Info: Copyright 1958: New York: Simon and Schuster
Where acquired: Audio library checkout.
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 hashtags): # # # #
What it's about: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, sinks into a tragic depression and desperate actions as he plots to avenge his father's murder.
Favorite Quotes:
"O, there has been much throwing about of brains."
"Frailty, thy name is woman!"
"Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here
stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,
and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he
goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him
and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he
that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life."
This passage:
HAMLET : How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?
First Clown : I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.
HAMLET: Why he more than another?
First Clown: Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
he will keep out water a great while; and your water
is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
What I Liked:
- The narrator did not simply "read" the play; he spoke with proper emphasis and diversity of characters. His English accent also helped.
- Like The Tragedy of MacBeth, this play included a section of comic relief; the clowns in the graveyard. Yes, it's a tragedy, but all tragedy needs some comedy to keep it from being completely depressing.
- A few sections were hard to follow. For example, I didn't get the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (which sounds like a law firm). Why were they killed? How?
- What happened to Bernardo and Francisco (whose names kept changing in the play from what I could tell)? They seemed to simply vanish.
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