Most people think Hamlet is Shakespeare’s greatest and I certainly would not wish to dispute that it is amongst his best five, but I find it flawed in ways that Macbeth and Othello are not. Hamlet dithers annoyingly—without his hesitancy there is no play, and certainly no fantastic ying and yang speeches, and the scene concerning Ophelia’s madness seems misplaced and contrived, and the whole business goes pretty muddy before the final slaughter. They say that professional psychiatrists can make a full case study of the character—the poorer for psycho-analysis if it is so. And what about the ghost? He is plainly a schizoid, hearing voices, totally paranoid. But these are quibbles… There is never any doubt that he will act—can you really suppose it a memorable play if, after murdering poor Polonius (I am very confident that not one person in the entire history of murder, when receiving the death blow, cried I am slain) Hamlet threw his hands in the air, said “Fuck it!” and walked away.
... Murder most foul...
…Frailty, thy name is woman…
Images are from the 1948 movie version of Hamlet, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, with Basil Sidney, Jean Simmons and Felix Almyer.
…I shall not look upon his like again…
…Neither a borrower nor a lender be…
... The play’s the thing ...
…And to the manor born, it is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance…
…This above all—to thine own self be true…
…Something is rotten in the state of Denmark…
... Though this be madness,yet there is method in’t ...
…The time is out of joint…
…More matter with less art…
... I am slain ...
... O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! ...
... Sweets to the sweet ...
… Poor Yorich. I knew him, Horatio…
…There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy…
…Brevity is the soul of wit…
... A hit, a very palpable hit...
... Goodnight, sweet prince ...
But I’ll end up quoting the whole bloody play if I don’t call a halt somewhere. Except maybe…
…To be or not to be...
What a question.
Of course, I see these matters from a literary viewpoint rather than theatrically (and those who call me Philistine are not without a case) but I think Hamlet’s greatness lies far more in theatrical tradition and the fact that the play is great for actors, neither of which I wish to suggest is unimportant. And the word we use to describe fatuous overacting did arise from it…
Many people think Hamlet a Shakespeare original but it isn’t. It seems to have been copied directly from an earlier version by Thomas Kyd, and in fact the style similarities even suggest that Kyd may have collaborated on Shakespeare’s version. But it’s older than that. Can it be that no one else has noticed that it is merely an updating of The Orestes, or is everyone else just too polite to say so? Sure, right, but all those quotable lines above, and the three or four times that number of unforgettable lines that I did not quote from the play, were what Shakespeare added to it. And it is precisely because he wrote so many memorable lines and such fine poetry that he is unquestionably the greatest playwright that ever lived. And this one of the finest exhibitions of his excellence.
…The rest is silence…
Shakespeare Scoreboard: Original plays 2. (Macbeth)(Henry IV Part One)
Plays ripped off from others: 2. (Merchant of Venice from Marlowe’s Jew of Malta) (Hamlet from Kyd and Aeschylus)