Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 2 Scene 2 Sub Scene 10

 Act Two

Act Two Scene Two’

Sub Scene Ten

The pyrrhic victory

“Look where he has not turned his color and has tears in ’s eyes. Prithee, no more.” Polonius saw the emotion in Hamlet. As a playwright, he invokes such emotions into his words, but many a time, he finds them splashed out in fake expressions. At that moment, he saw the rarity of it in Hamlet.

“Bravo!” Polonius self-praised. “The madness may all be there.”

’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest of this later.” Hamlet snapped at Polonius. He was to look back at his guests.

“Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After your death, you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.” Hamlet asked for the betterment of comfort for his weary friends. A troupe on travel hardly gets to rest on feather-filled pillows and a warm fireplace most times. If there were shortcomings of these during their stay in the castle, Hamlet will know of it.

“My lord, I will use them according to their desert.” Polonius felt as his rank required, he will do what that befits those players in his eyes were no more noble than vagabonds and deserved not the best in the castle. Actors without fame are alike beggars on the street.

“God’s bodkins, man, much better! Use every man after his desert and who shall ’scape whipping? Use them after your honor and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.” Hamlet acted his displeasure toward Polonius. “Do it as I please.”

“Come then, Sirs.” Polonius relented to the command of the Prince.

“Madness riles in him.” The elderly man muttered. “I am to do the works of the servant now.”

“Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. That’s a call of mine. What is a troupe if not to perform?” Hamlet called out to the players. The players cheered his call then.

“Sir, I need your ears.” Hamlet motioned to the main player. “. Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can
you play “The Murder of Gonzago”?”

“Aye, my Lord. Many times we have done it, and it's’ into us our souls we knew the lines.”

“We’ll ha ’t tomorrow two nights away. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in ’t, could you not?”

“Aye, my Lord.”

“Very well. Follow that lord—and look you mock him not..” Hamlet said to the Main Player. “My good friends,
I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.”