Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Scene 1 Sub-Scene 6

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene Six

The hawks circled

Much forgotten by Ophelia, her woes were not for her alone but heard by two others, who had remained in the shadows.

Claudius made his way towards Polonius silent like the mouse, as an actor will move to take his place, lest the audience was to be distracted. Normally, a loud voice would have resonated with the arrival, but then Claudius felt like a mouse whispering toward Polonius.

“Love? His affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little” Claudius baffled. “Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul over which his melancholy sits on broods and I do doubt the hatch and the disclose.”

Claudius was unsure if the madness of Hamlet may not be but a plot to attack him. Ophelia's earlier confession had brought up his own, but the disclosure was deferred by the arrival of Hamlet. Here Hamlet had denounced himself to have loved Ophelia.

Does Hamlet plan to be alone without hurting anyone while he pursues his hunt for the death of his father? The baggage of loved ones in battle weakened the strength to act. But who does he want to hunt? Claudius has thought of himself or Gertrude. They were the ones to hold all of Denmark upon the death of the King.

“l may be some dangers; which to prevent, I have in quick determination thus set it down.” Claudius pondered his action.

“To have him sent off will be the better option,” Claudius muttered off his option. It has to be far from Norway.  A scandal in Norway so soon will hit the headlines detrimental to his accession. “I cannot have that. It may ruin my reputation.”

“Away he must leave soon but to where?” Claudius thought hard and then he knew of the location.

“He shall with speed to England.” Claudius looked at Polonius. “For the demand of our neglected tribute. haply the seas, and countries different with variable objects, shall expel. This something-settled matter in his heart, whereon his brain still beating puts him thus from the fashion of himself. What thinks you on ’t?”

“He liked England as to what I know of young. He was sent there for the summers by the King, not to abode here.” Claudius explained his choice. Untold to Polonius, Claudius has the strength of men there; they work for him and abide by his commands.

“The King held Norway, while the Emperor rules England, the isles off the main continent..” It was the saying of the scene; the King sanctioned it for he knew England to him was a smaller stage to the continent there.

“I will not have triumphed over by him.” Claudius borrowed from Cleopatra. “The son he had as Cleopatra did with her son to Caesar. It will take the same ending.”

Cleopatra had used her son named to be of Caesar’s blood to make herself the Queen of Rome, unchallenged yet unaccepted then. “As I had waited, I came, I saw and I will conquer thee…. In due time.”

After the Assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the Ptolemaic Kingdom (r. 305–30 BC), which had ruled Egypt since the Wars of Alexander the Great brought an end to Achaemenid Egypt (the Thirty-first Dynasty), took the side of Mark Antony in the last war of the Roman Republic, against the eventual victor Octavian, who as Augustus became the first Roman emperor in 27 BC, having defeated Mark Antony and the pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, at the naval Battle of Actium. After the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, the Roman Republic annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

Claudius had resolved to be in the smaller conquest, but he will win it all in the end.

“Hamlet will suffer as Cleopatra’s son, killed by the victor.” Cleopatra’s son was lured to Rome and executed by the Rome Emperor.

“Did you say something? I was away in my thoughts.” Polonius had half-listened to the other.

“However, what you may have said, as I could have heard, it shall do well. England it will be.” Polonius agreed to the call more so he will be away from Ophelia whose virtue he may snatch lustful in the mind.

“But yet do I believe the origin and commencement of his grief sprung from neglected love.” Claudius moved to approach Ophelia. He was followed by Polonius.

“My Lords?” Ophelia was in her thoughts and had forgotten the two in hiding.

“How now, Ophelia? You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said. We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please” Claudius pushed the task toward Polonius.

But, if you hold it fit after the play let his queen-mother all alone entreat him to show his grief. Let her be round with him, and I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear of all their conference. If she finds him not, to England send him, or confine him where your wisdom best shall think.”

Polonius knew that it was his task then. A victory or defeat will be his fate.

“For Ophelia, I am to do.” Polonius voiced out. “Let him have his madness on the play. Then I will do the needed.”

“It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” Claudius acted as the Emperor. His soul will not be tainted by the works of his underlings though the works were his in the lead.

“Come, Ophelia. I will see to you from now.” Polonius held out his arms to his daughter. “I know best for you.”

“Yes, father.” Ophelia ever the obedient one.

.

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Scene 1 Sub-Scene 5

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene Five

One of the doves had died.

“O, what a noble mind is here overthrown!” Ophelia was saddened by the ways of Hamlet.

“Him whom I once knew! The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, and sword”, Ophelia remembered so much of Hamlet in his heydays. She attended his play when she was out of the castle. She sat alone in the audience hidden by the shadows to see him act.

“The expectancy and rose of the fair state,” Hamlet was ever courteous to all.

“The glass of fashion and the mold of form, the observed of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, that sucked the honey of his musicked vows: Ophelia was entranced by an actor rather than a friend for her.

“Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh; that unmatched form and stature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me. Rosy it will be never meant. A Prince he will remain while the Emperor takes the throne; favored to the likes of Mark Antony lest he betrays Caesar for the love of another.”

Ophelia had watched the play with Hamlet as the ally of the great Emperor, but he fell for the love of the Emperor yet to sanction even Emperor’s death, and thus his soon after. Mark did not betray his Emperor, but his love for the other made him indifferent to the events that unfold. As maybe Hamlet was in pain for he had become whom he once portrayed.

“A prince never to be set as the King. And Ophelia not to be his Cleopatra.” Ophelia faults not Hamlet for he was a checkmate in the position.

The expectation and rose of the fair state; talked about the future being ‘rosy’ if it’s hopeful or looking promising. Hamlet was the great hope of ‘the fair state’ of Denmark: its future king, indeed didn’t automatically inherit the throne upon the King’s untimely death, but was instead side-lined in favor of his uncle, Claudius.

He was once admired by everyone who observed him: the one everyone watched and followed eagerly. And now he has been quite destroyed, and his mind is ruined.

“Where art thou, Hamlet?” Ophelia turns her thoughts to herself, the one who most enjoyed hearing Hamlet’s acts, and then he was the pleasant-sounding voice that is now out of tune, making a harsh sound that was woes to listen to.

The discordancy is all the harsher because one remembers what a sweet sound they were capable of.

“That unmatched form and stature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me that I have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” Ophelia went on about her woes about Hamlet. “He is tamed by madness.”

“To have known him when he was of sound mind, so brilliant and noble and talented and graceful, only makes it so much harder now to be faced with what he has become.” Ophelia took the seat releasing the tears from the book she hold endearing. She looked at the book and said.

“May it offer me salvation? I do hope.”

 

 

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

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene Four

The doves' commitments

Ophelia's heart sank on hearing Hamlet’s words. He did …once loved her in his words. She stepped back from him.

“Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.”

“You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not ever since.”

Ophelia recalled her offering once before; their bedroom then among the discarded items.

“I was the more deceived.” Ophelia sighed. “We were once…”

All Ophelia could visualize was her naïve offering then. A pair of doves was perched on the window sill then cooing their love despite the scene inside.,

“The named loving doves?” Hamlet saw the doves and used them for his paradox then,

“I had known that some doves will mate for life while others will only pair up for the season. We did not, and have not since.”

“If we were doves In some cases, if their pair passes away it is believed that these doves are aware of their loss and mourn the death of their pair. We do not for love we were not. Not now.”

“Indeed, my lord, you made me believe then. I was ready but….”

“You should not have believed me, but we shall relish it your intentions.” Hamlet’s words hut her then.

Hamlet saw her then, unlocked to his view, and he does not forget, with now his words, that I was the offeror, yet he did not take it.

If only Ophelia had seen his mind; his roving days on tour, he had his dallies with relish but he felt it was the need to feel than the need to share. He took and received it holding no memories of it later. It was to him a passing moment of his life, erased by dawn. He looked at Ophelia, whom he once wanted to share but failed.

“I loved you not.” Hamlet hammered it in. She reminded him too much of his mother. He had read Freud and denied that notes that he may have favored his mother to any others, but no, he had seen her infidelity as his impotence to feel the act than to be done with it, as to expend his anger.

“I am not to be led by Cleopatra.” Hamlet then voiced out the Empress’s seduction in an extract of the play from Mark Antony and Cleopatra; if you find him sad, say I am dancing. If in mirth, report that I am suddenly sick. Quick, and return.”(Cleopatra Act 1 Scene 3, Shakespeare.)

“I will not be deceived,” Hamlet said. “I am not a fool like women are to me.”

“Truly, I was the more deceived.” Ophelia felt the stab that went deeper. She waited for him, and then the woes of her father to move on for he was a man undeserving; she did wait for him. If he had known of her previous offerings, he may have lain like the King itself.

Ophelia devoted herself to the books for her salvation awaiting the knight to take her. It was all in the books she had read. There were various developments of living life freely but she ignored those passages. She was to be pure and purity though it may have her stagnant then.

“Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Ophelia strived for the silver lining or the magical vine or hair to release her from the wait.  Her knight will climb or clear the path of the forest.

“I would never have thought…that Rapunzel had it better.”

“Your virtue pure for me all this time?” Hamlet laughed. “No matter how hard we try to be virtuous, our naturally sinful nature will come through in some way.”

“Move thee from these walls. There are more you have not seen.” Hamlet told Ophelia. “A world of everything; from nastiness to the clarity of heaven. You may call to God for release in your voice when the body and mind blend and it’s not sinful at all. It will give you a new perspective on what is called heavenly. Strumpet not discounted to it.”

“He thinks my daughter of one. I shall …” Polonius was furious but held himself hidden.

“Ophelia, you are not seeing from within the castle walls. You need to be out there. The grass is greener there the flower beds in bloom and even trampled over, it will recover for the sun and water that gives it nutrients.”

Hamlet then felt that he may be wrong. She was too innocent to go out. Another castle may be better for her.

“Get thee to a nunnery now. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners with me?” Hamlet told her that if ever they are together their offspring will be as bad as him. Perhaps that is why a long time ago, he had spent out of her while with many he had done the giveth and receiveth.

It’s the strumpet on the one whom he calls mother.

“I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse myself of such things that it was better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.” Hamlet thus said that he was never the pure soul that was thought of all, but a deceitful, and scoundrel to the core. He should not have been born at all, but he was, and best she avoided him.

A better place was the nunnery where the devil will not break down its wall.

“What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us.” Hamlet avail himself as like a demon who lives between the dimensions.

“Best thee not get to be that mother. Go thy ways to a nunnery the next. It's the safer haven for you.” Hamlet was to see Ophelia again then like his mother; an unfaithful one that may be the strumpet despite the taken vows to stay as one, and with ones she will be with.

“He banished me.” Ophelia felt her heart stop in its beat. He truly does not love me anymore. “But why?”

“I am…” Ophelia tried to find words to end the pain.

“I desire no more of it. Where’s your father?”

“At his chamber.” Ophelia was unsure. Her mind clouded.

“Let the doors be shut upon him that he may play the fool nowhere but in ’s own house. Do tell him if you see him. Or he may be here now. Let him hear it out. He is a fool.” Hamlet turned his back.“Farewell.”

Polonius who was hiding was furious but he shall not play into the hands of the other.

“I shall remain hidden till he has done his act,” Polonius told himself.

“Oh, If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Hamlet stopped his steps. He spoke without looking at Ophelia.

“Or if thou wilt needs to marry, marry a fool; they are around aplenty, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them,” Hamlet added on. “Best be that thou go a nunnery, go, and quickly too.” Hamlet waved goodbye. “Farewell, Ophelia.:

“Heavenly powers, restore him!” Ophelia found in her to offer a prayer for Hamlet. “His madness be cleared.”

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough.” Hamlet stood there.

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.” Hamlet mocked the faith inside Ophelia. “You jig and amble, and you lisp; you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.”

“Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me mad. I say we will have no more marriage. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live.” Hamlet lent his words to the other married couple. To him, only one shall survive soon. The words of the ghost told him to spare his mother.

“I shall say this once only. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.” Hamlet was to tell that his mother shall seek the same sanctuary soon. “You will have company there.”

 

 

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

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene Three

The doves perched

“Nothing is, but what is not” Hamlet was talking to himself. “Even though it’s just a fantasy so far, the mere thought of committing murder shakes me up so much that I hardly know who I am anymore. My ability to act is stifled by my thoughts and speculations, and the only things that matter to me are things that don’t exist." (http://nfs.sparknotes.com/macbeth/page_22.html)

Hamlet stopped on his walk and looked at the walls around him.

“To be or not to be—that is the question:” The direction ahead fork in different paths, and one behind us, shall never be trodden once more. That is the journey of life; ever forward with each new path our decisive next fork in the journey.

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; I may remain the Prince for now.” Hamlet smiled. “Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them like many princes for the right to be King.”

“‘Sound trumpets! let our bloody colors wave! And either victory or else a grave.’ Let me borrow from Henry VI, Act 3.” Hamlet smiled.

“Or to die, to sleep—” Hamlet's hands clutched his heart with a chuckle. “No more—and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks. It may end bloodless.”

“That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” Hamlet lowered his arms to the side and then to his ears, as if he was sleeping he leaned his head to the hands.

“To sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream.” Hamlet's eyes closed with a smile on his face. “ Ay, there’s the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come.”

“When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life for who would bear the whips and scorns of time.” The left hand of Hamlet swiped at his face as if to remove the veil that was there. Or to wake from the dream.

“Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of th’ unworthy takes”, Hamlet lowered his head. “When he might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn.”

“No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?” Hamlet felt that death was never known its destiny for none had returned to tell but if death may end his woes but to what and where were his thoughts like being lost?

“I do fear that.” Hamlet sighed for his cowardice to be dead. “Or unknown to the soul; the untravelled frontier.

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry.” Hamlet reflected on his inaction and then laughed.

“Where art thou? The ghost may soon be asked of me. Or it will be the Devil if it was the ghost awaiting the next scene.”

“Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest” (King Lear, The Fool Act 1 Scene IV).” Hamlet shuddered as when he did for his act then; anxiety awaits one when the audience is them and not you.

“Be your character when the curtain rises. Let it embody you and made words your lines. Ignore the audience fir your acting will awe them then.” Hamlet’s first instructor then gave him the confidence to act. He did and never had he faltered since then or was it then he did?

“I am not the fool, but the King I am…not to.” Hamlet sighed. “And lose the name of action.—Soft you now, the fair Ophelia.—Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.”

Hamlet's hands once more clutched his heart.

“To be or not to be—that is the question here.” Hamler for once in his life questioned himself.

“Good my lord, how does your honor for this many a day?” Ophelia approached the man she had not seen for some days.

“I humbly thank you, I am well.” Hamlet bowed to the lady to hide his pained expression. Like an actor, he raised himself to upright, an expression than of the norm; a weak smile on the lips.

“My lord, I have remembrances of yours that I have longèd long to redeliver. I pray you now receive them.” Ophelia wanted to reach towards Hamlet in the feel but felt the barrier to it.

“No, not I. I never gave you aught.” Hamlet held the expression of ‘I never stop you’.

“My honored lord, you know right well you did, and with them words of so sweet breath composed
As made things richer. Their perfume lost, take these again, for to the noble mind.” Ophelia reached out with her words to the man in the actor. “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

“There, my lord.” Ophelia motioned to Hamlet’s heart.

“Ha, ha, are you honest?” Hamlet held an expression of disbelief.

“My lord?” Ophelia approached the other. Her desire to rekindle the past.

“Are you fair?” Hamlet held out his arms to stop here.

“What means your Lordship?”

“That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.”

“Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than honesty?” Ophelia thought of herself as beautiful but her real beauty was her inside. It may exist for beauty was beneath the skin.

“Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness.” Hamlet slipped into his acting profile, an actor addressing the audience to explain the other character.

Ophelia read his words and sighed. She knew that beauty can more easily change a good girl into a whore than goodness could change a beautiful girl into a virgin. 

“Does he ever love me for myself or my …virtue?” Ophelia self questions the love of the other. And Hamlet cleared her doubt.

“This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof.” Hamlet stabbed her then. “I did love you once.”

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Scene 1 Sub-Scene 2

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene Two

The scorn of lovers

The two young men on their way out were to see a young appealing lady taking their place with the Emperor and the madam.

“I wondered who may be, but justice, she may be the one that Hamlet once mentioned.” Rosencrantz turned to look at the lady who had passed them.

“Be amuse yourself, Rosencrantz but I am not to be intrigued by that.” Guildenstern continued his walk and soon caught up with each other.

“Hell freezes on your scorn to any ladies I may lay my eyes on.” Rosencrantz looked to the other. “Why do you burden our love with my roving eyes?”

“I disliked women more so the ones that held the attributes other men lusted over.” Guildenstern flared his wrath. “You are mine and only mine. I don’t care for Hamlet he grazes no more my love. Our task here is to observe and report. We shall only do that.”

“Yes, my beloved. I am yours and shall remain so.” Rosencrantz reached out to hold the other’s elbow. “Are we to our bedding now?”

“Stay your amorous quaint. I know the lust of yours is not for me now but the filly you just passed.”

“Spare me my agonizing load. I hold nothing dear than you.” Rosencrantz knew how to play his lover’s care. Without another word, they gaily walked to the chamber.

“Come in, Ophelia,” Polonius called on his daughter to meet the Emperor and madam. “They await you far too long.”

“Sweet Gertrude, leave us too,” Claudius looked to his lover. “For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, that he, as ’there by accident, may here affront Ophelia. It’s his writing here to unravel the plot here.”

“If it's my son’s health, why shall I not be a spectator to that? Does a mother not know her children? “ Gertrude was upset.

“Her father and myself, lawful espials, “ Claudius explained the act to be seen. “Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, we may of their encounter frankly judge And gather by him, as he has behaved, if ’t be the th’ affliction of his love or no, That thus he suffers for.”

“It’s a father’s approach.” Polonius cut in. His claim there was taken alike scorn on Claudius’s feelings but Gertrude eluded his anger by agreeing.

“I shall obey you.” Gertrude was not all agreeable but relented to the calls of the men. “You are the better of us to advice.” She then turned to Ophelia. ”And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish that your good beauties be the happy cause of Hamlet’s wildness.”

“Wildness?” Ophelia held a puzzled expression.

“Woman to woman only. You are beautiful and he is handsome, and may it out naught to his ways. And purity is in you.” Gertrude was disguising her meaning to Ophelia that the young who is beautiful may win any battle.

“Did you ….” Ophelia felt that her virtues may entrap the other, or bring some reality to his current mind.

“Woman to woman only’, Gertrude confided once more to Ophelia. “It may have it values.”

“And it did once before.” Gertrude expressed her ‘did I not tell you expression at Claudius before she turned once more to Ophelia. “So shall I hope your virtues will bring him to his wonted way again, to both your honors today.”

“I am virtuous, madam, inside of me.” Ophelia ever confused had bowed to the madam. “I wish it so.”

Gertrude took herself to leave the trio with Claudius searching his mind for his lover’s meanings.

“I do beg that women have a planned script that we can all understand or baffling will be for men to do so at them.” Claudius muttered to Polonius.

“Ophelia, walk you here,” Polonius told his daughter. Hurry, he may be here soon. We will be hidden but not far from you if you need us.”

“Come, my Emperor. Our part is to remain hidden.” Polonius motioned to the other before he remembered some book that he was to give to Ophelia.

“Read on this. It’s a good book.” The father handed the daughter, the Holy Bible. That show of such an exercise may color your loneliness.—We are oft to blame in this (’Tis too much proved), that with devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar o’er the devil himself.”

“I beg to differ, Father. I feel overboard when you think I sugar court on Hamlet when I want is the true man.” Ophelia snapped at her father as if he was accusing her of taking only the better of Hamlet and ignoring his bad features.

The father could not find the words to rebuke but the Emperor had found his true self in his misgivings.

“Aside Ophelia, ’tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.” Claudius felt his cheeks giving the shades of the embarrassment of his misgivings. It was not an act but the reality had come to the surface in him.

“The harlot’s cheek beautified with plastering art Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it, that is my deed to my most painted word.” Claudius rested his eyes on the book held by the lady.

“I shall confess soon.” The sight of the book drew him to confess his misgivings.

“O heavy burden!” Claudius did some soul-searching but he was called away by Polonius.

“He cometh. We must hide.” Polonius pulled the Emperor to conceal. He looked to the distraught figure whose head was lowered to the chest.

“What has he that drew the spirit off him? I have to ask but not now.” Polonius turned to look at the arrival of his concern.

“Hamlet had come into play.”

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Scene 1

 Act Three

Act Three Scene One

Sub Scene One

The report sought then

“Gertrude, we have done our best. Hamlet is with friends though not the last ones I favored in my castle.” Claudius lament on the Lenten players. They had retired there after their luncheon and were sharing a bottle of sherry wry while their discussion was on the prodigal son’s accomplices.

“The hungry troupe may soon eat out our larders, and expedite our wine consumption. Did I tell you they ran starkers in the corridors and upended the servant’s modesty that she quit on the next strike of the hour?”

“Alas, Claudius. Hamlet is young and upon his travels, he met all perks and quips of society. I can only plea that he recovers himself and brushed off the madness.” Gertrude spoke like any mother of her children.

“I may think he brought his madness here.” Claudius snapped back. “I do wonder how my apprentices fared with Hamlet. They are fine lads with the dignity placed into their behavior.”

“They cometh now.” Gertrude saw the servants escorting the two young men into the hall.

“Good day, my lord and madam.” Rosencrantz bowed to the duo.

“Have you taken your lunch? We do have some sizeable loaf still if not there, then round up the scoundrels who claim to be our son's friends.” Claudius said. “I hope they leave soon enough.”

“Soon, my lord. They are here on a short stay and will be on their way after the play.” Guildenstern assured the lord. “Twice the play was delayed…”

“Play? So, it was true that there will be a play. Unnotified to me and in my castle, yet the Emperor claims the stage on every performance.” Claudius was upset. “For whom were they requested and to who were they to play?”

“By Hamlet for all of us to see,” Rosencrantz replied. “I thought you knew.”

“Me knowing? You are sadly mistaken. A play indeed in my castle while the Emperor sits. It will mountains to move to be seen there.” Claudius looked to his love. “Did you?”

“Yes, I heard of it and you did too. Could it be your memory is frailed?”

“Nay,” Claudius turned his attention to the two young men. “And can you by no drift of conference get from him why he puts on this confusion, grating so harshly all his days of quiet with turbulent and dangerous lunacy?”

The Emperor will not spend time on trivial issues and focus on the task he had assigned to the young men.

“He does confess he feels distracted, but from what cause he will by no means speak,” Rosencrantz reported to Claudius. “We were entertained briefly.”

“Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, but with a crafty madness keeps aloof when we would bring him on to some confession of his true state,” Guildenstern added.

“Did he receive you well?” Gertrude asked. “I was told he did with the troupe.”

“Most like a gentleman,” Rosencrantz replied.

“But with much forcing of his disposition.” Guildenstern cut in.

“Niggard of the question, but of our demands, free in his reply.” Rosencrantz elaborated on the discussion that took place.

“Did you assay him to any pastime?” Gertrude asked.

“He reads Madam. Was it some script?” Rosencrantz looked to his friend.

“Yes, it was.” Guildenstern was drawn to the corner but he casually replied. He frowned at Rosencrantz for having done that. How was he to tell the Madam that her son was into the heavy reading of some doctor with tempering with the mind workings? He had never read any of that except the occasional bawdy writes to amuse himself.

“He met some players we also know. It turns out we invite the players here to see Hamlet. We overbought on the way of these we told him.” Rosencrantz drove to the amusing moment when he had told Hamlet of the players. “And there did seem in him a kind of joy to hear of it. They are here about the court.”

Yes, like his father, the King invites them to play here.” Gertrude smiled while Claudius scorned his expression. The King did then only on the known troupes and took the idea to better his plays. Polonius was recalcitrant to support him on that.

“And, as I think, they have already ordered this night to play before him; delayed by several nights.” Rosencrantz smiled at the madam as if he had done well.

“Tis most true,” Polonius had arrived at the hall. “I do apologize for being delayed, and yes, Hamlet beseeched me to entreat your Majesties to hear and see the matter.”

Beseeched sounded more on the strumpet forced to spread her legs.

“You must attend, Claudius.” Gertrude looked at the other. “It’s his play.”

“Whatever makes you glad.” Claudius placed on a weak smile. He looked at Poloniuus; his Greater Chamberlain who may have failed to do his task while the latter looked away.

“With all my heart, and it doth much content me to hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge and drive his purpose into these delights.” Claudius resigned to his coming dire sitting.

“We shall, my Lord.” Rosencrantz pulled at the sleeve of his friend to leave.

Hamlet; Act 2 Mid-break to Madness explained

 Act Two

A footnote.

I am writing this note to lend my voice to the writings here, that may be seen as deviating from the original, and to some a delightful read. I hope the latter for while having read Hamlet in perusing the notes and analysis; I was not prepared for the plot of the tale to be what it was as read here. 

Initially, Hamlet to me was a play of vengeance; the son told by the dead father’s soul who appeared as a ghost told him that his death was unforetold but done by murder. That drove me to work on the adaption.

And of course, the theme of madness formed a cloud on Hamlet as a character. As was quoted; In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote madness because of devastating losses in the characters' lives, meaning that trauma, shock, or mischance might affect their sanity. In addition to this, he also wrote about the madness of excessive or unrequited love. (https://cansuyagsiz.medium.com/the-concept-of-madness-in-hamlet-by-shakespeare-f7464ec6f47b#:~:text=In%20Hamlet%2C%20Shakespeare%20wrote%20madness,of%20excessive%20or%20unrequited%20love.)

I had kept the focus on madness when I begin my writing, I have many thoughts of mine exploring the concept of madness to the other characters. I explore them from Hamlet to Polonius, Hamlet’s friends, and Even Ophelia. What may be read as minor roles were expanded to relate them to the topic of madness as in how madness may rule in them.

Who are they? And how do they relate to Hamlet and his coming vengeance? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the Lenten players are all given a new lease of buildup.

So were Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia, the family caught in this madness, and how they were affected by Hamlet. I also explore the castle in its background, and like most castles, maybe there was more to tell than just describing its towers and gates. Yes, I did the moving of the location from the ramparts to the walls for reasons I will explain later.

Denmark, an estate instead of a state, and the royals were celebrities; both are adored by the audience, hence my setting for Hamlet to be an actor. Did I draw from another King in my writing as the icon here? Not there at all. The King here was more set to the original actor of the tale.

Why the ‘sexually’ driven content? Well, for one, sex sells in the current reads. It drove me at times the content to maddening urges but that is another tale. Sex, as seen here, was added in as an interlude but it does serve the main play.

For one, the King was murdered as an act to take the widow as the lover; yet to be explored later. Hamlet was seen to desire (Love was uncertain) yet he held back feigning every excuse even madness was said to one of them.

Ophelia the lady of desire was seen as pure in the backdrop of free loving as seen in the Lenten players. There was the scene where I placed Hamlet unable to perform with Ophelia to drive the tension on their needs caused by other factors that he at fault was not privileged to act upon.

Yet Hamlet voyeur on the former as an object of desire. Ever felt that when you looked at the centerfold and were all excited but felt guilty for the physical lover lying next to you? Hamlet to me could not do the physical for he viewed her as his mother. I stand to say not that he favored his mother as per the oedipal complex; ( hence my references to Hamlet’s reading. He was questioning his feelings.) He fears what his mother did may be what Ophekai will do to him. That will be explained more ahead.

The interludes served a purpose besides the ‘body lustful’ feel. (I have to admit while writing this here, my WHATSAPP received a ‘fashionable’ (My word for it) image that drew my attention to the hidden treasures of the lady. Oops! The vice of man stands the length of his age although he could only fantasize about the deed.

In summary, if you could understand my footnote here. the first two Acts were to set the foundation of the madness and now will move to the later parts of the acts on the vengeance, tapering perhaps the madness infliction.

Interludes? It will always be there. For that made sense of the madness here.

23/12/22

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 3 Interlude

 Act Three

Interlude

The madness gets around

"By the mass, the little beggar takes to one's quarters and usurps one's bed with as natural and easy a grace as if he owned them..." Ch. 12: 'The Prince and his deliverer.' (The Prince and Pauper).

The main player has collected the revised script delivered by the servant when he saw his troupe members prancing from the chambers, interchanging their choices, or partners in bed. It was a rare occasion to be feted and housed with such comforts, that they want to make use of it to the fullest. He held no judgment for a good outing like this was like several encores of a performance. He had experienced it only once and it rested in him since then.

The main player perused the revised script.

“It does not differ from the original. It’s still murder in the plot but by whom was the trapping of it.” The main player was amused. “A good plot added with the different ending.”

“Eek…: A female troupe member ran out of the chamber assigned to her or whom she was to share with modest coverings. “There is a mouse here.”

The other troupe members appeared from their chambers; in all forms displaying none of the modesty required by norms.

“Alice, why the shriek? We have loitered with the mice before. They are blind in sight, but their scent may be attracted to your navel.” One lady member quipped out. “It may suggest that the food best be gobbled by the mouth and not laid there like a fresh oyster.”

“Don’t you compare mine to yours? James never complained of the taste there.” Alice rebuked. “I had blind mice up my navel before but to feel it here, was not what I had expected of in a castle. I would have expected they will be royally served in the kitchen and not scruffling in the walls where amorous events should be held.”

“Alas, my troupe. Adjourn your matings and convene here to read the new lines we are to recite.” The Main Player drew the attention of his members. “We are here to perform tonight for an audience.”

“Coitus interruptus indeed. I fared there will be a delay, June my love. I am to be engaged in other acts.” One member kissed his lover on the cheek.

“It won’t be a delay for you have kept me delayed far too long with your tenacious desire to outperform most times.” The lady named June went back to her chamber to dress up.

“Frigid was she or you tried too hard?” Alice snapped at the male who was singled out. “I am fine for any workout.”

“Only in June, I could tell from the perspiration from the gland's secretion. Unlike you, I fear what I was made to taste…perhaps a dried oyster inserted in salted water.” The other lover said before a pillow was thrown in his direction.

“Troupe, please focus. We need to discuss here.” The Main Player called the forum to be established.

Unknown to the troupe members or most of the servants included, the walls of the castle held not only the ears but the gaps for the sight to view. It may be concealed like mouse holes but it beholds great views.

“I am ever disgusted by these young people. They know no decency in them.” Polonius was in between the walls that were built into the castle design, for the King was not only paranoid but also a voyeur of sorts. The King does peek into the audience and players or guests. A vice that only the Great Chamberlain was to hold a secret.

The hidden walls had their uses. It was how Polonius still could walk those corridors even as the Great Chamberlain although the throne had changed its King, or rather an Emperor sits there.

“I will see how much an actor can do the script.” Polonius took his leave. His passage was watched by another who took on a different route. The other took to the other part of the castle. Mouse holes bored into the walls are strategic. The sight that greeted the voyeur was a performance to be held with vapors that soon created a mist around the wall over the hole.

“If only I can tell you my needs, Ophelia. I am ever wanting but not to you I have not anymore.” The figure stared at the lady who was undressing for her bath. “I know your timing and from a distance, I could only vouch. It not your fault but you reminded me of my …. Sister …or perhaps the mother.”

“Treachery in love unforgiven by me, yet desired by me.” It was Hamlet who continued the voyeur. He has been reading Freud to unravel his needs.

“Mother, I hate you. You took him for yourself when you have me.” Hamlet said. “Yet he still lives with us.”

“I am to love you but your betrayal makes me resent you, as I do now when back in this home, I find my love for anyone on the wane, though I once confessed to having love.” Hamlet felt the urges inside but he cannot fathom how to handle the feeling.

“I could not do it for I see her here like yourself; how true will the love be faithful or treads treacherously on the turning of my sight.” “Hamlet closed his eyes. “I can’t do it with her as I would with you.”

“Harlots are all you represent.”

If only, Hamlet was listening to the mind of Ophelia, perhaps he will read more to understand her.

“I am so lost.” Ophelia lowered her body into the bath prepared for her. “I am in my prime, and still I await what is to be released. He was the only one I was to offer but he left me feeling so …sinful. I have trailed him, waited for him, and when he was near to me now, he desist on me. Did I do wrong to offer myself when it was his to take? Or he was not ready, or when will he ever be?”

“Now when I am unready, with my family to resist, he intrudes on me with the letters of loving, and yet when I see him, he feigned not to know of it. I am so confused. Did I repel him in some ways physically? I hold all the needs of any Man, yet he shuns me on the appearance. Please tell me.”

“I have shared my confusion with my father and yet he tells me I am to cease my feelings.”

“How do you desist what you have craved years ago? It’s like the foundation of the faith, one does not let go of the whims as easily as passing on the corridors. Father, I did love him but I am unsure now. He is not the boy I knew, or does man outgrow into madness at times?”

“I have been spiritual to my soul, but the devil tempts me wild at times, and yet I am sane to hold onto my soul…but who shall…or can I ever love? Or shall I remain as sane?” Ophelia sighed. “A castle I lived in and yet it feels like imprisonment here.”

 

 

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 2 Scene 2 Sub Scene 12

 Act Two

Act Two Scene Two

Sub Scene Twelve

Attended Soliloquy unknown

Unknown to Hamlet, he was not alone. It was no ghost there but a living soul.

“The son of mine is mad. I am to be on guard on this.” It was Gertrude who had hidden behind the curtains and listened to her child. “He speaks himself and yet uncontained are his thoughts.”

“He believed this father was not dead the usual manner but of vile means and by whom? He suspects the play will tell that.” Gertrude stood there in her thoughts. “Who does he suspects? The castle is vast in space, but the tenants are few. And closer ones are rare. I am one, and there is…..Does he mean Claudius? I feared that most. From whom and why?”

“The ghost speaks? I had heard the whispers of such on the walls. Are there ghosts? The King may be that apparition, for only his ghost could wander these corridors, as he did when breathing. But to what avail his words to Hamlet, if any spoken or heard only?”

“I was told the grief of one’s loss through death may cause madness, but the son and father were estranged; would it cause this now?” The lady was asking. “The son was sent off before he could blend with his father. Or perhaps the ghost drove him to this madness. Or the death of a father falls the blame on the next father?”

“Or mother It may be me?” Gertrude was concerned. “He may be mad not to see the real truth. And now he wants to play it as if a stage may make him see it unfolds. I am afraid of how the play will be presented but I am not to be the clog to the movement. I shall observe.” Gertrude looked at the departing child. “I will prepare myself. I will not lose another husband.”

Gertrude took leave of the chamber, but yet another oversaw the departure.

“Brillance there may be, but the ailment of paranoia lives on in him like his father.” Polonius hidden also saw the mother following the son.

“My patience was without waste.” Polonius smiled. “Like his father, Hamlet is hinged on madness with his brilliance. I have known it following the King for so long, living under his shadow, confided to me of his secrets. He had wished his son to away so that the ailment of the soul will not affect the next generation but what is in the soul will remain forever.”

“I was to trade that for the wealth of the estate with my daughter’s virtue but that wealth may not come to the desired one, and the desired one shall not have what he desires from my daughter.” Polonius had planned it. “Long I had suspected the King will be done in on his death, but when and by whom remain outside my knowing; his enemies were wide and many.”

“Upon his death, the to undo the disrepair would have been mine without the King, and without a sacrifice needed from my end, I would had rejoice but the estate went from one King to another Emperor, that despair my ambitions.” Polonius sighed. “The Emperor held no sons or daughter of his own, but one he calls the son; madness prevailed as heard to my ears.”

“Shall he have another sane son, I may present my daughter, but he has none.” Polonius felt his burden was ever there. “Shall I bring Laertes to the fore as I did calling him back for the wedding? He was estranged from me like Hamlet but goodness prevail, he is not mad.”

“Yes, I will save one daughter but a son I will offer to the Emperor soon. An actor by trade and apprenticed to the Emperor of his own. It will work.”

“Hamlet, I care now whom you may see to be the villain on your father’s death but the one to inherit Denmark shall be me. Denmark remains mine forever.” The elderly man smiles at his departure.

 

 

 

 

Hamlet; the Noir Adaption 2023 Act 2 Scene 2 Sub Scene 11

 Act Two

Act Two Scene Two

Sub Scene Eleven

The soliloquy alike the self cruficatrion

“Let me sit heavy on thy soul tomorrow! Think, how thou stabs me in my prime of youth at Tewksbury: despair, therefore, and die!” (V.III.123-125). Hamlet took to the silence of the chamber when his mind was reminded of the lines from Richard III. The two Princes, aged nine and twelve deceived by the uncle, who was to be their protector. He begins by winning their trust and leads them to believe that they are being locked in the tower for their safety. Of course, they trust their uncle. These young, spirited, witty boys stood in the way of Richard becoming king, he murdered them both in cold blood. When they had so much life left to live. (https://nosweatshakespeare.com/blog/tragic-shakespeare-moments/)

“Villian will be seen in the most loved of ours.”

“Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.” King John.( https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/categories/life/)

“Such is the journey of my life since I returned.” Hamlet was self-questioning. “I am in mourn and yet undecided as to what I do next.”

The players have surfaced Hamlet’s grief then, all alone, and having spent days in his sorrow of the death of his father, and yet on knowing; or presumed cause of it, he had not to act but wandered listlessly.

Ever in doubt and assured to fall into stupor self-pity.

“Madness, they said I am but I am alone. I have no one to confide.” Hamlet bemoans the path of his journey then. He heard the whispers. He lived it to their words, lest he is left alone.

“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” Hamlet said to himself. He reflected on the mirror image of another actor then.

“Is it not monstrous that this player here.” Hamlet saw the main player as he would have, immersed in the role and shed tears yet he could not till then. “But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his conceit? Real tears or fake, it flowed for the functional creation of the play.”

The play's acting may have crossed the lines toward near reality in the scene. Hamlet’s thoughts went out to the female actor who drew his attention.

“The female actor that from her working all her visage wanned, Tears in her eyes, while distraction in his aspect”.Hamlet unravels the sequence of actions in comparison to how the act was done. “A broken voice, and her whole function suiting with forms to his conceit—and all for nothing! She could not save the lover of hers.”

“Encore to them!” Hamlet praised the actors. “I felt their words. It was for Hecuba well represented there! Yet what was Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her?”

Hecuba is a character from words, yet the emotions were as if they were a part of Hecuba.

“What did he do had he the motive and the cue for the passion I once had? As I would then, he would drown the stage with tears. And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, make mad the guilty and appall the free, confound the ignorant and amaze indeed.”

“I felt so overwhelmed by their act, in par to mine once before.”  Hamlet was impotent to the action as the main player was able to portray them. “My current state prevailed as a barrier.”

“The very faculties of eyes and ears will be seen that I, a dull and muddy-mettled rascal now, peak like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, like a novice actor.”

“Of which, I am or ….. not anymore?” Hamlet questioned his inner character.
“Not a followed script but my actions can say nothing—no, not for the King upon whose property and the dearest life a damned defeat was made.”

“I can’t act, or am I a coward?” Hamlet is in self-doubt yet he felt challenged. “Unmoving I am.”

Suddenly he lashed out as if a voice beckons him.

“Who calls me a “villain”? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?” Hamlet then buried his face with his hands. “Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i’ th’ throat as deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?”

“I did it myself.” Hamlet wallowed in his self-pity, or madness seen by others. He laughed.

“Ha! ’Swounds, I should take it! For it cannot be but I am pigeon-livered and lack the gall to make oppression bitter or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kind-less  villain!”

Hamlet felt the anger to do that to the villain but effortless was his will then.

“O vengeance! Art villain is known, and what an ass am I!” Hamlet knew in his heart who that was.

“This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell”, Hamlet sighed on the supposed venging son, yet could not act.

“Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words and fall a-cursing like a very drab.” Indecisive Hamlet was then; one moment to hold vengeance and the next he was unsure of what to avenge. Truly, maddening and painful it was on his soul. He needs to act.

“I am an actor. I shall use the stage to act.” Hamlet called on himself.

“My life passion shall unfold my madness, it shall.” Like any act Hamlet needed to rehearse to get the feel, and then act his portrayal convincingly. The picture formed in his mind then.

“About, my brains!—Hum, I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have, by the very cunning of the scene, Been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions; for murder, though it holds no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ.” Hamlet had the image of Judas at the table for supper, yet his appetite was the silver coins.

“A self-reflection on their soul; the soul will open the mind to their foul deeds.” As Judas did then when the guilt arose in the soul. “I will come up with the deed to do but how would the foul deed surface? It will as most of them do.”

Hamlet was in his sane mind once again.

“I know.” A flash of brilliance occurred to Hamlet. “The stage shall be my play as it had been my journey. I am brilliant. I had asked for the play from the players, and the script will be done by me with some changes. Nor the ones I had suggested earlier but something more.”

“I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before my uncle the villain told me. I’ll observe his looks;  I’ll tent him to the quick. If he does blench, I know my course.” Hamlet smiled at his planned act, and then he fell into self-doubt once more. “But if I am wrong.”

“The spirit that I have seen maybe a devil, and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me. I may have committed a sin that will be on my soul forever.” Hamlet felt the devil may be on his mind.

“Whatever will be shall be. I need to resolve this madness of mine. Did he do it or was I influenced by the ghost for reasons I know now or now I may?” Hamlet was switching his objective of thought. “I’ll have grounds more relative than this. The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King or mine.”

 

 

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

 Act Two

Act Two Scene Two’

Sub Scene Ten

The pyrrhic victory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Aye, my Lord.”

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