Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 7 Sub Scene 2

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Seven

Sub Scene Two

He lives

“Who interrupts?” Claudius was agitated. He then looked to Laertes. “Please stay. Our conversation has not concluded.”

“Letters, my lord, from Hamlet. These to your Majesty, this to the Queen.” The servant handed the letters.

“From Hamlet? Who brought them?”

“Horatio. He got them from some gentlemen from…. England.” The servant stood there. “I saw them not. They were given by Horatio to Bernard who received them from…I guess of him that brought them.”

“It’s okay. Leave us now.” Claudius dismissed the servant. He then told Laertes to hear the letter while he read.

"High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg to leave to see your kingly eyes when I shall (first ask your pardon) thereunto recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet."

“What does he mean? Has his madness overtaken him?” Claudius was upset. He had sent Hamlet with a specific handler with specific instructions. Yet he is returning.

“What should this mean? Are all the rest coming back? What of Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern? Or is it some abuse and no such thing?” Claudius was upset. “I am an Emperor with no idea of what is happening?”

“Is it from Hamlet? Did he write it?” Laertes asked.

“I believe so. It looked like his handwriting. Your father will know better but I believed it so.” Claudius replied. “How I wished Polonius was still here? Perhaps you could. ’Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked”— And in a postscript here, he says “alone.”

“Can you advise me?” Claudius looked to Laertes. He was feeding questions toward Laertes to read the other’s mind. It was a technique of acting to gauge their diverse acting capability, but then, Claudius was looking for emotional avenues. He found none; Laertes was good, but when the subject of the father, Laertes did react emotionally.

Or the mention of young Hamlet.

“I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come.” Claudius saw the clenched fists of Laertes. “It warms the very sickness in my heart that I shall live and tell him to his teeth, ‘Thus didst thou.’ Before his last breath.”

“If it is so, Laertes”, Claudius saw his ace in the pack of cards. “Will you be ruled by me?”

Claudius looked at Laertes for the reaction. It was a testy moment for the other was vengeful, and may go his way.

“Ay, my lord,” Laertes nodded before looking at Claudius. “So you will not o’errule me to a peace?”

“To thine own peace. If he is now returned, as checking at his voyage, and that he means. No more to undertake it, I will work him to an exploit, now ripe in my device, under which he shall not choose but fall.” Claudius had signed the ‘non-intervention’ clause.

“And for his death, no wind of blame shall breathe, but even his mother shall uncharge the practice and call it an accident,” Claudius spoke on behalf of the other.

“My lord, I will be ruled by you, the rather if you could devise it so that I might be the organ.” Laertes was willing to be the tool that Claudius could make use of.”

Claudius breathe ina relief. His audience was for him. He felt the ovation for his act. A good act deserves it, but the actor must be humble. There were always the returning acts that he needed them.

“You have been talked of since your travel much,” Claudius pushed to change the subject matter. “And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality wherein they say you shine. Your sum of parts did not together pluck such envy from him as did that one, and that, in my regard, of the unworthiest siege.”

A little prodding to the younger man despite his feats, he still yield less of one compared to Hamlet.

“What part is that, my lord? We have our plays and audiences. We never met or perform in the same town or city.”

“Narry of that. I heard of yours, and my salutations to your performances.” Claudius was careful in his praise. “So young and talented. A very ribbon in the cap of youth— I had wished when I was of your age. Yet needful too, for youth no less becomes the light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his sables and his weeds, importing health and graveness.”

“Two months since here was a gentleman of Normandy. I have seen myself, and served against, the French,
And they can well on horseback, but this gallant had witchcraft in ’t. He grew unto his seat, nd to such wondrous doing brought his horse as had he been endorsed and demi-natured with the brave beast. So far he topped my thought that I am in forgery of shapes and tricks. Come short of what he did.”

“A Norman was ’t?” Laertes asked. He was taken in by the mention of another.

“A Norman indeed.”

“Upon my life, Lampard is his name.” Laertes knew the man. “I know him well. He is the brooch indeed
And gem of all the nation.”

“He confessed to me. He gave you such a masterly report for art and exercise in your defense, and your foil most especially in the age yours; a rarity of the youth to hold a foil when a pistol was the gem.”  Claudius took the trail to lay the trap.

“He cried out ’ would be a sight indeed if one could match you. The ’scrimers of their nation he swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye if you opposed them. Sir, this was his report.” Claudius waited for the applaud then.

“He overly praised me there, my Emperor.” Laertes humbly declined.

“It did on Hamlet so envenom with his envy that he could nothing do,” Claudius told the other. “He has you your eyes, speed, and strength.” Claudius bow his head and sighed. “Now out of this—”

 “What out of this, my lord?: Laertes asked.

“Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of sorrow, a face without a heart?” Claudius wants to know if the other was genuine in his grief.

“Why ask you this?”

“Not that I think you did not love your father, Claudius picked at his words. “You were away most times. But I know love is begun by time. And that I see, in passages of proof, time qualifies the spark and fire of it.”

“There lives within the very flame of love.” Claudius smiled. “I had not a son of my own, but I had seen that in you. A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still; we should do when we would; for this “would” changes.”

“You are an actor. Recall these lines from Macbeth. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. Act 5 Scene 5.”

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, Act 1 Scene 7.” Laertes hit back. “My ambition now is for my father’s honor/”

“Good on your soul. Hamlet comes back; what would you undertake to show yourself indeed your father’s son more than in words?” Claudius struck the nail into the coffin there.

“If that was to be done, I will cut his throat in the church,” Laertes affirmed his vow of vengeance. Unknown to many, Laertes despised the young Hamlet. He was the son of the King, and held the wealth of Norway, a rival of his acting fame, and his unrequited love for Ophelia, the one whom he felt was undeserving. If Hamlet was gone, his path would be paved with success.

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 7 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Seven

Sub Scene One

Persuasion of the persuasive

Acting is to deliver the character's personality to the audience. It needs persuading most times. The better ones learned this as their skill. Grossly, it may take the form of seduction. Just as in writing here.

Claudius offered the glass of wine to Laertes when they were seated in the main library in the castle. There were four libraries in the castle, but the one where they were seated was the biggest, and filled with a huge collection of playwrights, both ancient and new to the unpublished ones. The King was always approached by aspiring playwrights to review and if possible to take up their plays. Most times, these playwrights get the attention of the aide of the Great Chamberlain who will receive them. However, the Great Chamberlain was an earnest reader of writes and never fails to peruse them.

Or snatched some ideas from some of the better ones.

“Behold, Laertes. Your father’s domain is here. His writes are among the greats here.” Claudius praised the dead man. “Most times, I find him perched on the rails there, reading and thinking.”

“The Great Chamberlain was ever the man you look for in the write. His words could bring the bird to your hands, or the dead to turn in their grave.”

“Pardon me there. He was such an inspiration.” Claudius played his words.

“My emperor, I am …I do understand my father well though I was away most times.” Laertes was an actor. “You need not …patronize him.”

“No, I was not. I was telling you the truth as a …. Personal close friend. Now must your conscience hold my acquittance seal, and you must put me in your heart for a friend too.” Claudius look with care toward Laertes. The latter is an actor, and he hid his real emotions well.

“Sith you have heard and with a knowing ear, that he which hath your noble father slain”, Claudius paused his words. He did it to emphasize the next line. “Now he pursued my life. Accusing me of …murder.”

“It well appears. I had heard from the …learned friends.” Laertes was careful to reveal his friends. At that moment, he trusts no one from Norway. “But tell me why you proceeded not against these feats?”

“So, criminal and so capital in nature, as by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, you mainly were stirred up.” Laertes also knows that Claudius had not acted on it.

“O, for two special reasons”, Claudius looked away. “Not many knew of my predicament which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed.”

“But yet to me, they’re strong to counter alone.” Claudius drew on the sympathy that he faced obstacles.

“The Madam, his mother lives almost by his looks”, Claudius dragged his words there. He knew Laertes did not have his mother with him when growing up. He was weaned off early but she still yearn for him. As for myself….”

“She is so conjunctive to my life and soul. I had known her long, and during her days with the King, but we are two personalities in nature. Like how the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her.” Claudius tried to frame his relationship as complicated.

“The other motive why to a public count I might not go to is the great love the general gender bear for Hamlet. He is the Prince, adored and loved whose dips all his faults in their affection, work like the spring that turneth wood to stone, convert his gyves to graces, so that my arrows, too slightly timbered for so loud a wind, would have reverted to my bow again, but not where I have aimed them.” It was Claudius' words to make him the underdog in the competition for love there.

“It’s like Brutus’ speech to his audience. Good and noble reasons to kill Caesar for the Emperor was too ambitious and he would enslave the Romans if he lived.” Laertes confront Claudius. “But your lack of action caused me a father and maybe even my sister.”

“I will stand to it. I will have my vengeance.” Laertes dismissed Claudius' lack of action.

“Break not your nights of sleep for that. You must not think that we are made of stuff so flat and dull that we can let our beard be shaken with danger.” Claudius is agitated being told of his restraints for Hamlet. “I am my man, and unafraid. Place your trust in me. You shortly shall hear more.”

“I hope.” Laertes unconvinced of Claudius words.

“I loved your father, and we love ourselves well. It hurts me so unimaginable to lose him in such a fashion, my action will be seen.” Claudius sighed then. “Any form of death was imaginable but never that.”

“Bear with me, and think wide and deep, let your imagination unrestraint…” Claudius looked for the explanation to give to Laertes, but he was unsure of how to invite time and an open mind.

It was that he was saved by the servant. 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 6 Sub Scene 2

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Six

Sub Scene Two

England was not peaceful

Hamlet sat in the front passenger seat of the coal-driven engine of the four-wheel car; as they named it then. He had sat in the American Model T; the car that every family could afford if they hold enough money to buy it. That one driven from the English port was not entirely a Model T but modified to run coal which was abundant in the isle.

“It ain't as smooth but the coal cheaper.” The driver who picked up Hamlet told him. His name was Harold, dressed in the grey overall, and wore a battle iron hat from the isle army; I served at Somme and wore goggles over his eyes.

“I called her Connie, after my missus. She weighs a ton like this car.” Harold won’t stop talking while driving Hamlet. He was in the second car, behind the one where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sat with two other English men. The other two Englishmen were dressed in tweeds and had on bowler hats.

Hamlet was met at the port by the two cars and whisked off immediately.

“The words were you are a Prince. I had not driven on before, besides a toff I once drove, who had his nose covered the whole trip and paid me miserably. Coal ain’t the smell of daisies, but she is ours.” Harold kept on the one-sided conversation. The drive went through the cobbled street in the villages, sacred to half the others, and woke up more of the late risers.

“If it was during my days, my paddy would have thrown me out of the barn for sleeping this late.” Harold was raised at the farm with the sows and cows and slept in the barn most nights.

It was by a long country road when the farm truck weighing more than the car, slammed into them, and send Connie into the ditch. Hamlet was thrown out at the side and landed on the sodden soil. He looked to Harold who was stuck behind the steering wheel and bloodied from head to shoulders. He heard gunshots then.

“It’s those bloody highway robbers.” One of the Englishmen called out. “They are the bane of the road.”

“Bloody good it will do to them.” The other English bloke had a revolver in his right hand and was firing at the bushes by the roadside.

“Can we take off now?” Rosencrantz asked.

“Boody well, but what if your Prince?” The English bloke asked back. “He is the reason we are here.”

“Let him be. The others will finish him off for all I cared.” Guildenstern was upset. “We were not tasked to take bullets for him.”

“It’s your neck on the noose, mate.” The English bloke told Guildenstern. “We will leave now.”

“Shoot a few rounds into the rear seat. That will finish him or not, wounded him fatally.” Guildenstern told the other. “I will tell the Emperor, his son died valiantly.”

The English bloke did as he was told, and then took off in their car. Hamlet still on the side, was wounded by the fall out of the car. He found himself surrounded by four rowdy-looking chaps holding pitchforks and scythes.

“If he is the Prince, I will be darned by my mother’s luck for charm,” One of the chaps said. “Let’s check his bags.”

“Issac, do not swear on your mother or I will clogger you from here to the farm.” Another cautioned the earlier one.

“Ouch, Pa. All I said…” The earlier one protested.

“Miff your mouth, Son. We got work to do.” The four blokes ignored Hamlet and took to the belongings from the car. Hamlet crawled to the side and watched them rummage through his bags.

“Lots of books. Do you read, Pa?” A younger one asked the elderly man.

“Not so much. Your mama read to me then. I just work with my hands.” The elderly man replied.

“Pa, what is … FANNY …HILL? I know of Daisy’s fanny though? Will mum read that to me?” Another one picked up the book to show his father.

“I thought you could not read?” The one that was quiet all along finally voiced out.

“Ma did teach me some words. She said it was polite to learn some. I learned the others from Uncle Jack.” The other replied. “Uncle Jack knew a lot of words. He told me of the Spanish flies; have not seen any. And the flies taste ….bitter.”

“You stayed away from Uncle Jack. He is loony. The last war cracked his skull.” The one we all knew as Pa cautioned his sons. “Let us get into the value items and leave. Pitchforks are not good against guns.”

“Pitchforks are the demon’s weapon, Pa, and they work well for them:” The learned one told his Pa.

“Get your asses into the works, or it will be my fork into your fault.” Pa at tethers with his patience. They soon left with the items of value, and Hamlet was alone. He was hurt but managed to pull himself further from the car to the road. He lay there waiting for help before he slipped into unconsciousness.

 Hamlet woke up to someone rummaging through his pockets.

“Hey!” Hamlet called out weakly. The hands left his pocket. “No, wait. I need help. I can pay you …handsomely. I am the Prince of Norway.”

“By gosh, I am the Prince of Persia.” The other said. “And it’s bigger than Norway.”

“Would this help?” Hamlet dug out some currencies from his hidden pocket in the vest.

“I loved Norwegian fishes.” That was how Hamlet was saved by the gentleman who took him to be nursed and helped him prepare some letters.

“His name is Horatio. See him and you will be paid.” 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 6 Sub Scene 1

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Six

Sub Scene One

Letters to Horatio

Horatio had walked to the courtyard to gather his wits. He felt suffocated in the castle. It was different when he returned after having been with Hamlet for some years; when the young one was able to function independently, Horatio was called back to the service of Elsinore Castle.

“Welcome back, Horatio. I am glad that your time with young Hamlet was good.” The King then praised Horatio. “So were your reports to me. He is growing fine, independent of his mother but surely better on his own.”

“I am glad to be of service, my King. Now may I retire to my father’s work now that he is no more in service. He was maintaining the gardens. He was always digging holes in the ground.” Horatio had learned of his father's demise when he was away, but he was not allowed to return. The young Hamlet was still under his care.

“I am ever sorry, Horatio that you could not be here for your father’s funeral but we took care of it well. He rested well now in Heaven.” King Hamlet had assured the son. “As for you, I have a new task for you.”

“I am now the King and with my ascension, I hold some rivals. I need good men to be at my side, and protect me.” The King plotted his words for Horatio. “You can be one of them. I need trustworthy guards, and above all, unafraid of any adversaries. You are not alone. I have others who will be you. Marcellus, your twin is one with me as a guard.”

“Who do you fear, my King?” Horatio asked. I think the King is but a man, as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me. The element shows to him as it doth to me. All his senses have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness, he appears but a man.” (King Henry in Henry V (4.1.105)) The King confessed his concern.

“In my career, I have been threatened and …abused, but no more. Now I am the King and all should bow toward me, though some may not. It’s the latter, I feared for they are not any raving member of the audience, but of more deadly means. I had been assaulted before.”

“So, you need guards. I can do that.” Horatio said. “I did my training in the army but the war ended.”

“And I asked of you this. ‘Master, go on, and I will follow thee To the last gasp with truth and loyalty. ‘Act 2 Scene 3, Shakespeare ‘As you like it’ play.” King Hamlet drew on Horatio’s oath.

“You will have it, my King.” Horatio bowed to the King.

“You will do fine, Horatio. Did your brother share his task with you before?”

“Marcellus did not tell me much of his task.” Horatio shook his head. It was fine for a while, until the day, he was asked to bury a body.

“How did the guy become dead? He was with the King just now.” Horatio asked. He was with his twin brother and Barnado. They had driven the body to the forest.

“He died then. We will just bury him.” Barnado had taken the shovel from the car. “We are not doctors.”

“He was fine just now.” Horatio was curious.

“Never ask. Just do the digging like me.” Marcellus took a shovel himself, and begin digging. It was the rare occasion that Horatio had to bury the dead, but he did lend his fists to others. Soon, he will be learned that whatever happens in Norway remains in Norway. There the King called the command. Horatio learned not to question. He once heard young Hamlet rehearse the play and these words struck him. “I am in blood / Stepped in so far” Macbeth Act 3 Scene 4.

“Horatio, sir.” The young servant had interrupted Horatio at his thoughts. “There are some gentlemen to see you.”

“What are they that would speak with me?” Horatio hardly had any guests at the castle.

“Far-flung travelers across the channel I believe, sir. They say they have letters for you.” The servant explains. “I knew from their way of speaking.”

“Let them come in.” The servant turned to leave.

“I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet,” Horatio muttered.

“God bless you, Sire.” It was then Horatio met his guest. It was a man dressed in tweeds and holding a bowler in his hands.

“Let Him bless thee too,” Horatio said.

“He shall, sir, a ’t pleases Him. Pardon me, Sire. I have not been to a castle yet. A huge place it seems. Life at the docks does not give you anything bigger than the stores or the steamers that come a-calling. Me, a port worker; the ship’s cargo and the nearby taverns my daily chores.”

“I heard you have letters for me.” Horatio knew the tone of these men; they were simple folks with the need for coins. “I will reward you for that.”

The coins were exchanged for the letters. And some added for the trouble.

“There’s a letter for you, Sire. It came from the young ambassador that was bound for England; he should be having taken the smoke land ship, and …”

“How is he?” Horatio asked.

“He is well; slightly banged up but recovering.” The guest smiled.

“My goodness, please tell.” Horatio was concerned.

“He… he told me to tell only —if your name is Horatio, as I am let to know it is.” The man looked at Horatio.

“I am Horatio.” Horatio handed more coins.  

“He was on the street when I met him. I had taken him in and cared for him. He was not hurt badly but could not move much.” More coins were given. “He then took to write the letters and gave me passage to here. Nice castle/”

Nicer was the weight of coins.

“You got the letter and I am to go. There is a trawler awaiting me at the docks tomorrow. Have you any passage I can rely on to get there on time? But can wee’ have a drink to quench the thirst.”

Horatio arranged the kitchen to feed the man. He then read the letter addressed to him.

"Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these other letters to the Emperor. The letters are for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in the grapple, I boarded them.” Horatio smiled. He had known Hamlet since young; always fancy himself a swashbuckling pirate to swing on the ropes.

“On the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy, but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for them.” Horatio was baffled. Hamlet was captured and in turn, do some good to his captors.

“Let the Emperor have the letters I have sent, and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.”

“These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England; of them, I have much to tell thee.”

“Farewell. He that thou knowest thine,”

“Hamlet."

‘Thine’ was the code word of Hamlet with Horatio when he meant ‘come to see me alone’.

“Come, I will give you way for these your letters, and do ’t the speedier that you may direct me to him from whom you brought them.” Horatio seeks the man in the kitchen.

“I have not finished my drink.” The man protested but Horatio was more persuasive than the pint of ale.

They exit.

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 5 Sub Scene 3

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Five

Sub Scene Three

Ophelia distress

The first sight of Laertes on his sister; the glamorous dressing yet simple in taste, and the gaily movements of joy was shattered by the emerging figure with the untidy dress, and shoeless, with the hair unkenpt, and made worse was she was singing lullabies that not understood by any.

“O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt Burnbout the sense and virtue of mine eye!” Laertes was stunned by the appearance. “By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight.”

It reminded him of the scane from King John, about Constance's grief.

I am not mad; I would to heaven I were,
For then ’tis like I should forget myself.
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!
(III.IV.49-51)

Laertes recited the words as if he was in a play.

“No, young Laertes. You shouldn’t.” Gertrude looked to the other. “She is ….”

“Till our scale turn the beam! O rose of May, dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!” Laertes approached his sister. Ophelia looked at him and smile.

“Hello, Laertes.” Ophelia recognized him then.

“O heavens, is ’t possible a young maid’s wits should be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and, where ’tis fine,I t sends some precious instance of itself after the thing it loves.” Laertes was in pain to see his sister having to face the death of their father all alone. He should have been there.

“They bore him barefaced on the bier, hey non-nonny, nonny, hey nonny, and in his grave rained many a tear. 
Fare you well, my dove.” Ophelia sang the words for her father.

“Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,” Laertes had then resolved that her grief had strengthened his pain to avenge their father. “It could not move thus.”

“You must sing “A-down a-down”—and you “Call him a-down-a.”—O, how the wheel becomes 195
it! It is the false steward that stole his master’s daughter.”

It was Ophelia’s message that the event have turned, and the daughter was taken in by a pretender instead of the lord. It may be said to have been cheated or perhaps love may be deceiving.

“This nothing’s more than matter” Laertes was focused on the father...

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, and remember. And there are pansies, that’s for thoughts.” Ophelia approached her brother, and with the flowers given to him for him to share the remembrance of their father.

“There’s fennel for you with the columbines.” Ophelia handed the other stalks to Claudius. The fennel symbolizes flattery which the emperor adores as an actor. The columbines denote adultery which Claudius was accused of.

“There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. You must wear
your rue with a difference.” Ophelia handed that to Gertrude. Rue is bitter and the two ladies are on the bitter end; one is lost to her love, and the other is at a loss to her love.

“There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end.” Ophelia addressed the last like her father; lovely in bloom but having withered then.

“For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.” Ophelia begins to sing once more.

“Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself, she turns to favor and prettiness.” Laertes thought of his sister in grief and had leaned toward the flowers as her way of expressing them.

And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead. 
Go to thy deathbed.
He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
He is gone, he is gone, 
And we cast away moan.
God ’a mercy on his soul.
And of all Christians’ souls, I pray to God. God be wi’ you.”

(References to the song can be dated back to 1586, in a letter from Sir Walter Raleigh to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester saying "The Queen is in very good terms with you now, and, thanks be to God, will be pacified, and you are again her Sweet Robin."[)

“I leave now, my lord.” Ophelia danced her way out.

“Do you see this, O God?” Laertes was in pain to see his sister not her usual. “Is she… Hamlet inflicted I was told.”

“Laertes, I must commune with your grief, or you deny me right. Go but apart from her, make the choice of whom your wisest friends you will, and they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.” Claudius say to Laertes. He played his role as the fair one toward the grieving son.

“If by direct or by collateral hand they find us touched, we will our kingdom give, our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, to you in satisfaction.” Claudius was willing to give up everything if he was linked to his father’s death.

Gertrude was dismayed by Claudius' offer which was too generous, or cowardly. Or has madness overtaken his mind too?

“But if not, be you content to lend your patience to us, and we shall jointly labor with your soul to give it due content.” Claudius the actor clawed back.

“Let this be so. his means of death, his obscure funeral, No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o’er his bones, no noble rite nor formal ostentation,” Laertes sighed. His father's death was incomplete in the last rites. “Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth, that I must call ’t in question.”

Laertes was not satiated with the answers.

“So you shall, where th’ offense is, let the great ax fall. I pray you, go with me.” Claudius pulled at Laertes’ arms. They exit.

“Do I sit and await their action? Or do I act on my own?” Gertrude asked of herself. “All these men do take me for an audience instead of another actor. I will not be sidelined.”

Gertrude took to leave then. 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 4 Scene 5 Sub Scene 2

 Act Four

Act Four Scene Five

Sub Scene Two

Laertes storms the castle

“O, this is the poison of deep grief. It springs all from us, the King’s death. And then her father’s death, and now behold!” Gertrude moans her pain. “All that had happened comes around.”

“O Gertrude, Gertrude,” Claudius sighed at the lady’s emotion. “Let me arrange the facts. When sorrows arrived, they come not single spies, but in battalions. But in time, we will resolve it, and all will be well.”

Bad things may come in a stack at times; or was it Murphy who came visiting, and all went wrong at the same time?

“First, her father was slain.” Claudius did not mention the King.

“Next, your son is gone, and he most violent author of his own just remove; the people muddied, thick, and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers for good Polonius’ death, and we have done but greenly in hugger-mugger to inter him.”

“We did not inter him. How could we when he was not to be found? We had searched for him but he was not to be found. The one who did him refuses to tell. How could we be …… I don’t care what the others may say, we know not of his body…as yet.” Gertrude snapped back. Claudius saw the pressure issues had taken their toll on Gertrude. He turns to look at Ophelia.

“Poor Ophelia. She is divided from herself and her fair judgment, without the which we are pictures or mere beasts.” Claudius sensed the lady was lost in her mind. “Last, and as much containing as all these, her brother is in secret come from France.”

Claudius had news of Laertes returning to seek the answer to his father’s whereabouts.

“Feeds on his wonder keeps himself in clouds,” Laertes had kept silent of his return. “And wants not buzzers to infect his ear with pestilent speeches of his father’s death, wherein necessity, of matter, beggared, will nothing stick our person to arraign.”

“In-ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude, this, like to a murdering piece, in many places gives me superfluous death.” Rumors abound on the cause of death, but it pains Claudius, that he will much prefer death himself to stop it.

It was then the noise was heard from the courtyard.

“Alack, what noise is this?” Gertrude called out in distress. “Have we no peace anymore?”

“Where are my guards? Let them guard the door.” Claudius called out.

“My lord, we have some commotions at the courtyard. Do not worry. The guards are attending to it.” A loyal elderly servant rushed in and reported to the Emperor.

“It’s young Laertes, in a riotous head, challenging your officers. Laertes was with rabble who call him “lord,” of some were our own who turn to the other side. Not the servants of young but of old, who had served with the Great Chamberlain’ they leaned to know of the old man’s fate.”

“Alas, I am of their age, but won’t do such acts that will demean my loyalty here. Such as the world were now but to begin,” The servant who served the King and then the Emperor, lament on the attitude of the others.

“Antiquity forgot, custom not known, the ratifiers and props of every word, they cry “Choose we, Laertes shall be king!”. They care not for the tradition.”

“How cheerfully on the false trail they cry. This is counter, you false dogs! There is no fox here but a pair of hares.” Gertrude cried out. “If the King was …”

It was then Laertes walked in. He was followed by the loyal guards battling to hold the others not of the castle to come in. Laertes saw Claudius and then turned to his rabble.

“I pray you, give me leave. I am to speak to the Emperor and madam ….alone.”

“What of the Great Chamberlain? We need to bury him properly.” An old ally of the Great Chamberlain called out.

“We will, we will.” The others echoed the call.

“I thank you. I will seek the answer you want, as well as for me. Please keep to the door.” Laertes addressed the rabble.

The rabble exited followed by the guards who closed the door.

“We are alone now, my Emperor,” Laertes addressed Claudius by his status. “O, give me my father!”

“Calmly, good Laertes.” Gertrude addressed the young man. “He is…”

“I held not the drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard, cries “cuckold” to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow of my true mother.” Laertes spoke for he is the true son of the man whose body had not been seen as yet. Not a harlot born.

It was a stinging insult to Gertrude that Hamlet may be of one.

“What is the cause, Laertes, thy rebellion looks so giant-like?—” Claudius was upset. “Bringing in my servants in tow.”

“Spare him, Claudius. He is …” Gertrude tried to calm things down. “Your friends I had known. They were your father’s.”

Gertrude, approached Laertes to hold his arms lest he strikes at Claudius.

“Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person. There’s such divinity doth hedge a king. That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.” Claudius dismissed the lady of her concern. He is the Emperor, and will not be challenged by the others on his standing unless it’s a treason act

“Tell me, Laertes, why thou art thus incensed?” Claudius asked again before he looked at Gertrude. “Let him go, Gertrude. Now speak, man?”.

“Where is my father?” Laertes asked.

“Dead,” Claudius replied.

“But not by him, ” Gertrude said to Laertes. “He did not do it.”

“Let him demand his fill.” Claudius stood there defiantly.

“How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point, I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes, only I’ll be avenged most thoroughly for my father.”

“Who shall stay you? Those…rabble out there?” Claudius asked.

“My will, not all the world. And for my means, I’ll husband them so well. They shall go far with little.” Laertes claimed his support from the loyal friends of his father. They will side with him for vengeance.

“Good Laertes,” Claudius looked to the door. “If you desire to know the certainty of your dear father, is ’t writ in your revenge. You will draw both friend and foe, winner and loser. There are sides to consider.”

“None but his enemies, my lord,” Laertes said. He cares not who is there, for he only wants the killer of his father.

“Will you know them, then?” Claudius asked.

“To his good friends thus wide I’ll open my arms and, like the kind life-rendering pelican, repast them with my blood.” Laertes had listened to the friends of his father and told him of the words they heard. He will believe them.

“Why, now you speak like a good child and a true gentleman, Laertes.” Claudius smiled at the young man. “I am your father’s friend too. Let me tell you that I am guiltless of your father’s death and am most sensibly in grief for it.”

A noise within: “Let her come in!”

“ How now, what noise is that?” Laertes turned to look at the door. 

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.