The dude who works here has been telling me his life story for about an hour. He’s super sweet and 19 and leaving the state tomorrow…but phew. It’s a lot.
Author: erainbowd
Gentlemen,
All? Really? All? Like “that would hang us every mother’s son?” All?
It’s kind of a great word for a whole bunch of people to all decide to say together. “Gentlemen” doesn’t necessarily roll right off the tongue. Who would kick off this all with “gentlemen”? My guess is the priest. And others backed him up.
Or the king, I suppose. But he’s just spoken and no one joined in. I’m sticking with the priest.
Hamlet, Hamlet!
As far as we know, the last time Gertrude saw Hamlet was right after he killed Polonius. She may have feared she’d never see him again. I mean, sea travel was clearly not without peril, as evidenced by the pirates that turn up – and maybe she even has a glimmer of what Claudius was up to with this England thing.
She has had, theoretically, some suggestion of Hamlet’s return via the letters – but we don’t know how much Hamlet has told her. Maybe just “I’m alive.”
Anyway – there’s a lot that she may be feeling at seeing her son again grappling in the grave she just threw flowers in. Does she feel like she called him there by saying his name?
A line like this offers so many possibilities.
Pluck them asunder.
Laertes must be losing in this fight because why else would the king want it broken up?
Like – I know he has a plan – but what if Laertes could just take care of Hamlet for him right then?
I suppose it’s a political choice.
He can’t appear to be allowing violence before him – in a woman’s grave, no less.
Also. Pluck them asunder is such a delightful turn of phrase. It’s one of those that, even if you don’t immediately know what “asunder” means or what plucking might have to do with anything, you can work out the sense in context. It’s the kind of phrase I can get a middle school boy who hates English class to get into.
Hold off thy hand.
Note to self: The next time some random dude gropes me or gets a little too close to me, I would like to have this line at my immediate disposal.
One of my favorite podcast hosts has recommended saying, “Not cool!”
I like that one and I imagine it’s effective in a visceral way and easily understood but I think a loud, “Hold off thy hand!” might have a nice disorienting authority – it might invoke a little Hamlet-y danger – it might access the “something dangerous” within that Hamlet mentions.
For, though, I am not splenitive and rash, Yet I have something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear.
I’m not sure Hamlet’s understanding of himself is accurate. He well may be splenitive and rash. He did, after all, murder Polonius rather rashly. He did rather vent his spleen on Ophelia in that nunnery scene and also on Gertrude in the closet scene.. So…it’s not so that he’s not splenitive or rash. Though he does absolutely have something dangerous in him.
And I think, I myself am not splenitive or rash and I have something dangerous in me as well.
But maybe I am, like, Hamlet, only partially self aware. Maybe I am more rash than I know. Or maybe I have no danger in me at all.
I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat.
I’d love to hear from fight directors about how they solve this conundrum. If Laertes does, in fact, have his fingers credibly on Hamlet’s throat, Hamlet would not be able to request their removal. If he doesn’t have his fingers on his throat, Hamlet has no reason to say this.
So…how to proceed? Does Laertes have his fingers at Hamlet’s throat but is somehow not choking him? Is Hamlet exaggerating? I might have to watch a few versions of this scene on film and on stage to see how folks handle this.
Thou pray’st not well.
There is something ticking away under this play. Something about prayer and hypocrisy – true prayer, effective prayer.
I can’t immediately think of another scene in Shakespeare like the one Claudius has. The struggle to pray, the question of whether to slay someone praying, the irony that the prayers were not so much prayers as the performance of prayers.
Who else do we see pray in Shakespeare?
Imogen – before she goes to bed.
Juliet – before she takes the potion.
But no one else evaluates the quality of prayer like Claudius – which is why it’s interesting that Hamlet says this seemingly unrelated line to all of that to Laertes….but maybe not.
Grappling with him.
The stage directions do tend to get good as a play draws to a close. Action, action, action. And grappling is so much more fun than fighting with him or wrestling with him or any other less specific word.
The devil take thy soul!
Until the current administration took over the government in my country, I would have said I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I mean – I don’t really believe in the devil so…it’d be sort of toothless – but even so – now, there are quite a few people I could see shouting this at now.
There’s the obvious doofuses at the top – but also, of course, Sessions and Miller and Mnuchin and Pruitt, especially. He’s who I’m really thinking of. And because he’s an evangelical Christian, such a curse might land very nicely on him.
A couple years later, Sessions and Pruitt are gone. Still stuck with Miller and Mnuchin, though. Booo.
The Hamlet Project 