Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal,
And you must put me in your heart for friend,
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he which hath your noble father slain
Pursued my life.

-Claudius

Hamlet                                    Act IV, Scene vii, Line 3

‘So get on my side, buddy, ‘cause you know that this guy Hamlet who killed your dad is also after me.’ I’m pretty sure that’s what King Claudius is telling Laertes here right now, or something like that. There’s only two scenes left in this play after this, the graveyard scene which we covered back in February, and the final scene where just about everyone dies. And in this scene Laertes and Claudius are plotting what they’re gonna do in that final scene to kill Hamlet.

I’d forgotten, but Laertes is the father of Odysseus in The Odyssey. Is that significant? Yeah, probably. We’d have to ask one of those Shakespeare experts, Bloom, or Garber, or whatever what that significance is, but I’m sure there’s something. After all, would Will just pick a name at random? No, Pete would pick a name at random; perhaps on a daily basis, but not Will. Or would he? It’s a good question.

Speaking of random, take a look at this kooky blog. This guy is picking a completely random line on a daily basis from all of Shakespeare’s works. And then he’s trying to write something  about that line, on a daily basis (though lately it looks like lately it’s a bit less than daily). What a kook!