What is popping out to me today is “the unsatisfied.” I don’t think I ever noticed this last bit of the line before. I could have quoted you the first bit without hesitation. What would Hamlet like Horatio to do at the end of the play? That’s easy.
Report me and my cause aright!
But – to whom?
I couldn’t have told you.
I don’t know whether “to the unsatisfied” is often cut or if most Hamlets swallow the last part so it sort of disappears – but it disappeared to me until today. Because who are the unsatisfied? Largely, we’re talking to the audience here. It’s an epilogue sort of moment – it’s an end of the play plea before the play has ended. It’s like Rosalind or Puck at the end of the play hoping that you liked it and Hamlet is handing over the responsibility of storytelling to Horatio and hopping he can satisfy those who have not been satisfied by what has happened thus far.
I also am struck by the creation of the group. The Unsatisfied have gathered together, bound together by unsatisfaction and there is a hope, a small hope to be sure, but still a hope that a story from Horatio might be enough to convert them from The Unsatisfied to The Satisfied.
I would love to make that sort of affinity group switch myself. Could a story do the trick?
The Hamlet Project 