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Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellus.
i am quite literally in a tizzy about horatio right now. there he is, third man on stage and literally only dude who makes it to the end.
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
lol, but not like el oh el. literally loll.
young Fortinbras,
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.
yeah, i mean.
in hamlet (the play), the way this is NEVER emphasized, but the whole time this is going on in the background. hamlet doesn't CARE about it. he is literally faced with it in the 4th act and is still so self-involved that he has no idea that it's coming, and literally because he's basically dead by the time fortinbras does burst down his doors, he still doesn't care. that's the destruction of his entire country, not just himself and his family. and he never cares about it. i mean, in a simple narrative way, this is where that novel i read in 2020 succeeds, by shifting the narrative away from hamlet, we get that there is a serious, background conflict. and one that claudius cares about. but DOES claudius care about it. hamlet doesn't, where old hamlet did, obviously, but claudius wasn't any more prepared for fortinbras at his doorstep than hamlet was.
The graves stood [tenantless] and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen.
i guess the last time i read hamlet was 2018, and i did start to think more about Who the ghost is and what he wants.
is he exactly what he appears, as selfish as hamlet and claudius and gertrude. so human and caught up in the agony of his murder that even he can't see what's coming for them.
is he a demon to tempt young hamlet into damning denmark.
or is he simply...an omen. one that exacerbates a problem that already exists but not the cause. hamlet's already angry with his uncle and mother. the idea would have come to him with or without the ghost.
Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long, And then they say no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed, and so gracious, is that time.
so even in the darkest part of the year, the ghost cannot come
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, Co-leagued with this 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 bands of law, To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
lol. i had thought that the reading of the line "so much for him" was so strange, but actually no, claudius, your state is disjoint and out of frame. the constant, repeated performances of "sO MuCH FoR hIM." is literally correct. my guy does not care, or else, estimates his strength too highly.
uncle of young Fortinbras— Who, impotent and bedred, scarcely hears Of this his nephew’s purpose—to
fortinbras, of course, is in the same position as hamlet. his uncle is Norway, though he should be someday, even soon, and if he does take poland and denmark then he will cement his place as king.
on an unrelated note, yeah, i did, like many before me, write this conflict out of my retelling.
that this too too sallied flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
this is the first time i've actually seen sallied. i think what i read last used the, apparently, imposed "sullied" since, "sallied" isn't actually a word that makes a lot of sense here. i am reading a blog post about this as i type. i learned it as solid, think i've actually heard it as soiled at least once, and i am sympathetic to "solid." your flesh is TOO solid, TOO permanent, a sentiment i was very keen on in the Eleventh Grade. a different time, a different word, maybe i would have been more taken with sullied.
anyway, i'm trying to figure out how sallied would work, but i think it's probably just simply NOT sallied :/. i of course, am not going to presume to go against like, two centuries of shakespeare scholarship, but it seems strange to just write off sallied altogether, in the context of me literally focusing on the military aspect of hamlet. like me and those two guys who wrote that novel cannot be the only people in five hundred years who are like: hey you know there's an entire ARMY at their doorstep, this whole time. and i mean, in fairness to those two guys, without them i would not be able to make that observation in the text here.
but like:a sudden charge out of a besieged place against the enemy; a sortie? I don't think it's particularly LIKELY that this is the usage, since it's a little bit a stretch. but can hamlet not think of his own flesh being BESEIGED -- with grief, with change. he's being forced to stay home, his own promised crown is being held over his head, there IS a military conflict that is probably playing into this decision, being made for him. again, not the most likely usage and also perhaps one that fell out of usage pretty quickly. solid makes more intuitive sense, especially in the context of the soliloquy, and sallied DOESN'T make that much immediate sense. and also people, especially hamlet, keep forgetting that there IS an army at their doorstep. whatever, u know. i just thoguht.
’tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely.
[It] is an unweeded garden that grows to seed -- Denmark has grown to seed because it has been unweeded or [Denmark] is an unweeded garden that grows to seed - unweeded and already grown to seed, lol?
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 incestious sheets, It is not, nor it cannot come to good, But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
Horatio—or I do forget myself.
so true punctuation, lol. Horatio? or am i TERRIBLE at names
I would not hear your enemy say so, Nor shall you do my 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.
it almost is funny that hamlet is like, horatio??? bro we have to see more of each other, and then immediately like: you speak BADLY of horatio? horatio says that horatio is bad? no JAIL jail for horatio for a thousand years. bro what.
anyway my favorite stagings of this are where he's like huh...who is interrupting my Monologuing, and then he turns around and it's HIS BOY. they're very fun for me personally.
Ham. ’A was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
you know when you suddenly, after comparing your father to a god, literally just give the most somber, seriously, and legitimately grounded description of your father.
Saw, who?
it IS time to watch ethan hawke's hamlet again lol
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
sometimes you wish your flesh would melt, and sometimes ur freinds are distilled to jelly, such is the world.
I knew your father, These hands are not more like.
did i ask last time about this?
horatio knows the king to see him which can't possibly be true for every german-speaking educated dane, can it? like literally who IS horiatio? it's such a fundamental question and yet here i am, 8 years later, asking it.
Upon the platform ’twixt aleven and twelf I’ll visit you.
as ethan hawke he simply doesn't show, which is THE funniest choice they could have made.
hamlet does eventually face the ghost in solitude and sees him only by himself. lajsoiajg what am i saying.
My father’s spirit—in arms! All is not well, I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul. [Foul] deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
Laer. My necessaries are inbark’d. Farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convey [is] assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. Oph. Do you doubt that?
whatever, i don't care, i love them <3
Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will, but you must fear, His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own, [For he himself is subject to his birth]: He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice depends The safety and health of this whole state, And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’d Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head.
i do think it's interesting that it's laertes and not his scheming father who brings this up. obviously, polonious is a fool. polonious' warnings are about ophelia being trapped by her station (Woman), because he's focused on how she can move Up, advantageous marriages and such, though not, seemingly, to hamlet. but laertes is very kind here; maybe he does love you, but he may not be able to marry you. idk, maybe i've got my brain rotted from reading hamlet too many times, but i register concern that is about Ophelia getting used and getting her heart broken, as well as concern for Hamlet, or at least sympathy for his position. obviously, whatever laertes is to hamlet, he'd know All About hamlet's position, the limits of it on his own person.
he is, in fact, about to go and do the exact same thing in france himself. "filander" or enjoy himself, but not marry. ophelia sees this as hypocrisy, and perhaps it is, but its just...a brother looking out for his sister. :( i love them so much.
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
no u know what i take back what i just said, mind ur own business laertes
I stay too long—but
this IS funny this whole exchange is funny i have changed my mind again, i love them.
Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
perhaps.
This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
in the end, polonious doesn't mean to offer advice that rings so hollow (and not all of it is BAD advice either, though some of it is a little confusion); he does love his children. But also, laertes advice to ophelia is more worthwhile.
also they're both right to be worried about hamlet. whether or not hamlet Loves Her is like...something else entirely, but like in general he's the kind of man one worries about.
also, when bill murray polonious tucks a wad of cash in laertes jacket :( literally that's the last time he sees him.
how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows.
In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere [implorators] of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to [beguile]. This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault: the dram of [ev’l] Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal.
people who have done something wrong usually worry about this kind of thing, although hamlet does seem to suffer with Scrupulosity to some degree.
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn’d,
a spirit of HEALTH? I s2g that it was a spirit of HELL; there are no line numbers in this hold on i am checking;
anyway no, as far as i can tell it's always health, which, obviously makes more sense, maybe i am just Never Listening.
Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
I do not set my life at a pin’s fee,
that is the problem dummy.
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness? Think of it.
yeah THINk of it.
Be rul’d, you shall not go.
only man alive vibes
By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me! I say away!—Go on, I’ll follow thee.
Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Henry Fuseli, p. — Robert Thew, e.
why is hamlet so buff in this painting lol
Speak, I am bound to hear. Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
murther.
literally will never be over the word murther
Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this.
so the whole ear of Denmark
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.
From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine!
u know saying this while ur still alive and going through a Divorce or Break Up would simply make you sound bitter, like, not for nothing. like i get that he KILLED you, but it's legitimately a funny thing to say divorced of context.
And prey on garbage.
But soft, methinks I scent the morning air, Brief let me be.
dean winchester dying in the barn vibes.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhous’led, disappointed, unanel’d, No reck’ning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head.
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
NOT dean winchester dying in the barn vibes, i am joking, i am not joking i am joking.
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her.
wait, sir, can you repeat this instruction again. hold on, sir, hamlet, can you make sure your son heard this instruction. DON'T come after your mother, DON'T even think about it. hold on, i think he might have missed this.
Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.
hey i know the ghost said that he would be Bound to Revenge in the first part of this scene, but i am realizing right now that his story does not end with a call to action, EXCEPT that "Only God can judge your mother Now, son"
technically i guess we've got a couple direct calls to action here:
Let no the royal bed of denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest.
Do NOT kill your. Do NOT even THINK about killing your mother. She's not innocent but she is not the one who is Creating an Issue.
Remember me.
like yes, the ghost tells him knowing that hamlet will be bound to revenge, but at no point does the ghost say: you MUST kill claudius. what he must do is honor is father and restore denmark's good name, actually protect it. literally HOWSOMEVER THOU PURSUES this act -- it must be pursued, but it doesn't have to end in murder? am i...am i reading this wrong. ohhh my god.
