Hamlet

William Shakespeare

I read King Lear, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet in Junior High. I haven't read any Shakespeare since then. It's been a while since I worked so hard to read a book. If you decide to read Shakespeare, find a copy with lots of footnotes. While it was a struggle, it was pretty good.

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. His father has died and his uncle has taken both the throne and his mother. Hamlet sees his mother's willingness to so quickly forget his father and marry his uncle as an insult to his father's memory. So when we first meet him, he's quite depressed.

Hamlet's father appears as a ghost and tells him that Hamlet's uncle murdered him, and that Hamlet should get revenge. Hamlet feigns madness for a time until he can get the opportunity to take his uncle out.

As is typical of Shakespeare, everyone dies at the end. Mom accidentally drinks the poison intended for Hamlet. Hamlet dies of a wound from a poisoned sword inflicted by a friend during sword play. His friend also dies of the same poisoned sword which gets switched accidentally during the fight. Hamlet sees his mother die and his friend explains the trap. Hamlet kills the King, then dies. Curtain.

Practically every line from Star Trek is from Shakespeare. The subtitle for Star Trek V ("The Undiscovered Country") is from Hamlet's famous soliloquy ("To be or not to be…" which, as we're told in Star Trek, loses its true meaning when it's not performed in the original Klingon.). McCoy quotes Hamlet ("Angels and ministers of grace defend us") in Star Trek IV. "The Conscience of the King" is a title from an original series episode, and is a quote from Hamlet.

There are some classic lines: "That he is mad 'tis true; 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true." (Polonius). But my favorite dialog is between Hamlet and a grave-digger. Hamlet's girlfriend has died - suicide upon hearing of the death (at Hamlet's hand) of her father - but Hamlet doesn't know she's dead. He encounters the grave-digger digging her grave:

HAMLET: Whose grave's this, sirrah?
GRAVE-DIGGER: Mine, sir.
HAMLET: I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in it.
GRAVE-DIGGER: You lie out of it, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours. For my part, I do not lie in it, yet it is mine.
HAMLET: Thou dost lie in it, to be in it and say 'tis thine. 'Tis for the dead, not for the quick: therefore thou liest.
GRAVE-DIGGER: 'Tis a quick lie, sir, 'twill away again from me to you.
HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?
GRAVE-DIGGER: For no man, sir.
HAMLET: What woman then?
GRAVE-DIGGER: For none neither.
HAMLET: Who is to be buried in it?
GRAVE-DIGGER: One that was a woman, sir; but rest her soul, she's dead.