What was the prep on this pearl and how did it go down?

First – is it actually a pearl or just some poison pressed into a pearl shape?

Or is it actually a pearl – but the poison has been applied to it somehow – like it’s been dipped in some poison coating, like a strawberry dunked in chocolate but less tasty and more deadly. Is it maybe a hollowed out pearl? Like a jewel with a hole drilled into it and then filled with poison. Or a souvenir Claudius picked up somewhere – a little pill pearl – a pearl that opens and holds compounds of any sort – could be aspirin. Making it a little headache pearl, not a murder weapon.
And whatever the case, someone would have had to do the crafting – the dipping or filling of the pearl.

In all likelihood, this is not a task to trust to someone else – so whatever the method, Claudius probably did it himself.

And since he did some other poisoning before this play even began, he seems to have an affinity and a skill for this sort of thing.

It makes me think of the Queen in Cymbeline – practicing her poisoning skills on small animals.

This is probably what Claudius did for fun before he became king.

Are Laertes and Claudius in a little competition over who gets to kill Hamlet? Like, Laertes here is ready to get back to the fighting, which gets him closer to his kill. And Claudius will not let the moment pass without this drink. Both of them must have adrenaline coursing thorugh them – they must be pretty amped up. They’re both ready to kill him at any moment. I wonder if it’s a factor in Laertes losing these points to Hamlet – he’s so focused on the murder game. And Claudius, too, who is normally so smooth, somehow cannot find a way to prevent Gertrude from drinking the poison – which, apart from killing his wife, who he maybe loves, also will spoil his plans and reveal them, too.

If I were directing this show, I’d probably explore a scene before this fight where Laertes and Claudius get themselves psyched up for this. Playing adrenaline coursing through you is not really possible but it is a huge part of having a body and what you do.

Judges, he says. Judges plural. When judgment is called for – Osric delivers it but is he the judges? He is only one, not particularly judiciary, man. Is he rather the voice for the actual judges of this contest? Do the actual judges confer and decide the points? Deliver their verdicts like Olympic judges with cards or hand signals or gestures of some kind?

And what exactly is Claudius getting at in telling the judges to bear a wary eye? Is it because he’s about to pull some dirty tricks and the way to misdirect from your own dirty tricks is to tell people to be on the look out for some other people’s.

But what’s weird about suggesting the judges bear a wary eye is that he may be suggesting they keep an eye on Hamlet, whom he has just bet on and talked up. Laertes IS in fact about to do some dirty deeds – so telling the judges to watch HIM is selling his own conspirator down the river. Which, of course, he WOULD do – but maybe not before his conspirator put a sword in the guy he wants dead.

It is a weird thing to say before beginning this duel.

Of all the powers a monarch has, the ability to make people start things must be one of the greatest. A king can get this party started, okay.

A king can stop all this yammering and kick off the lecture.

A king can cut the preamble short and have them cut to the chase.

A king can start the fight, the game, the show.

Claudius is composing a little piece of music in this text.

Kettle drum begins.

Then the trumpet answers and continues.

From a distance, cannons answer the trumpet’s call.

This is all a pretty specific cue for a sound designer. I wonder how many follow the instruction.

First he wants the wine on the table. Now he wants to be given it.

Is this so he has a prop to refer to as he gives a speech about the pearl?  (Union. Onion.)

So first he needs them close but then he needs them delivered to his hands.

Is one of the pleasures of being a king ordering people to do tiny things that you definitely could have done yourself?

It’s that and/or an extra bit of ceremony. He’s certainly adding several layers of ceremony with those cannons and such. Perhaps there’s also something in how the cups are delivered to his hands – some kind of ritual or blessing or gesture.

The only reason I knew a union was a pearl was that every Claudius ever holds up a pearl at this point to demonstrate. But I just looked it up because I was wondering if union was somehow a metaphorical pearl or jewel. What I learned was that union is connected to onion. Its sense as a pearl is connected to its onion-ness. Etymology on-line defines it as a pearl or onion. As if the two were essentially the same. And now I’m very confused – because we do, in fact, have pearl onions – which are usually the ones that go into cocktails. There is circularity to this. Here is Claudius calling a pearl a union, which for a time was the same word as an onion. He puts it in a drink, like it’s a cocktail onion, not a precious jewel. I mean, who wants a pearl in their drink? Seems dangerously easy to swallow.

An onion though – adds flavor. Is Claudius putting an onion in the drink? No. It’s definitely a little ball of poison – either disguised as a pearl or glazed in the killer stuff. But wow. Union. Onion. It’s so obvious when you look at it – but before? I’d not have seen these words as connected in any way.

To drink to Hamlet’s better breath is to drink to something slightly ambigious. On one hand, it could suggest that Hamlet’s breath, his power, his life, his vigor is better than Laertes! However, it could also suggest that Hamlet’s breath needs to be better, that it could use improvement, that it needs support.

And underlying all of it is the knowledge that Claudius wants to STOP Hamlet’s breath, to end his life.

Is there breath in the after life? Do angel’s have breath? If so, it is probably better than earthly breath – so drinking to better breath might be drinking to a kind of a heavenly one.

These are some complicated rules. Hamlet’s gotta get a hit in quickly in order to score, sure, that makes sense. And if he does, Claudius is going to celebrate big time. I mean – cannons? That’s a rather big reaction to a small tap with a sword. The quitting in answer of the third exchange is a little harder to make sense of. So basically – if Hamlet doesn’t get the first or second point, he can make up for it in the third round.

But what I’m not entirely clear on is HOW he does that in round three.
Part of the problem is that it’s not entirely clear what the word “quit” is doing here. It’s definitely not being used the way we use it today. Claudius is not going to sound the cannons if Hamlet gives up in round three.

Quit here is likely much more connected to acquit – and most likely to the idea of acquitting oneself.

So, practically, if he’s caught up to Laertes by round three, the king will still sound the cannons.

Claudius really wants to shoot off those cannons. And by shooting off the cannons, I mean he wants to put that poison pearl in Hamlet’s wine and kill him. So…the game is rigged so that Hamlet will have to win it in some way or another so he can get killed.

But really – aren’t the cannons on the battlements a little bit extra, as the kids would say?

It’s funny to see something that I associated with Sir Toby Belch in the mouth of King Claudius. Weirdly, I feel like I was equally exposed to these two plays – as they were the ones I performed in rep at my first job out of college. But if I had to match a phrase to a character, a stoup of wine would go direct to Toby Belch and miss Claudius entirely. It’s not necessarily a sign of character, this “stoup” business. It’s pretty much just a cup. Well, it’s a big cup. It’s a tankard. Which does feel like a Toby Belch thing. Though, if Hamlet’s perspective is accurate – Claudius does have a bit of Toby in him. He does seem to have brought back some intense drinking rituals to Elsinore – so his calling for stoups, as opposed to a glass or a cup or a dram, may indeed be a sign of character.

Are there any characters who refer to stoups of wine that aren’t big drinkers?