Hamlet (3,2) A Very, Very -- Pajock

[monk222]

Hamlet has pierced into the conscience of the king, and now knows without a doubt that Claudius did kill his father for the crown and his mother. He is understandably elated to have come this far. So, alone with Horatio, he is naturally in a celebratory mood. However, you could say that his troubles have just begun. There remains the little matter of regicide that he has yet to do. He has to kill the king and be able to convince the kingdom that his rash seeming is justice. He also has to make this killing of his mother’s husband seem just in her eyes. Moreover, he knows that Claudius is onto him, and if the man can kill his brother for a crown, then he probably will not have any qualms about killing an annoying nephew to keep that crown. But for now, all is light and heady, with a big job well done.

HAMLET

Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

HORATIO

Half a share.

HAMLET
A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very--pajock.

HORATIO

You might have rhymed.

HAMLET

O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a
thousand pound. Didst perceive?

HORATIO

Very well, my lord.

HAMLET

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

HORATIO

I did very well note him.

HAMLET

Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!
For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!

But already the sinister reality of the court is closing in on Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have returned.

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[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Here is Marvin Rosenberg’s summation of Hamlet’s situation at this point.

_ _ _

Hamlet is now at one of the most complex transitions in the play. The actor-reader must sense how the flow of passion and expectation changes force and shifts its energy. The great long advance to the Mousetrap climax dissolves into a new, intricate forward movement. It springs from a base of a sharply altered perspective, complicated sometimes by an utter exhaustion - [Fechter’s Hamlet] appeared faint and could only stagger into Horatio’s arms. Hamlet cannot play like a hart ungalled; the strucken deer is still murderous; if Hamlet has won a battle, the cause for war remains, more corrosive now than ever because apparently there is no longer a question of doubt. The father had indeed been murdered. The mother had loved and married the murderer. The sweetheart is lost. A pajock now rules Denmark instead of a Jove - something a prince cannot allow. And Hamlet himself is in grave danger.

-- Marvin Rosenberg, “The Masks of Hamlet”