I’d love to hear from fight directors about how they solve this conundrum. If Laertes does, in fact, have his fingers credibly on Hamlet’s throat, Hamlet would not be able to request their removal. If he doesn’t have his fingers on his throat, Hamlet has no reason to say this.

So…how to proceed? Does Laertes have his fingers at Hamlet’s throat but is somehow not choking him? Is Hamlet exaggerating? I might have to watch a few versions of this scene on film and on stage to see how folks handle this.

There is something ticking away under this play. Something about prayer and hypocrisy – true prayer, effective prayer.
I can’t immediately think of another scene in Shakespeare like the one Claudius has. The struggle to pray, the question of whether to slay someone praying, the irony that the prayers were not so much prayers as the performance of prayers.

Who else do we see pray in Shakespeare?
Imogen – before she goes to bed.
Juliet – before she takes the potion.
But no one else evaluates the quality of prayer like Claudius – which is why it’s interesting that Hamlet says this seemingly unrelated line to all of that to Laertes….but maybe not.

I like the note from the Riverside edition that suggests that this is the way a king would announce himself. I might need a little context and evidence to fully believe it…but even if it’s not a solid note, I think it would be helpful in saying this line.

It is a bear to speak. Like – to contemporary ears it is so extreme and the style of it is so different than the rest of the play. It’s almost camp to announce yourself this way. It is I, Emily the American! It’s just…yeah, hard to make it authentic.

To think of it as an announcement of kingliness, though, does make it more possible. To step forward as if for my coronation rather than just campily announcing myself.

This reveals both the dangers and the benefits of being as immersed in Shakespeare as I have been all those years.
I’ll explain.
My first acting job included performing in a production of Hamlet – so I heard the text a great many times. Of course I read it as well. And I taught it fairly often, too.
That’s what I mean by rolling around in Shakespeare.

I’m also a playwright.

This usually feels separate from my Shakespeare life. Little bits of Shakespeare make their way into my plays – sometimes consciously but also unconsciously.
I wrote a play called fig. a: The Heart a little over a decade ago. The Egyptian Gods in it spoke of the Wandering Stars – their way of speaking of the Earth was the place “beneath the wandering stars.”

I swear I thought I invented this.

I did not remember this line. There are large chunks of Hamlet that I have more or less memorized but not this line apparently. It sunk itself deep into my brain and surfaced out of my pen when I wasn’t looking.

I’m trying so hard to make this line NOT be a super dickish way of speaking to a grieving person. I tried to read these first two lines – before Hamlet re-introduces himself as the Dane in a moment – as a reference to himself. I wanted this step forward to be about his OWN grief – and a precursor question to the answer. That is – what is he? This is I, Hamlet the Dane! Who is he? Hamlet the Dane!

But…I don’t know, given how far Hamlet leans into his critique of Laertes’ grieving later, it’s pretty difficult to see this as a self presentation. Even though Laertes has said nothing about the wandering stars or anything star related …and it would, in a way, be very like Hamlet to brag – it is a stretch.

I don’t know why Laertes’ grief triggers Hamlet so hard. He blows his whole plan for it, I assume. I mean, I assume it wasn’t his plan to leap out at a funeral and cause a ruckus.

I wonder who Hamlet thinks is going in that grave before he finally hears Laertes call her “my sister.” Like, sure, at first, it might be logical that it’s Polonius that has brought Laertes to the cemetery – but very quickly, there are many references to “her” and “she” and such – somehow Hamlet must be doing quite a lot of mental gymnastics to be surprised when Laertes says “my sister.”

I mean – if it were a line like, “Not, the fair Ophelia!” then it would be a truth that had perhaps been dawning on him slowly but he is somehow caught completely by surprise.

And it’s not as if he is uncurious about who the dead person is. He’s first asked the gravedigger who is to be buried there. Then he puzzles out that the dead person must be of some estate due to the accouterments and the company. But it takes Laertes saying “my sister” before he gets it. Does he think Laertes has an aunt or something?

Is there another character in Shakespeare who says “mark” as much as Hamlet?
It feels like he’s always getting someone to note something. I mean, he is an observant dude – and it does follow that once you’ve observed something, you want to bring another’s attention to it. Certainly that is partly why I blog, why I talk with people, why I podcast – to share what I have observed with others. I want them to mark what I have observed.

Does Horatio really not know Laertes? He’s seen Ophelia, for sure. But I guess, yeah, Laertes left at the top of the play and I suppose it is possible that he could have missed him.

But it is curious that Hamlet describes him as just a noble youth. It would be more logical to describe him as Ophelia’s brother or Polonius’ son. Horatio should have a sense of those people even if he didn’t have much contact with Laertes.

However – it would sort of give the game away early if Hamlet mentioned Ophelia at this moment. Better to describe Laertes on his own merits and then realize it is his sister going in the ground.

My favorite bit of Kenneth Branagh’s delightful film, A Midwinter’s Tale, is when one of the (not very professional) actors confesses that whenever he forgets a line or what he’s supposed to do, he says, “Crouch we here awhile and lurk.” And then crouches behind something and waits. I do not think this line exists anywhere in the canon – at least not exactly – but I do so love it.

And it DOES sound a great deal like “Couch we awhile, and mark.”

And one could use it for just such an eventuality just as easily.

This is kind of a fun way to say that someone is rich or well-to-do. It’s like a way that only someone of estate would say it.
It makes me think about all those articles and studies that point out how the wealthy never want to call themselves rich – they like to say things like “comfortable.” I can imagine that “of some estate” might well fit into that same category.