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.

Hmm. Thou. Informal. Hmmm.
And…maybe a little disingenuous. Claudius isn’t stupid. He’s probably fully aware of what Hamlet means by all of it. I just keep wondering who the show is for? Claudius isn’t being particularly direct. And he could be. It feels like he’s putting on a show.
But who is it for?

This is very odd. Very odd.
What IS Claudius responding to here? And which Claudius is this?
I mean – I’d expect Claudius to say something like, “Come on, Hamlet, stop messing around.”
But he doesn’t. He says, “Alas, alas!”
Which is really more like something Gertrude would say.
It feels like he might be putting on a show of grief. But who is the show for? Hamlet?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? He didn’t say, “Alas, alas!” to them.
It’s just such an oddly out of character thing to say.

Whenever I think, “This place is ridiculous. I really need to get out of here.” Then the next thought is the inevitable, “Where?”
Not Detroit. Though I’ve considered it…it is a good place for artists. But the problem with the performing arts is that they require a critical mass of people with performing arts talent. Unless you’re willing to do a lot of teaching and waiting for those newly taught to get ripe enough to get good. I do not have the patience for this sort of thing at this stage in my life.

If I could go anywhere, it would be London. But immigration laws do not allow it. I’d also happily enjoy Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver. But again…immigration laws…so in my native land, I feel pretty stuck with NYC, no matter how crazy it makes me.
Sure, I’d like to see some more trees on a regular basis and to not have to spend every waking hour worrying about money. But in this country, the critical mass of talent and skill and people in that zone is such that I cannot leave. Because leave? And go where?