Author: erainbowd

Ay, amen!

erainbowd

My Spanish speaking students will often do some delightful things when they encounter an “Ay” in the text. The simple yes becomes impassioned and tinged with a little hint of pain. It is as if they would continue to say, “Ay yi yi” – hands to their hearts like they might have an attack. The queen becomes a lot more telenovela in this case and I dig that.

Heavens make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him!

erainbowd

Guildenstern got religion at some point in their childhood. He loved the ritual and structure of church and was often making pleas to heaven, head upturned, hands open in supplication. It got more pronounced in his teenage years and as he aged his religiosity grew.
He lived in a religious world so the people around him always had to nod, say “Amen” and thank him for his prayers – but not a small number of his peers wished he’d shut up about it already. He gave all credit to God and none to the people before him and this often grated on the nerves of the people around him.
When his buddy went out of his way to help move his stuff, sweated, lifted, carried, made it all go smoothly, Guildenstern gave all his gratitude and praise to God, while the man who’d cut his hand on Guildenstern’s desk, bled, thankless.
It was hard to argue with, though.
Certainly, by a neat trick of theology, he could credit everything to God. God made the man who helped him, therefore thanks were due to God. Sure.
Heaven had a lot to do in Guildenstern’s world. He kept it pretty busy.

And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changéd son.

erainbowd

This “too much changéd” sums up exactly how I feel about someone in my life with mental illness. A little bit of change is inevitable. We are all constantly being changed – By the weather, the culture, the people around us, the choices we make, the things we do. But when someone is struck with what they once called “madness” – it is too much change.
At first, there was just a thunderstorm of madness, an enormous black cloud that descended and threw out lightning and downpours. This, I could weather, no question. I threw on a slick poncho and a wide brim hat and let the wind batter me in whatever direction it would.
Once the storm had passed, though, the landscape had changed, as if we had set sail in Tahiti and ended in Antarctica. We kept waiting for the boat to return but it seems iced in there, too much changed ever to return.

Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

erainbowd

Of the two, perhaps Guildenstern is the more diplomatic, the more gentle of the gentlemen. I haven’t followed this closely through the rest of the play, but based on the evidence here, he seems to be the more graceful of the two when talking with royalty. Maybe that’s why the king gives him the “gentle” and the even more diplomatic queen smooths out the potentially ruffled Rosencrantz with her next line.
These two lines are usually played for the laugh of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being interchangeable – that the king does not know which is which and the Queen corrects him, gently. I believe I played it that way myself – but there are other choices here – perhaps ones that go deeper than a joke at the king’s expense.

Both your majesties Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty.

erainbowd

Way to cut through all the politics there, Rosencrantz. Just slice right through all the decoration and elaboration, the nicey nice, the attempts to suggest future fortunes – Rosencrantz just calls it out.
You don’t need to persuade us. We’re duty bound to do whatever you say.
There’s no need for this pretense of us doing you a favor, and you potentially rewarding us with profit.
Sometimes I wish I could be this direct when someone is pretending that I’m not obligated to do something that I am actually obligated to do if I want to keep my job. I’d like to call out those dread pleasures as the commands they are.

If it will please you To show us so much gentry and good will As to expend your time with us awhile For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king’s remembrance.

erainbowd

Sum it all up with PROFIT.
The queen is gifted with political speech, able to use many words to make what is essentially a promise of money hidden in the veil of courteous language.
When I played the Queen, we cut most of this line, keeping only the thanks fitting a king’s remembrance. But reading it now, it expands Gertrude’s skill set considerably. She uses profit to suggest what she and Claudius will get out of them -profit more as a metaphor – but in using it to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (to whom she’s promising king’s remembrance) she’s planting a seed for big bucks.
We don’t see politically adept women in the plays and I wouldn’t have credited her as such at first. But she’s good, this Gertrude, she’s a good political match for Claudius.

Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you, And sure I am two men there is not living To whom he more adheres.

erainbowd

What did Hamlet say when he talked about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
And when did he do this talking?
Were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern good friends until middle school when they started running with the smoking crowd and geeking out on cop shows? Does Gertrude think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are her son’s close friends because she’s out of touch or ARE they, in fact, closer than they seem. We never get to see them before they start behaving perfidiously. We don’t see late nights over beers with the prince, spilling their guts or talking about philosophy. We only see them spying on their friend for his parents. Or for money. Whichever it is, their loyalties don’t seem to lie with Hamlet. So, what did he say about them to the Queen? Or did he?