Sure, yes, heaven sometimes seems to organize things in an orderly fashion. It sure feels like magic when things line up in extraordinary serendipity.
But serendipitous moments are pretty rare. Most of the time, our lives are pretty messy. Most of the time, the gods seem to be organizing the earth the way a teenager organizes his bedroom – that is, barely.
I picture a god just tossing an idea in a corner when he’s done with it and being surprised when he discovers it again buried under a t-shirt.
Author: erainbowd
How was this seal’d?
This question suggests an unusual amount of knowledge of royal messengering. Unless, somehow, it was common knowledge that a seal on an envelope sealed its authenticity. I mean, how many people actually received royal communiques? How many people had even seen a royal seal? But, Horatio is friends with a prince and even when Hamlet’s not there, he hangs around with royals so I guess he’s got a lot of insider knowledge of how this stuff works.
But also I wonder if he hasn’t secretly plotted such a thing and this question speaks to an obstacle he encountered, so he’s thought it through. Maybe.
An earnest conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma ‘tween their amities, And many such-like As’es of great charge, That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow’d.
Hamlet does do a good job of imitating Claudius at his wordy best. Though this commission is actually a lot more straight forward than most of Claudius’ political speechifying. The as’es are hilarious – of greater importance the more there are, of course – but they are actually pretty clear. England better kill those message bearers because of X, Y, and Z. As, as, as.
Also – I love the little hints at the history between those countries – how at odds and how tenuously at peace they were.
Ay, good my lord.
Horatio pretty much always says and does what is expected of him. He is sort of the oil in the machine, keeping it running. He says yes when he’s supposed to. He nods at the right time. He wants to know what Hamlet wants to tell him and he never makes waves. He doesn’t say, “Nah, I don’t care what you wrote there.” Of course he wants to know. Of course, we, the audience, want to know too.
Wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote?
I write all the time. Every day. It is my practice. And I share it, too. Most of the time, there’s no response at all. I “publish” something and nothing changes. I don’t actually know if anyone’s read what I set down. Recently, a comment here on this blog made me realize that at least one person was actually reading it and paying attention and thinking about what they found. I was shocked to see this small thing making an effect on someone.
I am pleased to be read and received. I am pleased with my words making an emotional impact on someone or making them think.
But it is really something to imagine that one’s words could have the power to kill the way Hamlet’s rewritten commission does. I wouldn’t want such a power but it is QUITE a strong effect.
I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair and labour’d much How to forget that learning, but, sir, now It did me yeoman’s service.
This is much more complicated than its face value. I mean, it’s very simple on one level: he tried to forget how to write like a bureaucrat but it was helpful in this instance. Very simple. But also complicated!
What is this reference to statists? Is he using it as it’s used now? Is it a dig at Claudius? Or some other oppressive government? He does not see himself as a part of the statists but shared a belief with them. So I have questions about that. And forgetting this learning makes me wonder how or why he learned it. Was there legitimately some training in that writing style? I was joking about it in the previous post but now I’m not so sure there wasn’t some. Where did he unlearn this style? At Wittenberg? And what made him try to unlearn it? This makes me wonder the exact trajectory of Hamlet’s education and how much of it was related to his royal duties and how much was his own interest.
I sat me down Devised a new commission, wrote it fair.
He probably really knows how to do this. Probably there’s a whole course in royal training school where they teach you how to write commissions. You don’t need to learn to write essays or read novels but you will need to learn to write commissions and other such royal decrees. Proclamations are their own workshop.
Royal Syllabus:
In this course, we will learn to write commissions, decrees and missives. Pre-requisites include: Proclamations, Handwriting, Seals and Posture.
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play –
The they is the villanies, I presume and it is they who have set the play in motion. The villanies wrote the scenario, the villanies started the plot.
Hamlet was hoping to make his own work, from his own brain – but all these villanies kicked into action and his play was tanked before it could even begin. Before he could even work out how he wanted to begin, he was forced to react to the villanies before him.
Being thus be-netted round with villanies –
This is probably how a fish feels, caught in a net. All around him, the lines of betrayal, lumped in with old boots and tin cans, plastic bottles, syringes and crill.
I imagine a sunfish Hamlet calling to the Gods, “How came I to be thus be-netted?”
I beseech you.
When did words like beseech, plead and beg fall out of casual use? Pleading and begging, we still use, but they are mostly only used in the most extreme circumstances. Pleading and begging turn up in violent situations and in court but we don’t go around pleading and begging when chatting with our friends. And we certainly don’t beseech them.
Rarely, we might hear an “I beg your pardon” but even that has fallen out of favor. My grandmother said it quite often – but I only ever use it with mock horrified gentility.
The Hamlet Project 