Hmm. Speed’s not so tempting. He’s trying to find ways for these guys to get him on board quickly..and he can’t just say, “Hurry him on to that boat.” He’s trying to hurry Hamlet on board without making it seem like he’s hurrying him.
Yeah – how do we get him on board that boat fast and also make it SEEM like it was his idea to get on board fast – not that he was compelled to get on board fast.

Oh the difference a preposition can make! If it were follow him “on foot,” I’d just nod along and go, “Sure, yeah. On foot.” But it’s not on foot. And on foot wouldn’t make a lot of sense either (despite what one note I read suggested.) I mean, Hamlet just walked out seconds ago. What else would someone following him be using to follow him at this point? I mean…they’re not hopping on hover boards or broomsticks, are they? On foot is the most sensible, efficient way to follow someone in this situation. At foot, though might imply a distance. That is, it might be suggesting the followers follow him closely, that they should be a foot behind him at all times. It qualifies the following in an interesting and useful way – whereas “ON foot” would just be redundant. And the difference between “at” and “on” suddenly becomes interesting despite the notes on Genius which attempt to make “AT” mean “On.”

It’s like Claudius went to the step-parent school and took all the classes in “How to Be a REAL Tool of a Step-Parent.”
The teachers meant the classes to be ironic but Claudius took notes and took them very seriously. And then, of course, took them ever further by plotting to kill his stepson.
Step-Parent of the Year, King Claudius!

What IS he trying to say here? I mean…he’s trying to imply that the purposes underneath are in Hamlet’s interests and altruistic. But we know (and Hamlet probably knows too) that his purposes are in no way in Hamlet’s interest. So it’s funny to bring up the underlying motives – given how dark those motives actually are. But I guess this is a standard practice in lies…you try to deflect from the lie by stating the direct opposite of the lie…which has a funny way of pointing at the lie. It is tricky business being a villain.

It is amazing how much this play runs through the culture. There are references to it all throughout literature, through film. It pops up everywhere. I’m reading Ulysses now – and hardly a page goes by without a reference to Hamlet. I can’t imagine what it would be like to read that novel without my Hamlet goggles on. Surely many people DO read it without Hamlet goggles on but because the lines are so familiar to me, I cannot miss how threaded through it all is. If I had a penny for every reference to Hamlet I caught, I’d have a pretty good piggy bank of pennies by the end.

Ulysses references many other things as well. The Odyssey, for example. Or Walt Whitman – but I don’t catch all of them. And with the Odyssey – because there’s a difference in languages of origin, there aren’t quite so many direct text references. There couldn’t be.

I haven’t had a band in a while but if I were to start one I’d call them Th’associates. I mean. Wow. Who are th’associates? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? The sailors? It’s a very formal and weird way to say, “We’ve got some people to go with you.
Th’associates.”
I would NOT like to be The Associates. Partly because there has surely previously BEEN a band called The Associates and partly because it sounds CORPORATE in this day and age. But – Th’associates? So good. I mean. Not so good for people knowing how to say it – because I have seen many a person flummoxed by contractions like this. But…if we didn’t care…
Ladies and Gentlemen – Please Welcome to the Stage, Th’associates.

I don’t know why but 9 out of 10 of my anxiety dreams feature preparing myself to leave. In the dreams, I am trying to catch a train or a plane or a bus and somehow cannot gather my things into my suitcase fast enough. Sometimes I have to pack a whole apartment or room in a hurry and I know I will not make the plane or the train…but I cannot stop because I am not finished sorting my stuff. The drawers are all askew or there’s clothing everywhere or I’m trying to decide which book I can leave. But all all all in a hurry.

I had one of those dreams this morning, though it was a slightly different from than usual. I was on a bus…and somehow my things had come out of my bags and were under the floor mat, tucked into the seat…and still we were trying to make a train connection but my bag wouldn’t let me.

What a good show the king is putting on!
And for who? Some attendants? Hamlet himself?
The king tendering Hamlet’s safety is laughable and at this point both of them know it, I suspect. Maybe it’s a game…just play as nice as possible til you murder someone.

My edition says “to attendants” for this line. Most productions I’ve seen or been a part of don’t really have enough actors for the king to just have extra attendants – so he will say it to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but then you have a problem – because in just a few lines, he’s going to instruct someone to follow Hamlet. So if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go look for the body, then you either have to have them come back or split them up – so Rosencrantz has to look for the body and Guildenstern has to follow Hamlet.
It all makes me wonder about the casts of Shakespeare’s shows. We have some sense of who was in them but the named players might not cover such roles as attendants and extras. The logistics of running a company in Shakespeare’s time are endlessly fascinating to me. I want to understand even the smallest roles and how they used them. I assume they’re apprentices. But then we have boys playing these attendant roles? That’s a little bit funny. In that case the king is followed around by a bunch of boys…which makes him slightly less powerful.

He has already asked this question.
It did not yield the sort of result he was looking for.
I’m still not entirely clear why Claudius needs to know this. The only explanation I can come up with is that if Claudius has a body to point to, he’ll have a much easier time pointing to it to justify sending Hamlet away.

It is also possible, though for some reason not likely, that Claudius wants to see Polonius’ body because he was his colleague or friend or something and he just wants to bid him goodbye.

But it is funny, this game of hide and seek.
Hamlet has no reason to hide the body (he’s not trying to pretend he didn’t do it) and Claudius has no reason to find it in a hurry.
And play this game, they must.