Saturday, May 09, 2009

Shakespeare: Hamlet

I'm still accepting requests for podcast subjects. Go to this post to leave a comment.

Hamlet is very, very good. Its only blemish is that it's been too successful. Now, almost every scene includes a clichè. There are so many famous lines, it must be distracting to the modern audience.

A few famous ones:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in 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? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

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

Get thee to a nunnery

Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio;

The rest is silence.

Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

No comments: