Repetition can sound like a dismissal or a hurrying along. Just a simple repetition like this has a quality of “alright, get on with it.”
I wonder why that is.

Flourish?! Me, sir? What could you possibly mean? Me, with a flourish? My nature demands a flourish? Why, the seraphim would take offense in their gilded heavens to hear my humble spirit described this way. My nature, good sir, demands no flourish, no embellishment, no gilding, no ornamentation. I am as simple as the precious the earth.

I have a weapons question, Internet!
Now, to me, a foil is a very particular kind of sword used in fencing. It’s a thin bendy thing with a handle. Like a little poking device.
Is a foil the SAME as a rapier? Rapier comes from the French for two edges sword – whereas a foil is more round. But then “foil” comes from “thin piece of metal” – so it well may be the same.
I’ve seen this fight scene with fencing foils. I’ve seen it with broadswords. I’ve seen it with daggers. I’ve seen it with daggers and swords.
In terms of contemporary staging, the sky’s the limit. But I’m curious about any shifts in the language around the swords here. Is Hamlet calling the swords “foils “ a small dis on Laertes’ famous French swords? Or is “foils” just a generic word for light swords?

I love that Hamlet has a regular exercise time. He’s got his schedule all organized – some breathing time (wherein he exercises) some reading time (words, words, words) some walking in the hall time (he walks four hours together here in the lobby) so predictably they can loose Ophelia on him at the right time. He really is the modern man.
I feel like I’d rather have a breathing time than an exercise time. Maybe if I named some time of day the breathing time, I’d get more exercise in it.

I hear this as a sort of “I’m not going anywhere. If the fight comes to me, fine. I won’t fight the fight. I’m just hanging here and if a duel just happened to run into me, I won’t resist but I’m not walking toward it, no sir. You wanna see me sword fight? You gotta bring the stuff to me.”

I mean – this is the real question, isn’t it? It’s kind of a joke question, like, a sort of facetious response to the way Osric has made the request for the wager. But what if Hamlet said no?
Like – is this a request or a demand? Is this wager something he can choose not to do? In a way, it isn’t. It’s pitched to him as an invitation but is more like a demand – which is all the more galling coming from Osric who should, in no way be in a position to make demands on Hamlet.

If only Hamlet asked more probing questions. If only he pulled on these tiny threads a little harder and saw them through to the dark intentions at the center of this thing. He might make it out of this play alive instead of falling into a trap, instead of getting killed. He gets nihilistic not long after this moment.

This sounds very much like a reference to something that we no longer know what the points of reference are. Like – probably there was some joke about the French versus the Danish. Because that’s a thing. Yes.
Those swords are French. But Laertes is Danish. And Claudius may be Danish – but Barbary horses aren’t. Maybe these particular Barbary horses were born in Denmark but their Danishness is not their most important point. It feels like there must have been some bet or joke or something between those two countries round about when Shakespeare was writing this.

What sort of arena could such a fight be in? Horse versus sword? And would either be manned or would it just be six swords laying around on the ground with all their gear and six horses prancing around – probably just ignoring swords. I mean – without a person to interfere with these things, pretty much nothing would happen. The trouble would begin when the swords got people behind them, and probably likewise the horses.

I am on a little bit of an adventure. It’s kind of a tour. I started at my friend’s place in a small city in California. Today she drove me to Los Angeles. It is odd to make such a transition. To go from my home in New York to essentially a suburban life – my friend’s suburban life – and then to a city that I really don’t know at all.
I feel like I need an adjustment period.

*
It’s now been a couple of years since I went on that adventure. From this tiny apartment where I’ve been sheltering since Covid struck us, it is nice to revisit this moment in the middle of an adventure.