Act One Scene One
Sub-Scene
Five
The
King
“I can.” Horatio remarked. “I served him the
longest among all of you.”
“Or at least I can describe the events.” Horatio
paused to find the better of words to describe what he may know.
“As you know, our late King,” The one who died was
named King Hamlet of Elsinore Castle, of Denmark. He considered his estate his
land or kingdom and lived a life of recluse unless he was to appear on stage to
appease his audience with another spectacular act of the imaginary character
from King Lear to Julius Ceasar, or even to the myth standing Moses receiving
the Ten Commandments. Each performance was said to be better than the previous,
and none could claim to meet his fame; as his critics worded it; “it was
heavenly’.
Well, not true for even the King has his rivals.
One was Fortinbras, the King of Other Norway, as
his fief was said to be the circle of stages that he performed on. Fortinbras
dared him to battle.
“Challenge me, Hamlet in my ring of stages. I will
await thee.” In that fight, our
courageous Hamlet (or at least that’s how we thought of him) killed old King
Fortinbras of Other Norway of his fame, who based on a valid legal document
surrendered all his territories, with his life spared but bedridden, to his
conqueror. If King Hamlet had lost, he would have had to do the same but the
legal document denied by the other King was upheld as true.
“Even frauds can be genuine, such is the act of the
King.” The critics called the verdict, but soon the critics were silenced to
their accusations.
“The true Kings reign.” But the old feud did not
die. The Fortinbras’ young son also called Fortinbras—he is bold but
unproven—has gathered a bunch of thugs from the lawless outskirts of the
country. For some food, they’re eager to take on the tough enterprise of
securing the stages the elder Fortinbras lost. Where the legality process was
exhausted, the illegal took action.
The war erupted the ambush on the icy road and the
brazen attacks on the King on his land, the King was not without his followers
of the violence.
“This is the war to end all wars.” King Hamlet
quoted Woodrow Wilson (1917) on the Great War then. It made the headlines but
the body counts did not.
“Only the dead have seen the end of the war. Our
mama did make me read. ” Marcellus voiced out much to the surprise of the other
two other. “Hey, I read it somewhere.”
“I think that’s exactly right—that explains why the
ghost of the late king would haunt us now since he caused these wars,” Barnados
added. “The King was not a forgettable man but a forgivable man at times.
Amen.”
“The ghost is something to worry about,” Horatio spoke out. “In the high
and mighty Roman Empire, just before Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated,
corpses rose out of their graves and ran through the streets of Rome speaking
gibberish. There were shooting stars, blood mixed in with the morning dew, and
threatening signs on the face of the sun. The moon, which controls the tides of
the sea, was so eclipsed it almost went completely out. And we’ve had similar
omens of terrible things to come as if heaven and earth have joined together to
warn us what’s going to happen.”
“You were where there during the rehearsals of that
play. The King was said to be possessed by the ghost of the character. The
actors shrieked at his expression and outbursts.” Marcellus smiled. “I was
there that day. It was his performance that brought the house to its feet.”
“Don’t
move. The ghost arrived again.” Horatio called out.
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