Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act One – “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 9th, 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 66th 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 16th
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!”
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