How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare (37 page)

O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!…

My lord, as I was sewing in my closet
[room],

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced
[his coat unfastened],

No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled
[dirty],…

Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other
,

And with a look so piteous in purport
[in meaning]

As if he had been loosèd out of hell

To speak of horrors—he comes before me
.

POLONIUS

Mad for thy love?

OPHELIA

My lord, I do not know
.

Kenneth Branagh and Kate Winslet from the movie version of
Hamlet
(photo credit 32.1)

Polonius, who is a terrible gossipmonger, reports Hamlet’s supposed love madness to Claudius, who has sent for two of Hamlet’s old school friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and now gets them to spy on Hamlet and report on his actions.

The passage that your children are about to memorize occurs during Hamlet’s first encounter with his old “friends,” and I have chosen it for two reasons. First, it is here that Hamlet most clearly describes the feeling of melancholy that has overwhelmed him as he tries to deal emotionally with the death of his father and the treachery of his mother. Second, it is an example of Shakespeare’s prose at its very height.

Memorizing prose is a bit different from memorizing poetry. We don’t have the rhythms of poetry to rely on; therefore memorizing prose often requires more repetition. If your children are still on the young side when you tackle this passage, you might confine yourselves to the second half. Either way, you should approach the passage one phrase at a time.

I have of late
[recently],

but wherefore
[why]
I know not
,

lost all my mirth
[cheerfulness]

Your children will remember from
Romeo and Juliet
that
wherefore
means “why.” Hamlet doesn’t know quite why he has lost his mirth:

I have of late, but wherefore I know not
,

lost all my mirth
,

forgone all custom of exercises
[stopped exercising]

and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition

that this goodly frame, the earth
,

seems to me a sterile promontory;

Hamlet thinks of the earth as a lonely piece of land jutting out into the sea. Repeat this section in parts, then as a whole, until the passage is second nature.

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;

Hamlet now elaborates on his view of the earth:

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
.

In other words, the sky (this
firmament
, this roof), which is adorned (
fretted
) with stars (
golden fire
), is nothing to him but a dirty gathering of unclean smog (
a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors
).

Notice that the passage has a double meaning. Hamlet is referring to the sky, and the actor playing Hamlet is referring to the Globe Theatre. As you can see from the picture below, the
majestical roof fretted with golden fire
is the painting on the ceiling over the playing area, a depiction of the zodiac showing the sun, the moon, and the familiar planets.

The Merry Wives of Windsor
, with Christopher Benjamin as Falstaff, Serena Evans as Mistress Page, and Sarah Woodward as Mistress Ford
(photo credit 32.2)

Once again Shakespeare is reminding his audience that theater encompasses two experiences at once: the story being portrayed and the actors playing it.

Hamlet now launches into his breathtaking description of humanity.

What a piece of work is a 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?

Again, have your children take it a phrase at a time:

What a piece of work is a 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
[understanding]
how like a god;

the beauty of the world
,

the paragon
[the perfect, best example]
of animals—

and yet to me what is this quintessence
[very essence]
of dust?

Whenever I read this passage, I wonder if Hamlet isn’t trying to intimidate Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He knows by now that they have been summoned by the King to spy on him. They’ve admitted it. So is he showing off a bit? Dazzling them with language to keep them off balance? Whether he is or not, Hamlet is clearly troubled by the fact that his friends are now his enemies, and the mood he expresses here will continue to pervade the play.

and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?

This wonderful, admirable man is in despair.

Passage 21
Who’s There?

Who’s there?

(
Hamlet
, Act I, Scene 1, line 1)

H
amlet
begins with two soldiers, outdoors, guarding a castle at night. They’re nervous because they’re waiting for a ghost to appear. They have seen the ghost before, and they have invited Hamlet’s best friend, Horatio, to see it for himself. Here’s how the play opens:
BARNARDO

Who’s there?

FRANCISCO

Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself
[tell me who you are].

BARNARDO

Long live the King!

FRANCISCO

Barnardo?

BARNARDO

He.… ’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco
.

FRANCISCO

For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold
,

And I am sick at heart.…

HORATIO

What, has this thing appeared again tonight?

Recite this as a dialogue with your children and really act it out. You are two soldiers and a student, isolated in the dark of night, deeply frightened because at any moment a ghost might materialize in front of you. You have seen the ghost before, and it was terrifying. Notice especially the opening line of the play:

Who’s there?

This is all your children are going to memorize this week. Two words. They’ve been working hard at Shakespeare, and they probably need a break.

Who’s there?

One eminent critic calls these two words “the most tingling line in the world’s drama.” These seemingly casual words embody one of the central questions of the whole play: Who is out there listening? Will he change our fate or seal it? Is there a Greater Power who is watching? If there really is a ghost, and it’s not just a figment of Hamlet’s fevered imagination, is it a force of good or evil? What is
this thing
that might appear tonight? Is it Hamlet’s father still walking the earth until he is avenged? Is it the devil? Or is it Hamlet’s conscience? His fears? His doubts? Worst of all, is nobody there and are we alone in the universe?

Who’s there?

Hamlet’s Voice

Like all the very best characters created by Shakespeare, like Falstaff and Rosalind, Viola, Benedick, and Lady Macbeth, Hamlet has his own
distinctive voice. Hamlet’s voice is that of a man who understands everything about life but has been deeply injured by it. The voice is tragic and ironic at the same time. Also, Hamlet has a remarkable sense of humor—remarkable because it is so intelligent, so clear, and so deep. One great Shakespearean critic, Mark Van Doren, has said that Hamlet “is that unique thing in literature, a credible genius.” Here are some of the things that Hamlet says in the course of the play:

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams
.

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends
,

Rough-hew them how we will
.

Tis now the very witching time of night

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to the world: now could I drink hot blood
,

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on
.

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow
.

Let
[the Players]
be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time
.

I must be cruel, only to be kind
.

You would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass
.