Hamlet, Prince of Denmark – “Neither a borrower nor a lender be..."

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark  – “Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry…”

Around 1599, everything seemed to be coming together for Shakespeare professionally. He had just moved with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men to the Globe Theatre, he had had a great success with the play ‘Julius Caesar’ and he finally had an actors worthy of playing great parts since the actor Richard Burbage seemed to be growing in skill and reputation. But still Shakespeare was restless or as Shakespeare’s Hamlet puts it, “Something is (was) rotten in the state of Denmark.” On about August 9^th, 1596, William Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet had died and sometime in August 1599, Shakespeare had returned to Stratford Upon Avon for a memorial service. He wrestled with the ‘ghost’ of his son and notions of mortality and death in ‘King John’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Julius Caesar’ and even had entered a period of writing comedies like ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing' to forget his loss, but still the big questions of life and death seemed to plague him. On top of this, with Queen Elizabeth I entering her 66^th year without a direct heir and questions of who would succeed her always on people's thoughts (and sometimes their tongues), questions of death, life and stability abounded in the minds and hearts of most English men and women, including Shakespeare.

It is not, therefore, unthinkable that as the summer weather started to turn in August 1599 and the rain and ghostly mist worked its way back into Shakespeare’s daily life, that he turned his mind to reworking Saxo Grammaticus’ ‘Amleth’ (probably as influenced by Beleforest’s 16^th century retelling of the story).

It may be useful to ask why ‘Hamlet’ has become such a famous play for Shakespeare. It is his longest play, though probably the full five-hour version we have today is a conglomerate of a number of versions and a number of approximately four-hour stage versions of the play that would have been performed in Shakespeare’s time. This means that he wrestled with this play even after writing it and it is probably the only one of his plays that seems to have been re-written and had speeches added to many times. What I think is so riveting about the play is its dramatic structure, its complex characterization, its rich verse and dialogue and the masterly way it deals with complex issues of life, death, love, revenge and fate.

The play starts on a dark, misty winter’s night on the walls of Elsinore Castle in Denmark in about 1200. Bernardo relieves Francisco from his watch on the wall and the darkness and the mist make it difficult for them to identify one another. Francisco leaves and Bernardo is soon joined by Marcellus and Horatio (a good friend of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet). We soon discover the reason for why Horation is on the wall this dark night. It seems that Bernardo and Marcellus wanted Horation to witness something strange that they have encountered on previous watches.

Horatio is cynical  about the ‘ghost’ they claim they have seen and even more skeptical that it would be the ghost of Old King Hamlet who recently died but when suddenly a ghost appears which is indeed dressed like Old King Hamlet. Horatio remarks:

“Such was the very armour he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated…”

Horatio, in a great piece of storytelling, retells the story of King Hamlet’s triumph over Norway, and warns that now he is dead, Fortinbras, the young Prince of Norway, is trying to take back the lands won by Old King Hamlet in his conquests. His narrative is broken off when the ghost reappears and just as Horation speaks to the ghost, the sound of the first cock is heard and the hint of dawn makes the ghost disappear. Horatio then suggests:

“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.”

It is the next morning and the new King Claudius (the brother to the recently dead King Hamlet) basks in the glory of his recent marriage to his brother’s widow, Gertrude (mother to Prince Hamlet) while declaring that people need to find balance in mourning King Hamlet’s death while finding finding joy in his marriage. He mentions that young Fortinbras and his Norwegian army is on the march and then dispatches to the elderly Fortinbras, King of Norway, a message with Cornelius and Voltimand. As if checking off a list, he then turns to Laertes, the son of the Polonius (his chief advisor) and his request to return to Paris. Claudius agrees after checking that Polonius’ agreement. He then turns to Prince Hamlet.

Hamlet is first seen still in black clothes mourning the death of his father and his mother Gertrude asks him:

“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.”

Claudius’s statement to Hamlet that he is now his father and that he has even graciously announced that Hamlet will be next in line for the throne does not placate him. Moreover, Claudius expresses that Hamlet stays in Elsonore and does not return to his studies in Wittenberg. Gertrude reinforces this desire and Hamlet replies by stating that he will obey his mother. Claudius exits with Queen Gertrude to continue to celebrate his wedding.

Hamlet, now alone, expresses how his world is falling to pieces around him, his loss of faith, religion, God and his family. He desires that he didn’t exist and curses the hasty timing of this marriage so soon after his father’s death:

“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 to this!

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… 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…

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.”

Horatio enters with Marcellus and Bernardo. Hamlet seems genuinely pleased to see his friend from university in Wittenberg even though he senses that Horatio has arrived in Elsinore more for the royal wedding than the death of King Hamlet. Horatio then reveals that Marcellus and Bernardo have seen while on watch on the castle walls, a ghost that appears in the form of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. Hamlet is very interested in these visions and he is eager to watch with them that very night to see if the ghost will speak to him.

Meanwhile, at Polonius’s house, Laertes is preparing to leave for Paris with some last words of advice for his sister about how to Hamlet’s affection towards her is probably fleeting and amorous in its nature and intent since Hamlet is above her social station and probably does not have honorable intentions. Ophelia seems to take on this advice. Then Polonius enters and gives Laertes more advice than he can possibly ever follow eventually ending with the sound advice that: “This above all: to thine ownself be true…”

When Laertes exitis, Polonius asks Ophelia about her conversation with Laertes and Ophelia reveals that it was about Hamlet’s displays of love and affection for her. Polonius reinforces Laertes’ advice not to trust Hamlet’s declarations of love and he is able to get Ophelia to agree to reject hamlet’s advances.

Darkness descends and we join Hamlet and his friend Horatio and the men of the watch who are waiting for the ghost to appear once more. At midnight the trumpets and gunfire of Claudius’ celebrations are heard. Then the ghost appears, beckoning Hamlet to follow it to a secluded spot. The others don’t want Hamlet to follow in case the ghost means to harm him but Hamlet’s desire to hear the ghost prevails since he also doesn’t value his own life and rationalizes that the ghost could not harm his soul. Hamlet leaves with the ghost but soon after Horatio and Marcellus make a decision to secretly follow him.

When they finally seem alone, Hamlet stops the ghost and the ghost claims that he is indeed the ghost of Hamlet’s father and that he has come to inform hamlet that he was murdered and he comes to get hamlet to avenge his “foul and most unnatural murder”. The ghost then tells the whole story of how he King Hamlet was sleeping in the garden when his brother Claudius poured poison into his ear. Hamlet then sees that his mistrust of his uncle is well-founded. The ghost then goes on to point out how Claudius has corrupted Gertrude and Denmark and urges Hamlet to take the justice of revenge:

“Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--

O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen…

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;…

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury and damned incest…

Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.”

Dawn starts to break and as the ghost evaporates, Hamlet refuses to tell the others what the ghost has said and gets them to swear to keep what they have seen tonight a secret even if he starts to act strangely from now onwards. Then the ghost quickly re-appears to make sure that they swear to silence. They swear on Hamlet’s sword, the ghost disappears again and as they exit, Hamlet reflects on the responsibility and task that has now been laid on his shoulders:

“The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Two – “I have of late—but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth…”

When I read a great play like ‘Hamlet’ and I then come across an act or set of scenes that weaves plot, character, speeches, intention, light lyrical poetry and poetic imagery driven by the deep and dark murky mire of the soul, I feel elated and truly humbled at the same time. Act Two of 'Hamlet' is brilliant.

It starts calmly and domestically enough with Polonius sending his servant Reynaldo to Paris, France to not just take money and letters to his son Laertes, but to spy on him and his every activity. What it is to be so trusting as a father. Ophelia enters, shaken and upset because Hamlet has come in the early morning to her chambers “with his doublet unbraced” and a wild look. Hamlet then took her by the wrist and held her hard and perused her face intently and then left without uttering a word. Polonius concludes from all this that Hamlet is madly in love with Ophelia and that it is the madness of love that is responsible for all his strange behaviour.

In another part of the castle, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude welcome two of Hamlet’s university friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who Claudius has summoned to the palace to find the cause of Hamlet’s melancholy. Gertrude looks to them to cheer up “too much changed” son up. Although they are Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree to act as spies for Claudius.

Then Polonius enters, with news that the ambassadors who were sent to the old King of Norway have returned. The news is good and it is revealed that the king chastised young Fortinbras for trying to rally forces against the Danes and he gave him money to attack Poland instead. The king has averted war with Denmark but asked that Fortinbras’ troops be allowed to travel through Denmark on their way to attack Poland. Caludius agrees and is happy that peace is maintained.

Polonius then turns Claudius and Gertrude’s attention to Hamlet and after a meandering and ponderous prelude, he puts it to the king and queen that Hamlet is mad – for love of Ophelia which he bases on Hamlet’s behaviour and love letters from Hamlet to his daughter Ophelia which he promptly shares with them by reading them out aloud. Moreover, Polonius suggests that they spy on Hamlet on one of his walks by hiding behind an arras or wall hanging and watch Hamlet meeting with and interacting with Ophelia. Claudius likes the idea and when Prince Hamlet is seen approaching Polonius decides that he will have an initial conversation with him. Claudius and Gertrude exit.

Hamlet is quietly reading and contemplating, when he is interrupted by Polonius who takes Hamlet’s witty intellectually barbed quips to be proof of Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius leaves, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive and while they claim that they are merely there to see Hamlet, it becomes obvious that Claudius and Gertrude have sent for them. Hamlet says that his melancholy is probably the reason for the king and queen sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:

“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 me 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 appears no other thing to

me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.”

Rosencrantz then reveals that he hopes that Hamlet’s spirits are lifted by a troupe of players that they have “coted” on their way to Elsinore. Hamlet asks about the players and realizes that they are the players that he used to “take delight in” in the city and he asks about why they are traveling and would even visit a place like Elsinore. He hears that they are just as good but their style is a bit out of fashion now. Trumpets blow to proclaim the entrance of the players and Polonius announces the diversity of their performance styles. This whole scene gives a incredible insight into the nature of acting troupes of Shakespeare’s time. Hamlet prompts them to perform a speech about the Trojan King Priam and the fall of Troy and they comply. Then Hamlet tells them that they should perform The Murder of Gonzago that night but with the addition of an insertion of a short speech which Hamlet himself will write. They all depart and Hamlet is left alone.

Hamlet derides himself for his inability to show the feeling that these players seem to show and he decides that he will use the play to trap the king by forcing him to watch a scene very close to the events about his father’s death as told to him by the ghost. He sees the play will help to serve his own purposes.

“… O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul so to his own conceit

… and all for nothing!

For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have…

I should have fatted all the region kites

With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,

And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion… I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be the devil: and the devil hath power

To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds

More relative than this: the play 's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Three - “To be, or not to be; that is the question…”

The beauty of Hamlet as a play is that it deals with characters at the edge: A son who must avenge his father’s death whilst feeling disdain and hatred for his own mother whom he loves; a young girl who is asked to put herself up as bait to test the love and sanity of a young man who has shown affection towards her; a king who has killed his own brother and married his brother’s wife to take over the crown.

Act Three of ‘Hamlet’ starts off with Claudius and Gertrude talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet’s melancholy. They tell the king that Hamlet seems to be enthusiastic about the arrival of the players and is keen for the players to put on a performance and for the king and queen to attend. Gertrude and Claudius are pleased and agree to attend the performance as they see this might divert Hamlet from what troubles him. Meanwhile Claudius and Polonius hide to spy on and overhear Ophelia encountering Hamlet hoping that love for Ophelia is the cause of Hamlet's 'madness'.

Before we see Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia, we hear Hamlet give perhaps the most famous soliloquy of all time. In this speech, he questions whether life is worth living, whether he should commit suicide. He uses metaphoric comparison to compare death to sleep and then questions the moral and ethical consequences of life, acceptance of one’s suffering and death. The ambiguity of the afterlife causes him to question the notion and function of conscience because, for Hamlet, neither religion nor the spirit of pure reason can provide for him the answers he needs. His deep contemplations are interrupted when he sees Ophelia:

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia!”

Ophelia opens the conversation by trying to return Hamlet’s love letters. Hamlet denies giving her the letters and launches into a tirade about the dishonesty of women (a speech more directed at his mother than Ophelia). Eventually, Hamlet denounces all womankind and storms out. And then King Claudius and Polonius re-emerge and Claudius dismisses Polonius’ notion that Hamlet is mad for love for Ophelia. He fears that more lies behind Hamlet’s ‘madness’ and decides that moving Hamlet out of Denmark might be a good idea so he decides to send Hamlet to England, in the hope that a change of scenery might help him get over his troubles. Ophelia is left, rejected and discarded by both Hamlet and the machinations of her father and Claudius. Polonius expresses that he still thinks that the initial cause of Hamlet’s ‘madness’ is love for Ophelia and meddling Polonius then asks Claudius to send Hamlet to Gertrude’s chamber after the evening’s entertainment so that he can further observe Hamlet. Claudius agrees to this observing that “…Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.”

We move onto later that evening, as preparations take place for the evening performance by the players. Hamlet’s gives his final instructions to the players and we get some of the greatest insights into Shakespeare’s dramaturgy and philosophy of acting and staging.

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to

you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,

as many of your players do, I had as lief the

town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air

too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;

for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,

the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget

a temperance that may give it smoothness…

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion

be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the

word to the action; with this special o'erstep not

the modesty of nature… And let those that play

your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;

for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to

set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh

too; though, in the mean time, some necessary

question of the play be then to be considered:

that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition

in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready…”

Hamlet then has a last word to Horatio, to whom he has revealed all the ghost has said about Claudius having committed murder. Hamlet asks Horatio to watch with him for any signs of guilt in Claudius.

The spectacle of the play begins as Hamlet declines an offer to sit beside his mother and asks Ophelia if he can lie beside her. The players start with a ‘dumbshow’ or mime which acts out a silent version of the play which is to come in verse later. This was a common convention in Ancient Roman times and medieval times and was revived in the court in England of Henry VIII. In short, the plot of the dumbshow/mime shows a king and queen in love, then the king is left to sleep, then a man comes to pour poison into the sleeping king’s ear and then the man tries to seduce the queen who eventually succumbs to his advances. Perhaps Claudius doesn’t see or get what this dumbshow/mime is showing or perhaps he is diplomatic enough not to show his reactions so soon.

The players enact the play in full verse and Hamlet helps by giving a running commentary to Ophelia. At the climatic point when the murderer pours poison into the ear of the sleeping king, Claudius becomes outraged and storms out followed by nearly everyone. Hamlet is left alone with Horatio and they concur that Claudius’ reaction shows that he is indeed guilty of murdering Hamlet’s father. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then enter to tell Hamlet that his mother wants to see him in her chambers immediately. Hamlet uses the analogy of playing a pipe when he derides Rosencrantz and Guildenstein for trying to play and manipulate him. Polonius enters to urge Hamlet to see his mother and Hamlet says he will come soon enough and he dismisses them all and decides that he will be completely honest and blunt with his mother:

“Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will speak daggers to her, but use none…”

Soon after, Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that they must make preparations to leave and escort the ‘mad’ Hamlet to England for the good of the kingdom of Denmark. They agree and exit and Polonius enters to tell Claudius that he is about to hide in Gertrude’s room to overhear Hamlet talking to her and then he leaves too. Alone, Claudius shows his remorse and guilt for having killed his brother. He ends his guilty railing by trying to pray for forgiveness but to no avail.

Enter Hamlet on the way to his mother’s chambers. He spies Claudius, he goes to kill him but notices that Claudius seems to be praying and then he questions whether killing Claudius now would help Claudius to go straight to heaven because he seems to be praying. Hamlet lets this opportunity go and decides:

“Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;

At gaming, swearing, or about some act

That has no relish of salvation in't;

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,

And that his soul may be as damn'd and black

As hell, whereto it goes.”

As Hamlet goes to his mother’s room, Claudius rises. We find out that he was unable to pray “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: words without thoughts never to heaven go.” We as an audience cannot but think that had Hamlet killed him, all would have been avenged.

We finally arrive at Gertrude’s chamber, where Polonius hides behind an arras, or tapestry to await Hamlet’s arrival. Polonius intends to overhear Hamlet's conversation with his mother. When Hamlet enters and asks his mother why he has been sent for, she says that he has offended his father (his uncle the king), and Hamlet retorts that she has offended his father (the deceased King Hamlet) by marrying Claudius. The Oedipal undertones which we saw in Hamlet’s earlier conversations with his mother and his derogatory rants about women with Ophelia, finally come to the fore. Hamlet aggressively confronts and threatens her and she cries out and Polonius makes noises and Hamlet, probably believing that the hidden figure is Claudius stabs the arras killing Polonius. The Queen is distressed and calls Hamlet’s actions “rash and bloody” and Hamlet replies that this bloody deed is not as bad as killing “a king and marry with his brother”. Hamlet then lifts the curtain and discovers that he has killed the “intruding fool” Polonius. Hamlet then turns on his mother forcing her to compare the portraits of his father to that of Claudius. Hamlet continues to torment her until the Ghost appears again (only to Hamlet though, not to his mother). The Ghost reminds Hamlet that his mission is to kill Claudius and enact revenge. The Ghost disappears and Hamlet tries to convince his mother that what he saw was real.

Hamlet asks his mother not to reveal anything to Claudius and asks her not to visit Claudius’ bed tonight or any night thereafter. He also tells his mother that he will sail soon for England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom he thoroughly distrusts. He bids his mother goodnight as he drags Polonius’ body from her room. 

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Four - “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions…”

It does not seem strange that Gertrude’s (Hamlet’s mother) first action after she sees Hamlet kill Polonius is to run to see Claudius, her new husband. He is with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When Gertrude is alone with Claudius she tells of how Hamlet seems mad and how he killed Polonius. Claudius observes that Hamlet was trying to kill Claudius himself. Claudius is clever here because rather than stating that Hamlet should be shipped away directly for the murder (or because he poses a threat to Claudius himself) Claudius uses political stability and all his “majesty and skill” to frame that, for the good of Denmark, Hamlet needs to shipped to England straight away. Claudius calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern back into the room and informs them of Polonius’ murder and asks them to find Hamlet and the body of Polonius.

Having “safely stowed” Polonius’ body, Hamlet encounters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and speaks in riddles about the whereabouts of Polonius’ body. He accuses them of being sponges to and spies for King Claudius. Eventually, Hamlet agrees to go with them to see the king.

Hamlet is brought before Claudius and when asked where Polonius body is, he cleverly meanders around ponderings of how Polonius is at supper with worms before he eventually reveals that he is under a set of stairs: “

“Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain

convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your

worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all

creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for

maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but

variable service, two dishes, but to one table:

that's the end… In heaven; send hither to see:

if your messenger find him not there,

seek him i' the other place yourself.

But indeed, if you find him not within

this month, you shall nose him as you go up the

stairs into the lobby.”

Claudius send his attendants to look for Polonius’ body and informs Hamlet that he will leave straight away for England. Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and others leave. Alone, Claudius reveals that he he  will send to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders to request the killing of Hamlet.

On his way to the port, Hamlet encounters a Norwegian Captain of Prince Fortinbras’ army who is taking letters to confirm the safe passage of Norwegian troops through Denmark on their way to fight a war against Poland. When Hamlet asks about the reason for the war, the Captain relies that there is little reason since they will battle over “a little patch of land that hath in it no profit but the name”. Then when left alone for a bit, Hamlet muses over how such a bloody battle could be fought for nothing yet he himself who the murder of his father seems unable to exact revenge. Hamlet decides that he must act to defend all he holds dear.

“How all occasions do inform against me,

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more…

Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means

To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:

Witness this army of such mass and charge

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd

Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death and danger dare,

Even for an egg-shell… How stand I then,

That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

Excitements of my reason and my blood,

And let all sleep? … O, from this time forth,

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!”

We switch back to Elsinore, where Gertrude and Horatio talk of how badly shaken Ophelia seems by the death of her father. Ophelia enters, seeming to have sunk into childlike insanity, singing childish songs and adorned with and carrying flowers. Claudius enters and seeing Ophelia he says that her madness comes from her father’s death. Ophelia exits and Claudius reveals that more trouble is brewing since Laertes has heard of his father’s death and has secretly come back from France.

Serendipitously (or at least dramatically on cue) a disturbance is heard outside and a messenger reveals to Claudius that an angry mob has arrived with Laertes crying that their request that “Laertes shall be king”. Claudius allows Laertes in and Claudius calms Laertes initially by reinforcing that he is not responsible for Polonius’ death. Then Ophelia in all her simple insanity, not seeming to recognize her brother. She exits having served her dramatic purpose. Claudius then is able to calm Laertes to listen to him tell him all he knows. Laertes consents to this and Claudius further placates him with the promise that, “Where th’ offence is, let the great axe fall.”

Meanwhile, Horatio receives news in a letter from Hamlet that the ship he was on was captured by pirates and that Hamlet has returned to Denmark. Hamlet also has letters for King Claudius and his mother Queen Gertrude. Horatio takes the sailors and their messages to Claudius and then he will go with the sailors to where Hamlet is in hiding. 

We shift back to Claudius who has calmed Laertes and explained to Laetres that he has not punished Hamlet for Polonius’ murder, because of the Queen and the fact that the common people seem to love Hamlet so much. The letters arrive from Hamlet informing Claudius that Hamlet will arrive back tomorrow. Laertes wants to seek his revenge on Hamlet, and Claudius says that he will arrange a way for Laertes kill Hamlet. Claudius and Laetres decide to lure Hamlet into a duel with Laertes, that Laertes will use a sharpened sword dipped in poison so that even a scratch will kill Hamlet. Claudius also suggest that they have a backup plan of a poisoned cup of wine to drink from in celebration.

Gertrude then enters with the tragic news of Ophelia’s death.

“There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:

Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.”

Laertes leaves devastated. Claudius and Gertrude follow worried about where this new distress will take Laertes. 

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Five - “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”

Shakespeare is a master at using comedy at the most dramatic of moments in a play. Act Five of 'Hamlet' begins in a churchyard with two gravediggers designated to dig a grave for Ophelia. They discuss whether if Ophelia’s death was suicide, she should be buried in a churchyard. The First Gravedigger then poses a riddle for the Second Gravedigger in “What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?” When the Second Gravedigger answers that it is the gallows-maker because the house he builds outlasts a thousand tenants, the First Gravedigger thinks that this answer is almost as impressive as the correct answer, which is the gravedigger, since the houses he builds will last until Doomsday.

Then Hamlet and Horatio enter and watch the gravediggers from a distance and contemplate the mortal nature of humans and the equalizing nature of death and the grave. Hamlet queries the First Gravedigger about whose grave he is digging and after claiming that it is his own, then claiming that it belongs to no-one and then that the grave belongs to no man and no woman, the gravedigger reveals that the grave belongs to one that  “… was a woman sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.” When asked by Hamlet how long he has been a gravedigger, the Gravedigger replies (not knowing who he is talking to) that he has been a Gravedigger every since the day Young Hamlet was born. Hamlet then picks up a skull, and asking the Gravedigger whose skull it was, the Gravedigger reveals that it belonged to the Court Jester, Yorick. Hamlet then picks up the skull and reflects to Horatio how he knew Yorick:

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow

of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath

borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how

abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at

it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know

not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your

gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,

that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one

now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen?”

Hamlet goes on to muse over the fact that even Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar end up as dust that could be used to patch up a poor man’s wall.

Ophelia’s funeral procession arrives with Claudius, Gertrude and Laertes amongst the entourage. As the body of Ophelia is put into the grave, Hamlet realizes the tragic truth that this is a burial for Ophelia. Laertes leaps into Ophelia’s grave to take a hold of his beloved sister one more time only to be followed by Hamlet who is overcome with grief. They fight in the open grave. Eventually they are separated and Hamlet exits while King Claudius talks to Laertes about their plan to kill Hamlet in a duel.

We then swap to the next day and encounter Hamlet as he informs Horatio of the full details of Claudius’ plan to have Hamlet murdered in England and how he, Hamlet,  forged a letter to order the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and put an official seal on it. He shows no remorse for punishing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s betrayal in this way but he is repentant for his argument with Laertes.

Suddenly, the foppish courtier Osric enters and after Hamlet mocks and uses Osric’s sycophantic nature against Osric, eventually it is revealed that Laertes has challenged Hamlet to a dual and King Claudius has placed bets on Hamlet winning. Horatio thinks that Hamlet should not fight but Hamlet accepts the challenge. Suddenly, all of the court enters and Laertes and Hamlet face off with one another.

Hamlet begins by asking the forgiveness of Laertes who offers his love to Hamlet but not forgiveness. They select their foils and start the bout. The point of Laertes’ foil is already tipped with poison and Claudius has already placed poison in a cup for Hamlet’s refreshment. Hamlet gets the first strike in the bout and rejects refreshment (in the form of the poisoned chalice) to complete the second bout. Hamlet wins again and suddenly his mother Gertrude rises to drink from the cup. Claudius tries to warn her but it is too late and Gertrude drinks the poison. Suddenly, Laertes scores a hit against Hamlet, drawing blood with the poisoned blade and in the confusion, Hamlet gets Laertes’ poisoned blade and strikes Laertes with the poisoned blade.

Queen Gertrude decries that the cup must have been poisoned and a dying Laertes tells Hamlet of the poisoned blade and how he will soon too die. Hamlet takes the poisoned blade and strikes Claudius with poisoned foil and then forces the poisoned wine into Claudius mouth to be sure to kill him. Hamlet and Laertes forgive one another and Laertes absolves Hamlet before he dies. Horatio offers to kill himself Roman style for Hamlet but Hamlet asks him to stay alive and tell his tale and all that has happened.

Young Fortinbras of Norway arrives after having conquered Poland and along with the English ambassadors, announces that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead and they ask for an explanation of all that has happened. Horatio proclaims that he will:

“Of that I shall have also cause to speak,

And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;

But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance

On plots and errors, happen.”

As a side note, in case you are interested, here is a link to a This American Life podcast where a group of maximum security prisoners rehearse, give insights into and perform Act V of Hamlet. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/218/act-v