EPISODE 18 - DREADFUL SECRECY

TEXT: 

HORATIO (continued)
                                           This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

HAMLET
But where was this?

MARCELLUS
My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

HAMLET
Did you not speak to it?

HORATIO
My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

HAMLET
'Tis very strange.

HORATIO
As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
And we did think it writ down in our duty
To let you know of it.

HAMLET
Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
Hold you the watch to-night?

MARCELLUS & BERNARDO
We do, my lord.

HAMLET
Arm'd, say you?

MARCELLUS BERNARDO
Arm'd, my lord.

HAMLET
From top to toe?

MARCELLUS & BERNARDO
My lord, from head to foot.

HAMLET
Then saw you not his face?

HORATIO
O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.

HAMLET
What, look'd he frowningly?

HORATIO
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

HAMLET
Pale or red?

HORATIO
Nay, very pale.

HAMLET
And fix'd his eyes upon you?

HORATIO
Most constantly.

HAMLET
I would I had been there.

NOTES:

BEVOR
While googling images for this particular piece of armour the surprising thing was how many Renaissance Fayre- style reconstructions showed up. Armour continues to fascinate, it seems - and I am sure there are passionate folks out there who might argue that Shakespeare was wrong to describe the folding visor of a helmet as the bevor, since for some the bevor was specifically a neck-covering plate of armour. As ever, it is safest to assume a) that Shakespeare does know what he is talking about, and b) that it's the effect of the image that is important, rather than specifics. 

TWAS A ROUGH NIGHT
In the aftermath of Duncan's murder, the Porter appears to break the tension and to answer the earnest knocking at the door. He opens to greet Macduff and Lennox, who describes the strange events of the night - 

LENNOX
The night has been unruly. Where we lay, 
Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, 
Lamentings heard i'th'air, strange screams of death, 
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth
Was feverous and did shake. 

MACBETH
'Twas a rough night.

EPISODE 17 - METHINKS I SEE MY FATHER

TEXT: 

HAMLET (continued)
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father! - methinks I see my father.

HORATIO
Where, my lord?

HAMLET
In my mind's eye, Horatio.

HORATIO
I saw him once; he was a goodly king.

HAMLET
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

HORATIO
My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

HAMLET
Saw? who?

HORATIO
My lord, the king your father.

HAMLET
The king my father!

HORATIO
Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

HAMLET
For God's love, let me hear.

HORATIO
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him.

NOTES:

Cap-a-pe
Variously rendered as cap-a-pe or cap-a-pie, this phrase comes from medieval French, and means head to foot. (It can be traced even further back to Latin, where caput = head and pedem = food. Cap a pe, indeed.) 

The noblest Roman of them all
Despite the fact that he organises the assassination of Julius Caesar (and so famously strikes the final blow) Brutus is eulogised very beautifully in Shakespeare's version of the story. His nobility is mentioned in Marc Antony's final comments, as well as the segment mentioned in this episode: 

This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he, 
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;  
He only, in a general honest thought  
And common good to all, made one of them.  
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world 'This was a man!' 
(Julius Caesar, Act 5 Scene 5)

EPISODE 16 - A TRUANT DISPOSITION

TEXT:

HORATIO
Hail to your lordship!

HAMLET
I am glad to see you well:
Horatio,--or I do forget myself.

HORATIO
The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

HAMLET
Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?

MARCELLUS
My good lord--

HAMLET
I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

HORATIO
A truant disposition, good my lord.

HAMLET
I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

HORATIO
My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

HAMLET
I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

HORATIO
Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

HAMLET
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

NOTES:

MELANCHOLY
For a very good article by Erin Sullivan on heartbreak and Shakespeare, including some discussion of contemporary medicine and medical opinion on sadness and heartbreak, click here

EPISODE 15 - THE FIRST SOLILOQUY

TEXT: 

HAMLET
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come thus!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month -
Let me not think on't - Frailty, thy name is woman! -
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears why she, even she -
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer - married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

NOTES: 

Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a dramatic device whereby a playwright has a character speak to themselves alone on stage. The word itself comes from Latin (solus, alone, and loquor, I speak...). Shakespeare's plays are filled with countless examples of the form, in comedy, history, and tragedy, and indeed the device has been popular from as far back as the writings of Montaigne (believed to have inspired Shakespeare) all the way as far as contemporary versions of it, such as Netflix' House of Cards. 

Suicide
There is much discussion of suicide in this play. This first of Hamlet's soliloquies starts with his wish to end his life, and the theme will of course be picked up in the more famous 'to be or not to be' soliloquy later in the play. Later in the play it is debated whether or not Ophelia can have a full Christian burial because her death might have been a suicide too - and so the issue haunts the entire play. 

Niobe
Niobe was the mother of fourteen children, but when she bragged about this to Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis, mocking her for having had only two children, the latter woman was insulted. In revenge for this hubris, Leto's divine children slaughtered all of Niobe's children, and her grief for them made her synonymous with weeping. 

Hyperion
Hyperion was one of the Titans, eventually overthrown by the Olympian gods. He was the father of the Sun, the Moon and the Dawn (Helios, Selene and Eos, respectively.)

Seneca's Hercules
Seneca's version of Hercules is a complicated, literary play that was very likely written to be read (or read aloud) rather than performed in full. It expands on Euripides' version of the story of Hercules and his madness, imposed on him as punishment by his father's wife Hera. The play (fully titled Hercules Furens) contains passages of extraordinary beauty and a variety of very quotable maxims, but as with most of Seneca's dramatic output doesn't hold its weight on stage. 

Hercules
The great hero Hercules was famous for completing the twelve labours, but in drama it is the darker sides of his story that have been immortalised. Both Euripides and Seneca wrote version of the story of how he was driven mad by the Furies, and in his madness, murdered his own wife and children. As a character particularly associated with dramatic madness, it is perhaps no accident that Hamlet mentions him even here, even this early in the play. Hamlet himself will manipulate people's assumption that he's mad as the play goes on. 

EPISODE 14 - GO NOT TO WITTENBERG

TEXT:

KING (continued)
...We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe, and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.

HAMLET
I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

KING CLAUDIUS
Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Exeunt all but HAMLET

NOTES:

WITTENBERG
The city of Wittenberg is in central Germany, and was one of the most important cities in Saxony. As well as its fame as having been home to the university that Hamlet studied at, it was also the site of Martin Luther's dramatic revolt against the indulgences in the church in 1517 (less than a hundred years before Shakespeare wrote the play.) Wittenberg is also the home, in Christopher Marlowe's play, of his title character Doctor Faustus. 

THE KING'S ROUSE
I didn't cover it in the body of the text, but there's a hint at the end of Claudius' speech that he might be something of a drinker. Contrasted with the fastidiousness of Hamlet's father (introduced to us already in the martial formality of an experienced soldier), Claudius is presented as a relaxed, even rowdy boozer. He is excited at just how much 'jocund' drinking there will be tonight, and Hamlet will likewise make reference to this in upcoming lines and scenes. 

EPISODE 13 - A FAULT AGAINST THE DEAD

TEXT:

KING
'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven
,A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd: whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corpse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.' 

NOTES:

Cain and Abel
In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer, Abel a shepherd. When both brothers made sacrifices to God, He preferred Abel's offering, and Cain killed him. This was the first murder, and Abel, therefore, the 'first corpse' mentioned in this episode's portion of the text. Cain was thereafter punished with a lifetime of wandering, and with 'the mark of Cain', a sign from God that prevented anyone from killing him - perhaps as a warning not to commit his sin again. 

Unmanly grief
The question of what it means to be a man (and what it means to be a woman) crops up repeatedly in the play. Here's the first instance of the issue, with Claudius's dressing down of Hamlet in his grief. 

EPISODE 12 - A LITTLE MORE THAN KIN, AND LESS THAN KIND

TEXT:

CLAUDIUS (continued)
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--

HAMLET
[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.

KING CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is common.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
                                           If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?

HAMLET
Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

NOTES:

GOOD MOTHER
There aren't a great deal of notes to share for this episode, but it's interesting that in various texts of the play the world 'good' is also transmitted as cold, and even cooled. Each of these various words has its merits - depending on how snarky Hamlet is to be with his mother. 

ASIDE
I don't think it's really necessary to explain what an aside is, obviously, but I didn't quite manage to put into the main text of the episode the fact that sometimes in performance this first aside from Hamlet isn't actually played as one. If Hamlet says it directly to Claudius, it's even more startling as a first line, and indeed it necessitates even more handling from Gertrude. The play has an infinity of possibilities! 

EPISODE 11 - WHAT WOULDST THOU HAVE, LAERTES?

TEXT: 

CLAUDIUS
And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

LAERTES
                                                       My dread lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
To show my duty in your coronation,
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

CLAUDIUS
Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

POLONIUS
He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
By laboursome petition, and at last
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

CLAUDIUS
Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will!

NOTES:

Thou and You
In Old English, thou was singular and you was plural; but sometime in the 13th century, English started copying the French manner of speaking that used the plural as a polite form. So, just like vous in French, you became a means of addressing someone formally. There's a lot of status in play with who uses which form, and to whom. You was more formal, so servants would use it to their employers, children would use it when addressing their parents, and so on. It could also be a social or societal divider. You was said to those above you on the social ladder, and then thou in return was used for those below. Likewise lower social classes use thou when addressing each other. Curiously though, thou was also used to indicate a particular kind of intimacy, as when a character might speak to God. With all of this going on, it's clear that changing from thou to you or you to thou in a conversation always conveys a contrast in meaning - a change of attitude or an altered relationship. Sometimes it is as an insult - if someone uses thou to address someone to whom they owe greater respect - and sometimes (as in this episode) it's a sign of dropping formality to express closeness or intimacy. 

EPISODE 10 - GOOD CORNELIUS AND VOLTIMAND

TEXT:

CLAUDIUS
Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras - 
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, - to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

CORNELIUS & VOLTIMAND
In that and all things will we show our duty.

CLAUDIUS
We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.

Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS

NOTES: 

Claudius
Claudius I was emperor of Rome from 41 to 54 AD. His reign occurred between those of Caligula and Nero, two of the more spectacularly crazy Roman Emperors. Due to his marriage to his niece Agrippina the Younger, Claudius was lumped into the same category of Roman depravity. The novelist Robert Graves gave his reputation something of a redemption in his novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God. (These two were the basis of a very memorable BBC adaptation in the late 1970s.)

Agrippina
Agrippina the Younger was Empress of Rome from 49 to 54 AD, and one of the foremost women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Her son Nero became Emperor, and was particularly loathed for his behaviour (not least the apocryphal story of how he 'fiddled' while Rome burned.) Nero will appear in a reference during Act 3 - primarily in the context of how he is reputed to have murdered Agrippina. She is immortalised in a variety of stories - from opera and theatre to film and television. 

Delated
The (doubtless essential) essay I mentioned is Patricia Parker's "Othello and Hamlet: Dilation, Spying, and the "Secret Place" of Woman." It's available in Russ McDonald's book Shakespeare Re-Read - The Plays in New Contexts. You can buy it here. 

EPISODE 09 - ENTER CLAUDIUS

TEXT:

CLAUDIUS
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barred
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.

NOTES: 

Rhetoric
Claudius is extremely good at public speaking. This is only the beginning of the extended speech that begins this scene, but immediately he is working the crowd. He mentions his dear brother several times - in increasingly loving terms. Our dear brother, our late dear brother, our most valiant brother... certainly nobody could accuse him of forgetting said brother in his new project of running the country. Any comments on the perhaps unseemly haste with which he has married his dear brother's wife are covered by his acknowledgement of this haste, and the sequence of happy/sad images he uses to do so. What's impressive here is how careful and slick his speech is. He leaves no room for doubt - he's the King, and that's that. 

Stage Directions
As mentioned within the episode, it can be an amusing or a frustrating project to mine any edition of a Shakespeare play for stage directions. Sometimes editors have characters exit at particular points, depriving them of the chance to hear a necessary piece of information. Sometimes entries are likewise re-arranged. As a rule of thumb, I'd personally tend to double check the folio and track through the scene to ensure that no opportunities are missed. A perfect example of this is in King Lear. The play starts with Edmund being introduced - and thereafter he watches the entire scene and all the chaos that ensues. He stays on stage throughout, watches everything, and then is left there when the scene ends. Act I Scene ii begins with his soliloquy, laying out his evil plans. But we need him to have stayed and seen everything first!

Names
Officially Claudius is never named within the play. All of the surviving texts do give him the name Claudius, of course, but only in the stage direction that begins this scene (hence this episode's name!) As with Lady Macbeth, who is likewise never named in her play, the character's status and position are made perfectly clear within the scenes and interactions of the play. We will continue to discuss Claudius' name in coming episodes. 

EPISODE 08 - BUT LOOK, THE MORN...

TEXT: 

MARCELLUS
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

HORATIO
So have I heard and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:
Break we our watch up; and by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

MARCELLUS
Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most conveniently.

Exeunt

NOTES:

Astrology
Elizabeth I had her own court astrologer, and interest in the field obviously trickled down throughout her kingdom. Some have argued that Shakespeare even based the character of Prospero in The Tempest on this astrologer, John Dee. There are astrological references throughout the plays. The signs of the Zodiac crop up quite frequently, and the Planets are often said to wield influence over certain characters. Mars governs Monsieur Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well, and Jupiter is very favourably disposed to Posthumous in Cymbeline. The world was moving from a geocentric to a heliocentric view of the universe at the time Shakespeare was writing, and a shift was happening, naturally, in the way that people studied the heavenly bodies. 

Witchcraft
There are libraries already filled with books about Shakespeare and King James and Macbeth and witchcraft. The topic is endlessly fascinating - as much today as it seems to have been in 16th and 17th century England. 

Red Skies
It's been a standard phrase for people in the northern hemisphere for millennia - red sky at night, shepherd's delight, red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning. A red glow in the sky indicates an area of high pressure, because the dust in the atmosphere catches the sun's rays in a particular way and causes the glow. The inference is that there's an area of low pressure coming afterwards, so it's bad news to see a red sky in the morning. 

Venus and Adonis
Written while the theatres were closed due to an outbreak of plague, this narrative poem was published in 1593. It is based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and was extremely popular during Shakespeare's lifetime. 

Christmas
As promised, here is the text of my favourite Christmas poem, written by UA Fanthorpe. Seemingly she writes Christmas poems every year as gifts for her friends - this one is particuarly beautiful. 

BC:AD by UA Fanthorpe

This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future's
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.
 
This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.
 
This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
 
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect.
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.

EPISODE 07 - THE COCK CROWS

TEXT: 

HORATIO
Stop it, Marcellus.

The cock crows.

MARCELLUS
Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

HORATIO
Do, if it will not stand.

BERNARDO
                            'Tis here!

HORATIO
                                          'Tis here!

MARCELLUS
'Tis gone!

Exit Ghost

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.

BERNARDO
It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

HORATIO
And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

NOTES:

The Cock Crows
Stage directions are notoriously unreliable in Shakespeare's texts. Very often they are the estimation of editors, trying to remember where things might have happened on the stage in performances they may or may not have even seen! The Folio doesn't have any suggestion at all for where the herald of the morn may sound, but I think it needs to be as late as possible to get as much dramatic tension as possible. We should feel as the audience that the Ghost might indeed be about to speak, only to be thwarted and have to retreat when the bird sings. 

Partisan
A partisan is a particularly medieval-looking weapon consisting of a large spear-head mounted on a pole. It would be very characteristic of a knight's weaponry in the Middle Ages, and indeed they are still carried by the Beefeaters in the United Kingdom. 

Phoebus Apollo
Apollo was the god of light for the Greeks and Romans - interestingly he is one of very gods whose name was the same in both cultures. Although he had many charges and was the god of many things (healing, music, knowledge, medicine, archery, and the arts, to name but a few) it was as the god of the sun and therefore as Bright Apollo that he was most frequently mentioned and invoked. Shakespeare here refers to him as 'the god of day'. 

Basilisk
I got a little carried away mentioning the basilisk, the mythical serpent ('king' of snakes) that is so dangerous it can kill you by looking at you. The creature shows up in literature from the works of Venerable Bede to the Canterbury Tales, and from Leonardo da Vinci all the way to Harry Potter! There are numerous references to the basilisk in Shakespeare also, invariably to do with this lethal gaze. 

EPISODE 06 - PRECURSE OF FIERCE EVENTS

TEXT: 

HORATIO 

A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

Re-enter Ghost

I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me:
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, your spirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it: stay, and speak! 

NOTES:

Julius Caesar
Shakespeare's play about the conspirators who assassinate Julius Caesar can be reasonably assumed to have been first performed in 1599. The likelihood is that it appeared just before Hamlet, and so the references to ancient Rome discussed in this episode are hardly surprising since Rome was still on Shakespeare's mind. 

The Mote and the Beam
The parable of the mote and the beam is notable for having appeared in the gospels of both Matthew (7.1) and Luke (13.6), in key sermons given by Jesus to his followers. Its lesson is to be wary of criticising the faults of others before working on one's own issues. (A biblical version of the pot calling the kettle black, if you will.) 

Giordano Bruno
It's a little bit of a stretch to infer that Shakespeare is acknowledging that Earth's sun is a star in the reference to 'disasters of the sun' - since it was a very long time before science accepted the idea. Giordano Bruno was a Dominican friar who was also a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, who posited the theory that we are not the centre of everything, and that there are conceivably multiple stars with planets in their orbits in the infinite universe. For these ideas (and for his rejection of several church doctrines) he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600. He is considered an early martyr for science and free thought. 

EPISODE 05 - THE MOTIVE OF OUR PREPARATIONS

TEXT: 

HORATIO (continued)
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
And carriage of the article design,
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--
As it doth well appear unto our state--
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

BERNARDO
I think it be no other but e'en so:
Well may it sort that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was and is the question of these wars.

NOTES:

1599 - A Year in the Life of Shakespeare
Of all the biographies and studies of Shakespeare that I have read to date, this is probably my favourite. It's by James Shapiro, a professor at Columbia in New York. It's an astonishingly rich and comprehensive read, full of juicy details and very sensible ideas. Best of all, if you feel bereft when it finishes, there's a companion volume called 1606 - The Year of Lear to read next!

Paradoxes of Defence
George Silver published this book in 1599, as a means of challenging the ever-increasing popularity of Italian fighting styles in London. It's worth noting this likely influence on Shakespeare at the time he created Hamlet, since of all the plays it is the one with the most detailed, specific description of hand-to-hand combat. This contrast between old and new forms of fighting is also echoed in the description of Old Hamlet and his combat with Old Fortinbras.

Quarto 6
As discussed in an earlier episode, there were several versions and published versions of the play even in Shakespeare's time. The most substantial of them is the Second Quarto, which is the primary source for this podcast. The Sixth Quarto has little else of note but since a suggestion from it cropped up in this episode I felt it worth a little reference here!

EPISODE 04 - INSTRUMENTS OF WAR

TEXT:

MARCELLUS
Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

HORATIO
In what particular thought to work I know not;
But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

MARCELLUS
Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land,
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
Who is't that can inform me?

HORATIO
That can I;
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet -
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him -
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:

NOTES:
(*Apologies that this episode ends only halfway through a sentence, but Horatio's text in this speech is very long and flowing, and there isn't a reasonable break for quite some time hereafter!)

Feminine Endings
The vast majority of verse drama in the Elizabethan period is written in Iambic Pentameter. Pentameter means that there are five sections (or feet) per line, and Iambic means that these feet are all Iambs, or short-LONG stressed sections. So, the basic rhythm of almost all poetic drama in English before Shakespeare is short-LONG short-LONG short-LONG short-LONG short-LONG. Or, as you might recognise, de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM. Rather akin to the human heartbeat, and certainly a rhythmic pattern that has given form to some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language. But sometimes there are more syllables to a thought than will fit into such a tight rhythm. Sometimes the playwright wants to squeeze in a little more. And in this instances - often because a character is thinking about something a little more complicated or confusing or terrifying - we get a bonus syllable in the line, meaning that it goes up to eleven. Lines like this aren't guaranteed to be a signal of reflection or concern, but they certainly often are. Think about To BE or NOT to BE that IS the QUEST-ion. Eleven syllables - existential crisis. If it fit neatly into a single even line, would there be any question at all? (We will obviously have to discuss this at length when we get to it, sometime in 2019 I assume...!)  

Hendiadys
Hendiadys (Greek for 'one through two') is a figure of speech whereby two ideas are combined to form a single image. A very simple example is a describing a cup of tea as "nice and hot". It features a great deal in the Bible, and indeed there are over sixty examples of it in Hamlet alone.

Heraldry
There's quite a notable contrast between King Hamlet's relations with Norway - ending with a violent, medieval single-combat, and Claudius' diplomacy. The world of 'laws and heraldry' seems to be over, and Hamlet has something of a nostalgia for his father's way of operating. 

EPISODE 03 - ENTER GHOST

TEXT:

Enter Ghost

MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!

BERNARDO
In the same figure, like the king that's dead.

MARCELLUS
Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

BERNARDO
Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

HORATIO
Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.

BERNARDO
It would be spoke to.

MARCELLUS
Question it, Horatio.

HORATIO
What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee, speak!

MARCELLUS
It is offended.

BERNARDO
See, it stalks away!

HORATIO
Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Exit Ghost

MARCELLUS
'Tis gone, and will not answer.

BERNARDO
How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you on't?

HORATIO
Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.

MARCELLUS
Is it not like the king?

HORATIO
As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
'Tis strange.

NOTES:

Ghosts in Shakespeare
John Mullan's very helpful article on ghosts in Shakespeare is available from the British Library website - click here. 

Geography
The world of Shakespeare's Denmark is - unusually perhaps for Shakespeare - quite geographically specific and correct. Denmark, Norway and Poland were all fairly familiar in the minds of Elizabethan England, and far less romanticised than the Italian locations of several of his comedies. 

Ur-Hamlet and the sources of the Story
The original source texts for this story date very far back in Scandinavian legend - and indeed comparable stories happen in Ancient Roman legend and the Icelandic sagas. Many of the key elements of the story of Hamlet appear in Saxo Grammaticus' 'Deeds of the Danes' - Gesta Danorum - written about 1200AD. In the 1570s a French translation of the story appears in  François de Belleforest's 'Tragic Tales' - Histoires Tragiques. Thereafter things get tricky. Perhaps there was a first version, an Ur-Hamlet that Shakespeare wrote himself and then re-edited later in his career. Perhaps there was a version of the story by Thomas Kyd. Nothing has survived the lottery of time, so it's all conjecture. 

The Spanish Tragedy
This play was written by Thomas Kyd in the 1580s, and was a very popular and very influential hit. The play was the first ever revenge tragedy written for the English theatre. It crops up in references within plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and many others. Its surtitle, "Hieronimo is Mad Again" is a reference to the play's protagonist, who pretends to be mad in order to lull the victims of his ultimate revenge. The Spanish Tragedy is also notable for featuring the first instance of a play-within-a-play - the dramatic device of having characters in a play put on a play themselves. This is obviously central to the plot of Hamlet also. 

EPISODE 02 - THIS THING

TEXT:

MARCELLUS
What, has this thing appeared again to-night?

BERNARDO
I have seen nothing.

MARCELLUS
Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes and speak to it.

HORATIO
Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

BERNARDO
Sit down awhile;
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story
What we have two nights seen.

HORATIO
Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

BERNARDO
Last night of all,
When yond same star that's westward from the pole
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one...
 

NOTES:

Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer, noted as much for developing many fine astronomical instruments as for his near-accurate positioning of stars without the aid of telescope. He was born in the sixteenth century to a powerful noble family of Denmark. Although he was groomed for a career in the civil service, his interest turned to astronomy, and later even to alchemy. He built laboratories and observatories on the family property, and eventually discovered a new star on 11 November 1572. He eventually published a paper on the star the following year, becoming the then equivalent of an overnight sensation. (The paper is called "On the New Star".) Subsequently, thanks to the royal patronage, he built two fine observatories at Hven, where he continued with his astronomical studies, until circumstances forced him to go into exile. He spent the last years of his life at the Imperial Court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, occupying the position of Imperial Mathematician and Astrologer.

Doubting Thomas
The episode between Thomas and the risen Jesus appears only in the Gospel according to John. 

 

Episode 01 - WHO'S THERE?

TEXT:

BERNARDO
Who's there?

FRANCISCO
Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.

BERNARDO
Long live the king!

FRANCISCO
Bernardo?

BERNARDO
He.

FRANCISCO
You come most carefully upon your hour.

BERNARDO
'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRANCISCO
For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

BERNARDO
Have you had quiet guard?

FRANCISCO
Not a mouse stirring.

BERNARDO
Well, good night.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

FRANCISCO
I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?

[Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]

HORATIO
Friends to this ground.

MARCELLUS
And liegemen to the Dane.

FRANCISCO
Give you good night.

MARCELLUS
O, farewell, honest soldier:
Who hath relieved you?

FRANCISCO
Bernardo has my place. Give you good night.

MARCELLUS
Holla! Bernardo!

BERNARDO
Say, what, is Horatio there?

HORATIO
A piece of him.

BERNARDO
Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.

NOTES:

QUARTO | FOLIO
Shakespeare's plays were printed in a variety of different printing formats. Some plays (Hamlet included) were first printed as quartos, or books in which the paper is folded in half twice, creating a smaller book. (Quarto because the page was folded into four smaller pages...) In 1623 the plays were edited and published as a folio, in which the pages are folded in half once. This volume, the First Folio, was put together by two actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell. The First Folio contains all of the canonical plays by Shakespeare with the exception of Pericles.

Dominic Dromgoole's book Hamlet: Globe to Globe tells the story of the Shakespeare's Globe production of the play that set out to tour every country on earth. It's a beautiful read. 

Peter Brook's play Qui Est Là takes its name from the opening line of Hamlet, but features other texts by several great writers and theorists of the theatre from all over the world. He directed two major productions of Hamlet - one in 1955 with Paul Schofield, and another in 2000 with Adrian Lester. 

A Visit from St. Nicholas is a favourite Christmas poem around the world - perhaps the most famous ever to come from the United States. Its authorship has long been contested, but you can click here to explore a beautiful illustrated edition of the poem from 1912.

Coming Soon

Notes for each show will be posted after the episode has launched. 

Episode 01 "Who's There" is coming on Sunday August 13th. 

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