"With the World Turning Circles Running Round My Brain..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

To be, or not to be. Aye, that's the point.
To die, to sleep, is that all? Aye, all.
No, to sleep, to dream, aye, marry, there it goes,
For in that dream of death, when we awake,
And borne again before an everlasting judge,
From whence no passenger ever returned,
The undiscovered country, at whose sight,
The happy smile, and the accursed damned.
But for this, the joyful hope of this,
Who'd bear the scorns and flattery of the world
Scorned by the right rich, the rich cursed of the poor?

...This is the version of the To be or not to be soliloquy first published in 1603. I cannot even begin to say how amused and thrilled I am. Except that I am very amused and thrilled. Because. zomg. ^__________^ Dorky.

It was published by the fellow who played Marcellus; James Shapiro says they know this because the only lines that were right were Marcellus', implying that he had actually, you know, learnt them.

But dude. There are just so. many. injokes. in Hamlet. It's not even funny (except that it really, really is). My favourite is the Caesar-Brutus/Polonius-Hamlet one, wherein the fellow who played Polonius also played Caesar, and Burbage, who played Hamlet, also played Brutus, so when Polonius says, 'I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i' th' Capitol; Brutus killed me,' he's talking about himself for serious. And, um, he's about to get stabbed by Brutus again.

...Not even funny.

Shapiro also points out that Hamlet's 'I prophesy th' election lights on Fortinbras; he has my dying voice' is kind of, oh, utterly ridiculous, since everybody is dead, and Fortinbras just invaded, dude. It's not like there's going to be an election. He also says--where is it, can't find it--aha, here--he also says that Hamlet's soliloquies are vastly important because Hamlet has nobody to talk to. And I quote, "His old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spies and viewed with suspicion. Horatio is deeply loyal, but likes the sound of his own words a bit too much and never seems fully to understand him (you can sense Hamlet's exasperation with his friend when he tells him that there 'are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'. Given Gertrude's dependence on Claudius, she cannot be trusted either. And there's no hope of unburdening himself to his terrifying father, back from Purgatory"; he then goes on to address a great deal of reasons why Hamlet can't talk to Ophelia, either, and ends "We are all that's left". But. The sentence that grabs one's attention immediately is, of course:

'Horatio is deeply loyal, but likes the sound of his own words a bit too much'.

This is how I used to portray Horatio, long ago, when I first started writing Hamlet fanfic (to be precise, back when I was actually writing Les Mis fic and crossing it over with Hamlet. see Rosemary and Sage and Oranges); but now I interpret his character entirely differently (no, really?). It made me laugh and sulk both at once. Shapiro also goes on to point out several more examples of Horatio Just Not Getting It, most significantly at the end, when he has his 'so shall you hear of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts' speech. "Horatio's words underscore much he has failed to grasp about his friend, relative to what we know". He does, however, add that Horatio "can be excused for how much he has missed; unlike us, he has not been privy to Hamlet's soliloquies". Exactly. Anything Horatio finds out, he has to intuit.

Also, regarding the Doubt that the stars are fire poem, Shapiro says, "It's mortifying to hear this lame verse recited and it underscores the danger of baring one's soul, because Ophelia, in 'duty and obedience', has betrayed Hamlet by turning these letters over to her father". This is rather amusing if one considers the correct (read: Miss Zara's and my) cause for the bad poetry. --But seriously, he has a point. It's wretched verse and it's even wretcheder being read to Gertrude and Claudius.

...And now I will stop babbling. But I finished the book to-day, and I am devastated that it's over. But it made my weeeeeeeeeek. ^______________^

Comments

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

plus they probably studied rhetoric at wittenberg, too. and they're shakespearean. ... but that's beside the point. they do a lot to build that sturdy-trustworthiness up in the first act, though -- why do marcellus and bernardo want horatio to see the ghost, for instance? because he's a scholar, because he's trustworthy, because he'll know what to do about it probably -- 'steady' is probably the word soujin's claimed for horatio, and that's what he is. steady and sensible, someone the characters can rely on, and the audience can hold on to. ... i wish i could write a paper now. ... that's a little sad.

XD

XD XD i meant to a horatio-icon in my last batch, anyhow. i just couldn't find the right picture. ;_;

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

True! Silly well-learned Shakespearean Danes. Exactly! And later, when the King himself tells Horatio to look after Ophelia when she's mad-- Horatio's there for everyone just because his steady and Good. And he really only speaks when he needs to-- I think that's the key. He can speak and speak well, but he knows when it is needed. His words are chosen carefully, or that's the impression I get. Of course, we're both influenced by Soujin's lovely Horatio.

DF Hamlet needs to ramble more. XD XD

^________^ This is my hopeful face. And "aught of woe or wonder" is a good line...!

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

ah, so true. :D he's there for everyone, but it's still never enough, which i think is one of the things that really struck me about the scott campbell version, which i think i probably babbled about before. or thought about babbling about. and it's true that soujin's horatio is spot-on, isn't it -- i remember her writing something about how when he was a boy he spoke like a man, and when he was a man he spoke like an old man, always speaking very carefully.

doesn't he ramble enough? ... of course not.

and almost what, an hour later ...

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

You're both ridiculous, and that was in Tricks of the Wind, and eeeeeeee, Horatio icon! ^__________^

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

ah, i think that's the first fic of yours i'd read. :3 :D and i'm still referencing it to-day! ... and yes, horatio-icon. :D :D

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

It's the first decent Hamlet fic I wrote. Fashion i' th' Earth and Erroris are both rather... short and dreadful. Erroris the moreso because I had no grasp whatsoever of Shakespearean English at teh time. ... Bweeee.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

-- you know (-- you know -- !) i think i read fashion i' th' earth once, a long time ago. i think i liked it maybe. i was very into vignettes then. (but tricks in the wind, and the way you wove in all the characters (like weaving in the wind), the little bits of wordplay, the angels and the demons -- that's a fic worth falling in love with a writer for.)

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

I think I must cringe, though perhaps there was something in it to like, it's been years since I reread it-- it was certainly a vignette. (I don't know I shall ever write something like again.)

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

And it's all mine...!

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

Babble as much as you like. It's been my favourite adaptation of Hamlet since 2003. Hamlet and Horatio are really perfect, and Horatio sort of gets the importance he deserves in the last scene (as the last man standing, along with everything that entails-- he's not some stranger, he knew these people and now he's surrounded by their bodies). There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow, though, and that goes for the entire nest as well; nothing anyone could have done would have been enough.

He barely ever rambles, Miss!

...

...

...

Can I really have it? It's gorgeous.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

i would babble to my heart's content, but i'd just the same thing you did, but in different words. he helps them pick up hamlet's body, even then, he's helping, but you can imagine how awful that must be? and the fall of a sparrow or the entire nest, i like that -- (i suppose that's what makes it a tragedy, though, nothing ever being enough --)

then he should ramble more! :D :D

well, i made it for you, silly. ^__^

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

You don't really need to imagine. The last few seconds of the film the camera's on Horatio, as he falls back from the others, as he covers his face and leans against the wall and one can only figure he's weeping. (In a way, I think it must have been doomed from the start. There's so much rot and disease imagery in the play that it's so easy to imagine needing the eradicate the entire ruling household to get things clean again-- like burning all the possessions of a child who is ill. Fortinbras has his father's lands back at the end; there's a new start, a healthy start. When it's all about foils, it makes sense.)

Eeeeeee! Oh, thank you! Thank you! John Benjamin Hickey is a very handsome man with a silly name.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

oh, that's so terribly, achingly true -- he manages to keep so together, too, but his hand lingers in the air a little when they carry him away and -- it's so awful and perfect. and in that little shot ... ! you know it's good cinematography when it breaks your heart. (oh ... i like that. well, i like it as a way of explaining, at least.)

that he is. :3 :D on both counts. :D

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

Really, really. It really does hurt, so much. And I think I am going to buy this on DVD as soon as I... have money. (It's not so good when one likes Hamlet, because when you think of it that way, it's so clear that it could never have been right or good for him.)

...I wonder how obsessive it would be to try and track down more of his films. Apparently, he was in a short-lived series on ABC, as one of a pair of gay dads.

[little-lady-d.livejournal.com]

and then you can get heartbroken whenever you like -- (v. true. and another thing that makes it a tragedy ...)

... ... ... i guess not of a sweet little nordic girl.

[silverdragon262.livejournal.com]

Exactly-- ...I mean.(There's just so many. ;____;)

...Sadly, no. ;______;