Unorthodox. Undid me. Usurpation, then. He slipped in. Which reminds me. Well, it would. Your mother s marriage.

Transcription

1 A He s not himself, you know. I m him, you see. Who am I then? You re yourself. And he s you? Not a bit of it. Are you afflicted? That s the idea. Are you ready? Let s go back a bit. I m afflicted. I see. Glean what afflicts me. Right. Question and answer. How should I begin? Address me. My dear Guildenstern! (quietly) You ve forgotten haven t you? My dear Rosencrantz! (great control) I don t think you quite understand. What we are attempting is a hypothesis in which I answer for him while you ask me questions. Ah! Ready? You know what to do? What?

2 B So so your uncle is the king of Denmark? And my father before him. His father before him? No, my father before him. Let me get it straight. Your father was king. You were his only son. Your father dies. You are of age. Your uncle becomes king. Yes. Unorthodox. Undid me. Usurpation, then. He slipped in. Which reminds me. Well, it would. Your mother s marriage. He slipped in. His body was still warm. So was hers. It makes you think. Don t think I haven t thought of it. And with her husband s brother. It looks bad. It adds up. Incest to adultery. Would you go so far? Never. To sum up: your father, whom you love, dies, you are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before his younger brother popped onto his throne and into his sheets, thereby offending both legal and natural practice. Now why exactly are you behaving in this extraordinary manner?

3 C CLAUDIUS: GERTRUDE: POLONIUS: CLAUDIUS: POLONIUS: Welcome, dear Rosencrantz...and Guildenstern. Moreover that we did much long to see you, The need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sending. Something you have heard Of Hamlet s transformation, so call it, Sith nor th exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father s death, that thus hath put him, So much from th understanding of himself, I cannot dream of. I entreat you both That being of so young days brought up with him And sith so neighboured to his youth and haviour That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time, so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus, That opened lies within our remedy. Good (fractional suspense) gentlemen... He hath much talked of you, And sure I am, two men there is not living To whom he more adheres. If it will please you To show us so much gentry and goodwill As to expand your time with us awhile For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king s remembrance. The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, are joyfully returned. Thou still hast been the father of good news. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King; And I do think, or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath used to do, that I have found The very cause of Hamlet s lunacy...

4 D I m afraid it isn t your day. I m afraid it is. Eighty-nine. It must be indicative of something, besides the redistribution of wealth. List of possible explanations. One: I m willing it. Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past. (He spins a coin at ROS.) Heads Two: time has stopped dead, and the single experience of one coin being spun once has been repeated ninety times On the whole, doubtful. Three: divine intervention, that is to say, a good turn from above concerning him, cf. children of Israel, or retribution from above concerning me, cf. Lot s wife. Four: a spectacular vindication of the principle that each individual coin spun individually is as likely to come down heads as tails and therefore should cause no surprise each individual time it does. I ve never known anything like it! And a syllogism: One, he has never known anything like it. Two, he has never known anything to write home about. Three, it is nothing to write home about Home What s the first thing you remember? Oh, let s see The first thing that comes into my head, you mean? No the first thing you remember. Ah. (Pause.) No, it s no good, it s gone. It was a long time ago. (patient, but edged) You don t get my meaning. What is the first thing after all the things you ve forgotten? Oh I see. (Pause.) I ve forgotten the question.

5 E : : : : : But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come; nay, speak. What should we say, my lord? Why anything but to th purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to color. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you. To what end, my lord? That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer can charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no. My lord, we were sent for. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather. I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to be a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire: why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

6 F What is your line? Tragedy, sir. Deaths and disclosures, universal and particular, denouements both unexpected and inexorable, transvestite melodrama on all levels including the suggestive. We transport you into a world of intrigue and illusion clowns, if you like, murderers we can do you ghosts and battles, on the skirmish level, heroes, villains, tormented lovers set pieces in the poetic vein; we can do you rapiers or rape or both, by all means, faithless wives and ravished virgins flagrante delicto at a price, but that comes under realism for which there are special terms. Getting warm, am I? (doubtfully) Well, I don t know It costs little to watch, and little more if you happen to get caught up in the action, if that s your taste and times being what they are. What are they? Indifferent. Bad? Wicked. Now what precisely is your pleasure? (To the TRAGEDIANS.) Gentlemen, disport yourselves. There! See anything you like? What do they do? Let your imagination run riot. They are beyond surprise. And how much? To take part? To watch. Watch what? A private performance. How private? Well, there are only two of us. Is that enough? For an audience, disappointing. For voyeurs, about average. What s the difference? Ten guilders.

7 G Whose serve? What? Hah? Are you deaf? Foul! No grunts. Love one. Am I dead? Whose go? Yes or no? Why? Is there a choice? Why not? Is there a God? What for? Foul! No synonyms! One all. Foul! No non sequiturs, three two, one game all. (seriously) What s your name? What in God s name is going on? Foul! No rhetoric. Two one. What does it all add up to? Can t you guess? Were you addressing me? Is there anyone else? Who? How would I know? Why do you ask? Are you serious? Was that rhetoric? No. Statement! Two all. Game point. What s the matter with you today? What s yours? I asked you first. Statement. One love. What s your name when you re at home? What s yours? When I m at home? Is it different at home? What home? Haven t you got one? Why do you ask? What are you driving at? What s your name?! Repetition. Two love. Match point to me. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Rhetoric! Game and match! When?

8 H Do you know any good plays? Plays? One of the Greeks, perhaps? You re familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics? Matri, patri, fratri, sorrori, uxori and it goes without saying suicidal hm? Maidens aspiring to godheads and vice versa your kind of thing, is it? Well, no, I can t say it is, really. We re more of the blood, love and rhetoric school. Well, I ll leave the choice to you, if there is anything to choose between them. They re hardly divisible, sir well, I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can t do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory they re all blood, you see. Is that what people want? It s what we do. (To TRAGEDIANS) Entrances there and there (indicating). The PLAYER takes a declarative stance. Well aren t you going to change into your costume? I never change out of it, sir. Aren t you going to come on? I am on. But if you are on, you can t come on. Can you? I start on. But it hasn t started. Go on. We ll look out for you.

9 J We are counting on you to take him out of himself. You are the pleasures which we draw him on to. We already have an entry here. And always have had You ve played for him before? Yes, sir. What will you play? The Murder of Gonzago What is it about? It s about a King and a Queen... Escapism! What else? Blood Love and rhetoric. Yes. (Going.) Where are you going? I can come and go as I please. You evidently know your way around. I ve been here before. We re still finding our feet. I should concentrate on not losing your heads. Do you speak from knowledge? Precedent. You ve been here before. And I know which way the wind is blowing.

10 K So we ve got a letter which explains everything. You ve got it. (ROS starts to pat his pockets, etc.) What s the matter? The letter. Have you got it? Have I? Where would I have put it? You can t have lost it. I must have! That s odd I thought he gave it to me. Perhaps he did. But you seemed so sure it was you who hadn t got it. It was me that hadn t got it! But if he gave it to me there s no reason why you should have had it in the first place, in which case I don t see what all the fuss is about you not having it. (pause) I admit it s confusing. Either you have lost the letter or you didn t have it to lose in the first place, in which case the King never gave it to you, in which case he gave it to me, in which case (calmly producing the letter)...it will be...here. Now that we have found it, why were we looking for it? We thought it was lost.

11 L POLONIUS OPHELIA POLONIUS OPHELIA POLONIUS OPHELIA POLONIUS OPHELIA POLONIUS OPHELIA POLONIUS How now, Ophelia! what's the matter? O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted! With what, i' the name of God? My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet,with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors,--he comes before me. Mad for thy love? My lord, I do not know; but truly, I do fear it. What said he? He took me by the wrist and held me hard; Then goes he to the length of all his arm; And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so; At last, a little shaking of mine arm And thrice his head thus waving up and down, He raised a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk And end his being: that done, he lets me go: And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd, He seem'd to find his way without his eyes; For out o' doors he went without their helps, And, to the last, bended their light on me. This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself And leads the will to desperate undertakings As oft as any passion under heaven That does afflict our natures. I am sorry. What, have you given him any hard words of late? No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied His access to me. That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle, And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy! By heaven, it is as proper to our age To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king: This must be known; which, being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

12 M POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord? Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. POLONIUS Not I, my lord. Then I would you were so honest a man. POLONIUS Honest, my lord! Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. POLONIUS That's very true, my lord. Have you a daughter? POLONIUS I have, my lord. Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't. POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord? Words, words, words. POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord? Between who? POLONIUS I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward. POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Into my grave. POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.--my honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.

13 N CLAUDIUS There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves: You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? GERTRUDE Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!' And, in this brainish apprehension, kills The unseen good old man. CLAUDIUS O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there: His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt, This mad young man: but so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit; But, like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone? GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: O'er whom his very madness, like some ore Among a mineral of metals base, Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done. CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed We must, with all our majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse.