Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

 

Hamlet

Hamlet                    Act V, Scene ii, Line 97

What an interesting line. Hamlet is concerned that the heat will ruin his complexion? It seems a rather odd comment, doesn’t it?

It’s actually part of a back and forth between Hamlet and a nearly anonymous henchman named Osric. I guess you’d call it a bit of comic relief; the calmedy (I just made that word up) before the storm of deaths that comes next and makes up the finale of the play.

Fittingly, Robin Williams played Osric in Branagh’s 1996 production of this play. And a fine Osric he was! Whereas Jack Lemon tried, and failed, to pull off the part of a nearly anonymous soldier at the beginning of this production, Williams does America proud near the end of this mostly Brit dominated production with his Osric portrayal. In fact, there's no actor that I can think of, British or American, who could have done better. 

I could've pulled that off. I could've played Osric. Yeah, definitely.