Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 5 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Five

Sub Scene One

Ophelia in distress

In the chamber of Gertrude, a rarity was any meeting to be held there, but it was done. The castle walls do have ears, and there was an important matter to be discussed.

The madam was entertaining both Horatio, Queen, and another gentleman dressed in a three-piece suit held up by a grim expression and smoked a pipe with the foul-smelling tobacco.

“Madam, you must.”

“And I will not speak with her,” Gertrude said.

“She is importunate, indeed distract; her mood will needs be pitied.” The pipe smoker told her. “It’s my professional view.”

“What would she have?” Gertrude looked at the gentleman whom she has to pay good money to get him there and listened to another raving mad induced individual. If not for Ophelia being looked at her as would be her daughter, she would have long discarded the need there.

“She speaks much of her father, says she hears tricks are i’ th’ world and hems and beats her heart. Events that spurn enviously at straws, speak things in doubt that carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, Yet the unshapèd use of it doth move the hearers to the collection.” The gentleman was saying that Ophelia was unsettled about her father’s death; she told him but the words came out in half sense or nothing of meaning, yet it shapes into some collection of bonds that she had with her father if one listened well.

“They aim at it and botch the words up fit to their thoughts; which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them, indeed would make one think there might be thought, though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.” The gentleman continued. Ophelia spoke her mind incoherently as her mind was in fragments. In other words, moments like this, when the unknowing may frame their conclusions may pass on the gossip thus harming the inflicted.

“They're good she were spoken with, for she may strew dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.” Horatio pleaded with the madam. “She is …fragile.”

“Let her come in,” Gertrude said before she turned to the doctor. “You may leave, Doctor Strange. Your fees will be delivered to your office.”

The one named as the doctor bowed to the madam and took his leave.

“Open the drapes and let fresh air cover the chamber. I am suffocating with the stench from the pipe. Godless person to ever enjoy a puff like that.” Gertrude told Horatio.

“Horatio, I am with my sickness soul (as sin’s true nature is), each toy seems prologue to some great amiss. So full of artless jealousy is guilt, it spills itself in fearing to be spilled.” Gertrude was depressed that each moment will cause her guilt feeling.

The sounds of singing were heard in the corridor.

“She cometh.” Ophelia appeared at the doorway.

“Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?” Ophelia stood there, her appearance haggard, with unkempt hair, and her clothes untidy, yet she held flowers in her hair and hands.

“How now, Ophelia?” Gertrude asked.

“How should I ….your true love know from another one? By his cockle hat and staff and his sandal shoon.” Ophelia sang as she was addressing Gertrude who seen to be more attracted by wealth than love.

“Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? It’s so unbecoming.” Gertrude was dismayed by the singing. It was a bawdy song heard at the taverns.

“Say you? Nay, pray you, mark.” Ophelia sang. “He is dead and gone, lady.”

“He is dead and gone; at his head a grass-green turf, at his heels a stone.” Ophelia sang from King Lear.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell

(King Lear Act 1 Scene 2)

“Father is laid to rest. “Oh, ho!” Ophelia went into the high tone.

“Nay, but Ophelia—” Gertrude protested/

“Pray you, mark.” Ophelia sings “White his shroud as the mountain snow—”

Claudius appeared then.

“Alas, look here, my lord.” Gertrude motioned to her lover. “She is ….”

“Who?” Claudius saw then Ophelia.

“Come, my coach!” Ophelia waved her arms as if she was calling for others to follow her like the teacher calling in her students.

“Is she …” Claudius was to ask when Ophelia cut in.

“Larded all with sweet flowers; which bewept to the ground did not go with true-love showers.” Ophelia kept on dancing and singing while dropping the flower’s petal. She was relating that some of us may bring flowers to the grave but our heart is not there.

“One for you, one for you, and one here too.” Ophelia placed the petals on the flooring. “Nop, you must not take that. It’s hers. Naughty of you there.”

“How long hath she been thus?” Claudius asked. The Emperor steps in and looked at the lady dancing and singing to herself. Ophelia saw the other and stopped.

“Hello, my lord. How fares Hamlet? I do miss him.” Ophelia asked before she went into her own singing words again.

“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day.

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.”

"Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more."

 

 Ophelia went down on her haunches and clasped her hands over her face. It was all silent.

“Did…did Hamlet…” Gertrude tried to understand the words spoken by Ophelia. “Hamlet won’t. He is a gentleman in him. He won’t for he …once loved her.”

“Alas, the young have their bearing. It may be done for lust not to last but does virtue mean any more to them? Or was it only for us? They taketh what we hold …virtuous.”

“Don’t be, Gertrude. She may not be of the mind…” Claudius pushed the notion off Gertrude. It will only pain him more that he was her first, but she wedded the other, and yet he never ceases to knock on her chamber door.

“She…did she mean us…”Gertrude looked at Claudius. “He knew and told him, and him to tell her. Oh my God, I am shame. Who else may know?”

“Hush, my love. It’s the past. We are …” Claudius reached toward Gertrude. It was then Ophelia opened her eyes and looked at Gertrude. 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 4 Sub Scene 3

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Four

Sub Scene Three

War and the dead

“Za wolność! (for freedom)” Kazak the Polack Chief rallied the men. “ We will not be a stooge to Other Norway.”

“Never!’ The Polacks had gathered in strength. They were there to defend their streets from being overrun by the enemies. They came from different walks of life, from the old to the teens, and the rascals to the learned academic. What united them was the street they were to defend; it was theirs.

“We said nay to them taking over our stages. Who else will play our history to the young borns?” Kazak had made his speech. “Poland for too long had been colonized by others.”

From 1795 to 1918, Poland was split between Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and Russia and had no independent existence. In 1795 the third and the last of the three 18th-century partitions of Poland ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After 1918, Poland was formed.

Little Poland then too with the two streets of the migrant, and half dozen stages for the plays that promoted what were their people. Does it matter the number of ducats or zloty received in the play; the culture of the people was invaluable to cast in monetary values.

“They don’t understand us. We love our culture. They have come many times, and many approaches but we don’t need them to tell us what we can do. We are fine. Now they want to force their way, and we will resist.” Kazak stirred the sentiments of the gathered.

“Give them no quarter, and make every step into our street a blood bath for them.” Kazak looked at his friends. How do you tell a carpenter that a saw was a tool to do the woodwork, and yet it may remove a limb? Or a hammer that could hit a nail in many or split a skull? The butcher had no issue with the chopper but cutting a live one may be different.

“Chen, you are not a Polack. Go home please.” Kazak looked at the laundry man who operates there, taking on the loads from the other streets to his shop.

“I am not, but lived here. I will defend my shop and my neighbor. And his neighbor. We are …’brat’, prawidlowy..” The round-rimmed bespectacled elderly man in the dark attire smiled.

“Indeed you are.” Kazak smiled at the neighbor of his.

Kazak had the street barricaded, with the carts and furniture on the ends, and the defenders were with their crude weapons. There were some with rifles; courtesy of the last war, but most had sabers and daggers.

“Kazak, they are here, but from the air.” One of the assigned men reported in. “They are coming on those ships that fly.”

“Then we must prepare the battle to the roof,” Kazak told the others.

“Will they …drop bombs?” A veteran of the war asked. Kazak did not reply and went on with the preparation.

On the airship, the leader of the Other Norway prepared his men.

“We will land on the roof, and from there to the street. Our objective is the stages, Burn them down.” The men knew their orders and took to the ropes. It was like how they had practiced.

“Jump!” Koenig on Ship Five called out. It was a drop of a hundred feet, and they have done it many times. The only difference then was the battle with the random rifle shots. They were not informed of this.

“Koenig, they are shooting at us,” Franz called out.

“It’s only a few rifles. Get down there.” The leader called out. His was the advanced team to go in first. He was next to rappel down. He went down with the winds in his face. It was quick and soon he was on the roof. He found himself unbalanced on his feet and fell to his haunches.

“There’s oil on the flooring!” Koenig called out before he was hit by the wooden plank on his face. The blow broke his nose and blurred his vision.

“Grab his guns!” Koenig heard the call, and he reached for his rifle but he was hit there with something sharp. He felt his rifle was removed and then the next call was on.

“Throw him over!”Koenig panicked at that call. He was to be thrown off the roof.

“You do it. I am not a killer.” Koenig heard the argument, but soon he was rolled to the side. He fell to the street below from three levels high. He broke his left leg and neck.

“Kazak, we are outnumbered.” Kazak heard the report and recalled the defenders. “Take the fight to the levels. We will fight them there.”

The battle became more of the defenders despite their numbers being repelled by the invaders. Most of the defenders did put up a fight, but their efforts were overtaken by the weapons that the invaders yield.

“We are on the street.” Fortinbras received the report. “They are mostly down, or killed.”

For an instant, the leader of the Other Norway felt repulsed by the battle. It was so easy to prepare for it with the offering of Norway, but when he was there, he saw the carnage and killing.

“Give the withdrawal call. We are pulling out.” Fortinbras told the leaders. We have done them a lesson. Now we leave.”

The signal went out and the airships returned to retrieve the men. Fortinbras lost only twenty men compared to the hundred Polacks that were either killed or injured. The defenders had surrendered. Kozak was killed in the battle.

Fortinbras took to the rope when he heard the call by the Polack.

“Was it worth the lives we had to lose?” Fortinbras did not reply and continued his climb. He has much to learn there.

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 4 Sub Scene 2

Act Four

Act Four Scene Four

Sub Scene Two

Pride and Prejudice

Alone by himself, Hamlet slipped into his pensive mood. He stood on the open view of the airship landing area. He watched the airships take off or land, some perfectly, some shaky at most till the wheels hit the solid ground. All the passengers seen had the same thought as him.

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.” William Shakespeare, King Lear Hamlet had that cynical thought in his mind. He wondered how many airships had crashed, and lives lost.

“Do they swear revenge toward Gods? Or like me, undecisive or cowardly?” Hamlet sighed. He then looked in the direction of the castle.

“How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge. Do I hold the courage?”

“What is a man if the chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.” Some of us do with the contend of being fed and rest, nary a concern on the surrounding. Young Hamlet was one. “Sure He that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and godlike reason to fust in us unused.”

“It’s the price of being in the upper niche of society, most times we utilised the spoils of our elderly  and claimed it for ourselves when an effort was not into it.”

“Now whether it be bestial oblivion or some craven scruple of thinking too precisely on the event; a thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom and ever three parts coward), I do not know.” Hamlet sighed. He is still in a dilemma. “Am I the fool or not?”

“Why yet I live to say. This thing’s to do, sith I have a cause, and will, and strength, and means to do ’t.” Hamlet continued. “Examples gross as Earth exhort me: witness this army of such mass and charge, led by a delicate and tender prince, whose spirit with divine ambition puffed (as ego does.).”

Other Norway with a huge army of five hundred led by, to Hamlet’s mind, an egoistic man to swat a gnat with the huge swatter. Maybe like Xerxes fighting Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae; a hundred thousand against three hundred, and victory it was but at a price.

“A tailor’s tale of swatting seven flies with one blow indeed.” Hamlet also thought of the fable of the tailor. “Makes mouths at the invisible event, exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death, and danger dare, even for an eggshell.”

According to the fable, the tailor was put to perform certain tasks of danger but he achieved it with some smart thinking.

“Rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument, but greatly to find quarrel in a straw when honor’s at the stake.” Hamlet chuckled. “The achievement of one does not come from performing the great task, but the menial one did which may be one that will make him for greatness.”

Like an actor who graces the play in a minor role, but made an astonishing entry that many well remembered and paced the path to major roles. No one recalled his other menial parts before then.  

“How to stand I, then, that have a father killed, a mother stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let all sleep, while to my shame I see the imminent death of twenty-two thousand lives that for a fantasy and trick of fame go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, which is not tomb enough and continent to hide the slain?”

“More than ten million died in the trenches of the last war (World War One), and to that, we had learned nothing.n Their lives are committed by others to fight for honor. On my honor, I have one death in my family not by the war, but of a different war. A war between the King and Emperor. The King was killed; a father by bloodline, and on my right, I am to avenge his death. I know of his killer, I had identified his killer. I had spent days pondering yet I am unmoving to my action.”

“O, from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!” Hamlet forced his mind to think. “Am I truly lily-livered? I feel nothing of worth in me but anger.”

“Or am I mad to do anything? I am maybe that. I am mad in my mind to think of all acts, yet there were just plays. Acting before an audience and backstage I am my own. I am putting on faces for others.” Hamlet was in self-questioning then.

“Why me, Father? Do I deserve this? You whom I hated since five, banished me, and on your death, you called me back. I did reluctantly if not for Horatio’s pleading, I may not have.  I returned to see the woman I …loved, and yet hated too. You did me well; ghostly to appeal toward me, a tug on my heart, and bounded to seek your vengeance.”

“Father, you bred me to be an actor, not a Prince, nor a killer. I had heard of the evil deeds that you have done as King; taking another of their career or destroying their families, or taking their mortal life, it matters not to you. You were the King. The more I hear, I dislike you. I detest you.”

“Yet I returned.” Hamlet sighed. “I must have been mad.”

“Was it our bloodline to be mad?” Hamlet chuckled.

“But truly, it was not you came back for, but Ophelia. She is…not anymore, she was to be mine, but I had to bring her out. Away from your castle, and her father; he peeks when he should not…..  and your empire.”

“The truth, when I saw her, I could not. She was so much in there. I was in putting on faces to avoid her, and behind the faces, I was still attracted to her. I cared for her, loved her, and yet I am unable to fulfill my obligations toward her. I guess I was not to see her for my lover, but maybe… a sister.”

“Again, I was undecided.” Hamlet sighed.

“Decisions…decisions… to be or not to be? That was always my question.” Hamlet looked to the sky. “It was so easy to soar like a bird, but what if I was the ape that was not to leave the ground?”

“It was easy to defend what is yours? Two streets it may be to others, but a nation came to its aid knowing that the bloodbath will awash with theirs, and yet they are there.” Hamlet thought of the Polacks. “They are not mad, Father. They are passionate about what is theirs. As I must do for myself.”

“I must decide now. Or madness will take over me.” Hamlet looked at the airships. “I know now. I must reach my decision. If I can’t fly, I will be flown.”

“Father, I cannot be you entirely but I will act in parts like you. I will avenge your death as you wanted, and take Ophelia away. Thereafter, I will wait for the final curtain. What transpires behind the stage will be of myself/..” Hamlet rejoins the others.

 

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 4 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Four

Sub Scene One

Fortinbras war with the Polocks.

“Go, Captain, from me greet the Norway Emperor.” The young leader called on the Captain of the leading ship; the juggernaut airship that rivals the German design then.

The principal feature of the design was a fabric-covered rigid metal framework made up of transverse rings and longitudinal girders containing many individual gasbags making it larger than a non-rigid airship. It had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins. They were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework.

“Tell him that by his license Fortinbras craves the conveyance of a promised march over his kingdom.” The leader paced the pilot area.

“Aye, Sire.” The Captain of the airship acknowledged the other. He blew the horns on the airship; at three thousand feet above the castle, it was still loud.

‘You know the rendezvous. If Norway and Other Norway stay as one, We shall express our duty in his eye; and let him know so.” The leader looked from the airship to the land below. Three thousand ducats paved the idealism of loyalty.

“Now onto the Polacks.” Fortinbras the leader in charge turned to the assembled behind him. They were fifty of them; trained by himself, and was given the needed skills to rappel from it at a hundred feet. He had learned that the old ways of rowdy thugs were out. He saw the Great War where the trained soldiers were more organized and efficient. Losses were minimized. He took to train his soldiers from shooting to deployment. 

In the airship, Fortinbras held fifty men in that ship. That ship was part of an armada of ten ships.

Five hundred armed men it was.

“Good sir, whose powers are these?” Hamlet was in the much smaller airship that was owned by the family. The King had used it for his travels, and that was the first time Hamlet rode on it. When compared to the one that Fortinbras owned, Hamlet’s ship was a quarter in dimension. Besides the Captain and an aide, Hamlet was there with his two friends of his.

“They are of Other Norway, my lord.” The Captain looked at the higher-flying ship.

“How purposed, sir, I pray you?”

“Against the Polacks, as I was told. They will raid the Polacks area.”

“Who commands them, sir?”

“The nephew to Other Norway, Fortinbras. His uncle is bedridden.”

“All of that goes it against the main of the Polack, sir, or for some frontier?”

“Truly to speak and with no addition, they go to gain a little patch of ground; rather it’s two streets of aged playing houses that hath in it no profit but the name. There is no audience willing to pay five ducats, for five, I would not farm it for the street held no value. But the Polacks will not yield to Other Norway or any other for a fee.”

“Such a small or for little of value, why, then, the Polack will defend it?” Hamlet asked. He had seen grander playing houses torn down when there were no plays there.

“Yes, the pride of one’s own. They are already there, a whole garrison..” The Captain said. “I heard of no less than a hundred armed, not including the ones who dwell there; households of migrants; maybe five hundred or more. It’s a long street.”

“Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats; I may understand but debate the question of this straw. This is the imposture of much wealth and peace, that inward breaks and shows no cause without.”

“My lord, the wealth of ducats does not mean to them, but the street is in their name, and that matters. As I have mentioned, it’s pride.”

“Why the man dies.—” Hamlet was interrupted.

“I am having to land the ship now. Please excuse me.” Hamlet heard the call from the Captain that they are descending then.

“I humbly thank you, sir. You made my flight a wonderment of scenes.” Hamlet praised the Captain. “God be wi’ you, sir.”

Hamlet prepares for the landing. The ship landed and the passengers disembarked. It was a busy landing area, with airships of shapes and dimensions there. Hamlet saw passengers all in their finest as if it was a Sunday outing there. The travel by airship was plenty of choices, but the occasion calls for smart dressing.

“Fly for comfort, fly for glamour.” The boards there expanded the vision to the passengers.

“Will ’t please you go, my lord?” Rosencrantz looked to Hamlet. “We still have a channel to cross over,  and it’s a water ship we abound.”

“I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.” Hamlet told the other. “The airship made me uneasy. I need to be alone for a while.”

All but Hamlet exit.

 

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 3 Sub Scene 2

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Three

Sub Scene Two

Rise! The judges are in.

Hamlet ran in as if he was the age five. He ran round the assembled, making faces at the leaders, and finally stood before Claudius.

“Nice clothes you have on, my Majesty.” Hamlet pranced around the hall. “I am sure they are new.”

Hamlet was mocking the other.

“Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?” Claudius grew tired of the younger man. “His family is asking.”

“At supper, the last supper perhaps,” Hamlet replied and saw a seat vacant at the table occupied by the leaders.

“Is this taken or has Judas left?” Hamlet took the seat.  

“At supper where?” Claudius asked.

“I know not where Judas went. But the old man, he is not where he eats, but where he is eaten.” Hamlet acted as though he was eaten by others. His hands clutched his throat as if he was short of air. “A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him.”

“All of you are worms to your emperor for diet. We are the fattening creatures what else to fat us; we fat ourselves the maggots. Behold the fishmonger, he ate the fish that ate the King.” In Hamlet’s view, all of them ate the maggots that fed on dead flesh.

“One eats the maggots and the other eats maggot eater. Truly two dishes, but serve only the hunger of the eaten. A revolting cycle of the reality here.” Hamlet sighed. “That’s the end.”

“What does he means?” One of the leaders asked/

“That we are living off the death of others. He implies we are cannibals in my view. The fishes fed on the dead flesh, and we on the fishes soon after.” Another took to answer with sarcasm.

“Are we?” The one asking was baffled. “I had fish every Monday and Thursday. I feel sick now.”

“I never throw them into the sea. I burned them all. No trace back to me.” The sarcastic reply smiled. “I did it my way.”

“Did someone say barbecue? I liked that.” Another leader with senile age asked. “Are we having any soon”

“Only fish.” The sarcastic one added. “Dead fish.”

“Where is Polonius?” Claudius roared out. His patience at tethers.

“In heaven. I think. Send thither to see. If your messenger finds him not there, seek him i’ th’ other place yourself….. bring your coat, it may be hellish cold there. But if indeed, you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. Or the chambers, let your nose lead.”

“Go, seek him there,” Claudius called to the servants.

“Where, my lord? We have lots of …”The servant who attended asked.

“He will stay till you come. He is after all dead.” Hamlet looked to the servant. “See not with sight, smell with thy nose, and if the stench reaches you first, then take a mint to ease the throat.”

“Go! Go now!” Claudius called the servant.

“Hamlet,” Claudius held not his claws. “This deed, for thine especial safety.”

Claudius looked to Gertrude but she wept her tears.

“Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve for that which thou hast has done, must send thee hence with fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.” Claudius looked to the leaders. “It must be done. All is ready. The ship is ready, and the wind at help, the associates to tend, and everything is bent ….”

“For England?” Hamlet cut in.

“Ay, Hamlet. Do you…”

“Tally Ho, I am good.” Hamlet laughed. “They serve fish with chips. I will take the chips only.”

“So is it, if thou knewest our purposes?” Claudius asked.

“I see a cherub that sees them.” Hamlet referred to an Angel that oversees him. “But come, for England I am fair.”

“Farewell, dear mother.” Hamlet stood up and bowed to the mother.

“Thy loving father, Hamlet?” Claudius asked.

“My mother wedded once more. Yes, Father and mother are man and wife.  Man and wife are one flesh, and so, is my mother.— is my father.” Hamlet smiled. “Come, for England.” 

Hamlet left the hall, hardly bothering to listen to the mutterings of the leaders citing words like madness, and complicity in his life.

“Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.” Claudius looked to Rosencrantz. “Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight.”

“So soon? I have not packed.” Rosencrantz raised his protest but Claudius had done his part.

“Away, for everything is sealed and done. That else leans on the affair. Pray you, make haste.” Claudius gave his command, and Rosencrantz left the hall. He then turned to the assembled.

“The matter will be dealt with soonest.” Claudius bowed to them and they took their leave. Gertrude followed on and was stopped by Claudius.

“My lover did I …”

“Hold not me back. I am returning to my chamber…alone. You may do as you wish. He is …who he is.” Gertrude too sad-stricken took her to leave.

All but the Emperor exit.

“England, if my love thou holdest at aught since yet thy cicatrice (A cicatrice is a scar, the mark left on your skin when a cut, scrape, or burn has started to heal.  ) looks raw and red after the cut.” Claudius left England without much of a glance when he heard of the call to Elsinore.

“I am called to Norway. I must go.” Claudius told his friends there. “Be bold without me. I will assist from there.”

Claudius left for Norway.

“Thy free awe, thou mayst not coldly set our sovereign process.” Claudius when he left without the next on the throne. The recent incidents made him call on England to assist. It was a letter to England to act on his call for the termination of Hamlet. The letter will becarried by his apprentices.

“Do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done, however my haps, my joys will ne’er begin.” Claudius was upset at Hamlet for having accused him of murder and derailed his seat as the next ruler of Norway. When it's done, he will put it right into the sovereign process. He took one more look at the seat where he was seated. He pictured a sword over his head and knew that he must act to remove it.

“Soon, it will be over.” Claudius smiled. “Tally Ho.”

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 3 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Three

Sub Scene One

The hall of justice assembled

Claudius held the conference with his close aides, invited to the castle. Gertrude sat by the side, with her head bowed and wishing things could have been different, she would not have to be sad.

“Fellows of Norway, I bid you all to judge.” Claudius had addressed the leaders of Norway. They were business associates and trustees of the alliance.

“The King had died not long, and I grief for him. He was so inspiring and yet life was taken from him at the peak of his career. Hail the King!”

“Hail the King!’ The ones assembled there echoed the call.

“Today, I am holding administration of the King’s estate, and by oath, wedded his widow, and thus adopted his son as mine. I rejoice in that, and will carry on the King’s works not as King but in my humble rank as Emperor.”

“I came, I saw and I carried on his legacy.” Claudius quoted Caesar with a twist. “King Hamlet’s works will be remembered forever.”

“Humble as I am, I bear sad news.” Claudius looked to the assembled. “His son, Hamlet, and now our son, the great heir to the King, has this gone …. Mad.”

“Mad….” Claudius echoed his words. The assembled gasped in disbelief. “I don’t know what happened, but on his return, late to the delayed funeral; held back by his mother on request, Hamlet did return but he is not longer the lad we knew. He had changed for … his years away had eroded his …values.”

Gertrude burst into tears and drew the sympathy of the assembled. Claudius approached the lady and touched her face.

“No mother would bear to see her children stricken with illness …more so madness…but it’s the will of God, what we will have to ail with. Hamlet is with the worse, and we pray for him.” Claudius looked to the assembled. It was a dramatic speech, and if the Romans were there, they would have thought of Brutus who was the one who spoke then.

“His madness undisclosed but had to be now. He is truly mad. He had killed the Great Chamberlain.” That last line drew alarm on the assembled. Most of them have known Polonius long, shared their wine, and laughed at each other’s jokes.

“The Great Chamberlain was killed by Hamlet.” Claudius selected his words. “Killed with a dagger…. Unfortunately… but unforgiven an act of madness. The Chamberlain's body undeclared by Hamlet.”

“I have sent to seek him and to find the body.” Claudius looked at the leaders.

“I know many of you may ask, how dangerous is it that this man goes loose? Yet must not we put the strong law on him.” Claudius looked to explain why Hamlet is not restrained.

“He’s loved of the distracted multitude, who like not in their judgment, and, where ’tis so, the offender’s scourge is weighed.” Claudius knew that Hamlet was liked by many by appearance; the ones in the castle but they hardly know him as he was away for a long time. They may judge him as a murderer of the Great Chamberlain without understanding the motives.

“Let us speak to him first. Hear him out. Don’t judge by the cover of the book, but most times, we may do.” Claudius drew on the rationale in the perception. “I may not know him well, but as my son now, I will give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his character.”

“He is after all the son and held the qualities of the King in acting. On his verdict, we can’t be alone but with the consent of all, the action may be seen better. We cannot however sanction the offense without retribution. It's like diseases desperate grown by desperate appliances are relieved or not at all. Cured or removed, the solution is either.”

His first attendant soon came calling.  Rosencrantz stood by the doorway, afraid to intrude but was called on by Claudius.

“Rosencrantz. Meet the leaders of Norway, please. Rosencrantz is a friend of Hamlet for years. He was here to assist Hamlet in this trying period.” Claudius looked at the other.” Hamlet, how now, what hath befallen?”

“Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, we cannot get from him.” Rosencrantz bowed his head.

“But where is he?” Claudius asked.

“Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure,” Rosencrantz replied.

“Bring him before us,” Claudius called out.

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 2 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Two

Sub Scene One

Where art thou, dead man?

Hamlet looked ta the doorway, where his friends had retrieved the corpse on his instructions. He still felt the effect of the act, and guilt hung partially on his conscience. Well, it was also fleeting moments in his mind; one moment he was sane in Dane (if the interpretation was acceptable), and at other times, he was in his madness (again another interpretation here).

Hamlet’s thoughts were disturbed by the sounds of approaching steps. He shrugged the morbid thoughts from his mind to await their arrival.

“Verdammt!” Hamlet muttered in German; the first words we learned in any language are foul ones; it’s only our first word to the mother was a decent one. 

“Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.” Hamlet saw the arrival of the duo who were hardly considered his friends anymore.

“How do you fare?” Rosencrantz was the courteous one, but not Guildenstern who had remained glum. The previous encounter weighed in his mind,

“All well?” Rosencrantz did a quick overview of Hamlet if he held any weapon. Once cannot be careless when madness and murder may rhyme together.

“I heard the Chamberlain died in your presence. May I know what have you done, my lord, with the dead body?” Rosencrantz picked his words to ask.

“Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin,” Hamlet replied.

“Please do tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence and bear it to the chapel. The family awaits their father.” Rosencrantz put on a weak smile. “It’s the charitable thing to do. More so in Norway.”

That last line was from the Emperor; I disliked any scandals in Norway.

“Do not believe it.” Hamlet shook his head.

“Believe what?” Rosencrantz with his patience stretched.

“That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king?”

“Take you me for a sponge, my lord? I resent that. I am my own man.”

“Ay, sir, that soaks up the Emperor’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the Emperor best service in the end.” Hamlet looked hard at the other. “Do you know how he chews his food? He keeps them like an ape an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed, to be last swallowed.”

“I won’t believe that.” Rosencrantz still held on to his relationship with Hamlet as belonging.

“It’s not me, my dear. It’s the Emperor; the one you kissed his feet on call. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.” Hamlet hit the nail into the coffin there. “You are nothing.”

“I understand you not, my lord.”

“I am glad about it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.” Hamlet laughed.

“My lord, I stand to plea now. Please tell us you must tell us where the body is and go with us to the Emperor.”

“The body is with the Emperor here, but the Emperor is not with the body. The castle is huge, Norway is a kingdom, and the Emperor is a thing—"

“A “thing,” my lord?” Guildenstern snapped in. His tolerance of Hamlet’s attitude took its peak onto him.

“Or he speaks. I was to say of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after! The hounds are here.” Hamlet stood up. “Shall we see your Emperor? Let him not wait too long for me, the miscreant here.”

Hamlet took off on the run and was pursued by the duo.

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 1 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene One

Sub Scene One

Hamlet is mad.

Claudius sat with Gertrude for their breakfast. It was a silent event, which normally will be a gaily sharing of news and smiles. Even the scones were taken without a whimper on the baking, which was normally slightly hard or sweet to taste. Even their guests, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern remained silent while taking slow sips of their tea.

Claudius took a bite of it and then looked away. He was in a heavy mood and looked toward her.

“There’s matter in these sighs”, Claudius looked at Gertrude. “He is …our son, and as a mother; these profound heaves you must translate for this fit we understand them.”

“Where is our son?” Claudius asked.

“Oh my lord, what I have seen the night before?” Gertrude broke her silence then. It was…”

“Give us this place a little while.” Claudius looked to the duo who took leave.
“What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?”

“Mad as the sea and wind when both contend more like Neptune in battle with Hermes; one of the waves of the sea, the other with the winds of the storm. Which is the mightier? In his lawless fit, behind the curtain on hearing something stir, he whips out the dagger, and cries “A rat, a rat.” Gertrude burst into tears. “In his brainy apprehension kills whom he had not seen; a good old man.”

“Oh, heavy deed! It had been so with us had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all.” Claudius looked at Gertrude. “To you; yourself, to us, to everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?”

“You must do something, Claudius. I beg of you.” Gertrude cried toward Claudius.

“It will be laid to us, whose providence, he should have kept short, restrained, and out of the haunt.” Claudius knew in his mind that Hamlet must be stopped.

“This mad young man. But so much was our love, we would not understand what was most fit. We can’t do that for we are the owner of a foul disease; our hearts pained to keep it from divulging, lets it feed toward the pith of life perhaps.”

“Where is he gone?” Claudius raised his voice.

“To draw apart the body he has killed, o'er whom his very madness, like some ore mixed onto the other metals, his stands pure..” Gertrude feels for her son. She yearns to think he had acted out in anger, but calm when he is, he regrets.

“He weeps for what is done.”

“Oh, Gertrude, shed the motherly feelings. Once the sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, we will send him off.” Claudius was firm on his call. He looked to Gertrude, and assure her of the action to protect her son.

“And this vile deed, We must with all our majesty and skill both countenance and excuse.” Claudius will cover for the crime if it's needed.

“Ho, Guildenstern! I call on you.” Claudius called out to the duo.

“Friends both, go join you with some further aid. Hamlet in madness has Polonius slain”, Claudius told them “And from his mother's closets has he dragged him.” Claudius told the duo.

“Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body into the chapel. I pray you to make haste in this.”

“Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends and let them know both what we mean to do.” Claudius pulled at Gertrude’s hands.

“What do you intend to do?” Gertrude asked.

“To cover the murder, as the King would have done. If it happens in Norway, it shall remain in Norway.” Claudius looked at Gertrude. “We can’t allow it to be known outside.”

“Oh, my dear. It’s what I dread about Norway. There are too many vices here buried on its estate. Why can’t we come clean for once?”

“Oh, come away! It’s our son, Hamlet we are talking about. Do think for once I will be allowed what he had done to be known. No, I won’t. My soul is full of discord and dismay but I will act in the interest of all including you.”

“So am I.” The mother pained for herself. They took leave to find the son.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stood a distance and saw the elderly couple had left the hall. It was Rosencrantz who spoke first.

“Are you mad too? Why must we take Hamlet to England? Claudius held an army of his own, that can be called on. We are paid to see and understand him. We did and reported it. Why shall we send him? And murder? That was never in the services.”

“Silence, my lover. Where did you get the idea we are to murder him?” Guildenstern looked at Rosencrantz. “We are to send him to England.”

“To be killed. Does that not reach your conscience? It did on mine.”

“When was that? I did not hear of any murder here except an old man was killed.”

“Please, Guildenstern. We know those in England. They are rascals and their trade was to remove all threats. They had done it before. Remember the …”

“Hush your mouth, Rosencrantz, or I will have it stuffed. Nothing to say of the past here. We are given wealth to deliver and that’s our role. We are emissaries only. Not the ministers of war.” Guildenstern knew the lads there. They are no pals.

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Interlude

 Act Four

Interlude

King Hamlet stood in the hall with only his lover, Gertrude, and the other he had kept as a guest in the castle, Emperor Claudius. The King was in his play costume as Caesar while the others were in their casual wear.

“I do apologize, my lord. I was caught up with the rewrites when you called. My inspiration was in flow…” Polonius the Chamberlain, as he held the rank then,  had tried to explain his delay.

“I do not require your excuses, Polonius. I am to ask you as a witness to the …” King Hamlet was distracted by the running steps and in the unneeded distraction; Hamlet holding the panty of the girl chasing him.

“Give me back that!’ Ophelia was pursuing the boy of age five. They ran past the quartet from the hall to the corridors, with their playful shrieks heard by far.

“I will caution my daughter soon, my lord. It’s unbecoming of that girl.” Polonius bowed to the King. “It’s not easy being…”

“Enough, Polonius. You are not called here to be judged, but as …witness to …” The King was upset but his lover intrude on his words.

“Hamlet, we need not discuss this with …” Gertrude pleaded with the King.

“The Chamberlain is a part of my family. He stands with me on all occasions and shall be at my side.” King Hamlet roared out. “If you think he is below his tank, then he will be known as the Great Chamberlain.”

“I meant no disrespect toward him but this is…” Gertrude tried to state her stand.

“A family matter and it involves my loyal staff who is a kin to me.” King Hamlet looked at Claudius. “Not one sneaked behind my back and destroy my trust.”

“Hamlet, I was …” Claudius wanted to explain himself.

“I had tolerated it for long. Even before the birth of young Hamlet, I had known that we were all one family. I regretted ever sharing my life with you. You for one was taken as my brother. Nurtured by myself and yet you betrayed me.”

“I have done nothing …that …nothing that will hurt you.” Claudius looked to the King. “You have been kind to me when I was without an act; the menial ones I still took on your call.”

“Menial? Are any of my plays menial, Chamberlain?” King Hamlet was upset.

“No, my lord. All your plays are major works of art. You're acting could be unsurpassed by any but with your discipline, they will be as good. Even the most ‘menial’ act was acclaim with its rank and encore gave.” Polonius defended the King. It was true for his writing had improved under the King. Any encore to the play was his to relish.

“Claudius, long had I known but my career was important. I needed the avenues to vent my thoughts. My acts.” King Hamlet looked at Gertrude. “You…”

“Was I to wait while you act? Was it acting when we laid in bed?” Gertrude asked. “Once we were lovers, for a long time, we were just bedtime partners. You slept on your side and me on the other. We had not felt as before.”

“I was in my culmination of fame. I needed to be …” The King defended his lack of marital acts with his lover.

“And how many did you lay on the need for fame? The King is ravenous! The King is insatiable! The King …” Gertrude hit hard.

“Enough! Your needs were taken care of. Does he not hump you when needed? Or was he a poor lover compared to me?” The King motioned to Claudius. “Claudius, your manliness is being questioned.”

“I did with Gertrude, while she may hold needs as well as me. We knew you knew yet you did not forbid. Many a night she longed for you but you were at play or playing for someone.” Claudius said. “I say a need and with that, I shared mine.”

“Even in my castle, you did.” The King looked at Gertrude. “Do you see the need to be more private here? I know we had fewer walls in the old home, but here we have many chambers, and God knows  what corner you could lurk.”

“Why do it so plainly that he had to see?” The King was infuriated. He pointed to the doorway where Hamlet had left with the panty of the girl. “He asked of me what was that?”

“Oh, my God. We did not …We should…” Gertrude held her hands to her lips.

“What? Where? Who? How? I don’t care. He may not be mine at all.” Those words caused Gertrude to fall to her knees.

“Oh, my God. How could …:” Claudius reacted.

“How was I know? He seems to be more like you. His antics and appearance are like yours. All false acts.” The King looked back at Gertrude. “ I know it all. I am an actor. A better one than him.”

“I will not take this …” Claudius clawed his way.

“And you won’t. I am sending you to England. There you will stay and act. Come back not here unless I am dead.” The King looked at Claudius. “Your bastard will be sent away too. He will learn to live there….away from his mother.”

“No…” Gertrude pleaded. “I will be …”

“You better be good. His well-being depended on your behavior.” The King said to Gertrude. “I will be King one day but never will there be a Queen, but only the madam by myself.”

“Chamberlain, send my son to the school I told you about. Send Laertes if you want. It’s a good school.” The King told the Chamberlain. “Your daughter… She is older. Do as you would like. I have seen hussies and take care of her or she will be one soon.”

“Yes, my lord.” Polonius nodded. “It will be as arranged.”

“Remember this, Claudius. I am to be King and Norway will be my estate. You are banished. Do not ever think of seeing your son. He is to be unblemished from today. If I were to ever see you, it will be on my deathbed.”

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Scene 5 Sub Scene 2

 Act Three

Act Three Scene Five

Sub Scene Two

The mother and son

“Save me and hover o’er me with your wings, you heavenly guards!—What would your gracious
figure for me now?” Hamlet saw the ghost appearing to him after a lapse of days/

“Who else is …what is that you speak about?” Gertrusde still cradling rhe dead Chamberlain.

“A king of shreds and patches…the ghost of thy King,” Hamlet replied.

“Alas, am I mad like you? Do I see a ghost before me? I only held a dead man here. And heaven protect me, I am not his killer.” Gertrude tried to make sense of what was on Hamlet’s mind.

“Do you not come to your tardy son to chide, that lapsed in time and passion, let’s go by the important acting of your dread command? O, say thou the truth.” Hamlet ignored the mother while he continued his talk with the ghost.

“Do not forget. This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” The Ghost lament the delay by Hamlet to act for him. “But look, amazement on thy mother sits there.”

“Step between her and her fighting soul she holds conceit in her. The weakest body's strongest works, you are to do. Speak to her, Hamlet. Don’t be coy in the words.”

“I am not coy with her.” Hamlet looked at the mother. “Am I?”

“Alas, how is ’t with you, that you do bend your eye on the vacancy and with th’ incorporeal air do hold discourse?” Gertrude looked at her son. She fears his madness had made her hear or see others yet not physically present.

“Focus your eyes while your spirits wildly peep, and, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, their insolence will be dealt like excrements.” Hamlet was asked to not raise false alarms.

“Start up and stand an end. O gentle sons, upon the heat and flame of thy distemper, sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?” Gertrude tried to ask her son what does he sees or had seen. Or what his madness made him see.

“Do you see nothing there? He stands there.” Hamlet asked.

“Nothing at all; yet all that is I see,” Gertrude replied.

“Nor did you nothing hear?” Hamlet was unconvinced.

“No, nothing but ourselves.” Gertrude shook her head.

“Why, look you there, look how it steals away!” The ghost was seen leaving. “My father, in his habit as he lived! Look where he goes even now out at the portal!”

“This is the very coinage of your brain,” Gertrude said to Hamlet. “This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning indeed.”

Gertrude believes her son has become mad. A murderous madman.”

“Ecstasy? Me going mad.” Hamlet disbelieves his mother. “My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time And makes as healthful music. It is not madness that I have uttered. Bring me to the test, and I the matter will reword, which madness would gambol from.”

“Mother, for love of grace, lay not that flattering unction to your soul that not your trespass but my madness speaks. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whiles rank corruption, mining all within infects the unseen. Confess yourself to heaven.”

“Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, and do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue, for, in the fatness of these pursy times”.

“O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain!”

“O, throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer with the other half!” Hamlet looked at his mother. “My last wish is a good night. But go not to my uncle’s bed.”

“Assume a virtue if you have it not, that monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, of habits devil, is angel yet in this. That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence, the next easier; For use almost can change the stamp of nature and either … the devil or throw him out with wondrous potency.”

“Once more, good night, and, when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll be blessing beg of you. For this same lord”

Pointing to Polonius.

“I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so to punish me with this and this with me, that I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him and will answer well. The death I gave him.”Hamlet will take the punishment for the death he has caused.

“So, again, good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. This bad begins, and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady.

“What shall I do?” Gertrude asked,

“Not this by no means that I bid you do:” In fact, Hamlet was telli8mg his mother not to do this.

“Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed, pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse, and let him, for a pair of reechy kisses or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers” As most of us who are familiar with the needed coaxing needed of our partner.

“It will make you ravel all this matter out, like for matter of concern, that I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft.” Hamlet looked at his mother.

“There good you let him know, for who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise; would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?” Hamlet bemoans the lady may be persuaded then to tell.

“No, in despite of sense and secrecy, unpeg the basket on the house’s top, let the birds fly, and like the famous ape, try conclusions, in the basket creep, and break your neck down.” It was a spoken tale of an ape trying to imitate the flight of the birds and had a basket of young fledglings to be released at the tower. On seeing the young fledglings take to the skies, the ape climbed into the basket to take flight but landed with a broken neck.

It’s the tale of saying not everything is as it seems and at times, misleading, and injuries may happen.

In other words, speak with caution or none at all.

“Be thou assured, if words are made of breath, and breath is the sign of life, I have no life to breathe what thou hast said to me.” Madness or a genius, he hates Claudius whom he accuses to murder the King. What can she do to act, to say, to ask, or to remain silent; she was uncertain. Gertrude found no words to describe her son anymore.

“I must to England, you know that.” Hamlet moved the subject matter.

“Alack, I had forgotten! ’Tis so concluded on?” The discussion with Claudius mentioned it, but she felt there was no conclusion.

“There are letters sealed; I read it just now. My two schoolfellows, whom I will trust as I will adders fanged, they bear the mandate; they must sweep my way and marshall to knavery.”

“Oh my God!” Gertrude fears for her son. If he said it was true, he was to be led to a trap.

“Ah, let it work, for ’tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard ( a bomb); and ’t shall go hard (Be blown by it) but I will delve one yard below their mines and blow them at the moon.” Hamlet planned to undermine that trap. “O, ’tis most sweet.”

“I’ll lug the guts into the neighbor's room.” Hamlet offered his hands to his mother. He raised her and then bid her a better night.

“Good night indeed. This counselor is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave.— Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.” Hamlet smiled. “Your death recalled to my mind; the words of Brutus after he killed Caesar.”

“Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge.” Hamlet bowed to his mother. “Good night, mother. Clean thyself of my crime. You will let the others be the judge of the act.”

Hamlet then dragged the dead Chamberlian out.