Horatio will call Hamlet “Lord” in every line in this scene.
Hamlet calls him “my good friend” and “fellow student”
With seeming great warmth
But every time
Horatio calls Hamlet “my lord.”
Did he do this in Wittenberg?
When they were sitting in Philosophy ckass
Debating the nature of time,
Did Horatio say, “Pardon me, my lord, but your theories
Are full of shit and completely unfounded.”?
At the late night parties, when Hamlet struggled to keep his feet in order
after a bit too much ale,
did Horatio say, “My lord, you’ve puked up on your jacket, hug not me!”?
It’s a curious formality among friends
Even if one of them is a prince.
I wonder though, if this is a result of being on the Prince’s home turf.
Horatio, not a native Dane,
Isn’t sure how to behave suddenly –
Like someone in a fancy house
In which the rules of etiquette are quite different
From what he grew up with.
Is Horatio holding up the salad fork, wondering
What do with it?
Bowing at the wrong moment?
Afraid to make a dent in the cushy sofa
So he sits on the edge
Bolt upright
Nodding “yessir” and “Nossir”
And knocking over his drink.
The Hamlet Project 