Author: erainbowd

Unequal matched, Pyrrhus drives, in rage strikes wide, But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword Th’unnervéd father falls.

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1) What is Pyrrhus so mad about? He would seem to be winning. And why is he so mad that his aim suffers? He seems to have done a great job of killing folks this far.

2) Has Pyrrhus knocked Priam down without actually touching him with his sword? It sounds like just the disturbance of the air around the slash of the sword is what causes Priam to fall. It’s either a super powerful, earthshaking arc of a sword wake or Priam’s so unsteady on his feet that a strong wind blows him over. I guess he is unnervéd and if I’d just lost everything like him, I’d probably fall over when someone waved a sword in my direction. Whiff, wind, fall.

His antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command.

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If this were a cartoon, the sword would have a face, one with lots of lines and a long white beard. As Priam attempted to lift it, the sword would groan and say, “No dice, soldier, I’ve been around the block too many times. It’s just not happening.”
Then Priam would shout at it, “Come on you old bounder. This is it. You don’t lift now. You’ll never lift again. Come on now lift!”
And the sword shakes his head (or his blade, really) and says, “Nope. Not doing it.”
Priam tries to reason with it. He reminds, the sword of all the battles they’ve won together. He calls up all the throats they’ve cut. All the limbs they’ve gashed, all the stomachs they’ve gored.
But still the sword lies where it falls. He tells Priam that it’s not like it used to be and he’s sorry but he just can’t move. And he just won’t.

‘Anon he finds him Striking too short at Greeks.

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Poor Priam. His city falling around his ears. His family decimated. The enemy swarms around him and his every attempt to send them off falls short. All he can do is swat them away with his sword. Is he in the parching streets as well? Has Priam left his palace to defend it? Or has Pyrrhus found him in his courtyard? Or his bedchamber? His throne room? Where is Priam to go with his city besieged?

‘Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

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You don’t see actors praised for their good discretion these days. When you read the reviews in the New York Times, they don’t proclaim, “This extraordinary performer has such good discretion. Run to get tickets!”

Part of me wishes they would. I see so many performances that lack discretion or perhaps another way to say it would be that they lack subtlety, restraint and intelligence. I link discretion with restraint more than anything. I imagine that when Polonius compliments Hamlet on his good discretion, he’s praising an authenticity. He’s praising his ability to not be too histrionic. (Unless of course he’s been histrionic in his recitation, and this line becomes sarcastic? Or ironic in some way?)

So, proceed you.

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Punctuation alert! Punctuation alert! Question about this comma here. I’ve almost always heard it spoken as if there were no comma here (and probably there isn’t one in many editions.) The sense is often “continue in this manner.” I see the value of the comma – it shifts the meaning somehow – makes the “so” more of a stalling word than an instruction for how to proceed.
But once we open the Pandora’s box of punctuation (given that punctuation is free game for the editors) it could be: So – proceed you. So could be part of the text about Pyrrhus. In other words, it could be part of the line before. It could be:
“So ———–
Proceed you.
And thereby providing a moment for Hamlet to forget what comes next. It could be: So. Proceed you.
Or
So! Proceed you.
Fun with punctuation.

roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sizéd with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks.

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This passage feels like the language version of sinking teeth into a piece of meat and letting the juice run down the chin. It is somehow crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. If you really think about what you’re eating, it can be disturbing but the pure carnivorous pleasure is ancient.

Shakespeare roasted us up this passage, the way Pyrrhus is roasted in blood (adding so many layers that he’s gone up a couple of sizes) and it is all so juicy.

Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous and a damnéd light To their lord’s murder;

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It takes a special kind of murderer to get himself completely covered in the blood of his victims, especially when his victims are entire families.
He must just hack his way through the town, severing arteries left and right. It must give him a thrill.

Perhaps bathing in your enemies’ blood is a part of the ritual of war for this guy. So much so that with the right heat and humidity, that blood bakes into a new kind of armor, hardening like clay on his skin to help protect him from the next wave of murder ahead of him.

‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couchéd in th’ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldy more dismal.”

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This probably isn’t the moment to mention this but why is the Trojan Horse called the TROJAN horse? It’s more like the GREEK horse when you think about it. The Greeks made it, conceived it, hid inside it and emerged from it. The only thing Trojan about it is that it ended up in (and ended) Troy. Seems a little backward.

But of course, history is told by the victors. That we call th’ominous horse a Trojan one forever associating Troy with trickery and destruction speaks to the Greek columns that hold up our culture.

It is an ominous horse, one that holds warriors and death in its womb. Pyrrhus is not the only warrior with a black purpose. They must lay couchéd in there, feeding their fury, laying fuel on the fire of bitterness and dispassion, preparing themselves to lay waste to a city – preparing for murder, yes, but also rape and sacrifice and the utter destruction of a culture.

As much as I’ve always loved this speech, I never fully understood what it was doing in this play but now, I suddenly see the parallels. Troy falls when Priam falls. And Elsinore too falls not long after its reverend King Hamlet with it. The intertwinement of King and Kingdom, the tower of Ilium falling foreshadowing the fall of the House of Hamlet.

It begins with Pyrrhus.

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Pyrrhus. The rugged Pyrrhus – hero to the Greeks – villain to the Trojans. Also known as Neoptolomus. Here, clearly the villain – he is hellish, like a beast, dreaded etc.

Hamlet is interested in the Trojan perspective, it occurs to me now. In Greek stories, Pyrrhus/Neoptolomus is portrayed as a compassionate boy, who, when he kills Polyxena, kills her the nicest way possible. (Oh those Greeks, they love a good lady sacrifice!)

Here, Pyrrhus is worse than a devil but he is also the center of the story, prowling the streets in search of reverent Priam.

And perhaps we’re meant to associate Priam with the other king father in this play, the one that was also killed by a villain. I see now why Hamlet wants to hear this speech.

‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast –‘ ‘Tis not so.

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What part of the speech is this bit that’s not spoken by Hamlet or the Player later?
Is it what comes before?
Is Pyrrhus as Hyrcanian beast a line in another part of the play or is it the beginning of this one?
He’s got the rugged arms bit but the Hyrcanian beast bit must came from SOMEWHERE, mustn’t it?
Why is it rejected?
I mean, it adds a level of naturalism to have Hamlet mess up the beginning of the speech and I love that it references something we will never see again.

Also, what is an Hyrcanian beast?