Month: June 2015

To be, or not to be – that is the question;

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To be, or not to be – that is the question;
Well blow me down. Here we are at the most famous line in Shakespeare (possible exception “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?) and I’m utterly fascinated by this punctuation.

Now I want to see every edition of this play, like, ever and see how other editors have punctuated this bad boy. I mean, there is a LOT of punctuation in this sentence and I wouldn’t have thought it necessary. One of the reasons I chose this edition that I’m working with is that they’re not so punctuation crazy. There are editions that seem to be nothing but semi-colons and this one tends to not go the semi-colon route so often. But we have one here. On the most famous line in Shakespeare. Pourquoi?

I like this edition because it generally feels as though the punctuation has been put there for performers to speak it. It is punctuation that tends to serve the speaker. It can sometimes be a directive. In this case, it feels like a very specific directive, like a director, almost, telling the actor how s/he should say it. So it might be the editors saying to the actors say: To be (small pause) or not to be (bigger pause) that is the question (not so big a pause as you might think. Not a period, a semi-colon; don’t full stop here. )
This is a perfectly sensible interpretation, of course, but somehow it feels so specific, it almost feels bossy.

Let’s withdraw, my lord.

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One of my favorite parts of A Midwinters Tale is when one actor comforts another’s stage anxiety by saying something like, “Whenever I forget my lines. I just say – ‘Crouch we here awhile and lurk.’”  I love this.

And it seems to me that “Let’s withdraw, my lord” might serve in the same way. You know, you don’t know what you’re meant to do anymore. So you just say this and pull the other person back behind a curtain with you for a moment.
Either something else will happen or you can go back there, take a minute to regroup, figure out what in the world is meant to happen next.

I hear him coming.

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Footsteps? Throat clearing? Singing? Banging a drum and generally acting crazy? Already talking to himself as he walks?

How Polonius hears Hamlet coming can dramatically impact how Hamlet will begin the most famous speech in Shakespeare.

It is a little curious that Hamlet walks in to a place where no one appears to be and then starts talking. Like, is this how it goes down? “Let me go ahead and go to the place the king summoned me to – -Doo de doo de do. – Oh. No one’s here. Well, why don’t I sit myself down and philosophize for a while. That’ll pass the time til whatever’s supposed to happen here happens. . .”

O, heavy burden!

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Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight, carry that weight a long time.

It does feel like bad guys really don’t think this sort of thing through before they do it. They seem to lack the predictive skill that most of us use to prevent us from murdering people in our way. Most of us can imagine how we’d feel after murdering someone or at least can imagine that we would feel a weight eventually. We can predict our own behaviors and responses and this is very likely one of the things that prevents us from going around murdering one another. Morality, sure, and all kinds of other social constraints but ultimately we’re probably more concerned about how our own consciences would sting us than about the right or wrongness of our acts.

This predictive skill, the imaginative leap around feelings is one of the major things missing in a psychopath. He cannot imagine what other people feel and cannot empathize. He likely also cannot predict his own emotions, should he have any.

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.

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I find myself somewhat baffled by this analogy. I mean, I get it on the SAT level in that make-up is to a harlot’s cheek as Claudius’ painted word is to his deed. I get that they are both covering up ugliness, with surface beauty.

What’s baffling me is the “to the thing.” That is, is it that the make-up is personified and finds the face it is covering unattractive? Or is it “to” as in “compared to” that is, if we compare these things, the make-up is worlds away from the harlot’s cheek. Or – even more likely – the make-up (and skill of making up) are just as ugly as what it is covering up, that in covering ugliness, the plastering art becomes ugly, too, even though it seems beautiful.

I am also intrigued that two references to make-up happen in the same scene from two different characters. Is Hamlet somehow hearing this aside? And it inspires him to say something about make-up a little bit? Probably not – asides are generally not heard by other characters . . .but it’s an interesting possibility. It might undercut the tension of the Mousetrap somewhat, though.

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!

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Claudius seems to be quite sensitive to art. The Mousetrap brings him to his knees but this bit starts the ball rolling. Polonius gives this little speech that lashes at the King’s conscience, perhaps awakens it? The players pry open the crack that appears here in the king’s façade.

I like the notion of a Claudius who is so vulnerable to art, to words and to performance. There’s something to be mined there – like – are there paintings that he can’t look at?
Might we see him have a painting of a famous fratricide removed? Might we see him listening to a piece of music and struck to the heart by it?
There’s something about seeing Claudius besieged by Art and then making a choice to proceed as he does.
It would be funny, too, if Hamlet somehow had a sense of this and set up all kinds of art experiences to try and draw the king out. Hamlet could commission paintings, compositions and dances, all to get responses from King Claudius.

O, tis too true.

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I’ve been drawing spirals for the last ten minutes. I find myself entirely uninspired by this line. Often the shorter, simpler lines give me some sort of odd boost but today it just sent me spiraling. What is too true in my life? Too too too many things.

How is this line in the play? Well, it’s small talk, really. It’s the King’s masking line. It’s an “indeed.” Or “Yes.” With some extra oomph. It’s Claudius saying something to hide the impact of hearing the previous line in his awakening conscious. His devil is breaking out of its sugar shell and he is talking to cover it.

Or, he’s just starting to feel the truth and cannot help but speak it out now.

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.

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This is a funny thing to say to your daughter. Especially the daughter that you’ve just put in the position of pretending devotion. Unless he’s not saying it to Ophelia, but to Claudius. Claudius answers him and certainly takes it to heart.

My text has a note that says (To Ophelia) before “read on this book” and doesn’t switch back and add a (To King) before this one. The king’s a much more likely candidate but a Polonius who says this to his daughter is a very particular sort of Polonius.

Also? Sugaring over the devil calls to mind many delightful images featuring the little red horned cliché devil. In one, he’s covered in powdered sugar, like a Devil Powdered Donut. In another, he’s getting a sugar rub massage and he’s got that massage sugar all over him. In another, he’s a caramelized demon. Or he’s covered in honey. Or he’s got that sugar wax on him, about to have all his hair removed with those waxing strips. Or frozen in an ice tray popsicle cube. Sugared and frozen.

Read on this book, That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness.

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And by “color” does he mean “explain”? Or “enhance”? Or hide something?

It makes me wonder if solitude were a rather unusual thing for an unmarried woman. Could she not be out on her own for a walk without a book? What does the book do that she can’t? It seems to indicate a sort of religiosity given the second line. Has he given her the Bible? Is she meant to have ended up walking on her own because she’s been lost in her devotions?

And what of walking and reading?
It seems rather hazardous – but was it done at a certain point?

As a reader and a walker, I am intrigued by the notion. One would have to walk on familiar ground so as to avoid running into anything or falling off something. But, say, in a garden, on soft grass, where you know where the hedges are? Fantastic.

Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves.

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Is there another instance of a king being called Gracious? It’s a little odd. Your Grace, okay. I get that. But gracious? I guess it falls in the same category as Majesty? Like it’s a hipper way to say, “Your Grace”?

I’m tempted to re-punctuate this bit. To have “gracious” be a compliment that Polonius gives his daughter, a reflection of how he perceives her walking there. And even “so please you” could be to Ophelia. It would soften the relationship between Polonius and his daughter a little bit, maybe give it a shade of affection, as if he were asking her permission to hide with the king or at least just letting her know where they’re hiding. That would give a fun bit of business for Hamlet and Ophelia later when he asks where her father is.
It could be. “Gracious! So please you, we will bestow ourselves.”