness Must There No More Be Done? False Dogs Reflections on Hamlet 'Tis Not Strange This Eternal Blazon Must Not Be Extorted Treasure For Which They Say You Spirits Oft Walk In Death Building Bridges Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water The Beauty of the World Plus Tax A Connected Human The Notebooks of Ray Eston Smith Jr
Part
1 - So Like the King
"Who's
there?" The rest of the play answers that initial question. Hamlet is the
"glass of fashion" and most of the other characters reflect some
aspect of Hamlet. But who is Hamlet? A son of his warrior father, but also one
who "could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite
space." Hamlet the soldier rants in golden couplets of warlike noise,
while Hamlet the scholar unfolds himself through inaction and silence. But to
be true to himself, Hamlet has to recognize that he is both soldier and
scholar. He is the princely soldier who courageously returns to the fate
awaiting him in his native soil (a graveyard). But he is also the gentle
scholar who confesses the sins of his warlike nature. There are a
number of interlocking motifs in Hamlet which reveal much about Hamlet's
character and the themes of the play. In the following essays, motifs,
metaphors, puns, and wordplay are the keys to the themes of Hamlet.
How to Love Hamlet
Shakespeare's
plays were meant to be viewed by an audience before being read. After seeing a
play, you might be driven by curiosity to dig deeper by reading the play. Then
after pondering the play on your own, your curiosity might lead you to seek out
other opinions. But be very skeptical of those other opinions. The only true
"authority" on Shakespeare is the author himself. An opinion about
Shakespeare's meaning is worthless unless fully supported by quotes from
Shakespeare. "They will scarcely believe this without trial:
offer them instances." - Much Ado About Nothing For Hamlet, I
recommend starting with Sir Kenneth Branagh's 4-hour uncut version. Then
read the play yourself. Watch for connections between lines. There
are word-play connections spanning the entire play. Lines in Act I, Scene 1
begin puns that are completed in Act V, Scene 5, and clarify the meaning of the
whole play. "Knave" and "nave" sound alike. Is there a pun
there? Where is "nave" used? What are the possible different
definitions of "knave" and "nave"? Can you discover the "trick"
to see the "fine revolution" spun throughout the play? Is
Hamlet a whiny indecisive wimp? Or is he a valiant soldier of the spirit
fighting a desperate internal battle to defend the sovereignty of his soul? Is
Hamlet a cold-hearted self-centered misogynist who deliberately hurts Ophelia?
Or does he truly love her and does he do his best to defend her from the evil
forces that are bringing him down? Does Hamlet really react to his father's
murder by wanting to kill HIMSELF? Or would he rather see his father's murderer
commit "self-slaughter," saving Hamlet the trouble of weeding the
garden? Was Hamlet true to himself when he erased "all saws of books, all
forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there" from
his own brain and there in the book and volume of his brain wrote his father's
commandment (the voice of Denmark, loosed out of Hell to speak of horrors, to
breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid
to tell to mortal ears)? Was Hamlet free to "carve for himself"? Was
he from himself taken away? What's with the gravedigger hired on the day Hamlet
was born, the same day that Hamlet's father killed Fortinbras' father to gain
the land that is now "the question of these wars"? Was Hamlet's
father a good king? A good king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars? Is
Fortinbras the ideal prince, willing to send thousands to their graves for
"his honor"? Or is Hamlet the better man, because he gave up
"his honor" and his land to avert a war that would have doomed
thousands of his countrymen? Also please see Questions
of the Play After you've seen and read and thought about
Hamlet, please read the following short essays that I wrote. My interpretations
are radically different from the "authorities", but I thoroughly
support every opinion with quotes from the play so I believe my interpretations
are in accord with Shakespeare's intended meanings. (Please go to -
http://www.thyorisons.com/Love_Hamlet for live links to the following essays:) The
Rebirth of Hamlet Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet
Is an Anti-War Play The Honey of His Music Vows The Madness
of Hamlet Was Hamlet Guilty of Murder? When Your
Clowns Speak How If I Answer No? Old Men in
the Book of his Brain Remembrances in the Book of
Their Brains An Envious Sliver Fine
Revolution How the Wheel Becomes It Three
Famous Quotations from Hamlet To
Thine Ownself Be True Fond and Winnowed Opinions The
Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical Context Terms
Compulsatory The Election of His Soul My
Uncle, More Like My Father The Cloud, the Cannon, and in
the Cup a Union The Cannon May Miss Our Name A
Camel in My Mind's Eye Purgatory and Confession
Theme Shakespeare's Audience - You
the Judges Also please see: Complete
Text of Hamlet With Hypertext Links to Related Lines, Plot Summary,
Themes, Motifs & Symbolism & Word-Play, Character Analysis, and
Essays (This is useful for searching within the play without
bumping into my notes, which are discreetly linked via hypertext.) Complete Text of Hamlet with
interleaved notes and links
Hamlet Plot Summary Hamlet Themes Hamlet Motifs & Symbolism
& Word-Play
Hamlet
Character Analysis
Be All My Sins Remembered -
Essays on Hamlet, with hypertext links to the play
The Last Act of Hamlet
(1) Hamlet was reborn.
(Extracts from The Rebirth of Hamlet) . . . . Hamlet,
born to be a death-dealing king, hates his birthright. Thus, throughout the
play he regresses back to the womb (the womb of earth - Ophelia's grave), where
he is reborn as Hamlet the rational scholar. . . . . His father,
unable to part from his earthly kingdom, was doomed to walk the night in search of his
"extorted
treasure in the womb of earth." There was
another reference to treasure in the play: Ophelia's "chaste treasure." Ophelia, like Hamlet,
was also untrue to herself by being excessively obedient to her father. She let him tell her what to
think.
Her very name is an allusion to excessive
filial duty.
When Ophelia died, her grave was metaphorically the grave of filial
duty - the final inevitable end to which obedience to their fathers brought
Ophelia and Hamlet, to their marriage-bed. When Hamlet jumped into
Ophelia's grave he was finally giving his father's ghost what it had been
seeking - Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth, the grave of
filial duty. Ophelia's chaste treasure was in her lap HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your
lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant country
matters?
Since she is a virgin,
Ophelia's lap is undiscover'd cuntry. After she is laid in
the womb of earth (her grave), her chaste treasure becomes the
undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller returns (3,1,87-88). But Hamlet did return - he
leaps into her womb of earth, then emerges re-bourn. After
Hamlet leaped into Ophelia's grave, when he's being choked by Laertes, he says,
(5,1,264)
I prithee, take thy fingers
from my throat; For, though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I have
something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear:
That "something in me"
was the last appearance of the Ghost, who had finally been delivered to the
grave where he belonged, his extorted treasure in the womb of earth.
"Country matters" also means "cunt mater" because
Hamlet metaphorically returns to his mother's womb to be reborn. Hamlet's
mother Gertrude is there, channeling St Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of
mentally ill people (especially those with a rat phobia), travellers, pilgrims,
recently dead people, and graves. (See St
Gertrude in the Garden.)
It is fitting for Hamlet's mother to be present at his rebirth, to bear
him anew: GERTRUDE (5,1,279)
For love of God, forbear
him.
GERTRUDE (5,1,291)
This is mere madness:
And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female
dove, When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence
will sit drooping.
The hatching dove eggs
symbolize Hamlet's metaphorical rebirth. The silence symbolizes Hamlet's
liberation from the warlike voice of Denmark. Doves are a symbol for
peace. When Hamlet emerges from that womb of earth he is no
longer "from
himself taken away."
He has been reborn as himself, the rational scholar from Wittenberg. "To
Be OR Not to be. That is the question." "Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John
3:3 KJV (2) Hamlet averted a war, thereby saving the lives of
thousands of his countrymen. (Extracts from Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play ) . . . . A gravedigger was hired on the very day
that Hamlet emerged from his mother's womb, which was the same day his
father put old Fortinbras into the "womb
of earth" (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is the
question of these wars" and which was Hamlet's
inheritance, figuratively a graveyard, like the part of Poland not big enough to cover the dead from
the impending war over that same land.
BERNARDO (1.1.121-124)
.
. . . so like the king that was and is the question of these
wars.
That
is Hamlet's dilemma - whether "to be or not to be,"
like the Ghost, "so like the king that was and is the
question of these wars." . . . . Then with his dying words Hamlet proved that he was
not "so like the king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars."
He passed his inheritance of blood-soaked dirt along with the voice of
Denmark to Fortinbras - without a war, thus saving the lives of thousands
of his countrymen. The arrogant and cowardly Prince Fortinbras, who
had sent thousands of commoners to their
graves for his "honour." is shocked that, at the Danish court, "so many princes" have died.
In contrast, Hamlet has just saved the lives of thousands of commoners
by refusing to be so like the "honourable" Fortinbras. Even
to this day, we are still so conditioned to bow to the divine rights of princes
and presidents that Hamlet's concession to Fortinbras seems
"dishonourable." But why should the common people go to their graves by the
thousands for a straw, for a piece of ground not big enough to bury
the dead, for the "honour"
of pampered princes and pompous presidents?
Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play
The
title says it all: "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark."
Because he is Prince of Denmark he is not free to "carve for himself." He is
subject to the "voice of
Denmark" - and that voice "had
been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors." Hamlet, like
all the other major characters, is untrue to himself. When he is himself, he is
like Horatio, a student from Wittenberg. But as he said, "Horatio, or I do forget
myself." He does forget himself. He erases himself and his humanist
education ("all saws of books, all
forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there")
from his own brain and there in the book and volume of his brain he writes his
father's commandment (the voice of Denmark, loosed out of Hell to speak of
horrors, to breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house
that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears). Hamlet is from himself taken away.
When he is not "from himself taken away," Hamlet is a rational
humanist scholar from Wittenberg. But Hamlet erases that side of himself from
the book and volume of his brain and replaces it with the commandment of his
warlike father. Thereafter all of Hamlet's soliloquies are really debates
between the warring sides of his divided soul. Hamlet is a valiant soldier of
the spirit, fighting a desperate internal battle to defend the sovereignty of
his soul. In the "my thoughts be bloody" soliloquy: (4,4,38-68) Hamlet the
scholar says,
Sure,
he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave
us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused.
But
Prince Hamlet, the soldier-son of a warlike king scoffs at thinking too
precisely and concludes:
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
A gravedigger was hired on the very day
that Hamlet emerged from his mother's womb, which was the same day his
father put old Fortinbras into the "womb
of earth" (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is the
question of these wars" and which was Hamlet's
inheritance, figuratively a graveyard, like the part of Poland not big enough to cover the dead from
the impending war over that same land.
BERNARDO (1.1.121-124)
.
. . . so like the king that was and is the question of these
wars.
That
is Hamlet's dilemma - whether "to be or not to be,"
like the Ghost, "so like the king that was and is the
question of these wars." In the end, Hamlet won that
battle for the sovereignty of his soul. (Please see The
Rebirth of Hamlet.) Then with his dying words Hamlet proved that he was
not "so like the king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars."
He passed his inheritance of blood-soaked dirt along with the voice of
Denmark to Fortinbras - without a war, thus saving the lives of thousands
of his countrymen. The arrogant and cowardly Prince Fortinbras, who
had sent thousands of commoners to their
graves for his "honour." is shocked that, at the Danish court, "so many princes" have died.
In contrast, Hamlet has just saved the lives of thousands of commoners
by refusing to be so like the "honourable" Fortinbras. Even
to this day, we are still so conditioned to bow to the divine rights of princes
and presidents that Hamlet's concession to Fortinbras seems
"dishonourable." But why should the common people go to their graves by the
thousands for a straw, for a piece of ground not big enough to bury
the dead, for the "honour"
of pampered princes and pompous presidents? Aside from the whole play
itself, I've found nothing that captures the spirit of Hamlet better than Tom
Paxton's "When Princes Meet." You can buy it here for 99
cents. (I'm not getting a kickback from this link. I just want people to hear
the song. If you can't afford the 99 cents, pirate it from YouTube.) Also
see How to Love Hamlet
The Madness of Hamlet
In
Shakespeare's time the most popular theory of madness was that it was caused by
demonic possession - Hamlet was possessed by his father's warlike spirit. Hamlet's Transformation -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Transformation Old Men
in the Book of his Brain - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Old_Men Remembrances in the Book of Their Brains -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Remembrances The Mole of
Nature - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Mole An
Honest Ghost? - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Dishonest_Ghost Usurp Your Sovereignty of Reason -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Usurp I Know a Hawk
from a Handsaw - Hamlet and the Spanish Armada -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Handsaw Bell,
Book, and Candle - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Handsaw Or I Do Forget Myself -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Forget_Myself Hamlet's
Divided Soul - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Divided_Soul Another
popular belief was that lunacy was caused by the influence of the moon
("Luna"). Hamlet was compared to the moon and his father was compared
the sun-god Hyperion. Hamlet's madness consisted of glowing with the bloody
reflected sheen of his father instead of with his own true light. The Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Cause_of_Lunacy In more modern terms,
Hamlet was undergoing an identity crisis. He was struggling to be true to
himself despite the pressures to conform to his warlike father's royal
traditions. Hamlet's Divided Soul -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Divided_Soul Hamlet's insanity was real,
but he was also faking it ("mad in craft"). He faked madness to hide
his true madness, which consisted of being possessed by his father's spirit. If
Claudius had suspected that he would have immediately murdered Hamlet (again).
Mad in Craft -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Mad_in_Craft To put Hamlet's madness in
the context of the whole play, please see How to
Love Hamlet - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Love_Hamlet
Summary of the Themes of Hamlet
The
main theme of Hamlet is "To thine ownself be true." Hamlet's Tragic Flaw -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Tragic_Flaw To Thine
Ownself Be True - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Ownself_Be Hamlet
and Ophelia are both untrue to themselves by being excessively obedient to
their fathers. The play is about excessive filial duty - it's a filial drama
(Ophelia drama). The Drama Filial -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Drama_Filial Chaste
Treasure in the Womb of Earth - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Chaste_Treasure
An Honest Ghost? -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Dishonest_Ghost Old Men in
the Book of his Brain - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Old_Men Remembrances in the Book of Their Brains -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Remembrances The
Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Cause_of_Lunacy When
Hamlet is true to himself, he's a rational scholar from Wittenberg. When Hamlet
is "from himself taken away," he is Prince Hamlet, the
soldier-son of a warlike king, who scoffs at reason as "thinking too
precisely." Thus a sub-theme is "reason vs bloody royal
tradition." Reason Motif -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#reason Thinking Makes It So
- http://www.thyorisons.com/#Thinking A
Document in Madness - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Document_Madness God-like Reason Unused Where Kings
Lead, Folly Follows - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Folly_Follows Hamlet's
father, his uncle, old Fortinbras, and young Fortinbras all valued dirt over
people (as in a graveyard). Thus a major theme is the sin of killing for land.
Hamlet's dilemma is whether "to be or not to be," like
the Ghost, "so like the king that was and is the question
of these wars." Epitaph for a King -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Kings_Epitaph To Be Or Not To
Be - http://www.thyorisons.com/#To_be Tis a Vice to
Know Him - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Vice To
Inherit the Earth - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Inherit_Earth The Womb of Earth - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Womb When Your Clowns Speak - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Clowns
How If I Answer No? -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Answer_No There is also a theme of
purgatory and confession "to be forestalled ere we come
to fall," to "avoid what is to come," "lest more
mischance on plots and errors, happen." Confess
Thyself - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Confess_Thyself Leave
It To Karma - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Karma The Majesty of Buried Denmark -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Majesty_Buried The Rebirth
of Hamlet - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Rebirth Hamlet
in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Nutshell Also please see Motifs in Hamlet
Motifs in Hamlet
Please
see Motifs in Hamlet
To Be Or Not To Be
To
be or not to be
what? That is the question. Hamlet is not
agonizing over whether to live or die - he is agonizing over how to avoid
damnation. Hamlet feels bound by filial duty to try to kill King
Claudius. To kill a king is a dangerous thing - he is likely to die in the
attempt, but Hamlet does not fear death: HAMLET (1.4.70)
Why,
what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin's fee; And for
my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?
However,
he does fear damnation: HAMLET (2.2.609)
The
spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To
assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my
melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn
me: >
Trying
to kill a king might be considered a suicide mission and suicide is a mortal
sin. Attempting to kill a king would be like taking "arms against a sea of
troubles" ). FIRST CLOWN (5.1.15)
.
. . .If the man go this WATER, and drown himself, it is, will he,
nill he, he goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him and
drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty
of his own death
But
suppose Hamlet succeeds in killing the king. Would that also be a sin? It would
depend on his motives. Was he killing to defend the Danish people against a
murderous tyrant? HAMLET (5.2.73)
.
. . . is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In
further evil?
Or
is "this canker of our nature" Hamlet's own ambition?
HAMLET (3.1.73)
To
sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep
of death what dreams may come
HAMLET
(2.2.268)
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.
GUILDENSTERN
Which
dreams indeed are ambition.
If
Hamlet kills Claudius out of ambition, he will inherit the same blood-soaked
ground that doomed both his uncle and his father to damnation. A
gravedigger was hired on the very day that Hamlet emerged from his mother's
womb, which was the same day his father put old Fortinbras into the womb of
earth (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is
the question of these wars" and which was Hamlet's inheritance,
figuratively a graveyard, not big enough to cover the dead from the impending
war over that same land. BERNARDO (1.1.121)
I
think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort that this
portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king that
was and is the question of these wars.
That
was Hamlet's dilemma - whether "to be or not to be,"
like the Ghost, "so like the king that was and is the
question of these wars." Also please see How to Love Hamlet
A Most Pitiful Ambition
HAMLET
(3,2,39-46)
.
. . And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for
them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some
quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some
necessary question of the play be then to be considered:
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the
fool that uses it.
On
the surface, "villanous" and "ambition" apply
to the "those that play your clowns." However, for the
audience, Shakespeare intended a second meaning. The "question of
the play" is "villanous ambition." (See
Fine Revolution for the association between
"villanous" and Hamlet's ambitious father.) GHOST (1.5.8)
Pity me not
The
word "ambition" in this play always refers to the willingness
to kill for land, valuing dirt over people - as in a graveyard. CLAUDIUS(1,2,21)
(1.2.21)
Colleagued
with the dream of his advantage,
HAMLET
(2,2,268-271)
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.
GUILDENSTERN
Which
dreams indeed are ambition,
HAMLET
There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy.
Horatio
thought it strange that the ghost had returned from his grave, but there is a
much deeper meaning to "There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." As Guildenstern later
says, "dreams indeed are ambition." After writing his father in the
book of his brain, Hamlet is infected with those dreams of ambition. However
Horatio represents Hamlet's rational side, before he forgot himself, before he
was from himself taken aways, before he was infected by his father's bloody
royal ambition. In Horatio's philosophy, there are no dreams of ambition.
HAMLET
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come Such was the very
armour he had on When he the ambitious Norway combated; why
wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had
not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, some
necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's
villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.
Forgive me my foul murder'? That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition
and my queen. May one be pardon'd and retain the offence? Examples
gross as earth exhort me: Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition
puff'd Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal
and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an
egg-shell.
Three Famous Quotations from
Hamlet
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. To be, or not to be: that is the question:
But
what do they really mean? ******** CLAUDIUS (1.2.127)
No
jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great CANNON to the CLOUDS
shall tell, And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. [Exeunt all but Hamlet]
HAMLET
O,
that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a
dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His CANON 'gainst
self-slaughter! O God! God!
On
the surface: Hamlet seems to be contemplating suicide. Dig
deeper: Claudius (Cloud-ius) had just said that he would fire his CANNON
to the CLOUDS. Hamlet already suspected Claudius of murdering his
father. Later when he heard it from the Ghost, he said, "O my prophetic soul! My uncle!".
If you knew somebody had murdered your father, would you wish for your own
death, or for the death of the murderer? If Claudius dissolved into an actual
cloud, when he fired his cannon to the clouds he would be committing
self-slaughter. Please see The
Cloud, the Cannon, and in the Cup a Union ******** HAMLET
(1.5.185)
There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are DREAMT of in your
philosophy.
On
the surface: Hamlet seems to be telling Horatio that the Ghost exists even
though ghosts are not a part of Horatio's rational philosophy. Dig
deeper: HAMLET (2.2.268)
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
GUILDENSTERN
Which
DREAMS indeed are AMBITION.
HAMLET
(5.2.88)
.
. . Dost know this water-fly?
HORATIO
No,
my good lord.
HAMLET
THY
STATE IS THE MORE GRACIOUS; for 'tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and
fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's
mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say, SPACIOUS IN THE POSSESSION OF DIRT.
With
the combination of these lines, Shakespeare is telling us, with dramatic irony,
that Horatio's state is "the more gracious" because he lacks
ambition to acquire land. THAT'S the thing that is not DREAMT of in Horatio's
philosophy - AMBITION. ******** HAMLET (3.1.64)
To
be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to
suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms
against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No
more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural
shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be
wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the
rub; For in that sleep of death what DREAMS may come When we have
shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause:
On
the surface: Hamlet is contemplating suicide. Dig deeper:
Hamlet is contemplating the possibly suicidal mission of trying to kill a king.
He is questioning his own motives. His father
and his uncle were both damned to
hell by their own ambition for land. If Hamlet kills Claudius out of AMBITION
to acquire his land, then Hamlet will be damned by his DREAMS of AMBITON. BERNARDO
(1.1.121)
I
think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort that this portentous
figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king THAT was and
IS THE QUESTION of these wars.
"To
be or not to be," like the Ghost, "so like the king THAT was
and IS THE QUESTION of these wars" - THAT is Hamlet's dilemma. Please
see To Be Or Not To Be Hamlet
in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play How
to Love Hamlet
Hamlet's Divided Soul
Hamlet
was metaphorically and psychologically (and perhaps literally) possessed by the
warlike spirit of his dead father. When he is not "from himself taken away,"
Hamlet is a rational humanist scholar from Wittenberg. But Hamlet erases that
side of himself from the book and volume of his brain and replaces it with the
commandment of his warlike father. Thereafter all of Hamlet's soliloquies are
really debates between the warring sides of his divided soul. Hamlet is a
valiant soldier of the spirit, fighting a desperate internal battle to defend
the sovereignty of his soul. So when listing Hamlet's character
traits you need to distinguish between Hamlet the rational scholar and Prince
Hamlet the soldier-son of a warlike king. HAMLET (3.1.32)
I
am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things
that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud,
revengeful, ambitious,
Hamlet
himself is only "indifferent honest" because he knows he was
untrue to himself when he erased himself from his brain and wrote his father
there. Hamlet, when he is not himself, when when he is possessed by his
father's spirt, is "proud, revengeful, ambitious." HAMLET
(5.1.265)
For,
though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear
HAMLET
(5.2.224)
.
. . What I have done, That might your nature, honour and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes?
Never Hamlet: If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, And when he's not
himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so, Hamlet is of the faction that
is wrong'd; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
In
the "my thoughts be bloody" soliloquy: Hamlet the
scholar says,
(4.4.38) Sure, he that made us
with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That
capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused.
But
Prince Hamlet, the soldier-son of a warlike king scoffs at "thinking too
precisely on the event" and concludes:
(4.4.68) My thoughts be bloody,
or be nothing worth!
A gravedigger was hired on the very day that Hamlet emerged
from his mother's womb, which was the
same day his father put old Fortinbras into the womb of earth (his grave),
thus acquiring land " that was
and is the question of these wars" and which was Hamlet's inheritance, figuratively a graveyard, which, like the part of Poland conquered by Fortinbras,
was not big enough to cover the dead from the impending war over that same land.
BERNARDO (1.1.121)
I
think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort that this portentous
figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king that was and
is the question of these wars.
That
is Hamlet's dilemma - whether "TO
BE OR NOT TO BE," like the Ghost, "so like the king THAT was and IS THE
QUESTION of these wars." For Prince Hamlet the
soldier-son of a warlike king, please see God-like Reason
Unused For Hamlet the rational scholar, please see Thinking Makes It So The Election
of His Soul Or I Do Forget Myself Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Hamlet's Tragic Flaw
The
title says it all: "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark."
Because he was Prince of Denmark he was not free to carve for himself.
He was subject to the voice of Denmark - and that voice was sent from
Hell to speak of horrors. Hamlet, like all the other major
characters, was untrue to himself. When he was himself, he was like Horatio, a
student from Wittenberg. But as he said, "Horatio, or I do forget
myself." He did forget himself. He erased himself and his humanist
education (all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and
observation copied there) from his own brain and there in the book and
volume of his brain he wrote his father's commandment (the voice of
Denmark, sent from Hell to speak of horrors, to breathe contagion, unfolding
the secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears).
Hamlet was from himself taken away.
Thinking Makes It So
Rosencrantz
We think not so, my lord. Hamlet Why, then, 'tis none to
you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern interpret "there is nothing either
good or bad, but thinking makes it so" to mean moral relativism
("there is no such thing as good or bad - it's all a matter of subjective
opinion"). However, Hamlet, although he's contemptuously aware of their
moral relativism, means it in another sense: "Morality is the product of
reason. You must think in order to determine what is good and what is bad."
Is Hamlet's fate to be good or to be bad? That is the question.
When he is not "from himself taken away," Hamlet is a rational
humanist scholar from Wittenberg. But Hamlet erases that side of himself from
the book and volume of his brain and replaces it with the commandment of his
warlike father. Thereafter all of Hamlet's soliloquies are really debates
between the warring sides of his divided soul. Hamlet is a valiant soldier of
the spirit, fighting a desperate internal battle to defend the sovereignty of
his soul. In the "my thoughts be bloody" soliloquy:
Hamlet the scholar says, Sure, he that made us with such large
discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and
god-like reason To fust in us unused. But Prince Hamlet, the
soldier-son of a warlike king scoffs at "thinking too precisely on the
event" and concludes: My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing
worth! Please see Reason
Motif
The Memory Be Green - Hamlet
in Historical Context
Government
censors tried to prevent plays from saying anything about current events or
recent history. Playwrights took that as a challenge - they tried to sneak
things past the censors. The most sensitive topic of the day was the
result of a royal divorce about 70 years earlier. King Henry VIII wanted to
divorce his wife Catherine because although she'd given him a daughter, Mary,
she could no longer have children, and Henry wanted a male heir. Henry asked
the Pope to approve the divorce but the Pope refused (mainly because the
Vatican was surrounded by the armies of Catherine's nephew, Charles V of
Spain). So Henry divorced England from the Catholic Church, made himself the
head of the Anglican Church and approved the divorce himself. Then he seized
the extensive lands owned by English Catholic monasteries. Those monasteries
had accumulated that land over the centuries when wealthy men bequeathed land
to the Church in exchange for prayers to help them pass from Purgatory to
Heaven. A few years before Henry's divorce, Martin Luther had caused a schism
in the Church, founding Protestantism as an alternative to Catholicism, by
criticizing the corruption of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther claimed that
corruption was caused mainly by the Church practice of selling indulgences
(free passes out of Purgatory). Those indulgences had allowed the Church to
acquire vast amounts of land throughout Europe. That land now had become a
tempting target for European Kings - if they converted to Protestantism they
could justify seizing the Church-owned lands within their realms. So
Henry got his divorce and seized the monastery lands and sold them. Thereafter
many middle-class Englishmen owned former monastery lands, and thus had a
vested interest in keeping England Protestant. Henry's second wife Anne Boleyn
gave him a daughter, Elizabeth. Then Henry chopped off Anne's head. Henry went
through several more wives, decapitating some, divorcing others, and he finally
got a son, Edward. When Henry died young Edward became King Edward VI. But
Edward was sickly and died a few years later. He was succeeded by Queen Mary,
the Catholic daughter of Catherine. Queen Mary married her cousin Phillip II of
Spain (son of Charles V). Mary and Phillip tried to return England to
Catholicism, but despite killing a lot of Protestants (hence her nickname,
"Bloody Mary"), they were only partly successful, partly because of
the resistance of all those middle-class Englishmen who were now owners of
former monastery lands. When Mary died, Phillip returned to Spain and Anne
Boleyn's daughter became Queen Elizabeth I of England and Catholicism was once
again banned in England. English Catholics had to pay heavy fines. Any Catholic
priest caught saying Mass was executed for treason. The brother of one of young
Shakespeare's teachers was a Catholic missionary who was caught and executed.
There is evidence that William Shakespeare's father was a secret Catholic.
In 1588, about 30 years after Mary died, Phillip II sent his Armada to
attempt "to recover of us, by
strong hand and terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands" (like
Fortinbras). Thanks to superior English seamanship and provident bad weather,
the Armada was destroyed and England saved, but a dozen years later, when
Hamlet steps on the stage, "the
memory be green." Purgatory was a major theme in Hamlet.
The ghost of Hamlet's father was in Purgatory, doomed to walk the night trying to recover his "extorted treasure
in the womb of earth." Thirty
years before (just as there was a 30-year gap between the death of Mary and
the launching of the Armada), Hamlet's
father had killed Fortinbras' father to gain lands that were Hamlet's inheritance.
On that same day, Hamlet was born and a
gravedigger was hired. In the play, Hamlet looked into a grave and said, "The very conveyances of his lands
will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?"
The "necessary question of
the play" was "To
be or not to be. That is the question." But to be or not to be
what? Perhaps the answer was given earlier in the play when Bernardo was
describing the ghost of Hamlet's father: "so
like the king that was and is the question of these wars."
That was Hamlet's dilemma - whether "to be or not to be"
. . . . "so like the king that was and is the question of
these wars."
That theme still resonates today as nation-states wage war over land, turning
those lands into graveyards.
Also see Terms Compulsatory
How to Love Hamlet
Terms Compulsatory
CLAUDIUS
(1.2.17)
.
. . young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother.
Thirty
years earlier Hamlet's father (old King Hamlet) had slain old King Fortinbras
in a fatal duel, winning (by the terms of the duel) a piece of ground to which
young Hamlet fell heir. Young Fortinbras therefore must be at least 30 years
old. But while old King Hamlet lived, young Fortinbras never dared to attempt
vengeance against old King Hamlet nor to reclaim those lands lost by his
father, with all bonds of law. But the cowardly young Fortinbras believes
(probably correctly) that he has a better chance of reclaiming the land from
Claudius. For one thing, Claudius won't challenge him to a personal duel. The
two "brave" princes (Prince Fortinbras and King Claudius) can fight
it out with no royal bloodshed - just a few thousand underlings.
But old King Hamlet also played an essential part in causing the impending war.
If he had been less ambitious and "honourable" he would have turned
down old Fortinbras' challenge ( How
if I answer 'no'?) and never would have obtained the land that is now the
question of these wars.
HORATIO (1.1.93)
.
. . Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was . . . by Fortinbras of Norway,
. . .
Dared to the combat; in which [old King] Hamlet--
. . .
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
. . .
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
. . .which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
. . .
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
. . .
Hath . . .
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
. . . to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this . . .
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
BERNARDO
. .
.
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
that was and is the question of these wars.
Hamlet
later alluded to old Jephtha .
HAMLET (2.2.418)
Am
I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
. . .
HAMLET
(2.2.426)
. .
.
'It came to pass, as most like it was,
"As
most like it was" sounds like "so like the king that was."
Hamlet later said "The king is a
thing," so substitute "it" for "the king that"
and "so like the king that was" becomes "so like it
was" which is synonymous with "as most like it was."
("The king is a thing" also helps explain "how the wheel becomes it,"
derived from "the cease of
majesty . . . it is a massy wheel.")
The story of Jephtha, in Judges 11, sounds most like the story of
the king that was and is the question of these wars. The Ammonites were
preparing for war against Israel to recover land Israel had taken from them,
just as young Fortinbras was preparing for war to recover of us, by strong
hand and terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands so by his father lost in
the fatal duel with old King Hamlet.
Judges 11.12
... What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in
my land?
Judges 11.13
...Because Israel took away my land... now therefore restore those lands
again
It is worth noting that Shakespeare took pains to let us know that there had
been a 30-year interval between the time old Fortinbras died and the time young
Fortinbras came to reclaim those lands by strong hand and terms compulsatory.
There was also a 30-year interval between the time Queen Mary died and the time
her widower, Prince Phillip of Spain, sent the Spanish Armada to attempt to
reclaim England by strong hand and terms compulsatory.
Also see This Eternal Blazon Must Not Be How to Love Hamlet
How Old Is Hamlet?
HAMLET
. . . .How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
First Clown
Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet
overcame Fortinbras.
HAMLET
How long is that since?
First Clown
Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it was the very day that
young Hamlet was born. . .
First Clown
. . .I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
Hamlet was hired on the same day that his father killed old Fortinbras to win
the piece of ground "that was and is the question
of these wars." On that same day, a gravedigger was hired. The
gravedigger was hired 30 years ago. Therefore, Hamlet is 30 years old.
Why did Shakespeare choose 30 years? I believe he first chose the interval from
the death of old Fortinbras to the time young Fortinbras came to recover the
lost land "by strong hand and terms compulsatory." He made
that parallel the 30-year interval from 1558 (death of Queen Mary of England)
to 1588 (the Spanish Armada). In 1588 (just a dozen years before Shakespeare
wrote Hamlet) Phillip II of Spain, widower of Queen Mary, had launched the
Spanish Armada to attempt to recover England for himself and for the Catholic
Church "by strong hand and terms compulsatory."
Doomed to Walk the Night
Why
was Hamlet's father doomed to walk the night?
The Ghost himself believed that all he wanted was for Hamlet to revenge his
murder. However, the Ghost admitted that he was
Doom'd
for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.
What
"foul crimes" had Hamlet's father committed since his last confession
(presumably the Sunday before his death)? Bernardo and Horatio believed that
the Ghost had been frightened away "like a guilty thing" by the
crowing of the cock:
BERNARDO
It
was about to speak, when the cock crew.
HORATIO
And
then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons...
However
the Ghost did not flee immediately after the cock crew. It didn't flee until
Horatio accused it of walking in death for its "extorted treasure in the
womb of earth."
If
thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
Cock crows
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
That
was the sin that was keeping Hamlet's father in Purgatory. Like the biblical
rich man and his camel, Hamlet's father was doomed to walk the earth because he
could not part with his earthly treasures.
Fine Revolution
HAMLET
(5.1.88)
Why,
e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a
sexton's spade: here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see't.
Within
its immediate context this is a rather shallow pun about the turning (revolution)
of the fine dirt in a grave,
which is also the final revolution of the wheel of fortune. But
it becomes more exciting when we take it as a challenge to unearth the subtle
motif of wheel puns spun throughout the play. HAMLET (1.5.134)
There's
ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave
HORATIO
There
needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this.
HAMLET
Why,
right, you are i th'right, And so without more circumstance
at all I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, You as your
business and desires shall point you. For every man has business and
desire, Such as it is - and for mine own poor part, Look you,
I'll go pray.
HORATIO
These
are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
These
are indeed "whirling words." Shakespeare often
wrote of madness but he only used the word "whirling"
one other time, and then it didn't refer to madness: "To calm this
tempest whirling in the court" (Titus Andronicus,IV,2). He used
"whirling" here to alert us to the "fine revolution"
of Hamlet's words. In addition to the usual meaning of "bad
guy," "villain" means a person of low birth, as in
"I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys."
(As You Like It, I,1) A villain would not live in a palace - he
would typically dwell in a village or hamlet. Thus a "villain
dwelling" is a Hamlet. (Ever wonder why Shakespeare never
punned on Hamlet/hamlet? Here's the missing pun.) So Hamlet and his father
(Hamlet Sr) were knaves or naves. One definition of
"nave" is the nave of a church. This
definition is implicitly used when Hamlet says "and for mine own poor
part, Look you, I'll go pray" "Nave" can also
be the nave (hub) of a wheel, as in the speech that Hamlet
requested from the First Player: (2.2.502)
Out,
out, thou strumpet fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her
power; Brake all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And
bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the
fiends.
Kings
are bound by fortune (fate, birth) to determine the fates of their subjects
ROSENCRANTZ (3.3.16)
The
cease of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw What's
near it with it. It is a massy wheel, Fixed on the summit of the
highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortic'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls, Each small annexment,
petty consequence, Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone Did the
king sigh, but with a general groan.
BERNARDO
(1.1.54)
It
would be spoke to.
[The
ghost wants more spokes on his nave as he rolls
down to hell] Putting all this together, we see Hamlet cryptically
likening himself (as a prince and potential king) to the nave of
a wheel. His friends are his spokes, which are
perpendicular (i' the right) to the nave. Before his wheel
of fortune (his fate) turns anymore (without more circumstance),
he wants to break all the spokes from her wheel so that
they won't be carried down the hill of heaven with him. (In the original
staging, it is likely that Hamlet spun around as he shook hands with Horatio
and flung him outward.) He wants to sigh alone (in contrast to Laertes, who brought along a mob when he
confronted the king). However, Hamlet is not only the nave of
a wheel; he is also the nave of a church (where
he'll go pray). He cannot escape death, but he will avoid damnation.
Also see How the Wheel Becomes It How to Love Hamlet
How the Wheel Becomes It
POLONIUS
Therefore,
since brevity is the soul of wit, (2.2.96-98)
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief
In
this bit of dramatic irony, "tediousness" alludes to Polonius
("these tedious old fools" 2.2.235 ). "Wit" alludes
to Claudius ("wicked wit and gifts" (1.5.49)). Claudius had been compared
to a "massy wheel" ( (3.3.18)).
Polonius, with his meddling, had put himself where Hamlet expected to
find a king (behind the arras) and thus metaphorically imitated the nave
(center) of a wheel, and so Hamlet cut him short (made him be brief).
POLONIUS
...I
went round to work, (2.2.147)
POLONIUS
If circumstances
lead me, I will find (2.2.168) Where
truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre.
HAMLET
Thou
wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! (3.4.37) I took thee for thy
better: take thy fortune
HAMLET
Mother,
good night. Indeed this counsellor (3.4.231)
Is now most still, most secret and most grave, Who was in life a foolish
prating knave.
Proverbs
10:8
...a
prating fool shall fall.
OPHELIA
You
must sing 'A-down, adown', an you call him a-down-a. O, how the
wheel becomes it! (4.5.188)
FIRST
PLAYER
Out,
out, thou strumpet fortune! All you gods, (2.2.502-508) In general synod,
take away her power; Brake 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 to the barber's, with your beard.
OPHELIA
They
bore him barefaced on the bier (4.5.179)
(Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern also lived "in the middle...In the secret parts
of fortune... she is a strumpet ( (2.2.247-251)), Thus, they met a
similar fate to Polonius. Polonius was killed in place of the nave
Claudius - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were killed in place of the nave
Hamlet.) Also see Fine Revolution
How to Love Hamlet
The
Mole of Nature
HAMLET
(1.4.25)
So,
oft it chances in particular men, That for some vicious mole of nature
in them, As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty, Since
nature cannot choose his origin-- By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason
HAMLET
(speaking to his father's ghost) (1.5.181)
Well
said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast? A worthy pioner!...
A pioner
was a military engineer, whose duties included burrowing under pales
(walls) and forts to plant explosives to break them down. (To
this day in the United States Army, combat engineers fresh out of training are
still designated as "Pioneers.") HORATIO (1.1.56)
What
art thou that usurp'st this time of night
HORATIO
(1.4.79) What if it .... ...deprive
your sovereignty of reason
Hamlet's
father was the mole of his nature (birth) who was breaking
down the pales and forts of his reason to usurp the
sovereignty of his reason - "If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,,"
Also see The Madness of Hamlet
An Honest Ghost?
HAMLET
(1.5.150)
.
. . Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you
But
is the Ghost really honest? Horatio had previously remarked that the
Ghost "started like a guilty
thing" and he implied that it was an "extravagant and erring spirit."
He warned that it "might deprive
your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness." The
Ghost himself admitted that he was "forbid
to tell the secrets of [his] prison-house" and that if he
did the tale would "harrow up
thy soul, freeze thy young blood" and that "this eternal blazon must not be to ears
of flesh and blood." Immediately after saying that, the Ghost
said, "List, list, O, list!"
Then he went ahead and told Hamlet that forbidden tale. Hamlet then erased
himself and his humanist education (all
saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied
there) from his own brain and there in the book and volume of
his brain he wrote his father's commandment (the voice of Denmark, loosed out of Hell to speak of horrors,
to breathe contagion, unfolding the
secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears).
Hamlet was from himself taken away.
Hamlet wasn't quite aware of what had happened to him: "I have of late--but wherefore I know
not--lost all my mirth." He was well aware that he had lost his
father, but he did not yet know that he had lost himself. Hamlet was
suspicious of the Ghost:
(2.2.609)
The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my
melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn
me.
It
turned out that Claudius really had murdered Hamlet's father and the spirit
really was the Ghost of Hamlet's father. However, it did not follow that the
spirit was not abusing him to damn him. As Bernardo had said, the
Ghost was "so like the king that was and is the question of these wars."
That was Hamlet's dilemma - whether to be true to himself or to carry on the
bloody traditions of his warlike father - whether "to be or not to be,"
like the Ghost, "so like the
king that was and is the question of these wars."
Also see The Madness of Hamlet
Hell Itself Breathes Out
Contagion
The
ghost said to Hamlet:
But that I am forbid to
tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a tale unfold whose
lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and
combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like
quills upon the fretful porpentine: But
this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. list,
list, o list!
But
then the ghost went ahead and told the tale anyway and it drove Hamlet mad.
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his
stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as
his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in
purport As if he had been loosed
out of hell to speak of horrors.,--he comes before me.
But,
in this scene, Hamlet was mute. Unlike his father, Hamlet refused to pass on
the madness. He was loosed out of hell to speak of horrors, but
he would not speak them to Ophelia. As Hamlet later said, "hell itself breathes out contagion to
this world," but with his silence Hamlet tried to protect Ophelia
from that breath of contagion.
The Rest Is Silence
LAERTES
...he...may give his saying deed...no
further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
Guildenstern
Which
dreams indeed are ambition
HAMLET
....To die, to sleep; To
sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep
of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal
coil, Must give us pause:
Hamlet
is contemplating an attempt to kill the King - which would probably be
suicidal. He is questioning his own motives for wanting to kill the King. Would
he, like his warlike father and his devious uncle, be killing out of ambition
to gain land? If so, his afterlife would be Hell. Hamlet at heart is
just a student who wants to return to Wittenberg. But he cannot breach the custom that unites a king (or
his heir) with his kingdom. He cannot reform his old stock. His choice is not his own - he is
subject to the voice of Denmark.
Both his father and his uncle want him to be like them in Denmark.
Hamlet's dilemma is whether to be
or not to be . . . . "so like the king that was and is
the question of these wars. He kills Claudius only after he knows
that he himself is dying, so he can avoid inheriting the kingdom and being
dragged into hell by his union with it, as Claudius was. In the end
he finally silences the voice of Denmark (or at least passes it
over to Fortinbras - he has my dying
voice) - going to his final rest, free from dreams of
ambition. The rest is silence.
The
Voice of Denmark
When
Hamlet said the rest is silence, he meant that he was finally
free from the voice of Denmark. When Hamlet was ranting in
Ophelia's grave, Gertrude likened his insane ranting to golden
couplets and predicted that his sanity/silence would soon
return - which it did when he realized that he had from himself taken away (by the
voice of Denmark, i.e. his vow to his father that his father's
will should live all alone in
his brain. The play had begun with the question, "Who's
there?" and the injunction to "Unfold yourself."
Hamlet, with his vow to his father had enfolded himself in
his father's value-system, just as he enfolded the note in
the form of the other, the changling never known. By the end of the play,
he had finally unfolded himself. Osric was a reflection or shadow
of Hamlet. Hamlet said, "to know a man well, were to know himself,"
but he admitted to the vice of knowing Osric. Osric was rich in the
possession of dirt - Hamlet was heir to a graveyard. The king
wanted to place a wager on Hamlet's head - Hamlet wanted to place a hat on
Osric's head. Ophelia sang of Hamlet with a cockle(shell) hat. Osric ran off
with "the shell on his head." The old king ordered Hamlet to remember
- Hamlet told Osric to remember. Osric's purse was empty, all
his golden words were spent. Hamlet's purse, with his father's
signet, was finally empty - he was ready for silence.
LAERTES (1.3.28-30)
...he...may
give his saying deed...no further Than the main voice of Denmark
goes withal.
HAMLET
(2.2.435)
Pray
God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked
within the ring.
GERTRUDE
(5.1.291)
This
is mere madness, And thus a while the fit will work on him, Anon, as
patient as the female dove, When that her golden couplets are
disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.
HAMLET
(5.2.53)
I
had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of
that Danish seal, Folded the writ up in form of the other,
Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, The changeling
never known.
HORATIO
(5.2.134)
His
purse is empty already: all 's golden words are spent.
HAMLET
(5.2.374)
.
. . the rest is silence.
Tis
a Vice to Know Him
Hamlet.
Dost know this water-fly? Horatio. No, my good lord.
Hamlet Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him.
He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib
shall stand at the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in
the possession of dirt. Hamlet. ...to know a man
well, were to know himself. Horatio does not know Osric, but
Hamlet knows him all too well. Horatio represents Hamlet's true unambitious
self. Osric represents the man that Hamlet was born to be, the man Hamlet has
struggled not to be. The old king ordered Hamlet to remember - Hamlet
told Osric to remember. Osric was a reflection or shadow of Hamlet.
Osric was rich in the possession of dirt - Hamlet was heir to a graveyard. Hamlet
tells Osric to put his hat on his head because 'tis very cold; the wind
is northerly. But Osric is reluctant to put his hat on his head. This
is echoed by Hamlet's reluctance to let Claudius put a great wager on
his head. But the wind is northerly (I am but mad north-north-west.
The ghost appeared when yond same star that's westward from the pole
had made his course to illume that part of heaven where now it burns
[Purgatory?] ), so Hamlet accepts the wager on his head as Osric runs off
with the shell on his head. (Ophelia sang of Hamlet with a cockle(shell) hat). Osric's
purse was empty, all his golden words were spent. Hamlet's purse, with his
father's signet, was finally empty - he was ready for silence.
I Know a Hawk from a Handsaw - Hamlet and the Spanish Armada
Hamlet
(2.2.387-388)
I
am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk
from a handsaw.
BERNARDO
[describing the previous appearance of the ghost of Hamlet's father] (1.1.44-47)
Last
night of all, When yond same star that's westward from the pole
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns,
The
"pole" is the North Star. "Westward from the pole"
would be "north-northwest." Thus "I am but mad,
north-northwest" means that Hamlet is only mad when under the
influence of his father's ghost. "Pole" might also
be an allusion to Reginald Pole, who, as Bloody Mary's Catholic Archbishop of
Canterbury, liked to call himself "the Pole Star" because he thought
of himself as the guiding star about which the English people revolved. Please
see Shakespeare, Breakspear, and Broken Pole (The Prophesy)
(Note: I mark my speculations with green italics. The
rest is accepted historical fact.) (Note: My green italics are temporarily disabled because the EVIL MICROSOFT WORD hijacked this webpage and destroyed my simple html code, including the green italics. Thanks a lot Bill Gate, you damn control freak.)
But Reginald Pole died of a broken
heart when Queen Mary died and England reverted to Protestantism. Thirty years
later, Queen Mary's widower, King Phillip of Spain sent the Duke of Medina
Sidonia with the Spanish Armada to bring England back to the Catholic Church by
"strong hands and terms
compulsatory." But like Hamlet, Medina was but mad north-north-west: when the wind
[was] southerly,) he was sane. On August 8, Saint Dominic's Day,
Medina decided that if the wind continued to blow from the south (which it did)
he would have to abandon the attack on England. He was unable to recapture the
faith of Englishmen by force. He did "it
wrong, being so majestical, to offer it the show of violence, for it is, as the
air, invulnerable, and [his] vain blows malicious mockery."
St Dominic had advocated reasoning with heretics to bring them back to the
Church by persuasion rather than burning them. The significance of St Dominic's
Day was not lost on English Catholics. From the context, "I
know the difference between a hawk and a handsaw" clearly means
"I am in my right mind." However, I don't know why Shakespeare used
that phrase to denote sanity. It might be related to the following line in
Hamlet's instructions to the players: HAMLET (3.2.4)
.
. . Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus,
but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may
say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a
temperance that may give it smoothness.
In
the tempest that had blown his Armada off course, Medina acquired
and begat a temperance to abandon his vain blows against England.
Perhaps "hand" is a pun on "Armada", similar
to "Fort-in-bras" (near French for "strong arm"). It
is worth noting that Shakespeare took pains to let us know that there had been
a 30-year interval between the time old Fortinbras died and the time young
Fortinbras came to reclaim those lands by strong hand and terms compulsatory.
There was also a 30-year interval between the time Queen Mary died and the time
her widower, Prince Phillip of Spain, sent the Spanish Armada to attempt to
reclaim England by strong hand and terms compulsatory.
Elsewhere Hamlet alludes to another war to recover lost land, with his cryptic
reference to old Jephtha.
HAMLET (2.2.418)
Am
I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
. . .
HAMLET
(2.2.426)
. .
.
'It came to pass, as most like it was,
"As
most like it was" sounds like "so like the king that was."
BERNARDO (1.1.121-124)
.
. . . so like the king that was and is the question of these
wars.
That
is Hamlet's dilemma - whether "to be or not to be,"
like the Ghost, "so like the king that was and is the
question of these wars." So like so many kings, his father,
or old Jephtha.
The story of Jephtha, in Judges 11, sounds most like the story of
the king that was and is the question of these wars. The Ammonites were
preparing for war against Israel to recover land Israel had taken from them,
just as young Fortinbras was preparing for war to recover of us, by strong
hand and terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands so by his father lost in
the fatal duel with old King Hamlet.
Judges 11.12
... What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in
my land?
Judges 11.13
...Because Israel took away my land... now therefore restore those lands
again
And you, the judges, bear a
wary eye. (5.2.278) Also please see The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical Context
How to Love Hamlet
To Inherit the Earth
Hamlet
was born to carry on a line of kings. Those kings were bound to Danish dirt by
birth and fate. The liegemen to the Dane were friends to this ground.
Claudius exhorted Hamlet to be as ourself in Denmark. The King was
synonymous with the land - the majesty of buried Denmark. Hamlet's
father had once fought a duel to the death with old Fortinbras to acquire a
piece of ground the inheritance of which fell to young Hamlet. Hamlet
How long hast thou been a grave-maker? First Clown Of all
the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame
Fortinbras. Hamlet. How long is that since? First
Clown Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it was the very
day that young Hamlet was born Was this then Hamlet's "inheritance"
- a graveyard? Lord Polonius Will you walk out of the air
[heir], my lord? Hamlet Into my grave. Hamlet
(standing over a grave) The very conveyances of his lands will hardly
lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?
Must the Inheritor Himself
Have No More?
Horatio . . . Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror: Against the which, a moiety competent Was gaged by our king; which had return'd To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant, And carriage of the article design'd, His fell to Hamlet.
In
other words, the loser lost not only his life but also "all those his
lands which he stood seized of." Young Fortinbras' uncle is called
"Norway," which implies that his uncle is King of Norway. Old
Fortinbras was called "Fortinbras of Norway." Maybe he was the King
of Norway, or maybe just the brother of the king. Apparently "all those
his lands which he stood seized of" was not all of Norway, because the
uncle of young Fortinbras, old Norway, still retained that. Probably the land
in question was some small patch of ground that was in dispute between Denmark
and Norway. That land is very important to the plot and theme of the
play. Throughout the play, there is a war impending over that same land. That
land was part of Hamlet's inheritance. Hamlet was born on the very day of that
fatal duel (thirty years ago), and also on that same day a gravedigger was
hired. This implies that Hamlet's inheritance was metaphorically a graveyard.
This metaphor is reinforced in couple places:
Polonius
(2,2,222-224) Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Will
you walk out of the AIR, my lord? Hamlet Into my GRAVE.
Polonius Indeed, that is out o' the AIR.
Hamlet
is making a pun on air/heir. He knows that he is heir to a grave.
Hamlet
(commenting on a grave) (5,1,103-112) This fellow might be in's time a great
buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double
vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the RECOVER of his
recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch
him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth
of a pair of indentures? The very CONVEYANCES of his LANDS will hardly lie in
this box; and must the INHERITOR himself have no more, ha?
That
speech not only reinforces the idea of inheriting a grave, it also contains a
couple words that echo lines about Fortinbras RECOVERING the lands his father
lost and seeking a CONVEYANCE over Denmark.
Horatio
(1,1,108-120) Now, sir, young Fortinbras, . . . . . . to
RECOVER of us, by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it, Is the main motive of our
preparations, The source of this our watch and the chief head Of this
post-haste and romage in the land.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS (4,4,1-4) Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras Craves the CONVEYANCE of a promised march Over his kingdom
Hamlet's
description of Fortinbras' planned attack on Poland also is an apt description
of the impending war between Fortinbras and Denmark:
HAMLET
(4,4,26-30) Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not
debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth
and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man
dies.
HAMLET Witness this army of such mass and charge Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd . . . . . . . I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their GRAVES like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not TOMB enough and continent To hide the slain?
That
reiterates the motif that the land at stake in any war is ultimately a
graveyard. Please see http://www.thyorisons.com/#Nutshell -
Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Rebirth - The Rebirth of Hamlet
Epitaph for a King
Epitaph
for a King (derived from Shakespeare by Ray Eston Smith Jr)
He
drank to his union with his land, Now he's rich in dirt, for all it's
worth, Here he lies in the womb of earth, A grave man, united with
his land.
Explanation:
HORATIO (to the King's Ghost) (1.1.148)
Or
if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death
CLAUDIUS
(1.2.124)
Be
as ourself in Denmark. . . . No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king's rouse the
heavens all bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder.
HAMLET
(1.4.9)
The
king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the
swaggering up-spring reels; And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.
CLAUDIUS
(3.3.54)
.
. . But, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul
murder'? That cannot be; since I am still possess'd Of those effects
for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
HAMLET
(4.4.61)
.
. . I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a
fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and
continent To hide the slain?
HAMLET
(describing Osric) (5.2.90)
.
. . . 'tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a
beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 'tis
a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
HAMLET
(commenting on an open grave) (5.1.110)
The
very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the
inheritor himself have no more, ha?
CLAUDIUS
(5.2.266)
Set
me the stoops of wine upon that table. . . . . The king shall drink .
. . And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which
four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer
without, The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 'Now the
king drinks . . . . And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
HAMLET
(forcing Claudius to drink from the poisoned cup) (5.2.336)
Here,
thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy
union here?
Also
see My Uncle, More Like My Father
How to Love Hamlet
Epitaph for a Peacemaker
Hamlet's
epitaph: Epitaph for a Peacemaker (derived from Hamlet by Ray
Eston Smith Jr)
"To
be or not to be so like the king," For Hamlet THAT was and is the
question. With Denmark's dying voice Hamlet did bring The final
answer. "NO!" his answer soars To the heavens, "now END all
of these wars!"
Explanation:
" To be or not to be " so like the king," For
Hamlet THAT was and is the question. With Denmark's dying voice Hamlet did bring The
final answer. "NO!" his
answer soars To the heavens,
"now END all of these
wars!"
A gravedigger was hired on the very day
that Hamlet emerged from his mother's womb, which was the same day his
father put old Fortinbras into the "womb
of earth" (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is the
question of these wars" and which was Hamlet's
inheritance, figuratively a graveyard, like the part of Poland not big enough to cover the dead from
the impending war over that same land.
With his dying words Hamlet proved that he was not "so like the
king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars." Hamlet passed his
inheritance of blood-soaked dirt and the voice of Denmark to Fortinbras -
without a war, thus saving the lives of thousands of his countrymen.
The Honey of His Music Vows
Hamlet
was utterly sincere when he wrote to Ophelia: (2.2.122)
Doubt
thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to
be a liar; But never doubt I love. . . . . I love thee best, O
most best, believe it.
He
" importuned [her] with
love in honourable fashion . . . . and [gave] countenance to his speech
. . . with almost all the holy vows of heaven." He would
have given her all the vows of heaven if his father hadn't first led him
to give a vow from Hell. GHOST (1.5.199)
[Beneath]
Swear.
The
Ghost said to Hamlet: (1.5.17)
But
that I am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison-house I could a
tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul . . . But
this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. list, list, o
list!
So
then the ghost went ahead and told the tale anyway and it drove Hamlet mad.
But in the closet scene, Hamlet was mute. Unlike his father, Hamlet
refused to pass on the madness. He was loosed out of hell to speak of
horrors, but he would not speak them to Ophelia. OPHELIA (2.1.85)
My
lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all
unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and
down-gyved to his ancle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell
to speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
Hamlet,
who had once given Ophelia the honey
of his music vows, was now silent. As Hamlet later said, " hell itself breathes out contagion to
this world," but with his silence Hamlet tried to protect Ophelia
from that breath of contagion. Laertes had warned Ophelia: (1.3.16)
Perhaps
he loves you now, . . . . but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd,
his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth: He
may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself . . . And
therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of
that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It
fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of
Denmark goes withal.
Hamlet,
when he was himself, loved Ophelia. But then he erased himself from his own brain and
there in the book and volume of his brain he wrote his warlike father's commandment (the voice
of Denmark, sent from Hell to speak of horrors, to breathe contagion, unfolding
the secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears).
Hamlet was from himself taken away.
Hamlet did not want to chain Ophelia to the monster he had become. He did not want
to make her, like his mother, imperial
jointress to this warlike state, and a breeder of sinners - sinners
like his warlike father, his murderous uncle, and his own anguished and divided self.
Also see How to Love Hamlet
He Himself is Subject to his
Birth
Laertes
... his will is not his own, For he himself is subject to his birth
Hamlet That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot
choose his origin Hamlet But, to my mind, though I am
native here and to the manner born, it is a custom More honour'd
in the breach than the observance. Hamlet O cursed spite
that I was born to set it right Hamlet it were
better my mother had not borne me Fortune has doomed
Hamlet, from birth, to lose his true self for a kingdom of dirt.
Unforced Accord?
CLAUDIUS
(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 17-24) . . . . young Fortinbras, Holding a
weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Colleagued with
the dream of his advantage, He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds
of law, To our most valiant brother. CLAUDIUS (Act 1, Scene
2, lines 8-14) Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The
imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we . . . .
taken to wife. Claudius took his brother's wife,
just as he took his brother's life, to gain the power to kill more people to
acquire more dirt. Perhaps Gertrude was no more willing to marry
Claudius than Hamlet was willing to stay in Denmark: CLAUDIUS (Act 1,
Scene 2, lines 114-126) For your intent In going back to school in
Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire: And we beseech you,
bend you to remain Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our
chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. QUEEN GERTRUDE Let not
thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet: I pray thee, stay with us; go not to
Wittenberg. HAMLET I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING CLAUDIUS Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply: Be as ourself
in Denmark. Madam, come; This gentle and unforced [???] accord of
Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart HAMLET (Act 2, Scene 2, line
258) Denmark's a prison. To be true to themselves, both
Hamlet and Gertrude needed to disobey both Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet's
father. But it wasn't easy. Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 4, lines 68-69)
It will not speak; then I will follow it. Horatio Do
not, my lord. Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 2, line 194) I
am constant to my purpose; they follow the King's pleasure
. . . . Horatio (Act 5, Scene 2, lines 202-210) You will lose this
wager, my lord. Hamlet I do not think so: since he went into
France, I have been in continual practise: I shall win at the odds. But thou
wouldst not think how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter.
Horatio Nay, good my lord,-- Hamlet It is but foolery;
but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.
Horatio If your mind dislike any THING, obey it (Hamlet
had previously said, "The king is a THING." - Act 4,
Scene 2, line 28) Horatio is telling Hamlet to pay attention to his
own mind, rather than "follow the king's pleasure." Throughout
the play Horatio represents the rational side of Hamlet's mind which is opposed
by the bloody traditions of kings - his warlike father and his murderous uncle.
Finally, while forcing Claudius to drink the poison that had killed
Gertrude: HAMLET (Act 5, Scene 2, lines 337-338) Drink off
this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.
A Breeder of Sinners
Claudius
...your father lost a father, That father lost, lost his, and the
survivor bound In filial obligation ... Bernardo
I think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort that this
portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was and is the question of these wars. Hamlet virtue
cannot so innoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it Hamlet
is from a long line of warlike kings. It's a custom he would like to breach,
but it is difficult to overcome his old stock. If he marries
Ophelia and has a son, that son will likely be another death-dealing
warrior-king. Hamlet ...why wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners? Hamlet For if the sun breed maggots
in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
Polonius I have, my lord. Hamlet Let her not walk i'
the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Here sun relates to Hamlet's father who was like Hyperion,
the sun-god. If Hamlet breeds true to his old stock, he and his
son will both be like Hamlet's dead father. If Ophelia conceives a child with
Hamlet, she will be breeding sinners -- maggots to eat the
dead of future wars. Polonius Though this be madness, yet
there is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Hamlet
Into my grave. Polonius Indeed, that is out o' the
air. How pregnant sometimes his replies are! Horatio
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb
of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
[Cock crows]. Ophelia ... They say the owl was a
baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we
may be. There was a legend about a baker who told
his daughter to give a loaf of bread to a beggar. She only gave
him half a loaf (as Ophelia gave Hamlet part of herself, reserving the greater
half for her father). The beggar turned out to be Jesus Christ, who then turned
the baker's daughter into an owl. In Shakespeare's
time, the owl was a portent of death. (http://raptorsridge.com/greathornedowl.html)
Ophelia Then up he rose, and donn'd his clo'es, And dupp'd
the chamber door, Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed
more. On the surface, this song has a bawdy meaning. A man opens
the door of his room and lets in a virgin. When she leaves the room, she is no
longer a virgin. But it also has a deeper, morbid meaning. "Dupped"
means "open upward", as with a cellar door, or a coffin lid. So the
man let a maid enter his coffin and she never left it, with or without her
virginity. This foreshadows the last act, where, rather than Ophelia entering
Hamlet's grave, he enters hers. If she hadn't committed suicide before he
returned (to Denmark and to himself) , he might have married her. But instead,
she came to their marriage "bed" - the grave
that had been prepared by Hamlet's grave-digger. Ophelia Quoth
she, 'Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.' He answers,
'So would I 'a done, by yonder sun, And thou hadst not come to my bed.'.
Gertrude I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife. I
thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have
strew'd thy grave.
Chaste Treasure in the Womb
of Earth
Hamlet
was metaphorically and psychologically (and perhaps literally) possessed by the
warlike spirit of his dead father. He had erased himself from the book and volume of his brain
and written his father's commandment
there. His father was the "voice
of Denmark", "loosed
out of hell to speak of horrors", to breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house
that he was forbid to tell to mortal
ears. His father, unable to part from his earthly kingdom, was doomed to walk the night in
search of his "extorted treasure
in the womb of earth." There was another reference to treasure
in the play: Ophelia's "chaste treasure."
Ophelia, like Hamlet, was also untrue to herself by being excessively obedient
to her father. She let him tell her
what to think. Her very name is an allusion to excessive
filial duty. When Ophelia died, her grave was metaphorically the
grave of filial duty - the final inevitable end to which obedience to their
fathers brought Ophelia and Hamlet, to their marriage-bed. When Hamlet jumped into
Ophelia's grave he was finally giving his father's ghost what it had been
seeking - Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth, the grave of
filial duty. When Hamlet leaped into Ophelia's grave and was choked
by Laertes, he said,
I prithee, take thy fingers from my
throat; For, though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I
something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear:
That
"something in me" was the last appearance of the Ghost, who
had finally been delivered to the grave where he belonged. As
Gertrude said,
This is mere madness: And thus
awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit
drooping.
When
Hamlet emerged from that grave he was no longer "from himself taken away."
He was at last free from the "voice of Denmark." The rest would be silence.
Elegy for the Kissing Carrion
I
was struck by an idea so bizarre and so sick that I vowed to take it to my
grave without ever giving it voice. And yet that hideous thought grew in my
diseased brain like a canker, an abscess, a mole of birth, for which I am not
guilty. Now I must pour my contagion into the unsuspecting ear of Earth. The
Ghost walked the night in search of treasure in the womb of earth. He usurped
the sovereignty of reason of his son and namesake until, at last, that dutiful
son brought him into the bride-bed and grave of filial fidelity, Ophelia, and
her chaste treasure in the womb of earth. For thirty years, the son
had spun in dizzying orbit, glowing with the bloody borrowed sheen of his
warlike father. He cursed his mother, imperial jointress to this warlike state
and breeder of sinners, for ever giving him birth. On the very day his mother
had ejected him from her womb into the raw air, his father had vanquished a man
into the womb of earth, and won a piece of dirt scarcely big enough for the new
gravedigger to bury the dead. To that graveyard, the son fell heir. He was
doomed to walk in the air, into his gravid grave. How pregnant his replies were.
Let not your daughter walk in the sun. But her father kept her from the
son and kept her for the sun-god Hyperion and she, that god-kissing carrion,
did breed maggots in the womb of earth. She let her father tell her what to
think and let her brother keep the key to her memory. Her father went round and
became the wheel, the knave of majestic Fortune's wheel, down, down in the
secret parts of strumpet Fortune, Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of
earth. His mother did think to strew her marriage-bed, and indeed she
did, her marriage-bed in the womb of earth. Into that final chamber, she
entered a virgin, nevermore to depart, virgin or not. But whose grave and
marriage-bed was it? The daughter who had once sucked the honey of the son's
music vows? The son and heir who had leaped into his inheritance? Or his
pompous father who had been licked by the candied tongue of her father, who had
gone down, down with pregnant hinges of the knee into the secret parts of
strumpet Fortune, Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth.
The Drama Filial
HAMLET
(1.4.35)
His
virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault.
The dram of eale Doth all the substance of a doubt To his own
scandal.
"Dram
of eale" has been correctly interpreted as "dram of
evil". That is the surface meaning. But the deeper meaning is drama
filial (dram-o f-eale, drama Ophelia). Within the context of the
play, the drama filial is the Mousetrap, the play that Hamlet hoped
would catch the conscience of his father's killer. Hamlet is itself a
filial drama, because it is a drama about the conflict between filial duty and
being true to oneself. (And in Part 2, I will show how Hamlet is Shakespeare's
drama filial about his father and his secret godfather.) Please see Drama Filial Motif
The Rebirth of Hamlet
A
gravedigger was hired on the very day that Hamlet emerged from his mother's
womb, which was the same day his father put old Fortinbras into the womb of
earth (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is
the question these wars" (1,1,124)
and which is Hamlet's inheritance, figuratively a graveyard, not big enough to
cover the dead from the impending war. Hamlet, born to be a
death-dealing king, hates his birthright. Thus, throughout the play he
regresses back to the womb (the womb of earth - Ophelia's grave), where he is
reborn as Hamlet the rational scholar. HORATIO [to the Ghost] (1,1,148-149)
Or
if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of
earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
HAMLET
(1,5,207-208)
.
. . . O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!
LORD
POLONIUS (2,2,222-225)
.
. . . 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!
[Note
the pun on air/heir.] HAMLET (3,1,132-140)
.
. . I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such
things that it were better my mother had not borne me:
HAMLET'S
LETTER [read by HORATIO] (4,6,14-15)
Ere
we were two days old at sea
KING
CLAUDIUS [reading the message from HAMLET] (4,7,46-47)
'High
and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom.
KING
CLAUDIUS (4,7,54-55)
'Tis
Hamlets character. 'naked! And in a postscript here, he says
'alone.'
Hamlet
has metaphorically reverted to a two-day-old baby, and then to a naked newborn.
The play contains a more explicit example of reverting to infancy: HAMLET
(to Polonius)(2.2.219-220)
yourself,
sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
HAMLET
(speaking about Polonius)(2.2.391-392)
.
. .that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts.
Polonius'
rebirth was aborted when he put himself where Hamlet expected to find the king.
This explains the connection between Polonius and Martin Luther ("Your worm is your only emperor for
diet" => the Diet of Worms where Luther was outlawed). The Diet of
Worms aborted the rebirth of the Catholic Church. Hamlet was metaphorically
and psychologically (and perhaps literally) possessed by the warlike spirit of
his dead father. He had erased himself
from the book and volume of his
brain and written his father's commandment
there. His father was the "voice
of Denmark", "loosed
out of hell to speak of horrors", to breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house
that he was forbid to tell to mortal
ears. His father, unable to part from his earthly kingdom, was doomed to walk the night in
search of his "extorted treasure
in the womb of earth." There was another reference to treasure
in the play: Ophelia's "chaste treasure."
Ophelia, like Hamlet, was also untrue to herself by being excessively obedient
to her father. She let him tell her
what to think. Her very name is an allusion to excessive
filial duty. When Ophelia died, her grave was metaphorically the
grave of filial duty - the final inevitable end to which obedience to their
fathers brought Ophelia and Hamlet, to their marriage-bed. When Hamlet jumped into
Ophelia's grave he was finally giving his father's ghost what it had been
seeking - Ophelia's chaste treasure in the womb of earth, the grave of
filial duty. Ophelia's chaste treasure was in her lap HAMLET
[to Ophelia] ((3,2,111)
Lady,
shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA
No,
my lord.
HAMLET
I
mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay,
my lord.
HAMLET
Do
you think I meant country matters?
Since
she is a virgin, Ophelia's lap is undiscover'd cuntry.
After she is laid in the womb of earth (her grave), her chaste
treasure becomes the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no
traveller returns (3,1,87-88).
But Hamlet did return - he leaps into her womb of earth, then emerges
re-bourn. After Hamlet leaped into Ophelia's grave, when he's
being choked by Laertes, he says, (5,1,264)
I
prithee, take thy fingers from my throat; For, though I am not splenitive and
rash, Yet have I have something in me dangerous, Which let thy
wiseness fear:
That
"something in me" was the last appearance of the Ghost, who
had finally been delivered to the grave where he belonged, his extorted
treasure in the womb of earth. Hamlet's mother Gertrude is there,
channeling St Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of mentally ill people
(especially those with a rat phobia), travellers, pilgrims, recently dead
people, and graves. (See St Gertrude in the Garden.)
It is fitting for Hamlet's mother to be present at his rebirth, to bear
him anew: GERTRUDE (5,1,279)
For
love of God, forbear him.
GERTRUDE
(5,1,291)
This
is mere madness: And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as
patient as the female dove, When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.
The
hatching dove eggs symbolize Hamlet's metaphorical rebirth. The silence
symbolizes Hamlet's liberation from the warlike voice of Denmark. Doves
are a symbol for peace. (See Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet
Is an Anti-war Play.) When Hamlet emerges from that womb of
earth he is no longer "from
himself taken away." He has been reborn as himself, the rational
scholar from Wittenberg. "To Be OR Not to be.
That is the question." "Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 KJV Also
see How to Love Hamlet
The Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy
POLONIUS
(2.2.52)
I
have found the very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
The
word "lunacy" is derived from "luna," Latin
for moon, because of an old belief that insanity was caused by the moon
(or, I believe, in this play's metaphor, being like the moon). When
Polonius finally states the cause of Hamlet's lunacy, a small part of
his babbling is "What majesty
should be, what duty is," which, unknown to Polonius, really is
precisely the cause. Hamlet is mad because duty demands that he become what
majesty should be - a king. Yet Hamlet by nature is a man of reason, while
kings are by nature "the
question of these wars". Filial duty demands that Hamlet reflect the
values of his father, but that way lies madness. Hamlet compared his
father to Hyperion. Hyperion
was the Greek Titon god of the sun. Laertes compared Hamlet to the moon: "nature, crescent...waxes...If she unmask her beauty to the moon."
In the Mousetrap, Hamlet is implicitly related to the moon by "thirty dozen moons with borrow'd
sheen." The "thirty" relates to .Hamlet's age. "Borrow'd
sheen" is a hint that Hamlet is reflecting his father's values rather
than shining with his own true self - and that is indeed lunacy. POLONIUS
(1.3.78)
Neither
a borrower nor a lender be; .... This above all: to thine ownself be
true.
Polonius'
daughter Ophelia had the same tragic flaw as Hamlet - she was untrue to herself
by being too obedient to her father. In 1986 Voyager 2 discovered a
new moon of Uranus. Whoever named that moon evidently had a very good
understanding of Hamlet - the newly discovered moon of Uranus was named "Ophelia."
Ophelia goes round and round Uranus, without end. "O, how the wheel becomes it."
POLONIUS (2.2.401)
The
actors are come hither, my lord.
HAMLET
Buz,
buz!
POLONIUS
Upon
mine honour,--
HAMLET
Then
came each actor on his ass,--
OPHELIA
(4.5.199)
they
say he made a good end,--
Reflections in a Broken Mirror
Hamlet tells the players to hold the mirror
up to nature. He sets up a glass
where his mother may see the inmost part of herself. Hamlet, "nature crescent" is
metaphorically the moon. His father,
like "Hyperion" (the Titan sun-god) is metaphorically
the sun. Hamlet the moon with "borrowed sheen" reflects
his father the sun. Hamlet by the image
of his cause saw the portraiture of Laertes'. To know a man well, were to know himself,
but Hamlet confesses to the vice of
knowing Osric, who is not quite a reflection but rather a shadow of
Laertes, "his semblable is his
mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage nothing more." Hamlet's bad dreams are ambition, which is
merely the shadow of a dream which itself is but a shadow, and monarchs are
beggar's shadows. Claudius tells Hamlet to "be as ourself in Denmark".
Hamlet and Fortinbras are mirror images of each other. Each named after his
father, each has "some rights of
memory" to Denmark. Hamlet
takes Fortinbras as an example gross
as earth to exhort him. Horatio
is an image of Hamlet's true soul. "Horatio,
or I do forget myself." Polonius
"boards" Hamlet and his
amber-purging eyes are dishonestly
writ down in the book of Hamlet's mind, along with his father and his uncle. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, "so neighbour'd to
his youth and havior," take
Hamlet's place on the English chopping block. Ophelia calls Hamlet the glass of fashion. Hamlet tells her to remember all his sins
in her orisons. She lets Laertes
keep the key to her memory and later dies by
falling into the glassy stream that is metaphorically reflecting her father's
image. Polonius tells Reynaldo, "Observe
his [Laertes'] inclination in yourself." Polonius compares himself to
Hamlet, "in my youth I suffered
much extremity for love." The
Mousetrap is the image of a murder. Gonzago is the image of old Hamlet,
Baptista the image of Gertrude, Lucianus the image of Claudius. Also
see The Ugly Truth To
Thine Ownself Be True
The Ugly Truth
Sometimes
the truth is ugly, but we need to face it anyway - especially when it's in the
mirror. LORD POLONIUS (3,1,51-62) . . . To OPHELIA
Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may colour Your
loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,-- 'Tis too much proved--that with
devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself.
KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] O, 'tis too true! How smart a lash that speech
doth give my conscience! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most
painted word: O heavy burthen! In the following lines, I think
Ophelia represents Shakespeare's romantic comedies. But sometimes he has to
write something ugly (or tragic) to show the ugly truth. HAMLET
(3,1,113-125)) Ha, ha! are you honest? OPHELIA My lord?
HAMLET Are you fair? OPHELIA What means your lordship?
HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
discourse to your beauty. OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better
commerce than with honesty? HAMLET Ay, truly; for the power of
beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the
force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime
a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. HAMLET (3,2,21-25)
. . .the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and
is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own
feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time
his form and pressure. HAMLET (3,4,21-23) Come, come, and sit
you down; you shall not budge; You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. QUEEN GERTRUDE (3,4,97-100)
O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.
HAMLET (3,4,194) I must be cruel, only to be kind: Hamlet
finally faced the ugly truth in his own mirror: HAMLET (5,2,88-94)
. . . .Dost know this water-fly? HORATIO No, my good lord. HAMLET
Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him. He hath much
land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand
at the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the
possession of dirt.v "Tis a vice to know him," but Hamlet knows
him. HAMLET (5,2,140-142) I dare not confess that, lest I should
compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know
himself. Horatio does not know Osric, but Hamlet knows him all too
well. Horatio represents Hamlet's true unambitious self. Osric represents the
man that Hamlet was born to be, the man Hamlet has struggled not to be. A
gravedigger was hired on the very day that Hamlet emerged from his mother's
womb, which was the same day his father put old Fortinbras into the womb of
earth (his grave), thus acquiring land "that was and is the question of
these wars" and which was Hamlet's inheritance, figuratively a graveyard,
not big enough to cover the dead from the impending war over that same land.
BERNARDO (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 121-124) I think it be no other but
e'en so: Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed
through our watch; so like the king that was and is the question of these
wars. That is Hamlet's dilemma - whether "TO BE OR NOT TO BE,"
like the Ghost, "so like the king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these
wars."
To Thine Ownself Be True
A
unifying theme of Hamlet is "To
thine ownself be true." Of all the main characters, Hamlet is
the only one who finally is true to himself. Consequently, of all the main
characters, Hamlet is the only one who avoids self-slaughter. Even
Horatio is taught by Denmark to drink
deep and so tries to drink the
last drops of poison from the cup. But Hamlet saves Horatio so that he can tell
Hamlet's story and teach us all not to drink from the cup of self-slaughter.
Fortinbras Sr. and Fortinbras Jr. value land more than they value
themselves. Fortinbras Sr did
forfeit his life fighting for land. Fortinbras Jr goes to war, exposing what is mortal and unsure to
all that fortune, death, and danger dare, even for an eggshell, a little patch
of ground that hath no profit in it but the name, that is not tomb enough and
continent to hide the slain. Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern, willing spokes
to the king's nave, are deliverers
of their own death warrant. Polonius is a busybody, minding everybody's business but his own.
Thus he was killed by a sword-thrust
meant for somebody else. Laertes subverts his own life so totally
and unthinkingly to filial duty that he
is willing to go to hell to revenge his father's death. Although he is satisfied in nature with
Hamlet's repentance, he continues the fatal duel until by some elder masters [Claudius] he has
a voice and precedence of peace. Thus he is fighting not for himself
but for a cause borrowed from Claudius. When Laertes allied himself
with Claudius he dulled the edge of his
husbandry. Then, in the
subsequent duel with Hamlet, Laertes first wounded Hamlet with his poison-tipped sword, then
accidentally exchanged swords with Hamlet and was fatally poisoned with his own sword. Thus
he was a borrower and lender
of swords, and was killed by a lent sword while fighting for a borrowed
cause. [We shall see later that Laertes symbolized Christopher Marlowe and that
"go far with little"
is a paraphrase of Marlowe's "infinite riches in a little room."
(The Jew of Malta)] The tragic flaw of both Gertrude's husbands is
that they are unable to part from their earthly kingdoms, not even to save
their souls. Gertrude's fatal flaw is that she is unable to part from her
husbands, not even to save her soul. "Why,
she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed
on." Thus, "the
imperial jointress to this warlike state" is doomed to join her
husbands in the blood-soaked graveyard, their "extorted treasure in the womb of
earth" Ophelia lets her brother keep the key to
her memory. She does not understand herself so well as it behooves
Polonius's daughter, and so she lets her father tell her what to think. When
she falls into the water, she makes no attempt to save herself because her true
self has already been lost. She dies by falling into a mirror image of her
father in the glassy stream. (See An
Envious Sliver)
Both Claudius and Hamlet Sr are unable to separate themselves from their
land. So they slaughter their own souls, dooming themselves to be dragged down
into hell by their possessions. Hamlet Sr is doom'd to walk the night, to walk in death for extorted
treasure in the womb of earth. Claudius could save his soul by
sincerely repenting, but he cannot
repent because he won't give up his kingdom and he cannot be pardon'd and retain the
offense, he finally drinks a poison tempered by himself. In
the end, Hamlet recovers his true self in time to save his soul, although not
his life. (See The Rebirth of Hamlet)
Also please see)
How to Love Hamlet)
The Time Is Out of Joint
Polonius
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.
Conversely, if day follows night, somebody is being untrue to himself.
Just after he has been false to himself by erasing himself from the book of his
own brain, as the day is following the night, Hamlet says: The time
is out of joint. Claudius . . .our sometime sister,
now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Marcellus What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth
make the night joint-labourer with the day: Who is't that can
inform me? Horatio That can I; At least, the whisper goes
so. Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, . . .
. Bernardo I think it be no other but e'en so: Well
may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so
like the king That was and is the question of these wars.
Related lines:
Doth make the night joint-labourer with
the day:
And it must follow, as the night the
day,
The imperial jointress to this warlike
state!
O day and night, but this is wondrous
strange!
The time is out of joint!
Why day is day, night night, and time is
time,
Hamlet's Transformation
HORATIO
(1.4.78)
What
if it... ...assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive
your sovereignty of reason
HAMLET
(1.5.99)
And
you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember
thee!
HAMLET
(1.5.103)
Yea,
from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and
observation copied there; And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
CLAUDIUS
(2.2.4)
...Something
have you heard Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it, Sith nor
the exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. 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: ...
OPHELIA
(3.1.170)
...Now
see that noble and most sovereign reason, ....Blasted...
The
transformation of the message borne by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is symbolic
of the transformation of Hamlet into his father's image. HORATIO (5.2.51)
How
was this seal'd?
HAMLET
Why,
even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father's signet in my
purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in
form of the other, Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it
safely, The changeling never known...
HAMLET
(3.1.132)
I
am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious
"But
yet...proud, revengeful, ambitious" - this is a description of his
father, not of Hamlet when he is himself. HAMLET (5.1.265)
...though
I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear
The
"something in me dangerous" is his father, who is in his
brain. In the end, Hamlet exorcised the old men from his brain, reclaimed his
own values, and saved his soul: HAMLET (5.2.227)
Was't
Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet: If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not,
Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so, Hamlet
is of the faction that is wrong'd; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Or I Do Forget Myself
We've
seen how Hamlet "wiped away
every trivial fond record that youth and observation copied" "in
the table of [his] memory" - in other words, how he forgot
himself. But what was Hamlet like before he forgot himself? HAMLET (1.2.164)
Horatio,
or I do forget myself!
And
what was Horatio like? HAMLET (3.2.54)
Horatio,
thou art e'en as just a man As e'r my conversation cop'd withal.
................................ ...thee, that no revenue hast But
thy good spirits to feed and clothe thee. .................................
Since my soul was mistress of her choice And could of men distinguish, her
election Hath sealed thee for herself...... ...For thou hast
Been as one, in suffering all, that suffers Nothing. A man that fortune's
buffets and Rewards hast ta'en with equal thanks. And blessed are
those Whose blood and judgment are so well co-mingled That they are
not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me
that man That is not passion's slave and I will wear him In my
heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Hamlet
was unaware at first that he had from himself been taken away, but though he
knew not why, he knew that he had lost something: HAMLET (2.2.308)
...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.
That
speech contrasts Hamlet's own humanist values ("how noble in
reason") with the warlike values ("this quintessence of
dust") of his father, which are now occupying Hamlet's brain. "This
quintessence of dust" is linked to Hamlet's father by these lines:
GERTRUDE (1.2.71)
Do
not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
HORATIO
(1.1.148)
Or
if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
"A
foul and pestilent congregation of vapours" is linked to Hamlet's father
by these lines": HAMLET (1.4.51)
.
. . why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again
HAMLET
(3.2.380)
When
churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world:
Also
see The Election of His Soul The Madness of Hamlet
The Election of His Soul
HAMLET
(complaining about Claudius) (5.2.69)
He
that hath .... Popp'd in between the election and my hopes
Most
people assume that Hamlet's "hopes" are to become king. That's
only half right. Hamlet is speaking with a double meaning. The princely side of
Hamlet does indeed want to become king (that's
the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark), but the humanist side
would rather return to his scholarly life in Wittenberg. Hamlet's
humanist, rational side was represented by Horatio, Horatio the scholar, Ho-RATIO whose very name
resonates with rationality, Horatio who warned Hamlet that his father's
ghost might deprive his "sovereignty
of reason," "Horatio,
or I do forget myself." HAMLET (to Horatio): (3.2.58)
.....thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, To feed and clothe
thee?......... Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice And
could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal'd thee for herself........
....Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee
Did
Claudius "pop" between Prince Hamlet and the throne? Claudius
inherited the throne from Hamlet Sr, a throne that Prince Hamlet (under the
influence of the ghost of Hamlet Sr) believed should have remained in the
possession of a Hamlet. However, Claudius
did name Prince Hamlet as his heir, and urged him to "be as ourself in Denmark."
Trying to have Hamlet decapitated
was certainly "popping" between him and the throne, but it was
also "popping" between Hamlet and his return to Wittenberg.
Did Claudius "pop" between Hamlet and the scholarly
lifestyle of Horatio? When Hamlet
wanted to return to Wittenberg (to be as Horatio in Wittenberg),
Claudius ordered him (via Gertrude) to remain, to "be ourself in
Denmark." Then he celebrated
that decision with the "pop" of cannon. By making Hamlet
his heir, he was cutting him off from Wittenberg, locking him in the prison of Denmark. Also
see Unpacking the Whore in His Heart's Core - Whore
Rational - Horatio Where Kings Lead, Folly
Follows Horatio vs Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern Or I Do Forget Myself How to Love Hamlet
Unpacking the Whore in His
Heart's Core - Whore Rational - Horatio
When
Hamlet was not "from himself
taken away," he wore Horatio, the rational student, in his "heart's
core." But when he was possessed by his father's bloody spirit, he
scoffed at words and rational thought as being "like a whore"
(Horatio) "to unpack my heart with words". HAMLET (2.2.593)
Why,
what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father
murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore,
unpack my heart with words,
HAMLET
(to Horatio) (3.2.72)
.
. . Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Also
see The Election of His Soul
Where Kings Lead, Folly
Follows
HAMLET
(1.4.68)
It
will not speak; then I will follow it.
HORATIO
Do
not,
my lord.
HAMLET
(5.2.194)
I
am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's pleasure: if his
fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.
HORATIO
(5.2.202)
You
will lose this wager, my lord.
HAMLET
I
do not think so: since he went into France, I have been in continual practise:
I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here about my
heart: but it is no matter.
HORATIO
Nay,
good my lord,--
HAMLET
It
is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble
a woman.
HORATIO
If
your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
fit. (Hamlet
had previously said, "The king
is a thing.") Horatio is telling Hamlet to pay
attention to his own mind, rather than "follow the king's pleasure."
Throughout the play Horatio represents the rational side of Hamlet's mind which
is opposed by the bloody traditions of kings - his warlike father and his
murderous uncle. Also see The Election of
His Soul
Horatio vs Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern
Comparing
Horatio to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is like comparing Einstein to Cheech
and Chong. (No offense to Cheech & Chong. I would have said Abbot &
Costello, but today's students would probably think those guys were Goldman
Sachs partners.) But somebody Asked, and to every Question there is
an Answer (whether right or wrong, profound or profane): Horatio was
much more than a friend - he was a role model. "Horatio, or I do forget
myself." R&G were much less than friends - they were Hamlet's jailers (or gaolers)
in the prison of Denmark. HoRATIO
was the voice of reason. R&G were jangling echoes of the voice of Denmark. Horatio had no dreams of ambition in his
philosophy. R&G
interpreted the ambition in Hamlet's bad dreams. Horatio gave Hamlet his mind. R&G gave Hamlet their heads.
R&G were Hamlet's understudies in what Hamlet transformed into their last
act. Horatio carried on after the
last act ended to bring Hamlet's story to the unknowing world. Hamlet guided R&G on the road to their
own self-slaughter. Hamlet
prevented Horatio from drinking deeply from the cup of self-slaughter. But
Horatio's real foil was the Ghost of Hamlet's father and/or Claudius and/or
Fortinbras - Rational thought vs bloody thoughts. Also please
see The Election of His Soul Where Kings Lead, Folly Follows Hamlet in a Nutshell An
Honest Ghost?
The Cloud, the Cannon, and in
the Cup a Union
CLAUDIUS
(1.2.67)
How
is it that the CLOUDS still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not
so, my lord; I am too much i' the SUN.
The
obvious pun is sun / son. Hamlet is too good a son to be cheerful
less than two months after his father's death. But there is also a metaphor on clouds
and sun. Later in the scene, Hamlet compares his father to Hyperion,
the sun-god: HAMLET (1.2.141)
So
excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr
Thus
sun is a symbol for Hamlet's father, and now clouds
is an obvious pun on Claudius. Hamlet is too loyal to his father
(too much i' the sun) to shift his loyalty to Claudius (to be
under the clouds.) This should prepare the audience for a more
subtle pun on CLOUDS / CLAUDIUS: CLAUDIUS (1.2.127)
No
jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great CANNON to
the CLOUDS shall tell, And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. [Exeunt all but Hamlet]
HAMLET
O,
that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a
dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His CANON 'gainst
self-slaughter! O God! God!
Hamlet
is not contemplating his own self-slaughter, rather he is wishing
that Claudius would kill himself. Claudius (cloud)
has just ordered his cannon to fire at the clouds.
Hamlet wishes Claudius's solid flesh would melt and turn into a dew
(a cloud). Then, by aiming his cannon at the clouds,
Claudius would be slaughtering himself. But, alas, the Everlasting
has fixed His canon (religious law) 'gainst self-slaughter
and Claudius has fixed (aimed) his cannon 'gainst self-slaughter
- for now. Later we learn more about the Danish custom of firing cannon
when the king drinks: (1.4.7)
[A
flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within]
HORATIO
What
does this mean, my lord?
HAMLET
The
king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the
swaggering up-spring reels; And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO
Is
it a custom?
HAMLET
Ay,
marry, is't: But to my mind, though I am native here And to the
manner born, it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the
observance.
The custom
under discussion is not heavy drinking. The custom is the firing of cannon
(ordnance) when the king drinks a pledge. It symbolizes the unity of the king
with his kingdom, emphasized with the weapons he uses to obtain and keep that
kingdom. It is the King's pledges, not his drinking, that gets Denmark in
trouble with other countries. This is the custom that Hamlet would like to breach.
In the end, Hamlet gets his wish. Claudius does metaphorically
slaughter himself with his own cannon. To the accompaniment of cannon
fire, Claudius drinks from a cup symbolizing his union
with Denmark. Shortly thereafter, he drinks from that same cup that he
himself had poisoned. CLAUDIUS (5.2.269)
Let
all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall drink to
Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn.
Give me the cups; And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet
to the cannoneer without, The CANNONS to the heavens, the heavens
to earth, 'Now the king drinks to Hamlet.
CLAUDIUS
(5.2.286)
Stay;
give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Here's to thy health. [Trumpets sound, and cannon
shot off within] Give him the cup.
HAMLET
(5.2.336)
Here,
thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy
union here? Follow my mother. [Claudius dies]
(5.2.424) [A dead march. Exeunt,
bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off]
Also
see How to Love Hamlet
The Cannon May Miss Our Name
Was "whale"
pronounced like "wheel"? Was "weasel"
pronounced like "wassail"? Was "Claudius"
pronounced like "cloud-ius"? (I realize that
"Claudius" was never spoken in the play, but there must have been
some reason for including it in the First Folio. It was probably included in
the playbill, so the audience would be prepared for the Claudius/clouds puns.)
CLAUDIUS (1.2.123)
Why,
'tis a loving and a fair reply. Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come. 325
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart; in
grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day But the
great CANNON to the CLOUDS shall tell, And the King's rouse
the heaven shall bruit again, 330 Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away. [Flourish. Exeunt all
but Hamlet.]
HAMLET
O
that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a
dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd 335 His CANON
'gainst self-slaughter!
HAMLET
(1.4.9)
The
King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, 635 Keeps WASSAIL, and
the swagg'ring upspring reels, And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish
down, The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his
pledge.
HORATIO
Is
it a custom?
HAMLET
Ay,
marry, is't; But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner
born, it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
HAMLET
(3.2.368)
Do
you see yonder CLOUD that's almost in shape of a CAMEL?
POLONIUS
By
th' MASS, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
HAMLET
Methinks
it is like a WEASEL. 2255
POLONIUS
It
is back'd like a weasel.
HAMLET
Or
like a WHALE.
POLONIUS
Very
like a whale.
ROSENCRANTZ
(3.3.16)
.
. . .The cease of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw What's
near it with it: it is a MASSY WHEEL,
CLAUDIUS
(Act 4, Scene 1) (4.1.41b)
[So
haply slander-] Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, 2670 As
level as the CANNON to his blank, Transports his poisoned shot- may
MISS OUR NAME And hit the woundless air.-
Also
see Fine Revolution How the Wheel Becomes It A
Camel in My Mind's Eye The Cloud, the
Cannon, and in the Cup a Union How to Love
Hamlet
Extorted Treasure in the Womb of Earth
CLAUDIUS
(3.3.54)
...
O! what form of prayer Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder?'
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I
did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May
one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
Claudius
knows that he can save his soul if and only if he gives up his earthly kingdom,
but he chooses damnation. Hamlet's father has exactly the same problem (but
doesn't know it): GHOST (1.5.80)
Of
life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd; Cut off even in the
blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd, No reckoning
made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head
Note
that the ghost did not ask his son to pray for him (pity me not), which would be the
traditional remedy for a soul trapped in purgatory. What imperfections
were on his head? What sin had he committed since his last confession? What sin
was he still committing? BERNARDO (1.1.161)
It
was about to speak, when the cock crew.
HORATIO
And
then it started like a guilty thing
But
Bernardo and Horatio are a little off in their recollection of the timing:
HORATIO (1.1.143)
If
there be any good thing to be done, That may to thee do ease and grace to
me, Speak to me: [Cock crows.] If thou art privy to thy
country's fate, Which happily foreknowing may avoid, O! speak;
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of
earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Speak
of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
The
ghost didn't "start like a guilty thing" immediately after the
cock crew. The dead king's conscience was not pricked until Horatio guessed his
true sin: the ghost was walking in death because he could not bear to part with
his "extorted treasure in the womb of earth." Like the
rich man on a camel, old King Hamlet cannot enter heaven because he will not
give up his earthly kingdom. Also see My
Uncle, More Like My Father How to Love
Hamlet
My Uncle, More Like My Father
HAMLET
(1.2.154)
my
uncle, my father's brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules.
But
later we see that Hamlet is very much like Hercules: HAMLET (1.4.90)
My
fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as
the Nemean lion's nerve.
The Nemean
lion was a mythical beast with an almost invincible hide, which could only
be cut by its own claws. After strangling the lion, Hercules fashioned a tunic
for himself from its hide, which he cut with its own claws. This is similar to
the way Hamlet killed Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern with their own message, Laertes
with his own sword, and Claudius
with his own poisoned cup. HAMLET (5.1.299)
Let
Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew and dog will have his
day.
Hercules
went mad and murdered his own family, just as Hamlet went mad ( from himself was taken away by
the ghost) and murdered his could-have-been father-in-law, indirectly causing
the death of his should-have-been wife. The cat will mew refers to the
du-cat. Polonius was a rat killed for a du-cat ( a rat? Dead, for a ducat). The
dog was Ophelia, the dead dog,
the good kissing carrion which when touched by the sun/son
(Hamlet) would breed maggots in her bride-bed (her grave). CLAUDIUS
(4.7.92)
...................but
this gallant [Lemord] Had witchcraft in 't, he grew unto his seat,
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorps'd and
demi-natur'd With the brave beast
Laertes
said of Lemord "I know him
well." But, as Hamlet said, "to
know a man well, were to know himself." So let's exercise a little
poetic license and assign some of Lemord's metaphoric qualities to Laertes.
"Lemord" is French for "the death". Demi-natured
with a horse is a good description of a centaur. Hercules was killed indirectly
by a centaur whom he had previously killed, just as Hamlet was killed by
Laertes after he had killed Laertes. HAMLET (2.2.370)
Do
the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay,
that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
This
refers to the competition between the new boy acting companies and the older
companies such as Shakespeare's, which performed at the Globe Theater. The emblem
of the Globe was a picture of Hercules holding up the Earth (or Globe).
(According to the legend, Hercules needed help from Atlas to perform one of his
Tasks. So, to free himself for Hercules's Task, Atlas shrugged off the
Earth onto Hercules for a while.) This might relate Shakespeare to Hercules,
but where is the connection with Hamlet? After Hamlet died, Fortinbras provided
the connection by echoing "the boys [captains] carry it
[Hamlet/Hercules] away," except this time Hamlet/Hercules/Shakespeare
is carried to the stage. FORTINBRAS (5.2.416)
Let
four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage
Thus,
as Hamlet was like Hercules, so was his uncle like his father. Hamlet's father
was valiant, proud, war-like, rash, revengeful, and ambitious. Hamlet's uncle
was cautious, intelligent, flexible, devious, manipulative, and ambitious.
Their common vice was ambition (for control of dirt). Both were doomed to fast in fires because neither old King Hamlet nor new King Claudius could give up his earthly kingdom. Also see
Extorted Treasure in the Womb of Earth Epitaph for a King How to
Love Hamlet
Usurp
Your Sovereignty of Reason
How
can the dead King Hamlet possibly reclaim his kingdom? His son (born to set it right) can do it
for him. That son even has the same name, Hamlet. True, the son has a different
mind than his father, but that can be fixed. HAMLET (1.4.25)
So,
oft it chances in particular men, That for some vicious mole of
nature in them, As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin, By the o'ergrowth of some
complexion
[mole] Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason
HAMLET
(to his father's Ghost) (1.5.181)
Well
said, old mole! Canst work i'the earth so fast? A worthy pioneer!"
[A pioneer
was a military engineer, whose duties included burrowing under pales
(walls) and forts to plant explosives to break them down.]
HAMLET (1.5.99)
..you,
my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up!
Hamlet's
sinews have grown instant old because he has just been
possessed by the ghost of an old man - his father. HORATIO (1.1.56)
What
art thou that usurp'st this time of night
HORATIO
(1.4.75)
What
if it..., deprive your sovereignty of reason
OPHELIA
(3.1.170)
...Now
see that noble and most sovereign reason, ...Blasted....
HAMLET
(1.5.102)
...
Remember thee! Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all
trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there; And thy commandment all alone
shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmix'd with
baser matter
Driven by his love for his father, Hamlet has allowed his
father to usurp the sovereignty of his brain. He has erased
himself from the book of his brain and written his
father there. He continued to write in that same table of
[his] memory": HAMLET (1.5.111)
O
villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables,--meet it is I
set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark: [Writing.] So, uncle, there you are
CLAUDIUS
(1.2.124)
Be
as ourself in Denmark.
If
you hate someone, you think about him a lot. An image of him lives in your
brain. That image can acquire a kind of autonomy, making you behave as your
enemy behaves. In short, by hating your enemy, you allow your enemy to possess
you. Hamlet seems to be taking notes not just on how to recognize a smiling
villain, but also on how to be one. If you love someone, you
may want to give that person all that you have. But if your dearest friend
demands that you give up your very self, then that dearest friend becomes your
dearest foe. HAMLET (1.2.184)
Would
I had met my dearest foe in heaven [or Purgatory] Ere I had ever
seen that day, Horatio! My father, methinks I see my father!
Hamlet
loved his father and was therefore possessed by his father. Hamlet hated his
uncle and was therefore possessed by his uncle. But father and uncle both had
the same values - they valued dirt over people - as in the graveyard. Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Mad in Craft
Hamlet's
insanity was real, but he was also faking it (" mad in craft"). He faked
madness to hide his true madness, which consisted of being possessed by his
father's spirit. If Claudius had suspected that, he would have immediately
murdered Hamlet (again). Instances where Hamlet was feigning madness:
HAMLET (1.5.189)
As
I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on,
GUILDENSTERN
(3.1.7)
Nor
do we find him forward to be sounded, But, with a crafty madness, keeps
aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true
state.
GUILDENSTERN
(3.2.308)
.
. . . If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer . . .
HAMLET
Sir,
I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN
What,
my lord?
HAMLET
Make
you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased.
HAMLET
[sarcastically] (3.4.203)
Make
you to ravel all this matter out, That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; For who, that's but a
queen, fair, sober, wise, Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? No, in despite of sense and
secrecy,
LORD
POLONIUS (2.2.221)
[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.
[note: pun on air/heir] [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.
People
often claim that Hamlet was faking madness to ferret out Claudius' secret, but
the truth is exactly the opposite. As you can see from the above quotes, Hamlet
was faking madness to conceal his own secret - his true madness. Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Old Men in the Book of his Brain
Busy-body
Polonius will join the other tedious
old men occupying Hamlet's brain: POLONIUS (2.2.184)
I'll
board him presently
Polonius
sees Hamlet reading a book (the
book and volume of his brain) and asks him what he is reading.
HAMLET (2.2.212)
Slanders,
sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards,
that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of
wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most
powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus
set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab,
you could go backward.
POLONIUS
[Aside]
Though
this be madness, yet there is method in't...
"old
men have grey beards" = Hamlet's father "His beard was grizzled,
no?" "eyes purging thick amber"
= Polonius. Poland was famous for its amber. For more on the
Polonius/Poland motif, see Polonius
Well-Ended - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Polonius_Well_Ended An Envious Sliver - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Envious_Sliver
"a plentiful lack of wit"
= Claudius "With witchcraft
of his wit, with traitorous gifts, O wicked wit and gifts, that
have the power So to seduce!" "Wit
and gifts" refers to Bishop Whitgift, the man who
instigated the crack-down on recusants which perhaps caused the decline in
fortunes of Shakespeare's father. Also, Whitgift signed Shakespeare's marriage
license (when he married an older woman) and later he signed the license for
the publication of Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis," a poem about a
boy seduced by a goddess. "Plentiful lack"
mocks Claudius first speech: " defeated
joy." "weak hams" = Hamlet,
weakened but still present in his own brain. This is related to:
HAMLET (1.5.99)
And
you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember
thee!
Hamlet's
sinews have grown instant old because he has just been
possessed by the ghost of an old man - his father. " I hold
it not honesty to have it thus set down." Hamlet knows he was
not being true to himself when he set down these tedious old men in the book
and volume of his brain. Polonius also usurped the sovereignty of
reasoning of his own daughter. He told her what think: OPHELIA (1.3.108)
I
do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS
Marry,
I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
(Perhaps
"think yourself a baby" was also part of the rebirth motif. Ophelia
represented all of Shakespeare's plays. Perhaps he was envisioning some kind of
rebirth for his dramatic talent. His greatest works were all written about the
same time as Hamlet.) Later Polonius handed Ophelia a book to study.
It was metaphorically the book full of old men - old men whose corrupt values
Polonius wanted to occupy Ophelia's mind. Yet both Polonius and Claudius
recognized their own corruption in that book ("We are oft to blame . .
. with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself").
POLONIUS (to Ophelia) (3.1.51)
Read
on this book; That show of such an exercise may colour Your
loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,-- 'Tis too much proved--that with
devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself.
CLAUDIUS
[Aside]
O, 'tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Remembrances in the Book of
Their Brains
The
book full of old men is very important. It is the book Polonius sees
Hamlet reading. It is also the book that Polonius later gives to
Ophelia to occupy her mind. It is also the book of remembrances that
Hamlet doesn't remember when Ophelia tries to return it to him. It is
the book of orisons wherein Hamlet wants Ophelia to remember all his sins.
It is the book of Hamlet's brain from which he erased himself and wrote his
father's commandment. It is also the book of Ophelia's brain, where she let her
father tell her what to think and let her brother keep the key to her memory.
It is a document in madness. It is a book full of old men - it should be dusty.
LORD POLONIUS (to Ophelia) (3.1.51)
Read
on this book; That show of such an exercise may colour Your
loneliness.
. . . .
OPHELIA
(3.1.102)
My
lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.
HAMLET
No,
not I; I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA
My
honour'd lord, you know right well you did; And, with them, words of so
sweet breath composed As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers
prove unkind. There, my lord.
Since
he IS a student, maybe Hamlet could take a shiny new book out of his backpack
when he writes his father's commandment in the book and volume of his brain.
Then when he writes his uncle in his tables, he could take out the book again
(now dusty) and write his uncle in the back of the book, as an appendix. At
the end of the scene where Hamlet is reading the dusty book, Polonius could
leave with the book in hand (Hamlet having willingly parted with the book of
his brain) so that Polonius can later hand the book to Ophelia. LORD
POLONIUS (2.2.230)
. .
.--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.
Note:
From Syntinen Laulu's Yahoo Answer, I learned about actual portable, erasable
tablets used in Shakespeares's time: Writing
in a "notebook" in the middle ages? Here's an
interesting link (from Syntinien Laulu's link): Hamlet’s Tables
and the Technologies of Writing in Renaissance England That
article somewhat undermines my own theory. However, in defense of my theory,
Hamlet mentions "the book and volume of my brain." So I think he used
an actual book and pretended to erase it, then write in it with a quill, using
artistic license for erasable ink and an inkless quill. Or maybe he took notes
on an actual table for later transcription into the book (of his brain) that
Polonius saw him reading. Also see The
Madness of Hamlet
A Document in Madness
OPHELIA
(Act 4, Scene 5, lines 191-195) There's rosemary, that's for
remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for
thoughts. LAERTES A document in madness, thoughts and
remembrance fitted. OPHELIA There's fennel for you, and
columbines: there's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There's
a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my
father died: they say he made a good end,-- There is method
in her madness and madness in her method. The "document in
madness" is the book that Polonius gave her to occupy her mind..
It is the same book that Polonius saw Hamlet reading.. It is also the
book of remembrances that Hamlet doesn't remember when Ophelia tries to return
it to him.. It is the book of orisons wherein Hamlet wanted Ophelia
to remember all his sins.. It is the book of Hamlet's brain from
which he erased himself and wrote his father's commandment.. It is
also the book of Ophelia's brain, where she let her father tell her what to
think and let her brother keep the key to her memory. It is a document
in madness. It is a book full of old men - it should be dusty. When
they were true to themselves, that book of Ophelia's and Hamlet's brains was a
document of "noble mind[s]" (3.1,163), "noble in
reason" (2,2,317), filled with thoughts of love for each other. But
then Hamlet erased himself from that book of his brain and wrote his father's
commandment there and promised to "remember" (1,5,100-109). No
wonder Hamlet didn't recognize the remembrances when Ophelia tried to return
them. they were no longer Hamlet's remembrances - they were his father's.
Ophelia's thoughts had been supplanted by her father's when she let her father
tell her what to think. Thoughts and remembrance fitted - a document in madness.
The "rue with a difference," which "we may call .
. . herb-grace o' Sundays" is Gertrude's key to finding grace if she
will but grasp it. She must make a difference between herself and both her
husbands else they drag her to hell along with the rest of their earthly
possessions with which they cannot part. The violets are the love
between Hamlet and Ophelia ("a violet in the youth of primy nature"
1,3,8) which withered when Hamlet killed her father, only to spring up too late
from her grave, her "womb of earth." LAERTES (Act 5,
Scene 1, lines 238-240) Lay her i' the earth: And from her fair
and unpolluted flesh May violets spring!
A Camel in My Mind's Eye
HAMLET
(3.2.368)
Do
you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS
By
the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
A camel?
A cloud? Claudius? Where? HAMLET (1.2.184)
Would
I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day,
Horatio! My father, methinks I see my father.
If
your father is your foe, I can see that he would be your dearest
foe, Hamlet, but he's not quite in heaven -- it sounds more like
he's on his way to heaven, going through purgatory: GHOST (1.5.13)
I
am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day, confin'd to fast in fires Till the foul crimes
done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away.........
Let
me get this straight, Hamlet: Your father is like your Uncle
Claudius. Claudius (cloud-ius) is like a cloud that's
like a camel. The camel-cloud is floating in heaven.
You wish to see your dearest foe in heaven. Then you see your father.
Is he in heaven? Or in purgatory? Hamlet, where is your father?
HORATIO (1.2.187)
Oh,
where, my lord?
HAMLET
In
my mind's eye,
Horatio.
In your mind's eye? Or in purgatory? Or both? Your father
or your uncle? Or both? Your dearest foe or a camel?
Or both? A camel in your mind's eye? HAMLET (1.4.70)
Why,
what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee
So
now you're a pin, Hamlet? And there's a camel in your eye?
MATHEW, 19, 24. HOLY BIBLE in the King James version. JESUS
And
again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Some
people misconstrue this biblical passage to mean that wealth is evil. Actually,
it means that some rich men can't get into heaven because they value their
worldly possessions more than their souls; they value Situation more than Self.
Being rich is not a sin; even killing a brother to gain a kingdom is not an
unforgiveable sin. But the man who values an earthly kingdom more than his own
soul is doomed to fast in fires.
Such a man is Claudius: CLAUDIUS (3.3.46)
What
if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, Is
there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow?
Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offense? And
what's in prayer but this two-fold force, To be forestalled ere we come to
fall, Or pardon'd, being down? Then, I'll look up; My fault is past.
But, O! what form of prayer Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That can not be since I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I
did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be
pardon'd and retain the offense? .... Try what repentance can: what
can it not? Yet what can it, when one can not repent?
And
such a man is Hamlet's father: HORATIO (to the Ghost) (1.1.148)
Or
if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of
earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death...
Hamlet's
father is in purgatory by choice, because he refuses to leave his extorted
treasure. These two foolish old men (and Polonius too) are trying to go camel-like
through Hamlet's mind's eye. Forget the camels -- what's happening
to the poor needle? HORATIO (speaking of the Ghost of Hamlet's
father) (1.1.125)
A
mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
HAMLET
(after killing Polonius, whom he mistook for Claudius) (3.4.189)
I
do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, To punish me with this and this
with me; That I must be their scourge and minister.
Pity
the poor camel-crammed needle; that scourge and minister;
purgatory personified. By following a tenuous thread between three
innocent words, camel, pin, and eye, my imagination has
traced Hamlet's father, his Uncle Claudius, and the false steward Polonius going camel-like
through the purgatory in Hamlet's mind's eye. At this point, perhaps the
reader agrees with Horatio: HORATIO (5.1.203)
'Twere
to consider too curiously, to consider so.
HAMLET
No,
faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough and likelihood
to lead it, as thus:
Before
the age of Joe Camel, in the Elizabethan age, "camel" had just
one vivid connotation -- the biblical metaphor of the camel going through the
eye of the needle. The camel appears just four times in all of Shakespeare's
works; twice in Troilus and Cressida, once in Richard II, and once in Hamlet.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA PANDUROS
Achilles!
a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
THERSITES
Mars
his idiot! Do, rudeness, do, camel, do, do.
THERSITES
I
say this Ajax - ....... Has not so much wit - ....... As
will stop the eye of Helen's needle... THERSITES
RICHARD
II RICHARD
It
is as hard to come as for a camel To thread the postern of a small needle's
eye.
So
the mere presence of the word "camel" is enough to send us in
search of the needle (or pin) and its eye (Hamlet's mind's eye).
But must our search lead us to Purgatory? HORATIO (1.5.149)
There's
no offence, my lord.
HAMLET
Yes,
by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence, too...
A
New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, edited by Horace Howard Furness, Hamlet,
volume 1, New York, American Scholar Publications, INC, 1965, first published
in 1877, page 111: 136. Saint Patrick] TSCHISHWITZ: If Sh. had wished
to be historically correct, he would have made a Dane swear by St Ansgarius.
But since the subject concerned an unexpiated crime, he naturally thought of St
Patrick, who kept a Purgatory of his own. See The Honest Whore [pt 2, I, I,
p 330, Dodsley ed 1825, where the text reads, 'St Patrick, you know keeps
Purgatory,' and not as the learned German quotes, 'keeps his Purgatory.' Ed]
There is a very personal clue that Hamlet/Shakespeare's mind was Purgatory.
In Stratford Guild Chapel there was a mural of Judgment
Day. Although the mural was daubed over with whitewash about the time
Shakespeare was born (in belated obedience to a government edict against
religious icons and images), I believe that young Will could see the mural
through the whitewash (or perhaps the whitewash was temporarily removed for
special occasions, such as secret midnight Catholic Confirmations). The mural
showed a group of sinners bound together with hoops of steel (a chain) and
being led toward the mouth of hell. The mouth
of hell (or purgatory) was set in what looked
like a giant porcupine head.
When Shakespeare saw the porcupine in the Tower of London menagerie, he would
have recognized it as the Guild Chapel's mouth of hell. Note: For a
clearer image of the mural (in black-and-white), please see http://www.ifimages.com/public/image/1564926/view.html
GHOST (to Hamlet) (1.5.19)
I
could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze
thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to
stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
GERTRUDE
(to Hamlet) (3.4.132)
Forth
at your eyes your spirits wildly peep, And, as the sleeping soldiers in
the alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts
up and stand an end.
Also
see The Madness of Hamlet How to Love Hamlet
Bell, Book, and Candle
Was
Hamlet possessed by his father's spirit? I think he was possessed
metaphorically and psychologically but not super-naturally, because his
father's spirit was finally exorcised by thought rather than by bell, book, and
candle. However there may have been a metaphorical exorcism. Hamlet's mind was
like sweet bells jangled",
there was a book of his
brain, and Claudius suggested that within a son's love for his father there
is a "kind of wick or
snuff that will abate it". From Christopher Marlowe's Dr
Faustus: C. OF LOR.
My
lord, it may be some ghost newly crept out of purgatory, come to beg a
pardon of your Holiness.
POPE
It
may be so. Friars, prepare a dirge to lay the fury of this ghost....
.......
MEPH.
......
We shall be curs'd with bell, book, and candle.
Also
see The Madness of Hamlet
Leave
It To Karma
Hamlet
must learn that he is not really the "scourge and minister" of
God. It is not his job to decide who goes to hell, or even when. Romans
12:19 (King James Version) "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will
repay, saith the Lord." Hamlet will not kill Claudius while
he's praying because he wants to send him to hell, not heaven. HAMLET
(3,3,76-98) Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll
do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be
scann'd: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do
this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not
revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his
crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows
save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tis
heavy with him: and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his
soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No! Up,
sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his
rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At gaming, swearing,
or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't; Then trip
him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn'd
and black As hell, whereto it goes. . . After killing
Polonius, whom he mistook for Claudius, Hamlet seems to think he is the "scourge
and minister" of God: HAMLET (3,4,189-191) I do
repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, To punish me with this and this
with me; That I must be their scourge and minister. But was
Hamlet following a commandment from heaven - or hell? (See An Honest Ghost?) In the last act, Hamlet
finally learns to leave it to Karma: HAMLET (5,2,213-218) . .
.there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now,
yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
Three Sons
Fortinbras's
father was killed by Hamlet's father 30 years earlier. Fortinbras is an evil
coward who didn't try to recover the lost lands until after Hamlet Sr died. If
Fortinbras had attacked while old King Hamlet was still alive, the old King
might have challenged young Fortinbras to a personal duel. But young Fortinbras
was a coward who preferred to send thousand of commoners to die for his rotten
royal "honour." So after old King Hamlet finally died, young
Fortinbras "sharked up" an army of thugs to go to war against
Denmark, but was easily diverted (at least temporarily) to easier pickings in
Poland. In Poland, Fortinbras sent 10,000 men to their graves for a worthless
piece of land. Laertes, when he thought King Claudius had killed his
father, immediately confronted the King - but with a mob to back him up (and
possibly to die for his cause). After hearing Claudius side of the story,
Laertes immediately began plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet by treachery.
He didn't care about right or wrong, he just wanted revenge, even if it meant
cutting Hamlet's throat in a church. He didn't bother to hear Hamlet's side of
the story. However, just before the duel Laertes did finally hear Hamlet's
apology which he would have accepted but he foolishly deferred to the opinions
of "elder masters" - meaning Claudius - and continued the duel
against his conscious. Laertes's father had warned him Neither a
borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. But Laertes ignored
that advice. When planning to revenge his father's death, Laertes said
"for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with
little." Then Laertes died fighting for a borrowed cause (borrowed from
Claudius, his "elder master"). In a sense, he was killed because of
borrowing and lending of swords (the accidental switch between swords, one
poisoned) and that loan lost "both itself and friend (both Laertes and
Hamlet, who was his friend at the end). However, before he died Laertes and
Hamlet exchanged forgiveness and thus saved both their souls. Hamlet
wasn't naturally vengeful, but he was loyal to his father so he swore an oath
to his father to seek revenge. But Hamlet didn't want to endanger his friends
in the dangerous mission of seeking revenge against a sitting King, so he urged
his friends to "shake hands and part." In the last act, he returned
to Denmark "naked and alone" to confront the King. Hamlet was very
concerned about right and wrong. Not sure that the ghost was really his father
rather than a deceitful demon, he staged the Mousetrap to verify Claudius'
guilt. In the last act, Hamlet realized that, in pursuing revenge, he had been
untrue to himself - had written his father's command to live all alone in his
brain. He had from himself been taken away and that was madness. A common
theory of madness was that it was caused by demonic possession. At least
psychologically and metaphorically, Hamlet had been possessed by his father's
spirit. However, Hamlet recovered his true self by the end and saved his soul,
but not his life.
Fond and Winnowed Opinions
Excerpt
from Shmoop.com Laertes Character Analysis - "Laertes analysis by
Ph.D. and Masters students from Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley."
http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/laertes.html (See Shmoop
update as of June 1, 2014)
"Laertes,
a young Danish lord, is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. He spends
most of his time abroad at college [sic]"
Please
allow me now to correct the egregious errors of Shmoop and their "Ph.D.
and Masters students from Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley." I can do this
because I was well educated by Mrs Black, my 10th-grade English teacher, back
in 1965. (Thank you, Mrs Black, wherever you are.) Laertes had just
returned from France. There is no indication that Laertes was "at
college." That would be out of character for him. CLAUDIUS (1.2.50)
What
wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES
My
dread lord, Your leave and favour to return to France; From whence
though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation, Yet
now, I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again
toward France And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
KING
CLAUDIUS (1.2.63)
Take
thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy
will!
POLONIUS
[Advising Laertes before his departure] (1.3.73)
Costly
thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not
gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of
the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Later,
when Polonius is giving Reynaldo instructions on how to spy on Laertes, we
learn that Laertes is in Paris. Polonius expects " gaming . .
.drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,drabbing" but there is no
mention of studying or college. LORD POLONIUS (2.1.8)
Inquire
me first what Danskers are in Paris;
LORD
POLONIUS (2.1.23)
But,
sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips As are companions noted and most
known To youth and liberty .
REYNALDO
As
gaming, my lord.
LORD
POLONIUS
Ay,
or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, Drabbing: you may go so far.
LORD
POLONIUS (2.1.33)
.
. . but breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of
liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in
unreclaimed blood, Of general assault.
This
is the behavior Polonius is expecting from his son, with a pretense of
disapproval but with a thinly veiled vicarious thrill: LORD POLONIUS (2.1.63)
There
was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse; There falling out at tennis:' or
perchance, 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,' Videlicet, a
brothel . . .
Claudius
hears a report of Laertes activities in France from Lamond (or in some texts
"Lamord"): KING CLAUDIUS (4.7.89)
.
. . Two months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy:-- I've seen
myself, and served against, the French,
KING
CLAUDIUS (4.7.105)
He
made confession of you, And gave you such a masterly report For art
and exercise in your defence And for your rapier most especially,
Laertes,
when he thought King Claudius had killed his father, immediately confronted the
King - but with a mob to back him up
(and possibly to die for his cause). After hearing Claudius' side of the story,
Laertes immediately began plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet by treachery. He didn't care about right or wrong, he
just wanted revenge, even if it meant cutting Hamlet's throat in a church.
He didn't bother to hear Hamlet's side of the story. However, just before the
duel Laertes did finally hear Hamlet's apology which he would have accepted but he
foolishly deferred to the opinions of "elder masters" -
meaning Claudius - and continued the duel against his conscience. Some
critics point to Laertes' dueling as an example of irony. Polonius had
instructed Reynaldo to spy on Laertes to see if he was fencing, among other
" taints." Lamond verified that Laertes was indeed fencing
while in France. And then fencing led to Laertes' death. But the dramatic irony
goes deeper: Laertes's father had warned him POLONIUS (1.3.78)
Neither
a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And BORROWING DULLS THE EDGE OF HUSBANDRY.
But
Laertes ignored that advice. When planning to revenge his father's death,
Laertes said, LAERTES (4.5.148)
And
for my means, I'll HUSBAND them so well, They shall go far with
little.
Then
Laertes died fighting for a borrowed cause (borrowed from Claudius, his "ELDER
MASTER"). Laertes (5.2.239)
I
am satisfied in nature, ...but... I..will no reconcilement, Till
by some ELDER MASTERS, of known honour, I have a voice and precedent of peace,
Laertes
[aside] (5.2.304)
And
yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
In a
sense, he was killed because of borrowing and lending of swords (the accidental
switch between swords, one poisoned) and that loan lost "both itself and friend"
(both Laertes and Hamlet, who was his friend at the end). However,
before he died Laertes and Hamlet exchanged
forgiveness and thus saved both their souls. Shmoop shoveled it
even higher around their hero Fortinbras: http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/fortinbras.html
"Fortinbras analysis by Ph.D. and Masters students from Stanford, Harvard,
and Berkeley." Schmoop: "Fortinbras is a Norwegian
prince who seeks revenge for his father's death [SIC]." (See Shmoop update as of June 1, 2014) Fortinbras'
father was killed 30 years earlier by Hamlet's father who is now dead. The
cowardly Fortinbras waited until now, (1.2.18)
Holding
a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
to
try to take back the land his father lost, by sharking up a gang of "lawless resolutes." The
cowardly young Fortinbras believes (probably correctly) that he has a better
chance of reclaiming the land from Claudius. For one thing, neither Claudius
nor young Fortinbras will risk their own lives in a personal duel (as did old
King Hamlet and Fortinbras's father). The two "brave" princes (Prince
Fortinbras and King Claudius) can fight it out with no royal bloodshed - just a few thousand underlings.] Shmoop:
"Fortinbras takes clear and immediate action [SIC]" ["immediate
action"??? Thirty years later???] So much for Shmoop and
Stanford and Harvard and Berkeley (assuming that affiliation is not another
Shmoop lie): HAMLET (5.2.184)
Thus
has he--and many more of the same bevy that I know the dressy age dotes
on--only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind
of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most
fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the
bubbles are out.
Shmoop update as of June 1, 2014 Shmoop has shuffled its alleged "authorities."
They've dropped Harvard and added Yale: "A majority of our writers
are PhDs and PhD candidates from top universities like Stanford, UC Berkeley,
and Yale." They are now longer claiming that Fortinbras was
motivated by revenge, but they still assert that he took "immediate
action": "But while Hamlet sits around contemplating life and
death, Fortinbras takes immediate action by raising an army to reclaim Norway's
lost territories." Also please see God-like
Reason Unused In the Whirlwind of Passion,
Show his Form and Pressure Terms
Compulsatory To Thine Ownself Be True
Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play
How to Love Hamlet
The
Womb of Earth
Since
kings cause thousands of deaths by fighting wars over land, Hamlet equated his
own birth and that of any future son with death and equated wombs with graves
and land with graveyards. Horatio Or if thou hast uphoarded in
thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say,
you spirits oft walk in death, 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. Lord Polonius 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! Hamlet
...virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it ...
Hamlet Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? ...it
were better my mother had not borne me Hamlet Lady, shall I lie
in your lap? Lying down at OPHELIA's feet Ophelia No, my lord.
Hamlet I mean, my head upon your lap? Ophelia Ay, my lord.
Hamlet Do you think I meant country matters? [country matters -
Ophelia's lap was the womb of earth.] Ophelia Well, God 'ild you!
They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know
not what we may be. God be at your table! [In Shakespeare's time, the owl
was a portent of death.] Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never
departed more. [Dupped means "opened upward," as with a
coffin lid.] From Answers.com: Dup v. t. (d適p) [Contr. fr. do up, that
is, to lift up the latch. Cf. Don, Doff.] To open; as, to dup the door.
[Obs.] Shak.v King Claudius Pretty Ophelia! Ophelia
Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't: By Gis and by Saint
Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do't, if they come
to't; By cock, they are to blame. Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed. So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou
hadst not come to my bed. Queen Gertrude Sweets to the sweet:
farewell! Scattering flowers I hoped thou shouldst have been my
Hamlet's wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave. Hamlet [speaking of a grave]
'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for
the quick; therefore thou liest. First Clown 'Tis a quick lie, sir;
'twill away gain, from me to you. Hamlet (Leaps into the grave)
Hamlet The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a
fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and
continent To hide the slain? Hamlet [speaking of a skull in a
grave] This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land... The very
conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor
himself have no more, ha? Horatio Our last king...Was...by
Fortinbras...Dared to the combat; in which...Hamlet [Sr]...Did slay this
Fortinbras; who ... Did forfeit...his lands..[which] fell to Hamlet [Jr]. Hamlet
How long hast thou been a grave-maker? First Clown Of all the days i'
the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
Hamlet How long is that since? First Clown Cannot you tell that?
every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he
that is mad, and sent into England. Hamlet How came he [Hamlet]
mad? First Clown Faith, e'en with losing his wits. Hamlet
Upon what ground? First Clown Why, here in Denmark King
Claudius Be as ourself in Denmark. Laertes And therefore
must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom
so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place May give
his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes
withal. Hamlet The rest is silence. Kings caused
thousands of deaths by fighting wars over land, thus, in the dirt, death,
purgatory motif in Hamlet associates land with death. Hamlet's father was in
purgatory because he could not part with his land. At the time of
Hamlet's birth, his father (Hamlet Sr) won a duel with Fortinbras Sr to acquire
a piece of land which was to become Hamlet's inheritance. At that same time,
the gravedigger began his employment in Denmark. This suggests that Hamlet's
inheritance of land was, figuratively, a graveyard. This idea is reinforced
when Hamlet, standing by an open grave, remarks that the occupant of the grave
might have been a landowner and now his grave is hardly large enough to contain
the deeds for his land. Later Fortinbras Jr sent 10,000 men to their deaths to
obtain a plot of land that was "not continent and tomb enough to bury the
dead". That was the same Fortinbras who, according to Hamlet, had
"rights of memory" in this land. Later, Hamlet describes
Osric as being "having much land" and being "spacious in the
possession of dirt" and admits to the "vice" of knowing him,
shortly before remarking that "to know a man well were to know
himself." This indicates that Hamlet believes his unwillingly inherited
land and his unwillingly inherited greed for land ("virtue cannot so
innoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it") is a vice ("Cursed
spite that I was born to set it right!"). "To be or not to be" .
. . . "so like the king that was and is the question of these wars."
Hamlet inherited greed for land from his father's ghost by promising that
"thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my
brain." Hamlet and the audience and even the ghost himself all believed
that the ghost wanted revenge. But the ghost had said he was "doomed to
walk the night...til the sins done in my days of nature are burnt and purg'd
away." But what sins? The ghost himself did not understand his sin.
Traditionally, a dying man wanted his kin to shorten his time in purgatory by
praying for the forgiveness of his sins. But Hamlet's father told him
"pity me not." He only wanted his son and namesake to recover the
kingdom that Claudius had deprived him of. Horatio had accused the ghost of
returning for "uphoarded treasure in the womb of earth" - then the
ghost fled. Hamlet's father was doomed to walk the earth and burn in purgatory
because his could not give up his deadly dirt. The dirt motif was
also important in English history (recent history in Shakespeare's time) and
perhaps in Shakespeare's own life. For centuries, rich men had
bequeathed land to the Catholic Church in exchange for shortened stays in
Purgatory. Martin Luther believed that the selling of passes out of Purgatory
was the primary corrupter of the Church. Furthermore, the land which the Church
had thus acquired was a tempting prize for any king who decided to break away
from the Catholic Church. When Henry VIII separated the Church of England from
the Roman Catholic Church, he seized the lands of English monasteries, then
sold those lands. Thereafter the English Reformation was irreversible. England
could never again be Catholic because too many Englishmen had a vested interest
in Protestantism -- all those owners of former monastery lands. In
1565 (the year after Shakespeare's birth) William Allen wrote "A Defense
and Declaration of the Catholike Churches Doctrine touching Purgatory, and
Prayers of the Soules Departed." Before the Reformation, the primary
social, economic, and religious institution in many English hamlets was the
local guild. These town guilds (not to be confused with the craft guilds in
large cities) had been formed for the primary purpose of praying for the souls
of deceased members, in order to shorten their time in Purgatory. With the
Reformation, the Anglican Church declared the idea of Purgatory heretical,
prolonged praying for the dead was outlawed, and the town guilds were ostensibly
secularized. However, the guilds continued to be the main social and economic
institutions in many towns. Furthermore, many guild members continued, openly
or secretly, to be Catholics. Shakespeare was educated by the Stratford Guild.
The brother of one of his teachers was executed for being a Catholic
missionary, as was one of Shakespeare's former schoolmates. One of
Shakespeare's teachers at the Guild went on to become head of the Catholic
English College in Rome.
When Your Clowns Speak
HAMLET
(3.2.39)
...
And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for
them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity
of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary
question of the play be then to be considered...
What
is the necessary question of Hamlet? When the clowns speak,
it is then to be considered. FIRST CLOWN (5.1.15)
Give
me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good;if the man go to
this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,--mark
you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself:
argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
SECOND
CLOWN
But
is this law?
FIRST
CLOWN
Ay,
marry, is't; crowner's quest law.</i
"Crowner's
quest" means "coronor's inquest" but it is also a pun on the
question of whether to seize the crown -"to be or not to be" "so
like the king" HAMLET (3.1.64)
To
be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to
suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms
against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?
If
Hamlet took arms against the king (a sea of troubles), he would
very likely lose his own life in the attempt. Such an action might be
considered suicide, which would cost Hamlet his soul. However if he waits for
the king to initiate the attack (if the water come to him), then
he is not guilty of his own death. In the end, Hamlet killed the king
only after the King had indirectly killed Hamlet (via Laertes' poisoned sword).
Before we leave the clowns, let's dig a little deeper. Thirty
years earlier, Hamlet's father (also named Hamlet) had killed King Fortinbras
and gained some land that Hamlet subsequently inherited. HAMLET (5.1.140)
How
long hast thou been a grave-maker?
FIRST
CLOWN
Of
all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet
overcame Fortinbras.
HAMLET
How
long is that since?
FIRST
CLOWN
Cannot
you tell that? every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet
was born
Was
this then Hamlet's "inheritance" - a graveyard? HAMLET
(standing over a grave) (5.1.111)
The
very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the
inheritor himself have no more, ha?
To
be or not to be
-- what? That is the question. After Horatio had explained that the
impending war was caused by a duel over land fought by Hamlet's father, whose
ghost they had just seen, Bernardo replied: (1.1.121)
I
think it be no other but e'en so: (1.1.121)
Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our
watch; so like the king That was and is the question of
these wars.
To
be or not to be... so like the king that was and is the question of these wars - that is Hamlet's dilemma. Also
see How to Love Hamlet
How If I Answer No?
OSRIC
(5.2.166)
....it
would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.
HAMLET
How
if I answer 'no'?
Osric
has been sent by Claudius to ask Hamlet whether he will consent to fight a duel
with Laertes. But instead of asking that question directly, Osric refers to a
subtly different question - the question that the actual duel would answer:
"who is the better swordsman." So "it would come to immediate
trial" means that the question of "who is the better swordsman"
would be answered if Hamlet answers it by dueling - "if your lordship
would vouchsafe the answer." Hamlet understands Osric's meaining
but chooses to interpret "vouchsafe the answer" as answering whether
or not he will consent to duel. If Hamlet answers that question "no"
(he will not duel), then how could it "come to immediate trial" (with
a duel)? The entire dialog with Osric symbolizes themes of the whole
play. Hamlet has been challenged by two warlike kings, his father and his
uncle, to be like them ( "remember
me" and "be as
ourself in Denmark"). Both those kings would like Hamlet to answer
the challene from Fortibras by leading Denmark into war, to defend the land
that his father seized and that his uncle wanted to keep. But in the end,
Hamlet will "answer no." Instead of leading his countrymen to
slaughter in another war over useless dirt, with his dying voice he will give
that bloodsoaked dirt to Fortibras, without a war. See The Voice of Denmark Hamlet
Is An Anti-War Play
Was Hamlet Guilty of Murder?
In
this essay I will prove, based on evidence from the play, that Prince Hamlet
was the legitimate ruler of Denmark and that he killed Polonius, Rosencrantz,
Guildenstern and Claudius in defense of the legitmate government of Denmark
and, more importantly, the people of Denmark. First I will demonstrate that
Prince Hamlet's father was the legitmate and popular King of Denmark. Then I
will prove that Claudius was not the legitmate successor to the throne. Then I
will prove that Prince Hamlet was the legitimate successor as King of Denmark.
Then I will show that the killings were legitmate acts of war, in circumstances
that prevented normal due process, although Hamlet nevertheless conducted a de facto
trial (the Mousetrap) to prove Claudius' guilt. Finally, I will show that, even
though a government court of law would have absolved Hamlet, the Prince
appealed to a higher authority (God) and Shakespeare submitted the case to
higher judges (the audience). In those higher courts, Hamlet confessed his sins
(and the sins of his dynasty) in the hope that his confession would prevent
further evil. Hamlet's father had not only been acknowledged as king,
but he was widely regarded as a good king: KING CLAUDIUS (1.2.23)
.
. . those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our
most valiant brother.
HORATIO
(1.1.93)
Our
last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, ... our valiant
Hamlet-- For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--
HORATIO
(1.2.189)
I
saw him once; he was a goodly king.
HAMLET
He
was a man, take him for all in all,
In
Shakespeare's day, the approval of the people played no part in the formal
legitimacy of the monarch, but it was all important to the de facto legitmacy.
Ultimately, royal legitimacy was a product of "might makes right."
However, when two leaders were contending for the throne, the one with the
support of the people would usually have an easier time raising an army. GENTLEMAN
(4.5.102)
Save
yourself, my lord: The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the
flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord; And, as the world were
now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers
and props of every word, They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds: 'Laertes shall be
king, Laertes king!'
The
gentleman is disparaging of "the rabble." However, that
gentleman is a minion of Claudius, who the audience knows is an evil king. This
is as close as Shakespeare could come to advocating democracy without losing
his head. However Shakespeare probably was not in favor of democracy. He wanted
stability, to avoid war - HORATIO (5.2.400)
Of
carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual
slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
But
this "riotous head" illustrates that no monarch's reign could
be stable without the approval of the people. The whole apparatus of
"legitimacy" was really just a tool to help gain that approval. Even
Queen Elizabeth of England and James VI of Scotland (soon to be James I of
England) believed that the "divine rights" of monarchs were
inseparable from their duty to promote the welfare of the people. Old
King Hamlet had saved the lives of thousands of his subjects by fighting a
personal duel instead of a war over disputed land. However a generation later
old King Hamlet's victory in that duel became "the question of these wars."
When young Fortinbras raised an army of thugs to reclaim that land "by strong hand and terms compulsatory,"
Claudius would not risk his own life in a personal duel in order to postpone
war for another generation. Instead he temporarily diverted Fortinbras to
Poland, delaying the war for only a few weeks. Thus although old King Hamlet
was not as good a king as his son would be, he was less evil than Claudius.
The Danish throne was not strictly hereditary - kings were chosen by
election. But Claudius seized the throne, bypassing the election: HAMLET
(5.2.69)
He
that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, Popp'd in between the
election and my hopes,
Sometimes
kings were chosen by their predecessors. Claudius himself named Hamlet as his
successor: KING CLAUDIUS (1.2.109)
...
think of us As of a father: for let the world take note, You are the
most immediate to our throne; And with no less nobility of love Than
that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart toward you.
ROSENCRANTZ
(3.2.333)
...
you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark?
It's
a reasonable assumption that Hamlet's true father had also named Hamlet as his
successor. Thus, Claudius had usurped the crown from the legitimate successor.
GHOST (1.5.44)
The
serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown.
GHOST
(1.5.79)
Thus
was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once
dispatch'd:
HAMLET
(3.4.111)
A
cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem
stole, And put it in his pocket!
We've
seen the "riotous head" with which Laertes could have
overthrown Claudius. Prince Hamlet, because of "the great love the general gender bear
him," could have easily raised an army to defeat his uncle - but
not without the deaths of many of his countrymen. Hamlet was better than that.
Immediately after swearing to his father's ghost that he would attack Claudius,
Hamlet urged his friends to "shake
hands and part." Hamlet did not want to drag his subjects along to
his doom, as was commonly done by kings: ROSENCRANTZ (3.3.16)
....
The cease of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix'd on the summit of the
highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are
mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty
consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king
sigh, but with a general groan.
FIRST
PLAYER (2.2.502)
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!'
Hamlet
was unwilling to spark a bloody civil war, but he a responsibilty to personally
prevent Claudius from committing further evil: HAMLET (5.2.72)
-is't
not perfect conscience, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be
damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?
Under
the circumstances, Hamlet was not able to submit Claudius to formal due
process. However, he did his best to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Hamlet heard the testimony of the victim himself: GHOST (1.5.44)
The
serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown.
Even
so, Hamlet sought more evidence to eliminate the last shred of reasonable doubt
(that the Ghost might not really be his father: HAMLET (2.2.609)
The
spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To
assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my
melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn
me: I'll have grounds More relative than this:
So
he devised the Mousetrap play as a kind of trial: HAMLET (2.2.599)
I
have heard That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very
cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They
have proclaim'd their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue,
will speak With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players Play
something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle: I'll observe his
looks; I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, I know my
course.
HAMLET
(2.2.615)
.
. . the play 's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
[Hamlet
itself may have been a play that caught the conscience of a king. See Princess of Denmark, James VI, and the Ur-Hamlet and
It Began With a Lass (The False Steward)]t The
Mousetrap succeeded in exposing the guilt of Claudius to Hamlet, but it also
exposed Hamlet's suspicions to Claudius. Immediately after the Mousetrap (and
before Hamlet had killed Polonius) Claudius began plotting to murder Hamlet:
KING CLAUDIUS (3.3.1)
I
like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range.
Therefore prepare you; I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And
he to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.
HAMLET
(3.4.220)
There's
letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows, Whom I will trust as I will
adders fang'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And
marshal me to knavery.
HAMLET
(5.2.18)
.
. . . to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,-- O
royal knavery!--an exact command, . . . . That, on the supervise, no
leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head
should be struck off.
Therefore,
in order to defend himself and his country, Hamlet had to kill Claudius. When
he saw somebody (Polonius) behind the arras in his mother's room, he naturally
assumed that it was Claudius ("I
took thee for thy better") so he stabbed through the arras,
unintentionally killing Polonius. But Polonius was not a complete innocent:
CLAUDIUS (1.2.14)
....
nor have we herein barr'd Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along.
POLONIUS
(3.1.199)
To
England send him, or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.
There
is no indication that Polonius knew or suspected that Claudius had murdered the
former king nor that he was planning to murder Hamlet, but Polonius was well
aware of Claudius' very public usurpation of Hamlet's succession to the throne.
Polonius volunteered to be a spy (normally a capital offense) for Claudius,
even after Hamlet had warned him against it: HAMLET (3.1.141)
Where's
your father?
OPHELIA
At
home, my lord.
HAMLET
Let
the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's
own house. Farewell.
When
he killed Polonius, Hamlet believed that he was the"scourge and
minister" of God: HAMLET (3.4.189)
I
do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, To punish me with this and this
with me; That I must be their scourge and minister.
But
was Hamlet following a commandment from heaven - or hell? (See An Honest Ghost?) HAMLET (3.2.43)
.
. . some necessary question of the play be then to be
considered: that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
TO BE OR NOT TO BE . . . . so like the king THAT was and IS THE
QUESTION OF THESE WARS"." HAMLET (5.2.169)
How
if I answer 'no'?
In
the end Hamlet finally killed Claudius, then lived just long enough to give
Fortinbras the disputed land, thereby permanently averting the war and saving
the lives of thousands of commoners. (See Hamlet Is An
Anti-War Play.) HAMLET (5.2.346)
You
that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience
to this act, Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict
in his arrest--O, I could tell you-- But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.
HAMLET
(5.2.358)
O
good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall
live behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart Absent thee
from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.
HORATIO
(5.2.396)
.
. . . give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world How these things came about:
so shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of
accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and
forced cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall'n on the
inventors' reads: all this can I Truly deliver.
HORATIO
(5.2.413)
But
let this same be presently perform'd, Even while men's minds are wild;
lest more mischance On plots and errors, happen.
KING
CLAUDIUS (5.2.278)
And
you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Also
please see The Madness of Hamlet and How to Love Hamlet
Look Where My Abridgement
Comes
When
Hamlet said, "look, where my abridgement comes," he was
talking about "old Jephtha". What's that got to do with the
abridgement in "to be or not to be"..."so like
the king that was and is the question of these wars"?
Hamlet Why, 'As by lot, God wot,' and then, you know, 'It came to
pass, as most like it was,' - the first row of the pious chanson will show you
more; for look, where my abridgement comes. (1) "As most
like it was" sounds like "so like the king that was"
(2) The story of Jephtha, in Judges 11, sounds most like the story
of the king that was and is the question of these wars. The Ammonites
were preparing for war against Israel to recover land Israel had taken from
them, just as young Fortinbras was preparing for war "to recover of us,
by strong hand and terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands so by his father
lost" in the fatal duel with old King Hamlet. Judges 11.12
... What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in
my land? Judges 11.13 ...Because Israel took away my
land... now therefore restore those lands again
St Gertrude in the Garden
St
Gertrude of Nivelles is the patron saint of gardeners . . . . mentally ill
people (especially those with a rat phobia), travellers, pilgrims . . . ,
recently dead people, and graves. . . She's associated with mice, which
represent souls in purgatory. - extracted from the following link:
Begin-Quote from Praying to Saints
and Folk Magic: Santa Gertrude di Nivelles (2010 Myth Woodling)
"She was venerated as a saint shortly after her death in 659. At her
shrine in Cologne, Germany, gold and silver mice were given as offerings as
late as 1822. . . . In artwork, St. Gertrude of Nivelles is depicted as one of
the following: a woman holding a large mouse, an abbess with mice at her feet,
an abbess with mice running up her cloak, an abbess with mice running up her
crosier or pastoral staff,. . . . Gertrude of Nivelles' iconic symbol is the
mouse, and she is the patron saint of . . . mentally ill people (especially
suriphobics),. . . gardeners, . . . travellers, pilgrims (particularly pilgrims
in search of lodging), recently dead people, graves, . . . As a protective
saint, she is invoked against rodents, vermin, rats, mice, pestilence, fever,
fear of mice or rats (suriphobia), against mental illness and disorders
(especilally suriphobia), and insanity. . . . In modern Belgium, supposedly a
drink-for-the-road is called a "St. Gertrude's Cup." There is also a
legend relating to the "St. Gertrude's Cup." One day she sent some of
her people to a distant country, promising that no misfortune would befall them
on the journey. When they were on the waters, a large sea monster threatened to
capsize their ship, but disappeared upon the invocation of St. Gertrude.
Because of this legend, medieval travelers drank a toast known in German as the
"Gertrudenminte" or "Sinte Geerts Minne" in the saint's
honour before setting out on their journey. . . .Sometime Gertrude of Nivelles'
symbol, the mouse, is said related to the souls in purgatory or symbolic as her
protection of the recently dead people--citing the Teutonic tradition of mice
being the emblem of souls. . . . St. Gertrude is patron saint of gardeners and
herbalists, because there is a tradition that fine weather on her feast day
(March 17) boads that it is time for spring planting." end-quote
from "Praying to Saints and Folk Magic: Santa Gertrude di Nivelles" St
Gertrude of Nivelles is the patron saint of gardeners: HAMLET (1.2.137)
...'tis
an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross in
nature Possess it merely.
HAMLET
[speaking to Gertrude] (3.4.167-168)
.
. . do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker.
"Medieval
travelers drank a toast known in German as the 'Gertrudenminte' or 'Sinte
Geerts Minne' in the saint's honour before setting out on their journey."
Perhaps Hamlet was making a sarcastic allusion to the "Sinte Geerts
Minne" toast when he forced Claudius to drink from the cup that had
poisoned Gertrude, before Claudius set out on his journey to hell: HAMLET
(5.2.337-338)
Drink
off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.
St
Gertrude of Nivelles is also the patron saint of mentally ill people,
especially those with a rat phobia: HAMLET (3.4.27)
How
now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
CLAUDIUS
(3.2.232-233)
What
do you call the play?
HAMLET
The
Mouse-trap.
"Gertrude
of Nivelles' symbol, the mouse, is said related to the souls in
purgatory." FRANCISCO (1.1.11)
Not
a mouse stirring.
GHOST
(1.5.13-17)
I
am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my
days of nature Are burnt and purged away.
St
Gertrude's Feast Day is March 17, the same as St Patrick's, who is also
a keeper of purgatory. HORATIO (1.5.148-149)
There's
no offence, my lord.
HAMLET
Yes,
by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence too.
St
Gertrude of Nivelles is also the patron saint of "travellers, pilgrims . .
. , recently dead people, graves." After Hamlet had been driven
mad by listening to the the Ghost's forbidden tale of the secret's of his
prison-house, Hamlet appears before Ophelia with "no hat upon his
head" (2,1,87). Later Hamlet
speaks of "The undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller
returns"(3,1,87).Still later
Ophelia sings of Hamlet with a cockle hat (4.5.28) Pilgrims wore cockleshells on
their hats. Ophelia's song foreshadows Hamlet's "pilgrimage" to the
"undiscover'd country" of her "chaste treasure" in the
"womb of earth" (her grave). With Gertrude standing by, Hamlet
returns from that undiscovered country with his sanity restored. See The Rebirth of Hamlet
. Now aren't all you Freudian perverts ashamed of your spurious
accusations against this saintly woman?
Jointress to this Warlike
State
The
tragic flaw of both Gertrude's husbands is that they are unable to part from
their earthly kingdoms, not even to save their souls. Gertrude's fatal flaw is
that she is unable to part from her husbands, not even to save her soul. "Why,
she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on"
(1,2,145-147) Thus, "the imperial jointress to this warlike state"
(1,2,9) is doomed to join her husbands in the blood-soaked graveyard, their
"extorted treasure in the womb of earth" (1,1,149.)
Polonius Well-Ended
Shakespeare
weaves a web of puns connecting Polonius with Poland and hence Hamlet with
Fortinbras. Fortinbras set out to attack Claudius, but Claudius arranged to
shift the attack to a part of Poland. Hamlet tried to attack Claudius, but
stabbed Polonius instead. POLONIUS (3.3.30)
Behind
the arras I'll convey myself,
Fortinbras
(4.4.1)
Go,
captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him that, by his licence,
Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promised march Over his
kingdom.
Hamlet
(looking in a grave) (5.1.110)
The
very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box
Hamlet(3.4.27)
How
now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Captain
(4.4.18)
Truly
to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I
would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole A
ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
Polonius(2.2.176)
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.
Polonius
announced the ambassadors from Norway who would tell Claudius that Fortinbras
attack had been shifted to Poland: Polonius (2.2.54)
Give
first admittance to the ambassadors; My news shall be the fruit to
that great feast.
[the end or dessert]
After
the ambassadors delivered their news: Polonius (2.2.91)
This
business is well ended.
After
Hamlet's attempt to attack Claudius caused Polonius's untimely end:
Ophelia (4.5.198)
...when
my father died: they say he made a good end,
There
was another foreshadowing of Polonius as dessert: Hamlet (2.2.535)
....after
your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you
live.
Polonius
My
lord, I will use them according to their desert.
Hamlet
God's
bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who
should 'scape whipping?
Claudius
(4.3.19)
Now,
Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet
At
supper.
Claudius
At
supper! where?
Hamlet
Not
where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of
politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet:
we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat
king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one
table: that's the end.
"Your
worm is your only emperor for diet" is probably
an allusion to the Diet of Worms, where the Holy Roman Emperor
outlawed Martin Luther. Hamlet (4.3.30)
A
man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of
the fish that hath fed of that worm.
Claudius
What
dost you mean by this?
Hamlet
Nothing
but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
Polonius
(2.1.68)
Your
bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
Polonius
(2.2.188)
Do
you know me, my lord?
Hamlet
Excellent
well; you are a fishmonger.
Polonius
Not
I, my lord.
Hamlet
Then
I would you were so honest a man.
An Envious Sliver
Polonius
was aware that his meddling had ruined the lives of Hamlet and Ophelia. In the
speech where he admitted this, he foreshadowed Ophelia's death: POLONIUS
(2.1.117)
What,
have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA
No,
my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied
His access to me.
POLONIUS
That
hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I
had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle, And meant to wreck thee;
but, beshrew my jealousy By heaven, it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions As it is common for the
younger sort To lack discretion.
GERTRUDE
(4.7.181)
There
is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the
glassy stream; .... There, on the pendent boughs her coronet
weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down
her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook.
Polonius,
jealous and envious of Hamlet, cast beyond himself in his opinion (like
a branch over a stream). When Polonius died (broke), Ophelia, who had once
reached for the coronet of a princess, lacking discretion,
climbed out on the envious sliver of Polonius' commands and lost her
self even before she drowned.. Polonius was metaphorically like the willow that
was reflected in the brook. So Ophelia metaphorically died by falling into a
mirror image of her father. Polonius was also likened to a tree when
Hamlet described one of the tedious old men in his
book (metaphorically the book and volume of his brain) as having eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree
gum. Amber (fossilized tree sap) was an allusion to Poland, which was
famous for its amber. This uses the Polonius/Poland pun, which is further
developed later (Polonius Well-Ended). Just
as Polonius ruined Ophelia by "casting beyond" himself with
his opinions, so Hamlet's father almost ruined Hamlet with the "secrets of [his] prison
house", an "eternal blazon" that "must not be
to ears of flesh and blood", "thoughts
beyond the reaches" of Hamlet's soul. Ophelia was untrue
to herself; she gave her brother the key to her memory and let her
father tell her what to think: LAERTES (1.3.87)
Farewell,
Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you.
OPHELIA
'Tis
in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
OPHELIA
(1.3.108)
I
do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS
Marry,
I'll teach you...
After
her father died, Ophelia was like a puppet with the strings cut: HAMLET
(3.2.242)
I
could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets
dallying.
Also
see Old Men in the Book of his Brain Remembrances in the Book of Their Brains How to Love Hamlet
The
Diet of Worms and the Aborted Rebirth of Polonius
Claudius
(4.3.19)
Now,
Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet
At
supper.
Claudius
At
supper! where?
Hamlet
Not
where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of
politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet:
we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat
king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one
table: that's the end.
As
many writers have noted, this is an obvious allusion to the Diet of Worms in
which the Holy Roman Empire outlawed Martin Luther. But why? What was
Shakespeare's point for this allusion?
It's easy to draw a parallel between the Ghost of Hamlet's father and the ghost
of the English Catholic Church, exhorting its sons to recapture the Church's
lost land. (See The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in
Historical Context and Terms Compulsatory.)
It's almost as easy to associate Claudius with the Church of England. (Claudius
"wicked wit and gifts" might be an allusion to Bishop Whitgift. See Old Men in the Book of his Brain.) But the parallel between
Polonius and Martin Luther is much more subtle.
Perhaps the parallel is between aborted rebirths. Martin Luther's initial
intent was to reform the Catholic Church rather than to destroy it. But that
rebirth of the Catholic Church was aborted at the Diet of Worms. Like Hamlet,
Polonius metaphorically reverted to infancy. But, unlike Hamlet, Polonius was
not reborn - instead he was killed because Hamlet mistook him for the king.
Similarly Luther's attempt to inspire a rebirth of the Catholic Church was
aborted because kings and emperors and warlike popes used religious disputes as
a pretext to fight over the lands of the Church.
See
The Rebirth of Hamlet.
The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical
Context
Polonius
Shakespeare and Foxe's Book
of Martyrs
John Foxe became a tutor working for Thomas Lucy about 1545-7 Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet.
Martin Luther "was led by secret stairs to the place where he was
appointed to have audience" - from Foxe's Book of Martyrs,147, THE DIET OF
WORMS
(http://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe148.htm).
HAMLET
...
...you shall nose him as you go up the stairs
into the lobby.
Old Stock
HAMLET
. . . I did love you once. OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you
made me believe so. HAMLET You should not have believed me;
for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it:
Laertes had previously warned Ophelia that because Hamlet was a Prince he
was not free to marry for love. However much he loves Ophelia now, eventually
his royal duties will force him to dump her: Laertes . . .
Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will
is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth: He may not,
as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state; And therefore must his choice
be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he
is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to
believe it As he in his particular act and place May give his saying
deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Laertes was right. Hamlet erased himself (the "pressures of youth,"
including Ophelia) from his own brain and wrote his father there. He was "from
himself taken away," all his virtues (including his love for Ophelia)
replaced by his father's values (his "old stock"). "Old
stock" might be a gardening metaphor. Hamlet's humanist education was
like a branch of a peach tree grafted onto the "old stock" of
a lemon tree (the warlike traditions of his father). The graft did not take -
Hamlet's humanism and his love for Ophelia was dying. Notice the plural form - "OUR
old stock, but WE." Maybe that's because Hamlet's brain was occupied
by both himself and his father.
Questions of the Play
Bernardo
opens the play with a question: "who's there?". That question
reverberates throughout the play. Who's there?... What, is Horatio
there?... Looks it not like the king? Is it not like the king? . so like the
king that was and is the question of these wars .How is it that the clouds
still hang on you?. Methinks I see my father. Where, my lord? In my mind's eye
Must I remember?... What does this mean, my lord? What may this mean... why is
this? wherefore? what should we do?... Why, what should be the fear?... What if
it... deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness? Whither
wilt thou lead me? Thou comest in such a questionable shape... canst work i'
the earth so fast? What is't but to be nothing else but mad? Will you walk out
of the air, my lord? Into my grave... And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
get from him why he puts on this confusion, grating so harshly all his days of
quiet with turbulent and dangerous lunacy?... some necessary question of the
play be then to be considered. To be or not to be. That is the question. so
like the king that was and is the question of these wars Who, I?... what is
your cause of distemper? Sir, I lack advancement. How can that be, when you
have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? Sir, I
cannot make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased..Try what repentance can:
what can it not? Yet what can it when one can not repent? Two thousand souls
and twenty thousand ducats will not debate the question of this straw.....must
the inheritor himself have no more, ha?...How came he mad?...Whose grave's
this, sirrah?... is't not perfect conscience, to quit him with this arm? and
is't not to be damn'd, to let this canker of our nature come in further evil?..
crowner's quest...answer to the purpose the king's purpose confess
thyself..when you are asked this question next, say 'a grave-maker'. ... if
your lordship would vouchsafe the answer...How if I answer 'no'?.. Who does it,
then? His madness... Is thy union here?.. What warlike noise is this?. See:
Some necessary question of the play be than to be
considered . . . When Your Clowns Speak
To Be Or Not To Be . . .
Who's there?
The Voice of Denmark Hamlet's
Divided Soul Also please see How to
Love Hamlet
A Piece of Work
Hamlet
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 Hamlet
(to Polonius) How now, my lord! Will the king hear this piece of
work? Hamlet (to Claudius) ...'tis a knavish piece
of work A knavish piece of work is a man (piece of
work) who is a king (nave with his subjects attached like spokes). This man
does not delight Hamlet.
God-like
Reason Unused
Hamlet's
soliloquy about Fortinbras is ironic. It goes from Sure, he that
made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. to
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Is that using
his god-like reason? Only to think bloody thoughts? Also
in the same soliloquy: Rightly to be great Is not to stir
without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When
honour's at the stake. That "honour" leads to:
The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and
trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon
the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain. . . Is that "honour"? To send
thousands to their graves for "a straw"? The irony
is a little complicated in this soliloquy because, although the audience is
intended to see the irony in Hamlet's words, Hamlet himself doesn't see it. He
hasn't yet realized that he has from himself been taken away by his
father's warlike spirit which he had written to live all alone in the book
and volume of his brain. Thus, in this soliloquy he starts by expressing
his own values, the values of a student from Wittenberg who uses his god-like
reason. But then his father's spirit takes over and scoffs at reason as some
craven scruple of thinking too precisely on the event, concluding that
thoughts are worthless unless they are bloody. Please see Reason Motif
In the Whirlwind of Passion,
Show his Form and Pressure
When
Hamlet swore to let his father's commandment live all alone in his brain, he
(almost) erased his true self - all that forms and pressures past had copied
there. Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away
all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures
past, That youth and observation copied there; And thy
commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter For the actor playing Hamlet, the
challenge is to show the remnants of those almost-erased forms and pressures
beneath the whirlwind of passion that is his father's warlike spirit
(the nave of a great wheel with his hapless subjects as spokes). for
in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of
passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it
smoothness. . . . to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to
nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very
age and body of the time his form and pressure. "Form
and pressure" in Hamlet's instructions to the Players echoes Hamlet's
promise to his father to " wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws
of books, all FORMS, all PRESSURES past, / That youth and observation copied
there." Thus, in telling the players to accurately reflect the true nature
of the world, a part of Hamlet is also trying to tell himself to restore his
own true self that he had wiped away when he wrote his father's commandment to
live all alone in the book and volume of his brain. Hamlet was
possessed by his father's ghost - at least metaphorically and psychologically,
if not supernaturally. This means that for much of the play Hamlet is
expressing his father's opinions rather than his own. Some of his soliloquies
are actually debates between Hamlet himself (before he was "from himself taken
away") and his father's spirit which now lives (almost) all alone in his
brain. This would be very challenging for an actor to convey. A
specific example: the "my thoughts be bloody" soliloquy. Hamlet
starts the speech as himself, the scholar from Wittenberg: ...he
that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us
not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused.
But then he abruptly comes under the sway of his father's
anti-intellectual, warlike spirit: some craven scruple Of
thinking too precisely on the event, Culminating in "my
thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!" A super-talented
actor might be able to make that speech with the father's spirit roaring out
his warlike noise while at the same time the son recoils from the words coming
out of his own mouth. Hamlet is too often portrayed as an indecisive,
suicidal wimp, but I see him rather as a valiant soldier of the spirit,
fighting a desperate internal battle to defend the sovereignty of his soul.
Making that internal battle visible to the audience would be difficult, but not
impossible.
Confess Thyself
Hamlet
is the glass of fashion; he is possessed by demons; and he is purgatory
personified. By reflecting his father's values, Hamlet becomes possessed by his
father's spirit, and thereby joins his father in the purgatory of his own mind.
From purgatory, a soul is in danger of rolling down the hill of heaven even
as low as to the fiends. But there is also hope that his sins will be burnt
and purged away. If you're trapped in purgatory and searching for the
steep and thorny way to heaven, the answer is simple: confess thyself.
Gravedigger I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest
me not to the purpose, confess thyself-- Rosencrantz
(speaking of Hamlet) He does confess he feels himself
distracted; Hamlet (after killing Polonius, whom he mistook for
Claudius) I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
To punish me with this and this with me; That I must be their scourge
and minister. Hamlet The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy
orisons Be all my sins remember'd. Hamlet ...I
am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things
that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such
fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all.
"But yet I could accuse me" - here Hamlet is
really confessing on behalf of his father. The need to confess and
purge oneself of one's sins is common to many of the characters - all of them
reflected by Hamlet, the the glass of fashion. Hamlet (to
Gertrude) You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see
the inmost part of you. .... ...Confess yourself to
heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; Gertrude
O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.
Claudius And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being
down? Then I'll look up; My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn?.... Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent? Hamlet for
me to put him [Claudius] to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into
far more choler. Ghost I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd
for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast
in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt
and purged away. .................................................
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd,
disappointed, unanel'd, No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head: Laertes (to Claudius) ...
I must confess, that... My thoughts and wishes.... ...bow
them to your gracious leave and pardon. Laertes's sin was
that he bowed his wishes to Claudius: Laertes I am satisfied
in nature, ...but... I..will no reconcilement, Till by some
elder masters, of known honour, I have a voice and precedent of peace,
Laertes [aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
Laertes "confessed" out of context shortly before his actual
confession: Laertes A touch, a touch, I do confess.
Laertes ...I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. Laertes
...Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father's
death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me. Hamlet Heaven
make thee free of it! I follow thee. That exchange of
forgiveness for the deaths of father and son also included a general confession
and pardon for the father and son Hamlets. Hamlet's "I will follow thee"
to heaven echoes his First Act "I'll follow thee" when he
followed his father into Purgatory. Now the "I will follow thee"
is perhaps his father's spirit following him out of Purgatory and into Heaven.
The Majesty of Buried Denmark
Was
"Hamlet" just a ghost story? Hamlet was possessed by his father's
ghost. Hamlet's mind was purgatory for the ghost. By the end of the play he had
managed to exorcise that ghost by confessing the sins of the ghost. Who could
let belief take hold of him when presented with such a silly story? But ghost
and purgatory and exorcism were not the point of the story, they were merely
trappings above the deeper themes which denoted Hamlet truly. Hamlet,
by study and thought and love of life,
had formed his own character. But there was another side of his character,
formed by his heritage, by his upbringing, by the " "terms of honour"
defined by his elders, and by the particular
circumstances of his life. Hamlet was trying to be true to himself, but
which self? He finally realized that Denmark was part of him and he was part of
Denmark. Thus he returned to Denmark " naked and alone." He was
"constant to the King's"
purpose, yet unwilling to " let
this canker of our nature come in further evil." He was not able
to inoculate his old stock with
virtue, but by remembering his
sins and repenting, he could perhaps help others avoid his fate. See Purgatory and Confession Theme
Shakespeare's Audience - You
the Judges
"When a man's verses cannot be understood...it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a small room." - As You Like It
Did
Shakespeare's audiences understand his plays? He didn't want everyone to
understand everything - that would have cost him his head. ROSENCRANTZ
(4.2.22)
I
understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET
I
am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
The
royal Censor would not allow any criticism of the government nor even any
references to current events - and the Spanish Armada was still current in
English minds just a dozen years before Horatio stepped high onto the platform
to remind them of the "king
THAT was and IS THE QUESTION OF THESE WARS"." So to keep his
head, Shakespeare had to be subtle. (Please see I
Know a Hawk from a Handsaw - Hamlet and the Spanish Armada -
http://www.thyorisons.com/#Handsaw But royal Censors tended to be
somewhat dim-witted compared to some in Shakespeare's audience, "the censure of the which one must in
your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." Some may have
been Shakespeare's co-conspirator's in the Catholic underground. Some may have
been his handlers after he became an unwilling double-agent. Some of his words
may have been private conversations between Shakespeare and his God. However,
Shakespeare was above all else a showman. HAMLET (3.2.138)
We
shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all.
OPHELIA
Will
he tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET
Ay,
or any show that you'll show him: be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame
to tell you what it means.
So
Shakespeare had to be subtle, but most of the time he was not too subtle for
his intended audience. Most of the audience, even many of the groundlings, had
ears more attuned than modern ears to Shakespeare's words and methods. Today
the typical playgoer has seen thousands of plays, movies, and TV shows. But
Shakespeare's first audiences had probably seen at most a few dozen plays in
their whole lifetimes. So they paid close attention to those precious few.
Those first audiences feasted on Hamlet, striving to absorb the words into
their very souls. Education back then emphasized memorization. Shakespeare, as
an actor, had to be even more adept at memorization. And, given the expense of
paper, Shakespeare the author also made good use of his memory. Ben Jonson said
that Shakespeare hardly ever blotted out a word. Maybe Shakespeare composed
most of each play in his head before putting quill to parchment. Holding the
whole play in his head helped Shakespeare craft subtle word-play connections
among diverse sections of the play, but that also sometimes made him
overestimate the ability of his audiences to follow those connections. (I had
help first from a Shakespeare concordance in 1993, then by about 1994 I had a
searchable floppy disk with the Complete Works. But even so, I missed many
connections until a few years later when I thrice attempted to memorize all of
Hamlet. And even after that, I have continued to discover new connections
almost every time I revisit the play.) So even the first audiences were
sometimes confused, but they were not daunted. Probably the biggest
advantage of Hamlet's first audiences was that they fully expected to uncover hidden
meanings within Shakespeare's delightful wordplay. But since then, Hamlet has
become the most written-about literary work in the English language. Today's
audiences have been told that nothing more can be said about Hamlet, that the
"authorities" have said all there is to say. So most approach the
play with closed minds. The pennant of Shakespeare's Globe Theater
shows Hercules holding a globe. According to the legend, Hercules temporarily
relieved Atlas of the task of holding up the Earth so that Atlas could help
Hercules with one of his seven tasks. One of Hercules' tasks was to clear away
the manure that had accumulated in the Aegean stables. To expose the truth in
Hamlet, the modern reader must first, Hercules-like, clear away four centuries
of accumulated bullshit. Since 1689, when Newton reduced the world to
clockwork, puns have fallen into disrepute. Now we want words to be
unambiguous, rigidly determining one and only one meaning. When we encounter a
pun, we assume that it's an unfortunate accident and we automatically filter
out any multiple meanings. But in Shakespeare's day, words were still
magical.The twisting beauty of Celtic art still resonated in English minds,
which sought that same complex beauty and mystery in English words. Whether in
the form of prayers, curses, magical incantations, majestic blank verse, or
royal commandments, words had power. Shakespeare used the power of
words to humanize kings - to bring them down to the level of mere humans. Then
kings could be held morally accountable by Shakespeare's audiences. "And
you the judges, bear a wary eye." (5.2.278) Also see How to Love Hamlet
Links
Links to this website from: Academia.edu: This Eternal Blazon Must Not Be How to Love Hamlet The Rebirth of Hamlet Hamlet Is Anti-War Hawk from a Handsaw The Honey of His Music VowsPart 2 - Where Truth Is Hid
Warning:
Most of what follows is speculation. To distinguish
between my speculations and accepted historical facts,
I have italicized and colored my speculations. Summary:
Shakespeare's secret godfather was William Allen, leader of
the English Catholic underground. Young Shakespeare swore an oath to his father
and to his godfather to write a series of history plays, which was originally
planned to culminate in an incendiary version of Henry VIII. The drafts of the
first history plays were enough to secure him a position with Lord Strange's
Players and later to make him a shareholder in a group of players. But
Shakespeare did not want to fulfill his oath. He loved the stage too
much to subvert it to politics. And he loved his country too much to lead it into
bloody civil war. So he wrote history plays that
humanized kings and showed the human cost of wars, and he procrastinated on
writing the final Henry VIII play. In 1593, Christopher Marlowe was
murdered by double-agents. Shakespeare mistakenly believed that
Marlowe had been killed by Catholic agents in order to prevent Marlowe from
exposing Shakespeare's Catholic ties. Actually the Catholic agents had tricked
the English government into murdering Marlowe because the Catholics were afraid
that Marlowe would seduce James VI and prevent him from converting to
Catholicism. Essex and his followers were
aware of Shakespeare's oath and used his Richard II to launch their
rebellion. As a result, Shakespeare was imprisoned at
Marshallsea and tortured by Topcliffe. He negotiated his freedom (and saved his
fellow players) by polishing (almost completely rewriting) a play that James VI
had written about Hamlet. Due to Shakespeare's connection to the
Catholic underground and his collaboration with James, it is possible that
James got his real warning about the Gunpowder Plot (to blow up Parliament)
from Shakespeare. When Shakespeare finally wrote Henry VIII,
it was incendiary only in a literal sense. It burned down the Globe. I believe the fire was set deliberately, for financial reasons and
also so Shakespeare could symbolically fulfil his oath. It is
possible that Ben Jonson, working either for the English government or for the
Catholic underground, forced Shakespeare to poison himself.
Why Will? (The Godfather)
William
Shakespeare was a man of words. His world was shaped by the words of others
until he mastered the words to create his own world, the Globe Theater. The first word to circumscribe Shakespeare's fate was his first
name. Why William? He was born on St. George's Day. Not only was St.
George the patron saint of England, he was especially important in Stratford on
Avon. On the wall of Stratford's Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was
baptized, there had once been a mural of St. George slaying the Dragon. Before
Shakespeare, Stratford had produced only two very famous men. One, of them,
John de Stratford, was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1333 to 1348. Thanks
largely to the efforts of John de Stratford, St George became Patron Saint of
England shortly before John's death. (The other famous Stratfordian, Hugh
Clopton, was Lord Mayor of London in 1491, the year Henry VIII was born.) Even
after Henry VIII told Englishmen they could no longer be Catholics, after the
Church of England told them they could no longer venerate saints, after St.
George had been painted over in Stratford's Trinity Church, many Englishmen
still named their sons George, especially secret Catholics
like John Shakespeare, especially when their sons were born on St. George's
Day. But John Shakespeare's son, born on St. George's Day, was named
William. Why William? Before John Shakespeare's son
was two days old, before the baptism, a modest man named William Allen rode
into town. Although John had never before met William Allen, never even heard
of him, he named his son after William Allen and named William Allen godfather
to his son. Why? One day this William Allen would be a very important
man. He would found a college in the Netherlands to train Catholic missionaries
to go back to England (where a quarter of them would be drawn and quartered for
preaching their outlawed religion). When Philip of Spain planned to capture
England with his Armada, the plan called for William Allen as Archbishop of
Canterbury and Chancellor of England. But there was little
hint of that momentous future in the modest man who had just ridden into town.
To John Shakespeare, William Allen was important because
he prophesied that John's son would become the most important man in the
history of England, the man who would reunite England with the Catholic Church
once and for all. Allen spun a tale of Shakespeare, Breakspear, and Pole; of
the only English Pope and his fertility well; of the false fetus stirred by
Pole's entrance; of almost-Pope Pole's conception of a new English word,
"seminary," and the dissemination of Pole's "seminary" just
as John Shakespeare was conceiving his son; and of two Catholic heirs who never
were and one who was to be.
Shakespeare, Breakspear, and Broken Pole (The Prophesy)
Allen's
prophecy wasn't all empty words -- his story had roots in history. Some four centuries before
the birth of William Shakespeare, a man named Nicholas Breakspear was parish
priest in the hamlet of Brinsley. Breakspear was not related to Shakespeare, but the mere similarity of names would link the two men across the
centuries more profoundly than any ties of blood. From all over England,
women flocked to Breakspear's parish, hoping to become pregnant. They were
drawn not to Breakspear but to his well. The Brinsley well was believed to make
barren women fertile. But Breakspear's enduring fame came not from the well but
from his subsequent career -- he went on to become Pope, the first and only
English Pope. A few years after Breakspear died, a few miles from
Brinsley, Oxford University was founded. In Shakespeare's time, Oxford was a
breeding ground for Catholic resistance. William Allen was an Oxford graduate,
as were most of Shakespeare's teachers at the Stratford Guild School. About
three centuries after Breakspear, we find Henry VIII and his wife Catherine at
the Brinsley well. Catherine had given him a daughter (Mary), but Henry thought
he needed a male heir. Since the Norman conquest, England had had only one
female ruler, Matilda, and her reign had been one long civil war between her
and her cousin Stephen. Elizabeth, Henry's as yet unborn second daughter, would
be the greatest ruler England would ever have (with the possible exception of
Margaret Thatcher), but Henry couldn't know that. Henry could reasonably
believe that, for the good of the country, he needed a son. Since Catherine
couldn't give him a son, he decided to divorce her and try to get his male heir
from another woman. But the Pope refused to annul Henry's marriage to
Catherine. So Henry annulled the marriage of the Church of England to the Roman
Catholic Church -- all because Breakspear's well had failed to produce a
Catholic male heir. By annulling his marriage to Catherine, Henry
made their daughter (the future Queen Mary, a.k.a. Bloody Mary) a retroactive
bastard. Mary's godmother was Margaret Pole, a cousin of Henry's. Margaret's
son, Reginald Pole, was a respected theologian. Because he refused to recognize
the legitimacy of Henry's annulment (and the consequent illegitimacy of Mary),
Reginald Pole had to flee into exile on the Continent. But his mother Margaret
remained in England, where Henry cut off her head. While on the
Continent, Pole was one of the chief organizers of the Council of Trent, which
for many years studied ways to reform the Catholic Church and strengthen it
against the encroachments of Protestantism. During the Council of Trent, Pole
proposed the establishment of colleges to train priests. He coined a new word
for these colleges, "seminaries." Pole was so widely respected that
he was almost elected Pope -- he fell just one vote short of the required
two-thirds majority. Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, gave him
another daughter, Elizabeth. Then Anne gave birth to a still-born son and Henry
chopped off her head. Eventually Henry found a wife who gave him a son, Edward.
Edward was raised as a Protestant, so after Henry died, King Edward VI
continued the break with Catholicism begun by his father. But Edward was sickly
and only survived his father by a few years. Then, at last, Mary, the
Catholic retroactive bastard, inherited the throne. Mary legalized Catholicism
and even burned some heretics (hence Bloody Mary), but she was unable to undo
what her father had done. Henry had confiscated the extensive lands of the
Catholic monasteries and sold them. The present owners of the former monastery
lands were a powerful force for preserving Protestantism. Mary needed
help to restore English Catholicism to its former dominance. She needed a
strong Catholic husband. Her first choice was Reginald Pole, her godmother's
son, the man whose mother had been beheaded by her father, the man who had
almost become the second English Pope. But Pole declined, saying he was not up
to the job because he was too old. So Mary settled for Philip of
Spain (the same Philip who, thirty years after Mary's death, would send his
Armada against England). A few months after Mary married Philip, Pole finally
returned to England from his long exile. When Pole was presented to Queen Mary,
she felt the first kick from what she imagined was a baby growing in her womb.
That baby, if it had existed, might have been the long-awaited Catholic male
heir, who perhaps would have made England Catholic forever. But it was a false
pregnancy. Mary never had a baby. Pole became Archbishop of
Canterbury and supervised the burning of Protestant martyrs, while calling
himself the "Pole Star" because he was the guiding star about whom
the English people revolved. After about five years of Catholic rule, Mary died
and Protestant Elizabeth became Queen. His heart broken, Pole died on the same
day that Mary died. Despite Breakspear and broken Pole, England was once again
severed from the Catholic Church. In July, 1563, several years after
Pole died and about nine months before William Shakespeare was born, the
Council of Trent approved the De Reformatione decree which included a canon for
the institution of the seminaries which Pole had proposed. This inspired
William Allen to plant his own seminaries.
Dangerous Conjectures in
Ill-Breeding Minds (The Oath)
Despite
his great expectations for the son, Allen had a more immediate interest in the
father. John
Shakespeare was chamberlain (treasurer) for the Stratford government. He had considerable influence on the selection of teachers for the
Gild School, and William Allen needed that influence. Allen wouldn't
establish his seminary for missionaries until four years later, but with John's help, Allen hoped to turn the Stratford Gild school
into almost a pre-seminary. Over the next decades, several of the Gild
teachers would be devout Catholics. In 1568, Allen founded his
seminary at Douai, in the Netherlands. Threatened by the religious wars in the
Netherlands, the seminary moved in 1578 to Reims, France, then back to Douai in
1597. The first graduates from Allen's seminary arrived in England in 1574. The
first seminary martyr was Cuthbert Mayne, who was drawn and quartered in 1577.
By the turn of the century, Allen's seminary had sent over four hundred
missionaries back to England, and. one hundred and four of them had been
captured and executed as "traitors," (including one of Shakespeare's
fellow students at the Stratford Guild school and the brother of one of his
teachers.) The missionaries were well aware of the danger of their mission. As
part of his training at Reims, a seminarian was required to visualize his
probable capture and execution. If captured, he would be "questioned"
by Topcliffe, the Queen's chief torturer. Then he would be hung by the neck,
gasping vainly for air until he lost consciousness. Then he would be cut down
and revived to experience being drawn and quartered. "Drawn and quartered"
has an innocuous sound to modern ears, but the actual practice was horrible
beyond description. His belly would be cut open and his intestines
"drawn" out and sometimes burned while he watched. Then, while he was
still alive and conscious, his arms and legs were tied to four horses and he
was pulled apart - into "quarters." Then he would pass into the
"undiscovered country" to receive a martyr's reward. In
1570 the Pope issued a bull excommunicating Queen Elizabeth and releasing
English Catholics from their allegiance to her. A London lawyer named John
Felton pinned a copy of the bull to the Bishop of London's door. John Felton's
wife, the mother of their two-year-old son Thomas, was a former lady in waiting
to Bloody Mary and a personal friend of Elizabeth. John was executed on August
8 (St Dominic's Day), 1570, exactly eighteen years before England defeated the
Spanish Armada which Phillip II of Spain (Bloody Mary's widower) had dispatched
to enforce the Pope's bull. Twenty days after the defeat of the Armada, young
Thomas Felton, then aged 20 and a graduate of Allen's seminary, was executed.
Simon Hunt was Shakespeare's teacher at the Stratford Gild school from
1571 to 1575. In 1575, Simon Hunt attended William Allen's Douai seminary. He
was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1578 and became the first head of St Peter's
College for English Catholics in Rome. John Cottom was Shakespeare's
teacher from 1579 to 1581. In June, 1580, Cottom's brother Thomas, a Jesuit
missionary, was arrested in Shottery, a village near Stratford. Thomas Cottam
was executed on May 30, 1581, on the forty-eighth anniversary of the coronation
of Anne Boleyn, exactly twelve years before the murder of Christopher Marlowe.
At about the same time, another, more famous priest, Thomas Campion, was
arrested and executed. The Queen herself tried to persuade Campion to confess
to treason and recant his Catholic religion so that she could spare his life.
But he preferred martyrdom. Campion's "Gallows Speech"
"But we knew we were not lords of our own lives, and therefore for
want of answer would not be guilty of our death." Gravedigger
he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. For
want of answer? What was the question? Hamlet To be or not
to be. That is the question. To be or not to be -- what? That is the
question. After Horatio had explained that the impending war was
caused by a duel over land fought by Hamlet's father, whose ghost they had just
seen, Bernardo replied: Bernardo I think it be no other but
e'en so. Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed
through our watch so like the king That was and is the question
of these wars. To be or not to be so like the
king that was and is the question of these wars. That is Shakespeare's dilemma.
Should he be true to himself or should he let filial duty lead him in his
father's footsteps? "Whither wilt thou lead me?" Should he write
plays to satisfy his artistic soul or plays to jeopardize his life?. Should he
entertain his audiences or lead them into a bloody religious war? Campion's
"Gallows Speech" ...to minister the Sacraments, to
instruct the simple, to reform sinners, to confute errors -- in brief, to cry
alarm spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, wherewith many my
countrymen are abused. This inspired
Shakespeare to write the following lines, in which Hamlet compares an actor's
"dream of passion" with his own "real" passion, and in so
doing expresses Shakespeare's own feelings about Hamlet's fictional passion
compared to his own real passion: Hamlet ...What would
he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He
would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid
speech, [The Elizabethan penalty for hearing sedition was to have
one's ears lopped off.] Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant and maze indeed The very faculties of
eyes and ears. Campion said his mission was to instruct the
simple, to reform sinners, to confute errors...to cry alarm...against...proud
ignorance. Shakespeare feared that in carrying
forward Campion's mission with his plays, he had twisted it to appall the
free, confound the ignorant.. Campion at his trial: In
condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, Bishops and Kings...For what
have we taught, however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason,
that they did not uniformly teach?...posterity's judgment is not liable to
corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death.
This speech inspired Shakespeare to take an oath, sworn
to his father and his godfather, to write a series of history plays, which was
originally planned to culminate in an incendiary version of Henry VIII.
Be All My Sins Remembered (The Politics of Purgatory)
Hamlet's
mind was a kind of purgatory for his father and for his uncle. But what does
Purgatory have to do with William Shakespeare's "motive and cue for
passion?" Everything. For centuries, rich men had bequeathed land to the
Catholic Church in exchange for shortened stays in Purgatory. Martin Luther
believed that the selling of passes out of Purgatory was the primary corrupter
of the Church. Furthermore, the land which the Church had thus acquired was a
tempting prize for any king who decided to break away from the Catholic Church.
When Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church,
he seized the lands of English monasteries, then sold those lands. Thereafter
the English Reformation was irreversible. England could never again be Catholic
because too many Englishmen had a vested interest in Protestantism -- all those
owners of former monastery lands. In 1565 (the year after
Shakespeare's birth) William Allen wrote "A Defense and Declaration of the
Catholike Churches Doctrine touching Purgatory, and Prayers of the Soules
Departed." Before the Reformation, the primary social, economic,
and religious institution in many English hamlets was the local guild. These
town guilds (not to be confused with the craft guilds in large cities) had been
formed for the primary purpose of praying for the souls of deceased members, in
order to shorten their time in Purgatory. With the Reformation, the Anglican
Church declared the idea of Purgatory heretical, prolonged praying for the dead
was outlawed, and the town guilds were ostensibly secularized. However, the
guilds continued to be the main social and economic institutions in many towns.
Furthermore, many guild members continued, openly or secretly, to be Catholics.
Shakespeare's father began his rise through Stratford politics during the
reign of Queen Mary, the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII. Mary's reign was five
years of Catholicism in the midst of the English Protestant Reformation. Wiliam
Shakespeare went to the Stratford Guild school. One of his teachers was Simon Hunt,
who later became a Jesuit priest and leader of the Catholic English College in
Rome. It is reasonable to speculate that Shakespeare's father
and some of his teachers tried to indoctrinate him to pray and work for the
restoration of the Catholic Church in England. But, partly because Henry
VIII had redistributed the monastery lands, and partly because the Catholic
Church would not formally relinquish its claim to those lands, the Catholic
Church could never again become the dominant Church of England. Thus the relationship between Shakespeare and the Catholic Church
was very much like the relationship between Hamlet and his father's ghost.
Like the ghost, the English Catholic Church was dead but would not give up its
claim to the lands it once owned -- that extorted treasure in the womb of
earth. But Hamlet just wanted to go back to school in Wittenberg; and
Shakespeare just wanted to write plays.
You the Judges Bear a Wary Eye (Of Kings and Commoners)
Some
of the Stratford alderman were devout Protestants, some were open Catholics,
some were secret Catholics, others had been secret Protestants in Mary's reign.
This peaceful co-existence of Catholics and Protestants on the Stratford town
council tells us much about the character of England and about the mind of
William Shakespeare. Most of the religious persecution and murder came from the
central government. The people of England were happy to live and let live, to
associate with and trade with their neighbors of whatever faith. The sudden
shifts of religion dictated by the royal government -- Henry's split from
Catholicism, Mary's reconcilation with Catholicism, Elizabeth's shift back to
Protestantism --- gave the people (and Elizabeth) a sort of inoculation against
religious intolerance. They had no desire to express their religion by
murdering their neighbors. On the other hand, they condoned repression of their
neighbors by the central government. They judged government by different
standards than they judged themselves. Kings and Queens and Popes ruled by
divine right -- they were not ordinary humans. William Shakespeare's genius was
the ability to show the humanity of kings and cardinals -- thus bringing their
actions back down to the sphere of human judgment.
Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be
I
have a theory that The Merchant of Venice was not about antisemitism - it was
about prejudice against moneylenders. In Shakespeare's time there were almost no Jews
in England. They had been expelled by Edward I three centuries earlier. But the
English public still associated money-lending with Jews. Money-lenders were a
vital part of the expanding English economy. Almost every small farmer or
craftsman or merchant borrowed from money-lenders (who themselves were also
farmers, craftsmen, or merchants). And then as now, people natural hated the
people to whom they owed money ("for loan oft loses both itself and
friend"). John Shakespeare (father of the William) in addition
to being a succesful tanner, was also a money-lender. "Records
indicate that he was also prosecuted in the 1570s for illegal dealing in wool
and for usury, or lending money with interest. Such illicit trade would have
been profitable to his glove business by avoiding the middleman. In 1570 he was
accused of making loans worth £220 (equivalent to over £50,000 in 2007),
including interest, to a Walter Mussum. Mussum was not a good risk; at his
death his whole estate was worth £114, or barely half what John Shakespeare had
seen fit to lend him. The financial risk was just one side of his potentially
problematic business activity. The law described usury as "a vice most
odious and detestable" and levied severe penalties for those caught in
such practices, even in a small way. The law stated that anyone caught lending
money with interest illegally would forfeit all the money lent, plus forfeiture
of any interest due, face a fine on top and also possible imprisonment."
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shakespeare#Risk_taking_and_financial_problems
In the 1570s, the English government began cracking down on
recusants (people who refused to attend services of the Church of England). One
of those recusants was John Shakespeare, although his former colleagues on the
Stratford town council declined to prosecute him. But something caused a steep
decline in John Shakespeare's income in the late 1570s. There is some evidence
that John Shakespeare was a secret Catholic. Perhaps, like
Shylock, John Shakespeare lost large sums of money to debtors who used his
religion to excuse their defaults.
The Strange Baker's Daughter
(The Drama Ophelia)
About
seventy years after Shakespeare died, Richard Davies, chaplain of Corpus
Christi College in Oxford wrote: William Shakespeare was born at
Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire in about 1563-4. Much given to all
unluckiness in stealing venison & rabbits particularly from Sr --- Lucy who
had him oft whipt & sometimes Imprisoned & at last made Him fly his
Native Country to his great Advancement......He [Shakespeare] died a
Papist. There is a legend that Shakespeare left Stratford because
he got in trouble for poaching a deer from Sir Thomas Lucy's estate and
then composing an insulting poem about Sir Thomas.
Shakespeare alluded to this incident in Hamlet. He also alluded to his first
two history plays, about the War of the Roses. Hamlet
Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch; while some must sleep: So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, if the rest of my
fortunes turn Turk with me, with two provincial roses on my razed shoes,
get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir? Horatio Half
a share. Hamlet A whole one, I. For
thou dost know, o Damen dear, This realm dismantled was Of
Jove himself, and now reigns here A very, very - pajock. Horatio
You might have rhymed [Shakespeare
might have gone to Allen's seminary in Rheims if he hadn't gotten in
trouble by writing an insulting poem .] Hamlet O good
Horatio! I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst
perceive? Horatio Very well, my lord. Hamlet Upon
the talk of the poisoning? Horatio I did very well note him. Hamlet
Ah, ha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders! For if the king likes
not the comedy, Why then, he likes it not, perdy. Come, some music!
Guildenstern Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
Hamlet Sir, a whole history Guildenstern The
king, sir - At the time he wrote
Hamlet, Shakespeare still owed one more history play -- Henry VIII.
After he left Stratford, some scholars believe he joined the theater
company patronized by Lord Strange, a high-ranking Catholic gentleman. For a
while, Catholic plotters were considering Lord Strange as a Catholic
replacement for Elizabeth. Their code name for him was "the baker"
(see Nicholl's "The Reckoning," page 228.) I
believe that Shakespeare was welcomed into Strange's company because he had
already written drafts of two seditious history plays about the War of Roses,
a period when the legitimacy of the English succession was questioned. Ophelia
... They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we
know what we are, but know not what we may be. Hamlet ....
The dram of eale [drama Ophelia or drama filia (daughter) or
drama filial] Doth all the substance of a doubt To his own
scandal. There was a folktale that Jesus had visited a baker's
shop disguised as a beggar. The baker ordered his daughter to give the beggar a
loaf of bread, but the baker's daughter only gave the beggar half a
loaf, so she was turned into an owl. Ophelia
symbolized Shakespeare's filial drama - the series of subversive history
drama's to culminate in an incendiary play about Henry VIII. These plays were
filial dramas because Shakespeare he had sworn to his father and his godfather
that he would write them. Like the baker's daughter in the folktale,
Shakespeare's plays had only delivered half a loaf. But if he had written a
subversive version of Henry VIII, it would have brought scandal and death to
Shakespeare and perhaps to many other people.. .
When the Wind Is Southerly
Hamlet
(2.2.387-388)
I
am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk
from a handsaw.
"Handsaw"
(indicating sanity) is probably an allusion to Hamlet's instructions to the
players: HAMLET (3.2.4)
.
. . Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus,
but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may
give it smoothness.
Is
north-north-west as a symbol of madness is dramatic irony, alluding to the
first appearance of the ghost: BERNARDO [describing the previous appearance of
the ghost of Hamlet's father] (1.1.44-47)
Last
night of all, When yond same star that's westward from the pole Had
made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns,
The
"pole" is the North Star. "Westward from the pole"
would be "north-northwest." Thus "I am but mad,
north-northwest" means that Hamlet is only mad when under the
influence of his father's ghost. ("Pole" might also
be an allusion to Reginald Pole, who, as Bloody Mary's Catholic Archbishop of
Canterbury, liked to call himself "the Pole Star" because he thought
of himself as the guiding star about which the English people revolved. But
Reginald Pole died of a broken heart on the day Queen Mary died and England
reverted to protestantism under Queen Elizabeth. Thirty years later, Queen
Mary's widower, King Phillip of Spain sent the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the
Spanish Armada to bring England back to the Catholic Church by "strong hands and terms
compulsatory." But like Hamlet, Medina was but mad north-north-west: when the wind
[was] southerly,) he was sane. On August 8, Saint Dominic's Day,
Medina decided that if the wind continued to blow from the south (which it did)
he would be have to abandon the attack on England. He was unable to recapture
the faith of Englishmen by force. He did "it
wrong, being so majestical, to offer it the show of violence, for it is, as the
air, invulnerable, and [his] vain blows malicious mockery."
///C:/Users/Ray/Documents/Shakespeare/Be All My Sins Remembered/%23
website/index.html#Historical_Context Also see The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical
Context Terms Compulsatory
How Old Is Hamlet? I
Know a Hawk from a Handsaw - Hamlet and the Spanish Armada Shakespeare's Audience - You the Judges
dex.html#Global_Warming How Henry's Divorce Led to Global Warming (The Dog Has
His Day) Blackfriars was symbolic of the English Reformation in another way,
because of another coincidence. Blackfriars had been the principal English
monastery of the Domincan order of monks, which had been founded about four
hundred years before the English Reformation by Saint Dominic. At a time when
the Catholic Church was massacring heretics, Dominic advocated the
reconciliation of heretics through "persuasion and discussion rather than
threats and belligerence" (Kristin E. White, A Guide to the Saints). This
was not the approach of Phillip II in 1588 when he sent the Spanish Armada to
restore England to Catholicism by strong hand and terms compulsatory. England
defeated the Spanish Armada on August 6 -- the feast day of Saint Dominic (and
357 years later, the date the United States dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima). To many English Catholics (perhaps including William Shakespeare) this
may have seemed like a sign from God that violence was the wrong way to restore
English Catholicism. There was one more coincidence linking St Dominic and the
Globe fire: St Dominic was sometimes depicted in art with "a globe, with
fire" (White, page 107).
Shakebag, Falstaff, and
Woodcock (The Springe)
Shake the bags of hoarding
abbots.
(King John, Act 3, Scene 3) Shall
I strike at it with my partisan? Do, if it will not stand.
(Hamlet,1.1.152) Young
men will do it if they come to it. By cock they are to blame.
(4.5.63) Playing with words can be dangerous There can be stiff
penalties and punishments for penile puns. Sometimes the woodcock is
caught in his own springe. Mermaid Tavern,
St. Patrick's Day, 1593: WILL
What do you call the play?
KIT
Arden of Faversham. Old Kit Kat hath set a mousetrap -- a springe it is, to catch a Woodcock. 'Tis a tale of a murder most foul. The murderer's name is George Shakebag, his accomplice Black Will.
(Will
chokes on his beer and bolts out of the tavern.) These two young men,
Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe, had much in common. Shakespeare was born on
St George's Day, 1564, Marlowe a couple months earlier in St George's parish.
Shakespeare was the son of a glover, Marlowe of a cobbler. Shakespeare was
reputed to be the second best playwright in England, Marlowe the best. Shakespeare was a secret agent for the Catholics; Marlowe
against. Shakespeare knew that Marlowe was a spy --
now he feared that Marlowe knew that he was one too. He thought Arden of
Faversham was a trap for him. HAMLET (2.2.599)
...I
have heard, That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very
cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They
have proclaimed their malefactions.
Marlowe
had been employed by the English government to spy on William Allen's seminary
at Rheims shortly after Shakespeare himself had secretly
studied there . Just ten years earlier Shakespeare's relative, Edward
Arden, the head of the Arden family had been executed for treason. Now Shakespeare feared that, while at Rheims, Marlow had heard of
William Allen's phallic-punning Papal prophecy about his secret godson. (See
Why Will? (The Godfather) Shakespeare, Breakspear, and Broken Pole (The Prophesy) )
Arden was Shakespeare's mother's maiden name. Arden of Faversham was based
on an actual murder of a distant relative of Shakespeare. Two of the actual
murderers were named Black Will and George Loosebag (changed to "Shakebag"
by Holinshed). Marlowe was no doubt aware of the similarity to
"Shakespeare" and the connecting phallic pun ("bag" for
scrotum, "spear" for phallus. But Shakespeare didn't know that it was
all in fun. William Allen's prophecy for William Shakespeare was based on
phallic puns on his last name -- Breakspear, Shakespeare, Pole. Now Marlowe
seemed to be using a pair of phallic puns, woodcock and Shakebag
to hint that he had discovered Shakespeare's dark secret. But
Shakespeare's fears were groundless -- he had misunderstood Marlowe's pun. The
actual murder of Arden had occurred a couple miles from the village of Ospringe,
where, at the time of the murder, Marlowe's father was growing up. Woodcock
was the name of the printer who would print Marlowe's translation of Hero
and Leander after Marlowe's death. Woodcock had written a
play about Arden of Faversham, but it was so crudely written that no one would
perform it. Marlowe was nearing completion of his Hero and Leander, but no
printer would print it. So they made a deal. Marlow polished up Woodcock's
Arden of Faversham and Woodcock promised to publish Hero and Leander. So the
play (set near Ospringe) was a springe to catch a Woodcock (the
printer). (Caveat: The authorship of Arden of Faversham is
disputed. Marlowe is just one of several possible authors. Although Woodcock
printed Hero and Leander, Arden of Feversham was printed by Edward White.
However, there could have been some kind of 3-way deal among Marlowe, Woodcock,
and White.) But, at that time, Shakespeare didn't
know that Marlowe's father was raised in Ospringe or that Woodcock would
publish Marlowe's Hero and Leander. He thought Marlowe was on to him and was
about to expose him. In a panic, he reported his fears to his underground
Catholic contacts. A couple months later Marlowe was murdered by double agents,
ostensibly (if that's the right word for a spy) working for England but really
working for the Catholics. "When a man's verses cannot
be understood...it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a small
room." (As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 3) The
Catholic spymasters had decided that Marlowe had to die, but not to protect
Shakespeare. They had stronger reasons to fear Marlowe. For years, the
Catholics had been wooing King James VI of Scotland. Marlowe
was about to woo James solidly back to the Protestant cause. When
James was thirteen he had been seduced by Esme Stuart, an adult cousin, who
Catholic plotters hoped would convert James to Catholicism. James became deeply
enamored with Esme, which might have been the cause of James subsequent
homosexuality. However, unfortunately for the Catholic plotters, Esme found it
more expeditious to change his own religion than to convert James to
Catholicism in the midst of a violently Protestant power structure. Even so,
James developed and maintained a weakness for the Old Faith. For several years
before Elizabeth's death, James had been secretly corresponding with Catholics,
hinting that he might convert to Catholicism after acquiring the English crown.
(His wife converted to Catholicism sometime during the 1590's,) At
the time of his death Christopher Marlowe had been planning a trip to Scotland. Marlowe was the ideal agent to woo James solidly to the Protestant
side. James was fond of plays; Marlowe was the preeminent playwright of
his time. James liked boys; so did Marlowe. James was interested in the occult.
He had written a book on identification of witches. Marlowe had written a play
about Faust, the famous magician. Marlowe was nearing completion of his
masterful translation of the epic "Hero and Leander". James had
likened himself to Leander because he had crossed the dangerous North Sea to
fetch his Danish bride, just as Leander had made swum across the Hellespont to
be with his lover, Hero. The Catholics had to
prevent Marlowe from reaching King James. But if James ever found out that
Catholics had murdered England's best playwright just because he might become
James' friend, then James would turn against the Catholics forever. So the
Catholics decided to trick the English government into killing Marlowe. And
just in case that plot fell through, they had a cover story to hide their real
motive. If James discovered that the Catholics were responsible for Marlowe's
death, hopefully he would still be deceived by their backup story: that their
motive was not to kill a potential friend of James, but rather to save another
potential friend, William Shakespeare. CLAUDIUS (4.7.71)
And
for his death no wind of blame shall breathe,
CLAUDIUS
(4.7.165)
.
. . if this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad
performance, 'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project Should
have a back or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof.
One of the three men involved in Marlowe's murder was Robert
Poley, who had once been employed as a messenger between Queen Elizabeth and
the King of Denmark. Poley was a double agent who was
actually working for the Catholics. He had just returned from the Hague
with "important letters including a supposedly
intercepted letter which falsely implicated Christopher Marlowe as an agent for
the Catholics. This letter was a forgery, written by Poley's mistress, Joan
Yeoman. Poley had a mistress named Joan Yeomans who was adept at forgery. HAMLET [forging new note
to trick Rosencrantz & Guildenstern] (5.2.33)
...I
sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair: I once did hold
it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair and labour'd much How
to forget that learning, but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service:
wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote?
Seven
years later William Vaughn, having heard the false cover story, wrote in The
Golden Grove: ...at Detford, a little village about three miles distant
from London, as he meant to stab him with his ponyard one named Ingram, that
had invited him thither to a feast, and was then playing at tables [backgammon]
he quickly perceyving it, so avoyded the thrust, that withall drawing out his
dagger for his defence, hee stabd this Marlow into the eye, in such sort, that
his braines coming out at the daggers point, hee shorlie after dyed...
"Playing at tables" means backgammon. Just
as Arden of Faversham was murdered while playing backgammon. From
Arden of Faversham: MOSBIE
I'11
fetch Master Arden home, and we like friends Will play a game or two at
tables here.
ALICE
But
what of all this ? how shall he be slain?
MOSBIE
Why,
Black Will and Shakebag locked within the counting-house Shall at a
certain watchword given rush forth.
LAERTES
(5.2.316)
Woodcock
to mine own springe
When
a man's verses cannot be understood...great reckoning in a small room (As You Like It,3,3) In
Marlowe's Jew of Malta, as the Jew was in a small room counting his money he
preferred large denominations because they allowed him to reckon large amounts
with a small pile of coins. It's often been said that poetry packs
much meaning in few words. Marlowe was murdered in Detford (sounds
like "debt for"). Marlowe's murderer, Poley, in addition to being a
secret agent, was also a loan-shark. The murder occurred in a small back room
of a tavern. One story is that Marlowe and Poley fought over the reckoning
(the tavern bill). POLONIUS (1.3.78)
Neither
a borrower nor a lender be, For lending oft loses a friend, And
borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry
LAERTES
(4.5.148)
And
for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with
little.
CLAUDIUS
(4.5.164)
It
shall as level to your judgment pierce As day does to your eye.
Marlowe
was stabbed in the eye. Shakebag had a personality similar to that of
Falstaff (another phallic pun). Both were amoral, incompetent, buffoonish
highwaymen. FALSTAFF (Henry IV Part 1, Act 5, Scene 1)
What
is that “honor”? Air. A trim reckoning. Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday.
Also
please see Princess of Denmark, James VI, and the
Ur-Hamlet It Began With a Lass (The False
Steward) The Election of His Soul Unpacking the Whore in His Heart's Core - Whore Rational -
Horatio How to Love Hamlet
Princess of Denmark, James VI, and the Ur-Hamlet
On
April 4, 1588, Frederick II, the King of Denmark, died from alcoholism. Two of
the Danish nobles marching at the head of his funeral procession were
Rosenkrantz and Gyldenstierne. On August 20, 1589, James VI, the King
of Scotland, married Anne, the 14-year-old, daughter of Frederick II. The
marriage was by proxy, because the bride and groom were separated by the stormy
North Sea, he on the Scottish side, she on the Danish side (at Kronborg Castle
in Elsinore). Ten days later Anne set sail for Scotland in a small
fleet commanded by Admiral Gyldenstierne. However, the fleet encountered
extreme storms. On Anne's ship a cannon broke loose from its moorings and
fatally crushed eight sailors. Finally the fleet had to turn back. While
James had been anxiously waiting for his bride to join him in Scotland, he
wrote a song about Hero and Leander. Acccording to Byzantine myth, Hero and
Leander were lovers who were separated by the narrow strait of the Hellespont,
she on the European side, he on the Asiatic side. Leander swam the Hellespont
every night to be with his lover, Hero, until one night he drowned in the
attempt. (When Chistopher Marlowe died in 1593, he had been working
on an epic poem about Hero and Leander. He had been planning to visit the
Scottish court of James VI and it seems likely that he was
writing "Hero and Leander" to curry favor with James.) On
November 19, 1589, James himself embarked to cross the North Sea, just as
Leander had swum the Hellespont, to be with his new bride. They consummated
their marriage in Oslo on November 23, 1589. On December 22, the honeymooners
arrived at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, where they stayed until March 7. During
his stay in Denmark, James was much impressed by the Danish custom of firing
cannon to celebrate every occasion. About 1589, a play (now referred
to as the "Ur-Hamlet") was performed in London. My
theory is that the Ur-Hamlet was written by James VI. I believe James was
inspired by parallels between himself and the legend of Hamlet. (See
http://www.thyorisons.com/#False_Steward - It Began With a Lass (The False
Steward)) James added even more parallels, but the play was
something of a flop. No copy has survived. "to't
like French falconers, fly at any thing we see" (2.2.438) Robert Abercromby
was a Jesuit missionary to Scotland. He claimed to have converted Queen Anne to
Catholism (about 1598 or 1600). Then James VI appointed Abercromby as
Superintendent of the Royal Falconry. (wikipedia:
Robert Abercromby (missionary))
In 1596, Shakespeare's father was granted a coat of arms which included a
falcon. See William
Shakespeare's Coat of Arms
In the late 15th century, a light cannon was developed that was called a
falcon. (
wikipedia: Falconet (cannon)) On February 7, 1601, GELLY
Meyricke, STEWARD to the Earl of Essex, hired Shakespeare's acting company to
perform Richard II to launch the Essex Rebellion. After the rebellion was suppressed,
Shakespeare's colleagues were questioned and released. Why weren't they
punished? I think that James VI intervened on their behalf
after Shakespeare promised to re-write the Ur-Hamlet, transforming it into the
masterpiece we know today. Ophelia was an allegory for Shakespeare's dramatic
output. "Almost to JELLY with the act of fear"
(Hamlet,1,2,210) "It is the false STEWARD, that stole his
master's DAUGHTER"(Hamlet,4,5,188) I believe
that OsRIC (and maybe also YoRICk) was an allusion to MeyRICk. Osric carried
Claudius challenge while Meyrick carried Essex's challenge. "Os" is
Latin(?) for "us", "yo" is Spanish for "I", and
"me" is English for "me". Osrick was a reflection of
Hamlet's dark side. Yoric represented Hamlet's youth (when he wrote Richard II)
come back to haunt him with the specter of death. Also, Elizabeth had said of
Richard II, "I am RIChard, know ye not that?" After
Shakespeare left Stratford, some scholars believe he joined the theater company
patronized by Lord Strange, a high-ranking Catholic gentleman. For a while,
Catholic plotters were considering Lord Strange as a Catholic replacement for
Elizabeth. Their code name for him was "the BAKER" (see Nicholl's
"The Reckoning," page 228.) Ophelia (4,5,45) ... They
say the OWL was a BAKER'S DAUGHTER. Lord, we know what we are, but know
not what we may be. In Elizabeth times, the owl was a portent of
death. Please see http://www.thyorisons.com/#Strange_Baker - The
Strange Baker's Daughter
It Began With a Lass (The
False Steward)
The
Stewart line of kings began with a baby born from the corpse of a king's
daughter, Margaret, who had been confined to a nunnery. The father of her baby
was the High Steward. breed maggots...good kissing carrion...as your
daughter may conceive...the womb of earth...get thee to a nunnery It is
the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. James
I through IV all died violent deaths. And in the cup an union shall he
throw, Richer than that which four successive kings [- the
poisoned cup] The first husband of Hamlet's mother died from a
poisoned ear. The first husband of James' mother died from an infected ear
(rumored to be poisoned). Hamlet's father was murdered in his
orchard. James VI's father was murdered in his orchard. Hamlet's
mother married his father's murderer. James' mother married his father's
murderer. Hamlet's father's ghost cried for revenge. A painting
of James' father in his childhood home cried for revenge. Hamlet's
stepfather, the King of Denmark, died from drinking poison. James'
father-in-law, the King of Denmark, died from drink (alcoholism). James'
mother was doomed and James was endangered by a plot involving messages in bungholes.
stopping a bung-hole Details: On the
second of March in the year 1316, the very pregnant 19-year-old Lady Marjorie
fell off her horse and broke her neck. The baby that was ripped from her dead
womb was the son of Walter Stewart, the 6th High Steward of Scotland. Lady
Marjorie was the daughter of King Robert I of Scotland. That baby would grow up
to be King Robert II of Scotland. Thus began the line of Scottish Stewart
kings. And thus began the deadly curse on the Stewart line, a
curse that would not end until King James VI of Scotland became King James I of
England. It is the false steward, that stole his master's
daughter. Who would dare risk offending the soon-to-be Stewart
King of England with such a line? Who else but the Stewart King himself? The
motif of a cursed birth from a daughter's dead womb is strongly reflected in
Hamlet. 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.
When Lady Marjorie was 11 years old she had been captured by the
English. Edward II of England had her confined to a nunnery for about 7
years. When she was 17, Scotland won the Battle of Bannockburn and she was
returned to Scotland where she was given in marriage to Walter Stewart as a
reward for his valor in the battle. Two years later she died, then gave birth,
posthumously, to the first of the Stewart line of Scottish kings. Hamlet
Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners? Lord Polonius 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! Horatio (to the ghost) Or if thou hast uphoarded in
thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which,
they say, you spirits oft walk in death, A dead horsewoman
bequeathed the Scottish throne to the Stewart line. That inheritance doomed
four successive Stewart kings named James to a series of violent deaths, mostly
in battle with English kings. Similarly in the play, a horseman named Death
("LeMord") praised Laertes' skill as a swordsman, which led to
his mutually fatal duel with Hamlet. The first Stewart King, Robert
II, died of old age. The second Stewart King, Robert III, died of a
"broken heart" after his son (the future James I) was kidnapped by
pirates who turned him over to Henry IV of England. The English kept James for
18 years, but they treated him well, educating him and finally sending him home
with an English bride. Hamlet, speaking of the pirates who had captured him:
"They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy." Claudius,
as he prepared to poison Hamlet's drink: The king shall drink to
Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer
than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn.
But James VI did not want to join his four forefathers' (and namesakes')
fatal union. James I was assassinated by rebellious Scottish cousins.
James II was killed by his own cannon. After Claudius (cloud-ius)
ordered a cannon salute (the great cannon to the clouds shall tell),
Hamlet wished that Claudius would literally, as well as figuratively aim his
cannon at himself (cloud-ius): O, that...the Everlasting had not fix'd His
canon [his cannon] 'gainst self-slaughter! In the end, Claudius
slaughtered himself with poison temper'd by himself to the accompaniment
of cannon fire (Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall
drink). James III was killed in battle against his rebellious son.
James IV was killed in battle against England. James V died of
natural causes (or of a "broken heart"). Mary Queen of
Scots was beheaded by order of her cousin Elizabeth I. On his deathbed, James V
said of his sole heir, his infant daughter Mary, "It came wi' a lass
and it shall go wi' a lass." He was referring to the Stewart line of
kings which had begun with Margaret's posthumous delivery of Robert II and
which James V believed would end with his daughter Mary. But he was wrong. Mary
Queen of Scots married a Stewart cousin and gave birth to James Stewart who
would become James VI of Scotland and I of England. All subsequent monarchs of
England have been descendants of James VI and I, but none of them (except
Charles I) died violently. So the dynasty didn't end with Mary, but the
Scottish curse did. Mary's first husband was Francis II, King of
France. He died from an infected ear. This was reflected both in Hamlet
and in The Mousetrap. The ghost of Hamlet's father described how he
was murdered with poison poured into his ears: Sleeping within
my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour
thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the
porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment Hamlet,
describing "The Mousetrap": ..comes in a fellow... and pours
poison in the King's ears Hamlet described his Uncle
Claudius to his mother: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. History of the Affairs of Church
and State in Scotland: [referring to the death of Francis II] "He died of
an abscess in the ear, and not by poison, the rumours of which have been proved
by De Thou and other historians to be without foundation." "
He was suddenly striken with an aposthume in that deaf car that never would
hear the truth. of God." - John Knox Hamlet Two thousand souls
and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw: This is
the imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause
without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. History of the
Affairs of Church and State in Scotland: [quoting a limerick allegedly popular
in France right after Francis II died] "Leist Francis, that
unhappy child, His father's footsteps following plane, To Christ crying,
deaf ears did yield, Ane rotten ear then was his bane" Hamlet,
speaking of his father's ghost: It waves me forth again: I'll follow it. Hamlet's
father's ghost to Hamlet: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of
flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
... Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent
stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly
abused" Mary's 2nd husband, James' father, was found dead in the
orchard after an explosion destroyed his house. After his father was
murdered and his mother exiled, James was adopted by his father's parents. In
their house was a large painting showing Darnley's murder, with the inscription
to "shut not out of his memory the recent atrocious murder of the King his
father, until God should avenge it through him." Ghost
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder...Hamlet, remember me. Perhaps
King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) felt drawn by filial duty
to avenge his mother's death after Elizabeth had Mary (former) Queen of Scots
beheaded. But James wisely avoided arousing the suspicion of Elizabeth. Mary
was executed as a result of the Babbington Plot, in which conspirators
communicated with her using messeages hidden in the bungholes of
barrels. There might be an allusion to this in Hamlet: HAMLET
(5,1,200-202) To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not
imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
James VI grew up to love literature, wordplay, and the theater. He had a
predilection for comparing himself to literary figures. When he crossed the
North Sea to meet his Danish bride, James compared himself to Leander swimming
the Hellespont to be with Hero (which might have been Marlowe's inspiration for
beginning his translation of Hero and Leander.) James could not have
failed to be impressed by the similarities between himself and Hamlet. Hamlet's
stepfather, King Claudius of Denmark, who drained his draughts of Rhenish down
as ordnance was shot off, in the end died from (poisoned) drink. James'
father-in-law, King Frederick II of Denmark, was said to have died from
excessive drinking. (Danish nobles Rosencrantz and Guildenstern marched at the
head of Frederick's funeral procession.) During his honeymoon at Elsinore,
James had been much impressed with the custom of firing ordnance at every
occasion. Hamlet: "Two thousand souls and twenty thousand
ducats will not debate the question of this straw..." Martin
Luther: "St. James Epistle is really an epistle of straw." As
Protestants and Catholics vied for his allegiance, James may have felt like a
straw in the wind. James' mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was beheaded
after she had been caught communicating with conspirators with notes hidden in
the bungholes of barrels which were routinely carried in and out of the castle
where she was imprisoned. Hamlet To what base uses we may
return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
till he find it stopping a bung-hole? ............... Imperious Caesar, dead
and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that
earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter
flaw! The north wind was a motif in Hamlet symbolizing Hamlet's
madness brought on by the influence of his vengeful father (who was associated
with "yond same star that's westward from the pole"). "I am but
mad north-north-west." For James, any attempt to revenge his mother's
death would be suicidal madness. In his secret correspondence with
Sir Robert Cecil in 1601, preparing for his succession after Elizabeth's
eventual death, the codeword for James was "30" Player King
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round Neptune's salt wash and Tellus'
orbed ground, And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen About the world have
times twelve thirties been, Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite
commutual in most sacred bands Gravedigger "I have been
sexton here, man and boy, thirty years" also see: Hamlet
and the Scottish Succession (1921) by Lillian Winstanley
http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook...nley/index.htm Miss Winstanley
reached related conclusions based on different evidence. A video
by Ian Stockdale, in which he argues that the works of Shakespeare were written
by King James VI of Scotland and I of England, based partly on the connections
between James and Hamlet. Was James I of England the
true author of Shakespeare's works?
Did Shakespeare Help Write
the King James version of the Bible? - The Clue That Wasn't
The
word "prating" is not in the Geneva Bible. It appears in
"Hamlet," then a few years later in KJV. I thought I was on to
something. Then I found "prating" in the 1568 edition of the Bishop's
Bible. I'm recording my research here to spare others from hunting the same
wild goose. Proverbs 10:8 Geneva Bible, published in 1557
The
wise in heart will receiue commandements: but the foolish in talke
shalbe beaten.
-http://oldebible.com/geneva-bible/proverbs-10.asp
Proverbs 10:8 Bishops Bible, 1568 edition
A
wyse man wyll receaue warning: but a prating foole shalbe punished.
HAMLET
(Quarto 1, 1603) lines 2548-2551
. .
.for this same Lord I doe repent; but heauen hath pleasd it so To punish
me with this, and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister,
HAMLET
(Quarto 1, 1603)
It
is enough, mother good night: Come sir, I'le prouide for you a graue,
Who was in life a foolish prating knaue.
Proverbs
10:8 King James Version, published beginning in 1604
...a
prating fool shall fall.
HAMLET
(Quarto 1, 1603)
Nay
Loue, I pray you make no words of this now: I pray now, you shall sing a downe,
And you a downe a, t'is a the Kings daughter And the false steward,
[This
is me grasping at straws: Maybe Shakespeare was covertly criticizing KJV as the
"Kings daughter" and a "false steward" - "no more
words of this now." Except Hamlet was written around 1601 and KJV wasn't
started until about 1604. And I think that, even if he didn't help write it,
Shakespeare probably liked the KJV. And, as I've argued previously, "false
steward" was probably inserted by King James himself.] "The
Geneva Bible [first published in 1557]is one of the most historically
significant translations of the Bible into the English language, preceding the
King James translation by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th century
Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare ..." -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_bible The Bishops' Bible is an
English translation of the Bible which was produced under the authority of the
established Church of England in 1568. It was substantially revised in 1572,
and this revised edition was to be prescribed as the base text for the
Authorized King James Version of 1611. . . . The Bible had the authority of the
royal warrant, and was the second version appointed to be read aloud in church
services (cf. Great Bible, King James Bible). It failed to displace the Geneva
Bible as a domestic Bible to be read at home, but that was not its intended
purpose. The intention was for it to be used in church as what would today be
termed a pulpit Bible. The version was more grandiloquent than the Geneva
Bible. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishops%27_Bible "The
Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible,
AV, KJB, or KJV, is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church
of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorized_King_James_Version
A Chilling Tale of Two
Shoulder Bones
A
Winter's Tale, Act 3, Scene 3 ANTIGONUS [Exit, persued by a bear]
. . . CLOWN
.
. . to see how the bear tore OUT his SHOULDER-bone; how he cried to me for help
and said his name was Antigonus
AUTOLYCUS
O,
good sir, softly, good sir! I fear, sir, my SHOULDER-blade is OUT.
Autolycus
was a symbol for Shakespeare. Shakespeare, who was born on April 23 and
baptised 3 days later on Wednesday, and sold plays. Autolycus sold ballads,
including one about a fish that appeared on "Wednesday the four-score of
April" Antigonus had been used against his will to separate the
princess from her kingdom. Autolycus was used against his will to re-unite the
princess with her kingdom. I believe that Shakespeare, under the
influence of his secretly-Catholic father, wrote plays like Richard II, which
tried to separate Queen Elizabeth from her kingdom. Then Essex used
Shakespeare's Richard II, performed by Shakespeare's acting company, to launch
his abortive revolt. I believe that Shakespeare got himself and his fellow
actors out of trouble by agreeing to become a reluctant double-agent, spying on
his Catholic friends and reporting to the English government. A few years
later, when James I improbably "decoded" an intercepted letter to
reveal the Gunpowder Plot, I believe that James was really using information
secretly provided by Shakespeare.
How Henry's Divorce Led to
Global Warming (The Dog Has His Day)
On
St. Peter and Paul Day, 1613, during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII
(or All Is True), the Globe theater caught fire and burned to the ground. The
fire was allegedly started accidentally, by a cannon salute to Henry VIII. But was it an accident? There are several lines of evidence
pointing to arson: the profitability of the fire, the theatricality of the
fire, lines in the play that referred to the fire, the continuation of the
cannon motif from Hamlet, and political/religious symbolism connecting Henry
VIII and his divorce, Pope's Day, Blackfriars, St. Dominic, and the defeat of
the Spanish Armada. How could Shakespeare
and the other Globe shareholders have profited from the fire? Fire insurance
had not yet been invented, nor was there a complicated income tax code to
motivate a tax write-off. To find the financial motive for the destruction of
the Globe, we must look back to its birth: On the night before
St. Thomas a Beckett's Day in 1598, Shakespeare and his fellow players
assembled at the Theatre and "armed themselves with divers manye
unlawfull and offensive weapons, as namelye swordes daggers billes axes and
such...and...in a verye ryoutous outragious and forcyble manner...did...pull
downe the sayd Theater...And having so done did then also in most forcyble and
ryotous manner take and carrye awaye from thence all the wood and timber
thereof unto the Banckside [the south side of the Thames]...and there
erected a new playe howse with the sayd Timber and wood." The new
theater, built from the Theatre's wood, was called the Globe (All the
world's a stage). The above description of the Theatre's deconstruction was
quoted from Giles Alleyn, the irate owner of the land on which the Theatre had
stood. Back in 1576 James Burbage had purchased a twenty-one-year lease on that
land from Alleyn and built the Theatre, the first theater ever built in
England. The building and lease had been inherited by Burbage's son, Richard,
who became the leading actor and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
Shakespeare's acting company. When the lease expired, Alleyn, perhaps because
of complaints that the Theatre was a magnet for prostitutes and cutpurses,
refused to renew it. So Burbage and his fellow actors, with fine dramatic
flair, simply picked up their theater and moved it to a new site.
Unfortunately, the new site was also leased and the lease was due to expire in
1613, so once again Shakespeare's company had to deal with a landlord who was
reluctant to renew their lease. This time
Shakespeare and his fellow-players did not want to move. The Globe was
in a very profitable location, so profitable that they may
have wanted to tear down their theater and build a larger one on the same site,
as a nearby rival theater company had already done. But they
probably didn't want to re-use the wood because the Globe was built on marshy
ground (flanked with a ditch and forced out of a marsh - Ben Jonson)
which, over the past fifteen years, had probably rotted the
wood (your water is a sore decayer). If they
didn't want to re-use the wood, the most economical means to demolish the old
Globe would be to burn it. But if their landlord knew that they were
deliberately burning the old Globe to clear the site for a larger Globe, he
surely would have held out for much more money on the lease renewal. So the
Globe burned down "accidentally," allowing the players to argue that
the lease renewal was less valuable. Shortly after the fire, the
landlord finally agreed to a new lease. During the months they were
rebuilding the Globe, Shakespeare's company would have lost considerable
revenue if they had not had some other place to stage their plays. By luck (or good planning), they already had an alternate theater
ready by the time of the fire. Back in 1596, when he was haggling with his
first landlord over the renewal of the lease for the Theatre's land, Richard
Burbage had purchased part of the former Blackfriars Monastery. His original
plan had been to move the company to Blackfiars after his Theatre lease
expired. However, the other residents of Blackfriars (including even Lord
Hunsden, the patron of the Chamberlain's Men) circulated a petition objecting
to a theater in their neighborhood. But by 1608 attitudes had changed and
Shakespeare's company (now called the King's Men) had finally started using
their Blackfriars theater during winter seasons. Thus, when the Globe burned
down in 1613, they probably resumed operations the very next day at
Blackfriars. Having decided to torch the Globe, the
King's Men could have done it in the dead of night, with no witnesses. But that
would have gone against their show business instincts. They wanted an audience.
So, they would have chosen to start the fire in the middle of a play. Of course
they would want to avoid roasting their audience -- that would be bad for
business. They needed to create the illusion of a fire, evacuate the audience,
and then start the real fire. Perhaps they would start with a smokepot hidden
in the rafters. From a letter written by Sir Henry Wotton
(formerly a spy for Essex) on July 2, 1613: The King's players had a
new play, called All is True, representing some principal pieces of the reign
of Henry VIII, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of
pomp and majesty....Now, King Henry making a masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's
house, and certain chambers being shot off at his entry, some of the paper, or
other stuff, wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where
being at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it
kindled inwardly, and ran around like a train, consuming within less than an
hour the whole house to the very grounds. This was the fatal period
of that virtuous fabric; wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and straw, and
a few forsaken cloaks; only one man had his breeches set on fire, that would
perhaps have broiled him, if he had not by the benefit of a provident wit put
it out with bottle ale.[This Bud's for you!] Since the original
name of the play was All Is True, I wonder if this was the
origin of the chant, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" According
to legend, one man in the audience was taking notes in order to publish a
pirated edition of the play. He dutifully recorded everything he heard up to
and including the moment when the actor playing Cardinal Wolsey cried out,
"The theater's afire!" Recall that Wotton said the fire was
thought to be "at first but an idle smoke." If
indeed the players were trying to fake a fire with smokepots, the illusion
failed -- they had to reinforce it with words to make the audience take flight.
If the initial smoke had been from a real fire, it
would have been remarkable that, even after a delayed evacuation, no one was
injured. As for the fellow with the hot pants, why didn't his shirt burn? How
many comedies since then have featured a man with burning pants? How many
comedians have doused flames with booze? This incident has all the earmarks of
a well-rehearsed stunt. When he was back inside the theater, the man (perhaps a
little-known or well-disguised actor) could have soaked his shirt and pants
with water, then strapped on a dry false bottom stuffed with straw. Then, with
phony fanny aflame, he dashed outside, where a waiting confederate quenched his
bogus butt with bottled beer, delighting the distracted multitude, while inside
the real Global warming was beginning. The actor playing Cardinal
Wolsey may have ad libbed "The theater's afire!" But there are some
prescient lines in the script which seem to be lightly veiled references to the
fire. About forty lines after the cannon salute which allegedly ignited
the Globe, Henry VIII first takes notice of Anne Boleyn (Bullen), a
lady-in-waiting to his wife: KING My Lord Chamberlain,
Prithee come hither. What fair lady's that? CHAMBERLAIN An't
please your Grace, Sir Thomas Bullen's daughter -- The Viscount Rochford
-- one of her Highness' women. KING By heaven, she is a dainty
one. Sweet heart, I were unmannerly to take you out And not to kiss
you. A health gentlemen! Let it go round.[As the flames "ran
around like a train."] WOLSEY Sir Thomas Lovell, is the
banker ready I' th' privy chamber? [Perhaps the King's Men had already
arranged the financing for rebuilding the Globe.] LOVELL Yes, my
lord. WOLSEY Your Grace, I fear, with dancing is a little
heated. KING I fear, too much. WOLSEY There's
fresher air, my lord, In the next chamber. Heated
too much indeed. For Henry VIII (the play), the next chamber would be the
theater in Blackfriars, in the very room where Henry VIII had divorced
Catherine in order marry Anne Boleyn, thus beginning the divorce of England
from the Catholic Church. When I first read that
the Globe had burned down during a performance of Henry VIII, I had no reason
to believe that the Globe fire was anything less than a financial disaster for
Shakespeare. Yet I was immediately certain that it was arson. Why? For two very
strong reasons. First, as I explained in a previous chapter, I believed that
Shakespeare had taken a vow to write a series of provocative histories of
English kings, culminating in an inflammatory history of Henry VIII. He had
begun his career with this series of histories, but I wondered why he waited
until the very end of his career to complete the series with an apparently cool
and bland Henry VIII. Secondly, I had discovered that in Hamlet, the King
metaphorically slaughtered himself with his own cannon, fired in salute, just
as in Henry VIII the playhouse was destroyed by a cannon salute to Henry VIII.
The Globe fire was the missing piece in the puzzle. The completed puzzle showed
Shakespeare's lifelong struggle to reconcile his Catholic faith with his love
for the theater. CLAUDIUS The king shall drink to
Hamlet's better breath, And in the cup an union shall he throw Richer
than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn. Give
me the cups; And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to
the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth
'Now the king drinks to Hamlet!' (A crown in the
cup? What were they drinking? Corona beer? Or maybe Royal Crown cola? Or
Konigsburg (sic) beer -- German for King's Town -- King's Hamlet? They would
have been wiser to stick to good old Bud, King of Beers.) The
above speech gives us a hint that the king's drinking, with the accompaniment
of cannon fire, might be a metaphor for the king's attachment to his kingdom (and
in the cup an union). The metaphor is strengthened when we recall the
following from Act I: [A flourish of trumpets and ordnance shot off,
from within.] HORATIO What does this mean my lord? HAMLET
The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail and the
swaggering upspring reels, And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.
HORATIO Is it a custom? HAMLET Ay, marry, is't.
But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a
custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance. Hamlet
does not want to join his forefathers' union. "Four
successive kings" might also refer to Kings James I, II, III, and IV
of Scotland, who all died violent deaths. The current King of Scots, James VI
did not want to join his four fathers' union. In the play's very
first occurrence of this metaphor, Hamlet seemed to recognize the
self-destructive nature of a king's union with his kingdom. He invoked the
metaphor as a curse against Claudius, a wish that Claudius might destroy
himself: CLAUDIUS No jocund health that Denmark drinks today,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king's rouse
the heavens shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
HAMLET O! that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and
resolve itself into a dew; Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His
canon 'gainst self-slaughter. If Cloud-ius was an actual cloud he
could rain himself away (melt into dew), or, when he fired his cannon at the
clouds, he would indeed be slaughtering himself. The Everlasting has fixed His
canon against self-slaughter, but that will not prevent Claudius from fixing
(aiming) his own metaphorical cannon at himself. In the end, this curse is
carried out: HAMLET Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned
Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.
LAERTES He is justly serv'd. It is a poison temper'd by himself.
Thus the metaphors of camel, cloud, cannon, and cup embrace both the
essential flaw of Claudius's character and the means of his consequent
self-destruction. The range of the cannon motif
extends beyond Hamlet, impacting the life of James VI of Scotland. What was
Hamlet to James VI or he to Hamlet? I covered that in detail in a previous chapter,
but for now, let's review the impact of cannons on James VI and his
family. His great-great-great grandfather, James II, was killed by his own
cannon, when it exploded. The bride of James VI, Princess Anne of Denmark,
while attempting to cross the North Sea to marry James, saw eight sailors
crushed to death by a loose cannon on her storm-tossed-ship. The
cannon was also a motif in William Shakespeare's life. He obtained a family
coat-of-arms that showed a falcon shaking a spear. What does that have to do
with cannons? "Falcon" was the name of a type of cannon in common use
in the sixteenth century. But perhaps the most important
cannon in Shakespeare's world was the one with which he destroyed his Globe:
CLAUDIUS Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know both what we mean to do, And what's untimely done: so,
haply, slander, Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, As level as
the cannon to his blank Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name, And
hit the woundless air. Blackfriars was symbolic of the English
Reformation in another way, because of another coincidence. Blackfriars had
been the principal English monastery of the Domincan order of monks, which had
been founded about four hundred years before the English Reformation by Saint
Dominic. At a time when the Catholic Church was massacring heretics, Dominic
advocated the reconciliation of heretics through "persuasion and
discussion rather than threats and belligerence" (Kristin E. White, A
Guide to the Saints). This was not the approach of Phillip II in 1588 when he
sent the Spanish Armada to restore England to Catholicism by strong hand and
terms compulsatory. England defeated the Spanish Armada on August 6 -- the
feast day of Saint Dominic (and 357 years later, the date the United States
dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima). To many English
Catholics (perhaps including William Shakespeare) this may have seemed like a
sign from God that violence was the wrong way to restore English Catholicism.
There was one more coincidence linking St Dominic and the Globe fire: St
Dominic was sometimes depicted in art with "a globe, with fire"
(White, page 107). Did Shakespeare dismiss these
coincidences as mere chance? Or did he believe they were significant
coincidences, causeless consequences? HORATIO ...give
order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view, And
let me speak to th' yet unknowing world [Globe] How these things
came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of
accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and
forc'd cause, And in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall'n on th'
inventors heads: all this can I Truly deliver. [All Is True] FORTINBRAS
Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For
me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. I have some rights, of memory in
this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. HORATIO
Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose
voice will draw on more. But let this same be presently perform'd Even
while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance On plots and error happen.
Part 3 - Whither Wilt Thou Lead Me?
More Things Dreamt of in My
Philosophy
I am
not a Shakespearian scholar. I turned to Hamlet to make sense of my life and my
father's death. In the end, my life and my father's death made sense of Hamlet.
Like Horatio, I am skeptical of ghosts. But there are more things dreamt of in
my philosophy than there are in heaven and earth. My philosophy is the doctrine
of plenitude. All things are possible. Quantum mechanics regulates probabilities
but places no limits on possibilities. Everything that may be must be, in some
time and place. The necessary plenitude of times and places is provided by the
many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Thus, although some of the
events I describe are unconnected by cause and effect, they are not mere
coincidences - rather they are significant coincidences, causeless consequences.
Born To Set It Right
(Act 1, Scene 1, Franciso at his
post) Who's there?
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold
yourself. I was conceived on Flag Day and born on the Ides of
March (Tax Day) in a military hospital on the Presidio of San Francisco, within
sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. On the very day that I was born, my father was
promoted to Major. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Beware
the Ides of March.
Is Your Union Here?
Almost
three centuries after Shakespeare's birth, the American Civil War began with
the attack on Fort Sumter. There were no casualties during the seige of Fort
Sumter. But after the Fort surrendered, one soldier was injured by a cannon
fired in final salute to the Union flag and another man, drinking a toast to
the Union, accidentally drank iodine. Later in that war, my
great-grandfather, Parmensius Smith, was shot in the head while carrying the
Union flag in battle. Fortunately for me, since my grandfather had not yet been
conceived, the wound was not fatal, although Parmensius, an itinerant preacher,
walked the earth for the next 50-odd years with a hole in his head. He died
from complications of falling out of an olive tree when my father was about
four years old. My father remembered him as a mean old man.
Your Father Lost a Father,
and That Father Lost, Lost His
My
grandfather, Robert Smith, was an English teacher for a while, but he gave it
up because he had more talent for reciting poetry than for disciplining unruly
students. He recited poetry in a Chataugua for a time, but he finally settled
down to work in a chair factory for several decades, until his retirement. I knew
him as a gentle old man with white hair and blue eyes and an easy laugh. In my
memory he is enthusiastically reciting poetry, something about "the
barefoot boy on the burning deck". My father was born on July 16, 1916,
exactly 29 years before the first nuclear explosion (in New Mexico).
Mud in My Mind's Eye
When
I was about two years old, my mother and my older sister and I moved to Oregon,
while my father served a tour of duty in Korea. I remember what I think was my
first day in Oregon. It had finally stopped raining and now the sun was shining
brightly on the huge vacant lot next to our house. In the middle of the lot, a
group of boys were squatting around a mud puddle - just my cup of tea. I
squatted down beside the largest boy, who was filling a jar with muddy water.
"Whatcha makin?" "You wanna see? Lookee here." I leaned
forward to look into the jar. Suddenly my world turned to muddy water. The boys
laughed and walked away, leaving me alone with an empty jar and a muddy face.
Dynamite
My
other memory of Oregon is of running into the house with my older sister, who
was in a panic because, as she told my mother, the boy next door was
threatening to blow us up with dynamite. "Blow us up" didn't interest
me - I assumed that had something to do with the wind. But this new word, this
dyn-a-mite was obviously a word of wondrous potency. Dynamite! That
year, 1952, the hit song was Wheel of Fortune, sung by Kay Starr.
"Spinning, spinning, spinning."
Dawn
in the Land of the Rising Sun
About
550 BC, a young Prince of the Sakya family walked away from his heritage of
wealth and power and found enlightenment within himself. He came to be known as
Buddha. In the 13th century, the Japanese built the Great Buddha, a giant
statue of the Buddha of Eternal Light. Originally it was enclosed in a
building, but the building was destroyed by a tidal wave in 1495, when Henry
VIII was about three years old. When I was three years old (some
eight or nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), my father was
transferred to Japan, where my mother, my sister, and I rejoined him. We stayed
there a couple years. My brother was born there. I have only a few fragmentary
memories of Japan Once we went to see the Great Buddha. I was
astonished by this statue of a man the size of a building. I wanted to go
inside the Buddha, the way people go inside the Statue of Liberty. But that
being impossible, I could only stare awestruck at the outside of the Buddha...
I was in a car, feeling slightly carsick as usual. We were driving slowly
down a crowded Japanese street. It was a feast for my eyes and ears and nose
and mind. Overhead, the air was sliced by a dazzling plenitude of signs and banners.
The sidewalks thronged with people in strange clothes speaking stranger words.
And the air was thick with the tantalizing odors of untasted, unnamed foods. I
longed to mingle with the crowd, to explore this fascinating new world, but I
was sealed inside the car... We had finally got on-post housing, so
we were moving out of our paper-house and saying a final good-bye to our
friends in the Japanese neighborhood. My sister and three Japanese girls and I
were playing ring-around-the-rosies, singing London-bridge-is-falling-down,
first in English, then in Japanese. I remember just a few syllables,
"ah-no-may, ah-no-may..." (Decades later, after I wrote this, I
learned that "ah-no-may" actually means "what's your
name?".)
Unopened Presents
I
experienced my first Christmas when I was nine months old. To a baby, every day
is a new experience - Christmas no more so than any other day. For my second
Christmas, my father was in Korea, so I imagine it was a somewhat subdued
occasion. But for my third Christmas the whole family was reunited in Japan. It
was a magical time. The air was filled with joyful music and the odor of pine.
There was a tree inside the house! It was festooned with sparkling tinsel,
colorful bulbs, and flashing lights. But best of all was the unlimited
potential of all those unopened presents. It wasn't until decades
later, after my father's death, that I learned that, under that Christmas joy,
he hid a private sorrow.. Exactly thirty-three years before my third Christmas,
when my father was was only four years old, his mother died. Exactly
thirty-three years after my third Christmas, my father died.
Where There's a Will There's a Ray
When
I was four years old I almost drowned. I had decided that keeping my head above
water required nothing more than an act of will. So I resolutely waded into
deep water. After the water had risen over my head, all I remember is standing
on tiptoe, reaching for the surface. I'm told it was my father who pulled me
out.
An Offense to Reason Most
Absurd
When
I was five we were transferred to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where I was
forced to start kindergarten. Each morning I was rousted out of my soft bed and
sent off to kindergarten where, after I had lost all desire for sleep, I was
ordered to lay on the hard floor and take a nap. It was unreasonable. Finally I
said, in effect, "Hell no, I won't go!". I was a kindergarten
drop-out. I had already learned that the formal educational system was
attempting to teach me to jump through hoops like a trained dog. 
What's in a Name?
The
summer before I started first grade, I went to Bible school, happily and
voluntarily because I had a crush on a girl in my class. I remember nothing
about her except her name, Lisa. The only other thing I remember about Bible
school is the walk home on the first day. I only had to walk a couple blocks,
but I walked in a different direction. When I realized that I was lost, I
knocked on a door and tearfully announced, "I'm Way Ethton Thmif Junior
and I'm lost!" The lady who lived there knew my parents so, by the magic
of my father's name, I was whisked back to the security of my home.
Whirling Words 
One
afternoon when I was about six, I came home from school and went directly to my
favorite napping spot, under the coffee table. I don't remember what was
covered in school that day, but, from the nature of my nightmare, I think it
must have been my first encounter with astronomy and atomic physics and
mechanist philosophy. I dreamed that I was flying around the world, like
superman except that I had no control over my motion. I was skimming just above
ground level, unintentionally knocking people down. I couldn't stop. I knew I
would get blamed for hurting people, even though I couldn't help it. Then I was
nothing but atoms. I was a swirling spiral in empty space. I was still me,
still alive, yet I was nothing, nothing, nothing. Hey, ho! Nobody
home! No meat, nor drink, nor money have I none. Nobody home!
Nobody home. "Mrs.
Cress's class singing Hey, Ho, Nobody Home in a 2-part round 03-16-2009"
Yet will I be merry. 
A Springe to Catch Woodcocks
During
his last year in the army (when I was about ten), my father was stationed in
Korea again, working in counter-intelligence, while my mother, my sister, my
brother, and I stayed in San Diego. Once he wrote us about a Korean soldier he
had befriended. He bought shoes for the children of this soldier. At that time,
I didn't understand how much this gift of shoes signified to my father. He grew
up during the depression in a family too proud to admit that they were poor. To
me bare feet were an emblem of freedom, but to my father they were a stigma of
poverty. In a subsequent letter, my father wrote that he had uncovered evidence
proving that his Korean friend was a spy and that he had turned him in to the
Korean government to be executed.
Here Comes Thy Sun
When
I was 12, the madness almost killed us all. JFK, the Catholic
President from Massachusetts, should have gone to MASS. As soon as he
learned of the Soviet missiles in Cuba, Kennedy should have met with
Khrushchev, then held a joint news conference to announce: "We
are ending the insanity of MAD ("Mutual Assured Destruction"), to be
replaced with MASS, "Mutual Assured Sanity and Survival." Under
the new policy of MASS, the U.S. will immediately remove all nuclear weapons
from Italy and Turkey, and the U.S.S.R. will immediately remove all nuclear
weapons from Cuba. Then we will begin the mutual assured destruction of all
nuclear weapons." As the sun was setting during the Cuban
missile crisis, Robert McNamara said,
"The
sun is setting. This may be the last sunset we will ever see."
But
if MASS had been implemented, McNamara could have said instead,
"Content
thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning;" (Othello,II,iii)
Let's
all go to MASS. No more nukes.
And in the Cup a Dis-Union
After
my father retired from the army, he became an Inspector for the Department of
Agriculture. His duties included inspecting the cargoes of ships coming into
San Pedro (the port for Los Angeles). Once I went along with him when he
boarded a Russian ship, along with a customs inspector and a Coast Guard
officer with a Geiger-counter. (The Coast Guard checked all Russian ships for
smuggled atomic bombs.) The Captain invited all of us to his stateroom for
drinks. He was in high spirits because the KGB officer assigned to his ship had
been left in Japan with appendicitis. We drank to the continued ill-health of
the KGB officer. This Bud's for you!
My Father's Union
When
he heard that Ronald Reagan had once been President of the Screen Actors Guild,
my father reversed his long-standing aversion to unions. Not only did he join
his local of the American Federation of Federal and State Employees, he became
the shop steward.
The
Scope Of These Delated Articles
...bearers
of this greeting.... Giving to you no further personal power To
business with the king, more than the scope Of these delated articles
allow. When
I was 21, after flunking a couple of physics classes, I lost my student
deferment and received Greetings from the President. Rather than surrender my
fate entirely to the whims of Big Brother, I volunteered for an extra year of
servitude in exchange for choice of initial duty station (Europe) and Military
Occupational Specialty (Combat Engineer, a.k.a. Pioneer). Before dawn on
January 20, 1972, my father drove me to the Induction Center in downtown L.A.
From there I was sent back to Fort Leonard Wood for basic training and then
Combat Engineer training, where I learned how to build bridges and how to destroy
bridges. Then I was sent to Virginia for a three-week Atomic Demolition
Munitions school, where I learned how to destroy really big bridges.
To Stop a Bunghole
At
Atomic Demolition Munitions school I was at the top of the class in purely
mental tasks, such as deciphering the coded messages which specified the times
and places to detonate atomic munitions. However, I needed endless practice to
master even the most basic mechanical tasks. The first step in arming an atomic
demolition munition was to remove the lid from the 55-gallon drum (metal
barrel) in which it was packed. To pass inspection, each step had to be done in
the prescribed sequence. First, use a bung-wrench to loosen the bung-plug
in order to equalize air pressure inside the drum. Then unlatch and remove a steel
hoop from the rim of the lid. Then remove the lid. I was well into the
second week of school before I could consistently remember to loosen that
bung-plug before removing the hoop.
He Hath Borne Me on His Back
After
ADM school, I was assigned to the 62nd Engineer Company, at a post called
Caserma Ederle, in Vicenza, Italy (about 40 miles from Venice). In 1973,
Caserma Ederle was visited by freshman Senator Sam Nunn. Although I was never
known for the sharpness of my military bearing, for some reason I was one of
the half dozen soldiers chosen to participate in the ADM demonstration for
Senator Nunn. The the larger of the two weapons in our arsenal was the MADM (Medium Atomic Demolition Munition), a 400-pound monster with the about same yield as the bomb that murdered 60,000 innocent civilians in Hiroshima. The smaller weapon, the SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition),
could be carried in a rather large backpack. I was chosen to demonstrate the
SADM. As I stood there with an atomic bomb strapped to my back, leaning
slightly forward to balance the weight, with my arms hanging down in front of
me and my helmet slipping over my eyes, I felt a strange affinity with Sad Sack
or Beetle Bailey. I overheard Senator Nunn talking to the General. He was
saying he didn't feel good about it. These weapons posed too great a potential
for theft by terrorists. Any Bozo could strap one on his back and walk off with
it. After the demonstration, my company commander, Lt Bungard,
congratulated me on a job well done. 
The backpack bomb weighed 168
pounds, about the same weight as me back then. Sam Nunn is a smart
guy. He didn't need my Sad Sack act to see that backpack nukes were a bad idea.
Nevertheless I'm proud to be associated, if only symbolically and only in my
own mind, with the achievements of Senator Nunn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Nunn
"His legislative achievements include . . . the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative
Threat Reduction Program, which provides assistance to Russia and the former
Soviet republics for securing and destroying their excess nuclear, biological
and chemical weapons. To date, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction
program has deactivated more than 5,900 nuclear warheads." Senator
Nunn became chair of the Armed Services Committee in 1987. Two years later
Special Atomic Demolitions were removed from the US arsenal. "300
SADMs were assembled and remained in the US arsenal until 1989." www.wordiq.com/definition/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition
I'm pretty sure "Any Bozo could strap one on his back and walk off
with it" is an exact quote. You don't forget it when a Senator tells a
General that you're a Bozo. Much Ado About Nothing Dogberry
"But, masters, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written
down, yet forget not that I am an ass."
Muddy Water Blues
Guildenstern
Happy, in that we are not over-happy; On fortune's cap we are not the
very button. 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. The first time I saw Leila, she was
playing pinball. Although she spoke little English, she was a master of
body-English. I doubt whether her gyrating derriere had any effect on the
motion of the pinball, but it had a profound impact on my emotions. Before she
even turned around, I was half in love. For the next several months, I dated
Leila about once a week. Between dates, my spare time was consumed by fervent
memorization of little speeches in Italian. That summer, there was a
swim-meet at Caserma Ederle and the coach of the 62nd Engineer Company
swim-team was having difficulty finding enough volunteers for a full team. Even
though I'm a naturally inept swimmer, I let myself be talked into signing up
for the 200-meter swim. I practiced for a couple of weeks, so on the day of the
competition I was confident that I could at least finish the race. And finish
it I did. The 200-meter swim was the last event of the day. Standing
on the edge of the pool, I squinted against the bright sunlight glinting off
the water. Finally, I heard the sharp crack of the starting pistol and I
plunged into the water. The world closed in around me. It was just me against
the water in a silent struggle for air. I turned my head, gasped in air, then
forced it out again into the water, preparing to gasp in more. Despite my
dogged flailing, I seemed to hang motionless in the water. Time had stopped.
One stroke was just like another. The end of the pool seemed to offer a breach
in the endless cycle, but then I turned and the next lap was just like the one
before it. When I finally completed the last lap and emerged from the pool, the
sky was overcast and there was a chill breeze. All the other swimmers had
finished and departed. Most of the spectators had left too, except for a few
stragglers who didn't even notice my triumphant finish. Someone told me later
that Leila had been there but had left before I finished. A couple
weeks later, as I was wandering the streets of Vicenza, I unexpectedly
encountered Leila. After an unsuccessful attempt at bilingual conversation, Leila
accused me, in Italian, of having forgotten all my Italian, and I accused her,
in English, of having forgotten all her English. Actually, I still remembered
most of my little speeches, but they didn't fit any more. The real reason we
couldn't communicate was that we no longer had anything to say to each other. There
once was a lass named Annie Boyd Who insured her ass with London Lloyd.
Her ass was covered, tho' often bare, So may God save her London derriere.
The Dog Will Have His Day
One
fine summer day, I was sent on a work detail to cut weeds around the ammo dump.
The ammo dump was a chain-link and barbed-wire fenced square compound about a
quarter-mile on each side . The slopes of the steep surrounding hills started almost
at the ammo-dump fence, so instead of using ordinary lawnmowers we had to use
sickles. A large gothic-looking building was perched atop one of the hills.
Somebody told me that it was an insane asylum and that sometimes you could hear
the inmates screaming. I don't know if that was true. The same guy told me
something else which I doubted at the time but which turned out to be true. He
said that the largest building in the ammo dump, located in the very center,
was a warehouse filled with empty aluminum coffins. Such were the preparations
for war - bullets for killing and coffins for dying. That fall I had
guard duty at the ammo dump. The sun had already set when I began patrolling
around the inside of the fence. A chill breeze was chasing clouds across the
face of a full moon. Ahead of me, scraps of leaves swirled in the wind - little
inconsequential pieces of reality taking control of the world and mocking my
delusions of free will. Then the howling began. The wind? A dog? A lunatic? I
don't know. Morbid curiosity drew me in toward the center of the compound. From
fifty yards away I could see that the door of the warehouse was ajar. Then I
saw a large white dog come out the door and disappear around the corner of the
building. I went into the building and saw that it was indeed stacked with
aluminum coffins. Finally I returned to making my rounds around the perimeter.
My duty was to guard against real intruders from outside, not imaginary ghosts
from within.
The Ghost of Venice
One
of the things that I loved about Venice was that I could wander, delightfully
lost, for hours through the narrow, winding alleys and over the plenitude of
bridges without ever seeing a car. Often, I would go out late at night, when
the shops were closed and the streets were hushed and deserted. I would stand
on the cobblestone street, surrounded by 500-year-old buildings, trying to
conjure up the ghosts of past Venetians: Marco Polo, Cassanova, and all the
throngs of merchants. But the conjuring failed. I could not imagine that faded
past had ever been reality. One day, I happened across a street
vendor who was selling old photographs of Venice. I bought a photo that showed
a busy throng of Venetians in quaint turn-of-the-century clothes, with a bridge
and a building in the background. Late that afternoon, I asked the pretty maid
at the pensione if she could help me find the locale in the photo. Actually, I
was more interested in the maid than the photo. She was just going off duty and
I was hoping this would be an opportunity to get better acquainted with her.
She did recognize the place, called "San Travaso", but she wouldn't
go there with me. Instead, she gave me directions so I could go there by myself.
I found the place a little after sunset. The building in the photo was now
a hollow shell with a gaping hole in the wall. I asked a passing Venetian and
he told me it had been bombed during the war. There were still a few Venetians
around, but they were all hurrying home to their families. As the last of their
footsteps echoed into silence, I stood alone, staring at the bombed-out hulk of
days-gone-by. Then, in the dim lamplight, I looked at the photograph, at the
vibrant Venetians scurrying about their business. It seemed like they were
truly alive, and I was but a pale shadow of their vitality. I had found the
ghost of Venice.
This Bud's For You
The
62nd Engineer Company had a mascot, a white mongrel named Budweiser who roamed
freely over the whole post. Among the thousands of soldiers stationed at
Caserma Ederle, there was no one better known or better loved than Budweiser.
Whenever any company on post was using its barbecue pit, Budweiser was an
honoured guest. Sometimes he would walk beside me when I went to the PX or to
the movies. As we walked along it seemed almost everyone we passed had some
word of greeting for Budweiser. "Hey Bud!" "How's it goin Bud?"
Two or three times a year, the 62nd Engineer Company would take its turn
marching out onto the parade field in dress greens for the Friday afternoon
Retreat ceremony. On this particular Friday, the Post Commanding General had
decided to re-instate the old custom of firing a cannon at the conclusion of
the ceremony. As the 62nd Engineers marched slow and stately onto the parade
field, Budweiser tagged along. As the flag was coming down, Budweiser ambled up
to the Post Sergeant-Major and began sniffing at his boots. The Sergeant-Major
stood stiffly at attention. Just before the cannon fired, Budweiser casually
lifted his leg and pissed on the Sergeant-Major's spit-shined boots. That
was the last time that cannon was fired. Not because of Budweiser, but because
of me, or rather the ceiling over my bunk. The sound of the cannon had caused
about 50 pounds of plaster to fall on my bunk. It might have killed me if I'd
been lying there at the time. My bunk-disaster even got written up in the post
newspaper. So the General decided that, even though the cannon only fired at
the woundless air, it was a custom more honoured in the breach than the
observance. From that day on, Budweiser was number one on the
Sergeant-Major's shit-list. The MPs had standing orders to capture Budweiser,
but they never did. When on duty, the MP's wore white boot-laces. Whenever
Budweiser saw those white boot-laces, he'd take off running. But he continued
to collect his tribute from all the barbecue pits, including the MPs' barbecue
pit. 
I guess Budweiser was mostly
American Pit Bull. americanpitbull.biz
"In the past, the pit bull was one of the most trusted companions and was
loved by most people. In England, where the breed is no longer allowed, the pit
bull was also considered one of the safest dogs to have around children.
Unfortunately, negative attention has been given to this breed in the past
several years. There are two groups to blame for these negative events. One
group is the media, who report attacks in the most sensational way possible.
The other group that needs to shoulder some of the blame is dog breeders who
overbreed their dogs, resulting in high levels of aggression. Owners who train
their dogs harshly or who encourage aggressive behavior can also be blamed for
negative attention on the pit bull breed." Budweiser was a very
friendly dog. He was not trained to be aggressive. He was not trained at all.
Whither Wilt Thou Lead Me?
After I got out of the army,
I went back to college and immediately joined ROTC. I don't know why. Perhaps
it was to please my father. Or maybe, after 3 years of saluting officers, it
seemed like a rise in station to become a "Gentleman by Act of
Congress." After graduation, I was sent to Infantry Officer Basic Training
at Fort Benning - the same place where my father had graduated from Officer
Candidate school 36 years earlier. (In March, 1978, while I was still at Ft
Benning, the Old Globe Theater in San Diego was destroyed by an arson fire.)
Enrolling in ROTC had committed me to two years of active duty, but in
order to be assigned to Europe, I committed to a Voluntary Indefinite
assignment. "Voluntary Indefinite" meant, in theory, the army could
keep me as long as they wanted me. In practice, that usually meant three years,
with an option for further terms of service. However, because I was not a
"forceful leader", the army spit me out again after only two years.
Unable to make a living with my skills in wholesale and retail killing (Atomic
Demolition and Infantry), I enrolled in a trade school to learn computer
programming.
Swear
After
eight months in trade school, I went to work for an insurance company that was
a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 military-industrial corporation. While I was
working there, the corporation got into some kind of trouble with the
government. Consequently, I, along with all the other employees, had to sign a
consent order swearing that we would not use baseball bats to collect debts.
He Hath Borne Me on His Back
The
term "actor" is far from an insult in a book about Shakespeare, but
the title "President" will never be a term of honour in any book that
I write. That great actor, Ronald Reagan, said, "Let's get the
government off our backs!" Although he never gave his saying deed,
he spoke the speech trippingly on his tongue and in the very torrent,
tempest, and whirlwind of his passion gave it smoothness, and for that I
love him.
The Battlefield of Ideas
When
I have patronized the same bookstore for a long time, sometimes the clerks
start to recognize me. Then I have to find a new bookstore. To be recognized is
to be defined, to be limited by the opinions of others. This attitude makes me
reluctant to form close friendships. One exception was Jim Haldenwang (whose
parents live near Lake Elsinore). Jim and I began as rivals for the affections
of the same girl. After she rejected us both, we continued as friendly rivals
in endless philosophical debates. No idea is welcome in my mind unless it has
fought its way in against all the resistance I can muster. And even then I like
to make my ideas fight for their continued existence. Survival of the fittest.
This does not mean that I have no firm convictions. On the contrary, those
ideas which have survived in the battleground of my mind are near-immortal
champions of mental combat.
Old Dynamite In the Womb of
Earth
For
the last twenty years of his life, all my father's spare time was consumed by a
played-out old gold mine near Desert Center, California. He called it the
Lilly-Belle, after his mother. I remember one day my father became worried
about a possible inspection by the BATF because he was storing a box of old
dynamite in a shed at his mill-site. Although the dynamite was duly registered
with the BATF, it was not stored according to regulations. So my father decided
we should store it in the Lilly-Belle, which was less accessible than the
mill-site and so less likely to be visited by government inspectors. That's
how I found myself in the passenger seat of our jeep, with a box of old
dynamite on my lap, bouncing along over an old road that was little more than a
figment of my father's imagination. I was thinking about what I had learned in
the army about the instability of old dynamite. My father said it was safe, and
I trusted my father; but I wasn't so sure I could trust that old dynamite.
Finally we arrived at the mine and my father carried the dynamite into the mine
shaft. As far as I know, it's there still.
So
Hallow'd and So Gracious Is the Time
On
Christmas Eve, 1986, I drove from my apartment in Huntington Beach, California,
to my parents' home in Desert Center (50 miles east of Indio, 50 miles west of
Blythe). Early the next morning my parents and I set out, in separate cars, for
my sister's home in Prescott, Arizona. As we left Desert Center, I heard a
rooster crowing, although dawn was still an hour away. We stopped for
breakfast at Blythe. My father, grandson of two preachers, believed in God but
not in organized religion. My mother had been agnostic since childhood, when
she first learned that Santa Claus wasn't real. I had been agnostic since age
9, when I recognized the logical fallacy of trying to believe what you want
instead of what facts and reason tell you must be. Belief is a matter of
necessity not of choice. Or so I believed at that time. But your beliefs can
determine what is to be. I wish that, before that one meal, we had said Grace.
A few moments delay would have brought us to a different time and place. How
you vote in the next election will make no difference, but what you did before
breakfast this morning could change the course of history. "One
can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had
much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it
for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible
things before breakfast." -- Alice and the White Queen in Through
the Looking Glass When we were about an hour from Prescott, we
stopped at a rest stop and my mother transferred from my father's car to mine,
so that she could guide me through Prescott to my sister's house, in case the
two cars became separated on the way. Then we continued on our way with my
father in the lead. I could see unopened Christmas presents piled in the back
of his car. When we were about 20 minutes away from Prescott, I heard tires
squealing. A few seconds later, I saw a car coming around the bend ahead of my
father's car. It was spinning out of control, bearing down on my father.
Moments later my father was dead from massive chest injuries.
A Voice on the Radio
I
hear Karen Carpenter on the radio, singing "Yesterday, Once More".
They say she's dead. Once she breathed and ate and slept and loved. She had
hopes and dreams. All that's ended now. But, to me, she was never anything more
than a beautiful voice on the radio. And she still is and always will be a
beautiful voice on the radio. Karen Carpenter lives. My father's body
was cremated and his ashes were buried in the Valley of the Sun, north of
Phoenix.. When I am alone I cry, but silently. My father is nothing but a
memory and the memory mourns for its lost self.
True Madness
In
1987 I was fired for having a higher standard of professional ethics than my
employer. I was out of work for over a year. At one point, I found myself
living in a cheap motel room in Orange County, California. I had no definite
plan for finding a job. I kept telling myself that tomorrow I would do
something, although I didn't know what. I read a Scientific American article on
chaos theory, then read Gleick's "Chaos." I bought a PC and, using
the simple algorithm described in Gleick's book, I wrote variations of BASIC
programs to generate graphs of the Mandelbrot set. To determine
whether a point is in the Mandelbrot set, you compute multiple iterations of a
simple algorithm (Z-new = Z-old-squared plus C) for a pair of input values
representing the coordinates of a point C on the complex plane.. If it seems
that the result (length-of-Z) of the algorithm will stay under the value of 2
after an infinite number of iterations, then the point is in the set. Of
course, you have to estimate infinity. You arbitrarily say, for instance, that
10 iterations is close enough to infinity. Sometimes that will give the wrong
answer, but more often it works well enough. You assign coordinates to each
point on the PC screen. If a point is in the Mandelbrot set, you color it
black. If a point escapes (the algorithm yields a value over 2) on the 10th
iteration, then it's just outside the set, so you color it blue. If a point
escapes after 9 iterations, you color it green. After 8 iterations, orange. And
so on, repeating the cycle of colors when you run out of different colors.
By this process, a very simple algorithm yields an amazingly complex
display (although, with the primitive PC I had at that time it took hours to
calculate all the iterations of the algorithm for all the pixels that comprised
the PC screen). It seemed unbelievable that such a simple algorithm could
generate such a complex picture. I had the feeling that the computer was
slowing drawing back the curtain on a window into another universe. Through the
window, I saw huge twisting tendrils like fat roots rising up from a mist far,
far below. Sometimes they looked like writhing tentacles reaching up from a boiling
sea of troubles. The Mandelbrot set is infinitely detailed and
unendingly varied. If you change the scale of the coordinate system mapped onto
the computer screen, so that you are in effect zooming in and magnifying one
small area, you will get a different but equally complex picture. However, the
magnification comes at a cost. At higher levels of magnification, you have to
use more iterations of the algorithm to approximate infinity. With each
iteration, there is a rounding error, and with many iterations the errors add
up. So, at higher levels of magnification the picture becomes fuzzier and
fuzzier. At one o'clock in the morning, I found myself staring with
red-rimmed eyes at my PC, as it slowly resolved itself into the coiling
tentacles of chaos. I was staring into the face of chaos and it was the face of
a gorgon. Insanity is not the inability to perceive reality. True madness lies
in the inability to ignore the meaningless patterns of blind chance. But how
can we shut our eyes to the patterns that govern our fates? Finally,
rounding errors reduced the pattern to a uniform mist. I began to
study physics and philosophy. I read about the many-worlds interpretation of
quantum mechanics. At each instant, every sub-atomic particle in the world is
in an indeterminate state. If circumstances have determined its position, then
its momentum can have any value with equal probability. According to the
many-worlds interpretation, the particle does not somehow choose among these
many equal probabilities, but instead, the future of the world splits into a
separate version for each possible momentum of that particle. This happens at
each instant for each sub-atomic particle in the world. The result is that
everything is possible and will in fact occur. The implications of this are
terrifying. You cannot ever die. At each instant, there will be a possible
configuration of sub-atomic particles, one of the many actual branches of the
future, in which you will continue to live. Also at each instant, there will be
many future branches in which you will suffer every conceivable affliction. You
have an infinity of damnation ahead of you. However, also at each instant, you
will begin a life of eternal bliss. You will be forever on the threshold of
both heaven and hell. The only certainty in this eternal life will be your
memory of your acts of free will. Although your will may be forever thwarted,
it will always be. Because you are your will, nothing else. Henry VI,
Part 3 Yield not thy neck To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless
mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance.
Must There No More Be Done?
After
more than a year of unemployment, I finally got a job with the Arizona state
government. A few months later, I heard that my father's killer had been given
a plea bargain. He pleaded guilty to felony possession of marijuana and was
sentenced to community service. Not a single day in jail. No mention of my
father's death. I fantasized about somehow attacking the reputation
of my father's killer. Perhaps I could camp out outside his home, passing out
flyers telling everyone what he did. But those fantasies always degenerated
into a final confrontation scene, wherein I stomped on his chest until his ribs
caved in. And sometimes I thought about old dynamite. My father was
not a violent man, nor was he an advocate of Big Government; but he was a
career army officer. By his profession (in which I followed him) he symbolized
institutionalized violence. I witnessed my father's murder by a joy-riding
junkie. I looked to my father's government to revenge his death. Instead, I saw
the justice system mete out a punishment of "community service" to my
father's murderer; that same week I read about a man in Arizona sentenced to
two years in prison for killing a protected species of deer. I felt obligated
to seek revenge, yet I did nothing, because I knew that an act of revenge would
destroy my own life. But not until I read Hamlet and wrote this book did I
realize that I had been destroying my soul by keeping the hated image of my
father's murderer "in the book and volume of my brain".
False Dogs
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
On
my way to an evening linear algebra class, I stopped by the Arizona State
University Student Union building for a fast meal. A group of young students
was gathered around a TV set, cheering enthusiastically. The TV screen was
black with flashes of light, which prompted the cheering. Fireworks? No. It was
the night of January 17, 1991. Each flash of light was an American bomb
detonating in the midst of the ancient city of Baghdad, murdering thousands of
innocent people. I flashed back to 1966. I was sitting in the
auditorium of Lakewood (California) Senior High School, attending a mandatory
"pep rally" for the football team. Teachers were standing in the
aisles, taking down names of anybody who failed to cheer. We were being well
trained for that night in 1991.
Reflections on Hamlet
I
had long shunned Hamlet because, from what I had heard of it, it seemed to be a
glorification of suicide. After my father's death I was even more repelled by
the idea of the son of a murdered father who might prefer suicide to revenge.
But then, in 1992, I saw an interview with Mel Gibson, promoting his
"gutsy" version of Hamlet. About the same time, I bought Asimov's
Guide to Shakespeare. After reading Asimov's chapter on Hamlet and after seeing
Gibson's movie, I began to see Hamlet not as an indecisive, suicidal wimp, but
rather as a valiant soldier of the spirit, fighting a desperate internal battle
to defend the sovereignty of his soul. That same year, I read George
Polya's How To Solve It, where I learned a new attitude. I learned to be a
connoisseur of problems. I savor each problem, walking around it and admiring
it from all sides. I invite the problem into my mind and guide it through the
myriad chambers of my psyche, introducing it to each idea already living there.
I search the outside world for relatives of this problem, this new idea. I
welcome the related ideas, like the family of a new immigrant. I become one
with the new idea. It becomes a cherished part of me and I become a node in its
web of interconnections with the world. With this preparation, I
began to read Hamlet on Christmas Day, 1992, looking for proof that Hamlet was
not suicidal. I found that and much more.
'Tis Not Strange
Player-King
This world in not for ay, nor 'tis not strange That even our love
should with our fortunes change Physicists say the most
fundamental laws of this world are writ in very choice quantum mechanics.
According to quantum mechanics, an electron in isolation has no fixed
properties. It can have any position, speed, or direction. It is a probability
wave spreading out in all directions. Its properties only become actual when it
interacts with some larger configuration of matter; then, they say, "the
probability wave collapses". Horatio Oh day and night!
But this is wondrous strange! Hamlet And therefore, as a
stranger, give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Quantum
mechanics is only strange if you try to understand it with a mechanical model,
such as a pinball machine. Instead, compare the language of quantum mechanics
to the language of people. A word in isolation can have many meanings. A (k)nave
could be a rascal, or the hub of a wheel, or the center of a church, where
people pray and babies are baptized. But when we hear a word in context,
we automatically choose just one of the possible meanings; we "collapse
the probability wave". In "there's nary a villain dwelling in all
Denmark but he's an arrant knave" we choose the "rascal"
meaning for "knave". But Shakespeare did not collapse the
wave; he amplified it, focused it, bent it to his Will; he supplied multiple
contexts to sustain multiple meanings. I started writing this before
I finished reading the complete works of Shakespeare. As I read, my
interpretation of Shakespeare changes and I have to re-write what I have
written. Simultaneously, I have been trying to describe that within myself
which enables me to see into Shakespeare. But, as my vision of Shakespeare changes
so change I and I myself am being transformed by the very act of trying to
define myself. Mind and body root ideas in reality. Words on a page
have no relationship with the world except the fading memory of the last
reader. Shakespeare's plays don't live on dusty pages; they only come to life
on the stage, in the minds and bodies of the actors and the audience. What
distinguishes reality from fantasy is the connectiveness of fact. Every fact is
connected to every other fact by a complex web of interconnections. Fantasy is
isolated, with connections only within the brain of its author, limited in
extent, with a beginning and an end. But Hamlet is still occupying minds almost
four centuries after Shakespeare's brain has crumbled to dust. He is intimately
connected with ideas which will be vibrant long after we join Shakespeare in
the dust. Who is real, we or Hamlet? I comb my memory for events
leading to my discovery of Hamlet. Then I struggle to find words to describe
those events. And that struggle feels more like recollection than creation.
What damned plagiarist has stolen the words of my life? Even the words I just
wrote are a fading echo of someone else's song: "stealin' my life with
his song".
This Eternal Blazon Must Not Be
Nukes
as weapons of war make about as much sense as chain saws for surgical
instruments. But nukes are ideal weapons for terrorism - that's how we've
always used them. August 8 is St Dominic's Day. St Dominic advocated
reasoning with heretics to bring them back to the Church by persuasion rather
than burning them. (There was also a Japanese St Dominic of Nagasaki.) In
1588, King Phillip of Spain sent the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the Spanish
Armada to bring England back to the Catholic Church by "strong hands and terms
compulsatory." But like Hamlet, Medina was but mad north-north-west: when the wind
[was] southerly,) he was sane. On August 8, Saint Dominic's Day,
Medina decided that if the wind continued to blow from the south (which it did)
he would be have to abandon the attack on England. He was unable to recapture
the faith of Englishmen by force. He did "it
wrong, being so majestical, to offer it the show of violence, for it is, as the
air, invulnerable, and [his] vain blows malicious mockery."
On August 6, 1945, America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days
later, on the day after St Dominic's Day, we dropped another on Nagasaki.
Americans are still insisting that the bombing was necessary and justified. I'm
not asking Americans to wallow in guilt. But the deliberate slaughter of
thousands of innocents is murder. If we can't acknowledge that the Bomb was
evil, then this land of freedom, mankind's brightest hope, is doomed to sink
back into the abyss of mindless violence, to "fast in fires til [our sins] are
burnt and purged away." Please see "Made
in America: Massacring the Innocents of Nagasaki" by Bradley J. Birzer
(http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/made-in-america-massacring-innocents-of/#.UaYPy5z3UXt)
Extorted Treasure For Which
They Say You Spirits Oft Walk In Death
Nuclear
arms are spreading. How can we defend ourselves against the coming plenitude of
destructive forces? Free individuals have nothing to fear from nuclear weapons.
To extort tribute from a land of free people, a government would have to
conquer the people one by one. In such a conquest, nuclear weapons would be of
no use. But Americans have already surrendered their freedom to the IRS. To
steal the wealth of America, it is only necessary to capture the IRS, which
could be accomplished (or, just as bad, attempted) by a madman with a few
atomic bombs.
Building Bridges
The
Great Gallagher (in "Gallagher the Mad") describes the settling of
the West: pioneers leaving Europe and moving ceaselessly westward, never
satisfied, always looking for something better. Finally, they arrived at the Pacific
coast and could go no further; "they were pissed! . . . So they
built piers...". The most valuable creation of the West is
the spirit of rugged individualism. And perhaps the most valuable creation of
the the East is the wisdom to "acquire and beget a temperance which may
give" that rugged self smoothness, to live in harmony with the world.
Maybe someday we'll build bridges.
Like a Bridge Over Troubled
Water
My
brother Brian was born when we lived in Japan, although he was still a baby
when we left there. He had a lifelong fascination with Native American culture
and also a keen interest in Japanese culture. He was a good son, brother,
husband, father, and grandfather, well-loved by his family, friends, and
co-workers. He was a good man. Though he was just my little brother, I looked
up to him. Brian died from a sudden heart attack a week short of his fiftieth
birthday. In accordance with his wishes the family gathered at Zion National
Park to spread his ashes over the land he loved. We climbed a short trail up to
Weeping Rock, which is a shallow cave with water seeping from the ceiling. From
the ledge in front of the cave, there is a beautiful view of the rugged canyon.
Just as we began to scatter Brian's ashes, a group of Japanese tourists
happened to arrive at the ledge. One of them pulled a wooden flute from his
backpack and played "Amazing Grace." Rest in peace, Brian.
The Beauty of the World
This
goodly frame, the earth...this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this
brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,
...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! I stand atop
Camelback mountain in Phoenix, overlooking the Valley of the Sun, and I
"watch the sun going down, see the world spinning 'round." Scientist
This is nothing but atoms and electromagnetic radiation causing the firing of
neurons in my brain. Preacher I am just a humble vassal to the
Higher Power Who created this. Philosopher I am just a speck of
dust in the infinite Cosmos. Pessimist This is just a fleeting
moment. Soon the sun will be down, the darkness will come, I will die. Let
them keep their atoms, their Higher Power, their speck of dust, their fleeting
moment. This time and place and feeling is mine! And the sun will
rise again.
Plus Tax
Whenever
anyone sells anything, he or she is really selling ideas. This is especially
apparent when selling a book. Nevertheless, the government has the gall to tax
books. If this book is ever published commercially, the government will want to
tax it. Let the state extort, by strong hand and terms compulsatory, its pound
of flesh. It is fitting that a tax on ideas should be paid with ideas. So, in
what follows, I give the devil his due. Minds are the fountainhead of
all value in the world. To acquire value, you must use minds, your own and
others. People attempt to acquire value by three methods: force, fraud, or
trade. Force can interact with minds only indirectly, by threatening to destroy
them. Thus force would destroy what it seeks to control. Fraud interacts with
minds directly but still destructively. Minds create value by finding truth,
but fraud destroys value by obscuring truth. Trade is the natural interaction
between minds, creating value in the process of giving and receiving ideas (or
objects which are solidified ideas). Morality is an individual
choice. In order to further his own goals an individual chooses a set of
internal rules of thumb by which he will voluntarily limit his own behavior. He
also chooses a set of external rules that he expects others to obey. In order
to be accepted in the group of people who obey his preferred set of external
rules he must make his internal rules identical to his external rules. All the
above is just a roundabout way of saying "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you" or equivalently "Do not initiate force or fraud."
"In order to further his own goals" is a key phrase. What are
those goals? Everybody has different goals. I could say that some goals
resulted from evolution, some from brainwashing, some from reasoning - but
that's irrelevant. A person's goals are what they are. Morality is not about
prescribing goals for people. Morality is just about people finding ways to
cooperate with each other so that each person can maximize the achievement of
his own goals, whatever they may be. There is an exception to
"whatever they may be." If my goal is not just to help myself but
rather is to help or hurt you, then you and I can never have a cooperative
relationship. Whether I'm an altruist trying to help you or a sadist trying to
hurt you, what I'm doing is trying to substitute my goals for yours within your
mind. There can be no basis for cooperation and trade if we don't honour the
sovereignty of each other's goal-setting. By natural law, you own
what you create or what you acquire from others by trade (without the use of
force or fraud). If I steal from you, it's theft. If I and five other people
steal from you, it's still theft. If I and a hundred million other people steal
from you, we may call it taxes, but it's still theft. Majority rule has been
wrongly elevated to a moral principle, a principle born of the unholy union of
the modern cult of numbers with the ancient veneration of violence. Numbers
are the modern equivalent of witch's spells. People think there is some kind of
mathematical/moral law which says that the majority is right. But a
mathematician will tell you that merely assigning numbers to objects (or
people) does not guarantee that those objects can be logically added in the
same way as the numbers. Indeed, he may become positively indignant if you
maliciously add ordinal numbers. Any true accountant (not merely a bookkeeper
for the tax-collectors) can tell you of the knowledge, skill, and insight
needed to condense the lifeblood of a business into useful numbers, rather than
meaningless statistics. And as any physicist can tell you, if you add together
two halves of a critical mass of uranium, the resultant mass (after the
explosion) will be less than the sum of the parts. From its earliest
beginnings, government has been rooted in the worship of violence. "Might
makes right. Without majority rule, there would be war, in which the majority
would win anyway. So, let's avoid the bloodshed and submit peaceably to the
mighty majority." This assumes that violence, or the threat of
violence, is the only way people can interact. It excludes the possibility of
reasonable debate and free exchange, to which people naturally and profitably
resort whenever they eschew violence. As for a better system, as an
individual I do not have the wisdom, ability, or moral right to impose any
"system" on anyone. So I don't vote. Instead I try to persuade
others, not to form a new "system" but just to apply their own
day-to-day moral standards to everybody - including government agents who try
to justify their thievery by calling it taxation and justify their murders by
calling them "war". The majority has decided that I should
consent to abide by majority rule. But it is impossible for the majority to
give my consent. Only I can give or withhold my own consent. To quote Hamlet:
"How if I answer 'No'?" I apply my own moral standards to
regulate my own actions. To delegate my moral decisons to somebody else would be
the ultimate self-betrayal, amounting to psychic suicide. Rules that
I choose myself to limit my own behavior are called "ethics" or
"morality." Rules that somebody else selects and enforces
with the threat of violence are called "extortion" or
"slavery" or "government." If I don't like your
behavior or you don't like mine, the best solution is for us to simply not
associate with each other. That's much better than trying to control each other
with violence. Submit to force if you must, but never condone it, for
that would make a mockery of morality.
I am the son of a career Army officer. As a child, I lived in occupied Japan just "eight year or nine year" after my country murdered thousands of Japanese children with the first atomic bombs. I followed my father into the Army where, in the early 70s, I was trained to carry a backpack atomic bomb (Special Atomic Demolition Munition). Now I'm retired and living on government pensions from that same government which continues to drop bombs on children (aka "collateral casualties").
I was born in a government
hospital. I was a carrier of my country's weapons of mass murder. I was born and trained to be a tool of my government. Maybe I can't escape my fate, but a good deed from a flawed soul is still a good deed. I'll do what I can.
"O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make [e]ssay[s]!"
"All may be well."