Tuesday, June 20, 2017


What should we say, my lord?

-Guildenstern



Hamlet                                                 Act II, Scene ii, Line 281


Well, we missed pretty much a whole week of posting. I'm afraid I was away and not in a position to post. But, I'm back. So lets have at it.

I believe we have mention of Guildenstern in a previous post, but that was regarding his untimely demise. If I’m not mistaken, in this scene we're at an earlier point in the play and he has been sent, along with his friend Rosencrantz, by Claudius to find out what’s going on with Hamlet. And Hamlet knows this and wants them to admit as such.


But let’s talk about the names for a minute. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They’re pretty interesting names. There was a modern play that was written about these two guys called Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, which is exactly what they are by the end of this play. But I just like the names. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They are names that would work well in a Seuss tri-syllabic metered line. 


Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, aren’t they the clever guys.
Sent by the king and queen, Hamlet knows they’re just spies.

Okay, that was my attempt at tri-syllabic meter. Pretty bad. I guess that shows you that Seuss's stuff was not as easy as it looks.

In any event, I don’t see their names being spoken anywhere in this scene, so we’re not sure (at least from this scene) how well those two names would work in an iambic pentameter line. That’s something to think about, isn't it?

Here's something else to think about: it's a tiny little mug with my name on it. Now what am I going to be able to drink out of that? Think about it.







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