This is probably a great relief to the messenger. After all the obfuscation of the message’s provenance, I expect there is some sense of danger in delivering it and to be dismissed means a bullet has been dodged. The messenger has avoided being killed.

I think I always thought that “Don’t kill the messenger” was a kind of joke – but it was surely one of the most serious liabilities of being a messenger. An angry recipient might easily take the bad news out on the person who brought it. Being told to leave a volatile message situation is likely a bit like surviving a car wreck.

I return to my questions about these letters. We clearly have two letters here. One for Claudius and one for Gertrude. But both have been given to Claudius. Given his telling Laertes that he shall hear them, it suggests that Claudius is planning on reading both of these letters. The one for him, of course, but perhaps also the one for the Queen. He doesn’t end up doing that – he just reads his own letter. It tells him enough I suppose. But I wonder what that letter to Gertrude says. I expect that Hamlet fully expects Claudius to read that too or he would have delivered it via a more private channel.

I suppose this question is why there are so many layers of distance between messengers. I imagine that if you are a professional messenger it is probably a good move insurance-wise to put some space between yourself and the original message. If the news is bad, the emotions will be hot and the closer you are to the source, the more dangerous a position you are in.

I imagine that messengers pass on messages this way as a matter of course –a kind of hot potato-ing of a message. Just for safety.

Most editors try to be sparing in their use of exclamation marks. I’m not sure what the quarto or the folio look like exclamation point wise but I know modern editors try not to get too crazy with the !!! The hope is that the words are dramatic enough.

It’s not entirely justified to put one everywhere. This one, this one is entirely appropriate if you want to suggest Claudius’ sense of surprise. The punctuation gives a sense of the astonishment that Claudius must be feeling. But while Claudius may be feeling astonishment, it’s not a forgone conclusion that he lets that astonishment slip. He is a guarded political fellow who (with the exception of watching plays) mostly keeps his cool.

He could probably get away with: From Hamlet.

Or even a disinterested.
From Hamlet?

The news is surprising to Claudius. Everyone in the audience likely has a sense of that. We might not need to see him astonished to know that he is so. It might actually be very interesting to watch him suppress his astonishment.

I am very curious about what life was like when Messengers were the primary delivery system, when a person had to go to another person to report new developments or send messages. All the news had to come from a human being.

Apart from there probably being a lot less news to deal with on a daily basis, there was always a human face connected to any bit of information.

I’d imagine that there was an altogether quieter mind then. Perhaps the mind created its own news coming into it – but I would like to know what that must have felt like.

Even letters had to be passed from one human hand to another. Now most of us get our news from the small rectangles that dominate our lives. Some of us even get most of it from our social media networks – perhaps an attempt to re-connect the human face to the new delivery system?

And now, as I write this, I looked up to see a cluster of police officers and two EMTs surrounding a woman with a large bag. I don’t know what is going on – but I can see all their faces from this café where I’m sitting. If I read this event in the news, it would be meaningless – but in front of me, with all those faces, it is a captivating bit of news.

The stage direction right before this line is: Enter a Messenger. This is why my theatre company is called Messenger Theatre Company. Because something is ALWAYS about to happen as soon as a Messenger enters. A messenger never enters to deliver no news. A messenger is a catalyst. A messenger moves things forward. “How now!” is an appropriate response to a messenger’s entrance.
I wonder, though, how I might use it as a company slogan. I don’t think it would take.

Enter a Messenger.

How now!

Unicorns, dancing under rainbows!
Witches casting spells that turn princes into frogs.
A love scene between a king and his advisor.
A utopian future.
A dystopia future.
There are so many ways I’d like Claudius to teach Laertes to imagine!
Though probably he’s just suggesting he imagine that Hamlet’s been “taken care of.”