Who is he talking to? If it’s Osric, it seems a little forward. I’m assuming they haven’t met and Horatio’s status may be elevated by being friends with the Prince but he’s not a prince and probably not a lord, either.
But would he call Hamlet sir?
He mostly calls him “my lord.”
I’m very confused about what, exactly, Horatio is saying here and to whom.
Author: erainbowd
Ist not possible to understand in another tongue?
Tongue is a funny word for language and it tends to travel across languages, too. Language and tongue, are in fact, the same words in some languages.
But here – I think Horatio isn’t using the word tongue as language – he’s using it more literally. Because Hamlet and Osric are both speaking English, however arch and verified – but it may SOUND like another language. And I suspect that Horatio is attempting a bit of double meaning with tongue in that capacity.
I don’t think Horatio’s particularly funny, though, or all that quick with words. He’s a better listener than talker.
It is also odd that he pipes up to speak in just this moment.
Has Osric turned to him to get a translation?
Sir?
Poor Osric. He has no idea what the heck Hamlet is talking about. Hoisted with his own linguistic petard, as it were.
Why do we wrap the gentleman In our more rawer breath?
In other words. Why are we talking about this guy? But also – why are we coating him with words? We the less refined, the more coarse, the less remarkable, the not as noble.
Clearly we can not all be as amazing as Laertes is given all the words spent in his honor.
The concernancy, sir?
It’s too bad this word didn’t stick. A note I read was like, “Oh, this is a word Shakespeare made up. Ha, ha. Hamlet’s fooling Osric with a made up word!”
But Shakespeare made up words all the time and not just when he wanted to make fun of a pompous talker. Some of them really caught on.
So I’m sorry this one didn’t. I mean – really – just straight up “concern” would get the job done. The “ancy” is extra. But it does add something. It feels like not just the concern – but the whole concern situation, the whole cluster of things around a concern. A concernancy. Also – it’s so easy to work out what it is – even though it’s not a word that any of us know.
Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
And by infallible, he means – you said what I would have said.
That is, that which I agree with is, in fact, infallible.
I wish that this weren’t true of most men.
And who else would trace Him, his umbrage, nothing more.
In elementary school, I remember some art project wherein we traced our shadows. Well – we couldn’t trace our own shadows – every move would change them – but we traced one another’s shadows. It’s kind of a beautiful project. You get an artistic representation of yourself that is also not your self – a self/not-self at several layers of remove.
And his infusion of such dearth and Rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his Semblance is his mirror.
What does Hamlet mean by infusion here?
It would seem that it meant then more or less what it means now.
Is he pointing to a kind of essence of Laertes’ soul?
Is the infusion, like, concentrated extract of Laertes?
I mean, I know a lot of this is purposefully obscure language but in other instances, it is also accurate. Has he veered away from meaningful parody and just begun to get a little silly? Just seeing what he can get away with with Osric?
His semblance is his mirror? Is he trying to say he is what he seems? This sentence is not only what it seems.
But, in the Verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of Great article.
Ah, the verity of extolment!
I’m writing this on the day of Dr. Ford’s testimony about Brett Kavanagh. And thinking about how high the praise has been of him by those who would like to see him seated on the Supreme Court.
I can see the verity of their claims. Oh, he is a great dad! Oh, he is a dedicated church goer! What a good guy! But you know what, fuckers?
Bill Cosby was also a great dad. He was America’s Dad when I was a kid. We all wanted Bill Cosby to be our father, too. But turns out – you can be a great dad and ALSO a rapist. You can go to church every Sunday and still commit sexual assault. The verity of your extolment doesn’t make the other things NOT true. It’s like none of these people ever read a book, watched a play or saw a movie. Bad guys don’t always look like bad guys, you knuckle heads.
Even Richard the murderous fucking Third knew how to appear pious.
Though, I know, to divide him inventorially would Dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw Neither, in respect of his quick sail.
This section makes me think about the idea of homo ludens – that is – that one of the principle characteristics that defines us as human is our ability, desire and need to play. Hamlet is a great player. He knows how to play in multiple ways. He knows how to make a game of many things. This game is the game of using as many silly honorific words as possible to describe Laertes – to sound as pompous as possible, without giving away the game. And the game grows as he plays it. He starts playing and the game opens out until it is a whole speech.
Also I’m curious about what “sail” is doing here.
The Hamlet Project 