I’ve grown tired of making children listen. I don’t talk much when teaching; My aim is 2% of Me Talking, 98% of them DOING.
But even so, I spend a great deal of every day asking questions like this. It’s a dumb question. I know the answer. It’s no – even though they will SAY yes.
Author: erainbowd
Take you as ‘twere some distant knowledge of him, As thus, “I know his father and his friends, And in part him.”
We never see them but I get a sense that Laertes has some good friends.
Polonius suggests that Reynaldo claim connections to them (and himself) to gain some legitimacy and later, Laertes almost stages a successful coup. He must have a lot of friends and supportive ones at that.
Or if there aren’t a LOT of them, they’re very loyal. So loyal that they’d stage a coup for him. The fewer of them there are, the more loyal they must be.
They may be a little riotous but they seem to have Laertes’ back.
I’m not sure what trouble Polonius thinks his son is getting into – if he’s thinking drinking, swearing, quarreling, gaming or drabbing isn’t going too far to dishonor him. Or maybe he’s looking for evidence of those very things?
I picture Laertes a little bit like a frat boy, surrounded by a tight knit group of drinking buddies who get up to mischief wherever they go but will band together the instant anything gets serious.
And finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it.
Encompassment? Really Polonius?
How is this drift of question an encompassment? It sounds like a pretty direct line. Exactly what would Reynaldo be circling around?
I guess he’s getting the lock down on what all the Danskers are up to but encompassing it?
But once again, I think Polonius is using a 5 dollar word where a penny word will do. Speaking of 5 dollar words, I looked up this expression recently and discovered that there is no set amount to express this idea.
There are 10 dollar words, 4 dollar words, 3, 2, 1. There are 25 cent words.
It can be hard to tell if 25 cent words are meant to be big or small ones. I suspect there has been some inflation of the value of words – that is, the ones that are perceived to be unnecessarily fancy have grown from 10 cent words to twenty five cent words to dollar words and so on.
It’s a drift of value, of expense and expression. But a penny will hold as a word that accomplishes the same thing but more simply and clearly.
10 cent, 25 cent, dollar and ten dollar words depend on use, too – who is using them and why. Hamlet uses loads of big words, fancy ones, with lots of syllables, but they never seem like ten dollar words in his mouth. They seem like the right ones – but Polonius, Polonius uses big words and they stand out as big words, as a man using words, not to express something but to impress or to create an image of an intelligent man. He uses more words than he needs, as many an academic, politician or obfuscator of meaning will.
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense;
Where exactly is Reynaldo going to get this intelligence?
That’s a lot of information to get about visitors to a city.
I can see that at a bar you might find a bartender who’s seen some Danes go through there because maybe they serve good Danish beer and maybe that bartender could tell you if they tip well and who they hang out with – but how they are in Paris, with whom, where their money comes from and where they live and how much it costs, Well, that seems a lot for a casual contact to know.
Is there perhaps a tourist bureau that keeps tabs on visiting Danes? Do they have careful records filed away in their books just in case someone needs to round them up one day? Perhaps, as a bit of a spy himself, Polonius has contacts with Parisian spies who will share information for a price.
Look you, sir.
In my edition, Reynaldo is listed as Polonius’ “man” which might indicate a valet or a servant of some kind but not specifically.
I have questions about this – because why is Polonius calling his servant “sir”?
Sirrah, okay, that’s a servant, sure – but sir?
Sir, would seem to me to be a title among equals or betters.
Granted, I am not an expert in titles. I have not closely examined who calls who sir throughout the canon but every example that comes immediately to mind fall in the category of equals.
“Do you quarrel, sir?”
“Quarrel, sir, no sir.”
A couple of ruffians and servants, sure – but equals.
Rosalind to Orlando: “Sir, you have wrestled well.”
Equals.
I don’t know – Sir shows up a LOT in the plays. A LOT.
Who’s got the numbers and statuses?
Very well said.
He often finds the perfect words for things.
He summarizes the problem succinctly and exactly.
He points at the exact point of difficulty with startling accuracy.
He claims to not be “a WORDS guy” but I’ve never met anyone who says them better.
There are, though, several things he cannot find words for, or chooses not to. Perhaps they are blinds spots in a well said landscape.
It is mysterious.
Marry, well said.
I’m curious about how “marry” became this sort of word. What do we even call this kind of word? A stalling word, a connecting word, a word that adds rhythm without much meaning. Whatever we call them, they’re important words. I remember when I was first learning Italian. A friend taught me to say “Allora” so I’d have a word to think with – a word that would create space for me to work out the grammar of what I wanted to say – a word I could weight with exclamatory functions or simple place holding. The art history teacher used “quindi” in much the same way, but with her it was a vocal tic, one which we all could imitate, even with our rudimentary language skills.
Quindi wasn’t quite so successful a lingual breath. Can I call it that? Anyway, “Marry” seems like “Allora” or “Why” or “My” or “Well” – mostly like “well” I think – but how did it come to be so and then how did it fade away again?
My lord, I did intend it.
Reynaldo seems to be way ahead of Polonius on this. He’s already planned on asking around about Laertes, or at least that’s what he says. He either is anticipating Polonius’ needs/instructions or knows how to make it seem as though he anticipated this instruction.
Maybe he knows Polonius well and would do what he would ask before he asks or maybe he’s a professional spy and Polonius is asking him to do what is part of his job, part of his spying wheelhouse and Polonius is micromanaging Secret Agent Reynaldo here. Whichever it is, Polonius seems to be impressed with this response.
You shall do marvelous wisely, good Reynaldo, Before you visit him, to make inquire Of his behavior.
To my ear, Polonius sounds a little bit like Bottom here
Perhaps it’s just the use of the word “marvelous” –
Bottom is marvelous hairy about the face.
Polonius suggests Reynaldo will do marvelous wisely
And in neither case, does marvelous sound particularly – um – smart.
They both use big words, for sure. Bottom a lot more inappropriately – but anyone aspiring to appear intellectual will make a many syllable mistake sometimes.
This, is not, I don’t think, a mistake
Just a sort of funky construction –
But it makes me consider
What would happen if the actor playing Polonius also played Bottom and brought a little of one to the other?
I will, my lord.
If I can’t play Hamlet, I think I’d like to be Reynaldo.
There’s something about these little roles that I love.
Of the seven roles I played in the three plays on the Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric Tour, my favorite was the messenger/servant. In Henry IV, my messenger appeared for a few moments, said almost nothing – a blank page of a character.
If memory serves, this is why we named our theatre Messenger Theatre Company.
What’s glorious about these little roles is that there must be a whole world behind them that we will never see.
Reynaldo speaks several very short lines and never turns up again, so there is a vast canvas on which to paint this messenger/servant. We know he cannot/does not reveal anything about himself in this exchange but have a self, he must.
And an actor can invent one with just this little bit of information. Reynaldo can be terse because he is a dark mysterious spy or because he’s stupid with a limited vocabulary. He can be young, old, a peer of Laertes or an employee of Polonius.
Playing Reynaldo is a playground of choices.
The Hamlet Project 