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domenica 8 novembre 2020

HAMLET ___________________________________________________________________________ For the romantics: Closet approach = from stage to page (interested more in the text rather than the play —> it had to be read personally in a limited space = intimate relationship). It is a POTENTIAL text turning into different THEATRICAL texts. BACKGROUND ENGLISH RENAISSANCE Term recorded in 1840, Shakespeare did not define his age like this. Transition from middle ages to modern history —> break free from past traditions = something new from a period of stagnation. RE-BIRTH: revival of modern politics, discovery of classical texts from the 15th century (Seneca, Plutarch, Ovid, Cicero) —> NEW HUMANISM. Roman-history texts were sources for Hamlet = renovation of the Senecan revenge tragedy. The renaissance is not only a innovation period but it still follows continuity especially for theatre: drama relies on the middle ages gatherings. EARLY MODERN Focused more on modernity = changes of thought: 1. End of feudal system 2. Gutenberg’s printing press: still expensive but knowledge did not rely only on manuscripts 3. Political innovation: Machiavelli —> emphasis on individualism 4. Copernican system: earth no more at the centre of the universe 5. Tesi di Lutero: Protestants vs. Catholics 6. Modern science (Galileo, Newton, Baicon, Montaigne) and skepticism —> it was important, way of breaking free 7. Imperialism —> discovery of new land (Christopher Columbus’ voyager in 1492). ELIZABETHAN AGE (1558-1603)/EARLY JACOBEAN AGE (1603-1625) Shakespeare dies in 1616. Golden Age for the theatre, poetry and literature = intellectual thinking. New ideas were sought after. Peace and stability (war with Ireland and some plotting against the Queen). Triumph at war: sconfitta dell’invivibile armata. England was the most dominant power at sea. The Queen patronised writers and playwrights. Rise of Puritanism: still managed to keep theatre open. In the early Jacobean age theatre got closed down. “REFORMATION ENGLAND” Religious division: Catholicism vs. Protestantism for 150 years (from Henry VIII on to Mary Stuarts) leading to the English Civil War. Catholicism: priests reading the Bible. Importance of prayers. 1

domenica 8 novembre 2020 Protestantism: prayers are useless. Personal interpretation of the Bible. Shakespeare was influenced by this division —> the Ghost lives in a sort of purgatory which for Anglicans is not acceptable. ___________________________________________________________________________ SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE • 1564: born (Galileo also born) • 1582: got married to a 26 years old woman • 1585: 3 children (2 girls and 1 boy) • 1585-1592: “lost years” = no historical records —> law, travels to Italy (Verona or Venice), actor or professional playwright • 1592: actor and collaborator in London. Burbage’s playing company at Shoreditch = “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”. • 1593-95: theatres closed in London because of the plague outbreak. He writes poems and sonnets: Venus and Adonis • 1595: resident dramatist (ordinary poet) —> he had to write 2 plays per year used only by one company • 1596: his son dies —> male line ended = source of anxiety for him PRIMO PERIODO 1590-1600: • Historical plays: covers the ancestral history of the Tudor generation. Greatness of kings with their individualism and evil nature. Henry V, King John, Henry VIII and Richard III (tragedy) • Tragedies: plotting, revenge, spying, conspiracy, surveillance, leadership. Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Titus Andronicus (historical play) • Comedies: theatre —> place where people were instructed but it provided entertainment (written also during political instability). Merchant of Venice, As you like it, The merry Wives of Windsor SECONDO PERIODO 1601 - 1608 • Tragedies: Othello, Macbeth, Timon of Athens • Comedies: Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night 1603: The Lord Chamberlain’s men gained royal patronage and became The King’s Men (tragedy, ontological tragedies — human). ___________________________________________________________________________ THE GLOBE 1598: built (Hamlet was staged there for the first time). Shakespeare, Burbage, Kempe were shareholders. They built it with the same materials of The Theatre (which they couldn’t afford) but on the south bank of the river Thames. Destroyed by a fire in 1613. Hamlet was designed having in mind the 2

domenica 8 novembre 2020 company: Hamlet performed by actor Burbage. It was an open-door theatre = plays only in spring and summer. Structure of the audience • Groundlings: cheapest places but closer to the actors (interaction) • Galleries: most expensive places. ___________________________________________________________________________ There is no clown in Hamlet, comic scene only in Act 5. James I was not able to defend theatres against the charges of being immoral and vulgar by the puritans. 1603-05: theatres repeatedly closed down. Shakespeare’s works are made by collaborations with other playwrights (Middleton, Wilkins, Fletcher) and actors. 1608: Blackfriars Theatre (indoor in London) —> lit by huge candelabras with candles (interval served to light candles on again)= Hamlet had no break. - Being on top was cheaper Late romances are more intimate, no tragic action. The Globe was not intimate = people shout, ate. 1623: publication of The First Folio: 36 plays. Only 20 were printed before. The Folio was very expensive and used only to celebrate renowned authors. HAMLET (UNCERTAINTY): written around 1599-1600, no clown (the Lord Chamberlain’s Men didn’t have the actor who played the fool), performed in 1599-1601 and played before 1602 (stated in a book which is lost now). In 1603-04 2 quartos were printed. ___________________________________________________________________________ EARLY PERFORMANCES 1589: Thomas Nashe mentions a play called Hamlet (he satirized this play and the English fashion of imitating classical authors). Henslowe (1594) and Lodge (1596): recall seeing Hamlet “the Ghost which cried so miserably at The Theatre, like an oyster-wife” —> probably not by Shakespeare as the ghost doesn’t really speak in his play. Ur-Hamlet text: primordial, original, a draft for later texts (never been found). Shakespeare’s Hamlet departed a lot from the original text. The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd (similar plot as they share the question of metatheatre, revenge and ghost but the protagonist’s name is not Hamlet). Maybe both Kyd were inspired by the Ur-Hamlet. __________________________________________________________________________ SOURCES 1. Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica ‘Amleth’ —> medieval tales in Latin dealing with Danish Kings. SIMILARITIES: Young Prince who wants to revenge the murder of his father, he fakes that he is mad, he talks nonsense. He kills the spy, he insults his mother. The King sends him to England with the intent to kill him there.

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domenica 8 novembre 2020 DIFFERENCES: doesn’t get killed, he kills the King and marries the Princess of England and the Queen of Scotland. After his death, she remarries. (Murder of Gonzago). 2. Francois de Belleforest “The Tragical Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” (published in 1564, translated in English in 1608). Idea of combining history and tragedy (in the Quartos: The tragical history of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark). Belleforest is ambivalent about revenge: divine revenge, devine punishment of the villain = there was no moral dilemma. Hamlet and Gertrude conspire against the villain (like in the first bad Quarto). CHANGES 1. Hamlet doesn’t need to pretend to be mad (in Belleforest everyone knows that the villain killed the King). The spectators don’t understand whether Hamlet is really mad or not —> complexity of the character. 2. The Ghost tells the truth to Hamlet: extreme modernity —> he doesn’t speak. 3. Generational gap: problem of succession (Queen Elizabeth could have died without a child) = older and newer generation. 4. 3 fathers require revenge (King Hamlet, Polonius, Norway); clash between father and son; young-ish characters (students) —> Hamlet is also a student but in Act 5 one of the diggers says that Hamlet must be about 30 years old = ambiguity (he is rebellious but at the same time interested in philosophical speculations). Shakespeare is innovative. SOURCES 1. Livy, History of Rome: Lucius Junius Brutus (founders of the roman republic in 509 a.C = he wants tot avenge the death of his father and brother. He killed Tarquin by faking his madness. Brutus means imbecile, dull and Hamlet means foolish. 2. Ovid, Fasti: Brutus as “stulti sapiens imitator”: wise person pretending to be a fool, imitating the fool. Both in the he rape of Lucrece (roman subject) and in Henry V there is a reference to Brutus’ pretended madness. 1. Seneca’s revenge tragedies: Shakespeare took from him the heroes’ passion and rhetorical skills. Usually characters are only interested in revenge: in Hamlet he speculates about life, the ghost is down to earth (Seneca was interested in the supernatural, he used sensational ghosts). 2. Greek mythology: Freud said that Hamlet resembled the Greek character of Oedipous (curse: he was meant to kill his father eventually —> he will kill him not knowing it was his father and marries his mother, she kills herself and he blinds himself) —> repression is needed to become a healthy adult (a child desires the mother’s affection for himself and sees the father as a rival) = it is usually just a stage during childhood. Hamlet is still troubled by his mother sexuality and he can’t accept his mother becoming the wife of another man (disgusted by it); he wants to kill the father (King Hamlet and Claudius, who fulfil his unconscious desire) = he still feels guilty. 4

domenica 8 novembre 2020 3. Myth of Orestes: son of Agamemnon, killed by Clytemnestra (wife and mother of Orestes). He needs to kill his mother to avenge his father. Hamlet comes close to killing Gertrude and Claudius. This is relevant for Laertes and Fortinbras. Close male friend (Oreste-Pilade/Hamlet-Horatio). 4. The Bible: fratricide + man as “quintessence of dust” —> (one evil brother killing the good brother). Apocalyptic ending. Hamlet melancholy but madness as a source of genius (modern concepts). ___________________________________________________________________________ QUARTOS AND FOLIOS QUARTO: half the size of the folio (paper folded in 4), less expensive, more available. Name of the playwright left out, name of the company always there. Printed for people going to the theatre. FOLIO: bigger version (paper folded in 2), more expensive as more paper was needed. Q1, BAD QUARTO: The Tragical Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. Bad because it came from a role (rolle only for the actor, no entire manuscript of the play). Not reliable: Polonius has another name, different arrangements of scenes, Hamlet contemplating suicide and then he set up a play, Ophelia spelled differently. Results of notation and dictation, used by filmmakers (relies on memory). Q2, GOOD QUARTO: too long to be performed, more reliable as Shakespeare wrote the first draft (foul papers) and he probs supervised its printing. It has an important monologue in which Hamlet reflect on his inability to revenge against Claudius and take actions —> inability to remember his past. Meant to be read. FOLIO: The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1623) —> all work of Shakespeare are here (shorter than Q2) —> compiled by some friends of him and members of his company = they arranged the plays according to genre, tragedies, historical, romances and comedies. This can’t be staged = too long —> still had in mind a theatrical production. Meant to celebrate the genius of Shakespeare = conscious operation. Important passage of 30 lines in which Hamlet talks tot his 2 friends (until now) and he mentions that Denmark is a prison (political tragedy = he wants to revenge against a kind of totalitarian regime set up by Claudius = lack of freedom). This sentence is present only in the Folio otherwise it would have been offensive to the Queen as she was Danish (line omitted in the paintings). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to be unaware of Claudius’ plan of killing Hamlet. ___________________________________________________________________________ Hamlet - modern editions 1. Conflated texts: Q2 + F —> putting together passages in order to provide readers with the best version of Hamlet only until the 1980s. 2. The complete Works by Shakespeare in the Oxford editions, Hamlet was provided in the Folio version, 3. Movie adaptations: Hamlet (1996) based on the Folio. 5

domenica 8 novembre 2020 People got to know the 3 different texts —> more demands for Q1 and Q2. Our edition is based on Q2. Theatrical text: performance of a dramatic text, meant to be read at the theatre watching what happens on the stage. Actors: how they speak, walk, space used by them, their gestures. Peculiar, one specific adaptation by that particular director. Dramatic text: play written down with stage directions, characters and dialogues = theatrical text in potential —> potential to be staged differently. Dialogues are the HAUPT-TEXTS, whereas stage directions are NEBENTEXTS. - Stage directions, tho, contain important information: costumes, facial expression, gesture, kinesics (moving about on the stage), proxemics (how actors interact on the stage), objects (skull in Act 5 = symbol of death and meaning of life). - Conjunctive stage directions: they go against the dialogue “shall we go?” “yes” (they do not move). - Implicit stage directions: contained in dialogues (1, 1 = it’s 12 am and very cold = perfumed in the globe only at daylight). ___________________________________________________________________________ THE GHOST With the Ghost there are the most stage directions (departure from theatrical conventions, he is a different character), he speaks only in Act 1, Scene 5 —> Hibbard invented stage directions to make the play easier to read and understand (more context). In the first scene the Ghost appears, then he is off the sage, then appears again —> characters talk about an apparition, he acts strangely. It is not a ur-ghosts or an old fashioned spirit like in Richard III (despair and dies = emphatics repetitions, alliteration, hysterical look, high pitch tone, making gestures). SOURCE: Plutarch’s Life of Julius —> both plays written at the same time (the ghost here doesn’t emphasises his supernatural aspect which was supposed to scare humans = he appears very human, down to earth —> he says the “evil spirit which has to do with Brutus’ guilt, he speaks about the future). In Hamlet there is no evil spirit and the Ghost speaks in the past. He appears a ghost next door, it is part of the action (usually appeared in the prologue or at the end of the play, function to convey a message, moralising attitude and did not interact with characters) = he appears on the stage, he is not isolated. Famous closet scene in Act 3, Scene 4 —> only Hamlet can see him (innovation). This ghost is particularly silent (they usually used elaborated rhetorical skills), it builds a suspense for spectators. Gestures: he waves, “spread its arms”. Spectators knew that the ghost’s function was to provide information but here it is not fulfilled. The first words of the ghost are “mark me” = ironic, comical words as spectators are eager to give the ghost the fullest attention. In the Spanish tragedy the ghost speaks a lot about what happened to him after he crossed the Acheronte, he gave information about the reign of the 6

domenica 8 novembre 2020 dead. Aposiopesis (dramatic and rhetorical device) is scarier than the tale itself (when you don’t want to disclose informations. The terror depends on what is only implied, you don’t need to describe things extensively —> you can’t talk a lot about what scares you the most. People can imagine the story (scarier). The ghost doesn’t seem remote from us —> he looks human-like: he wears the same clothes as King Hamlet = no clear cut distinction from the realm of the living and the one of the dead. The ghost had a very realistic voice = no falsetto. To be ordinary is the extraordinary thing (innovation). This ghost generates empathy because he cannot rest in peace as he wasn’t granted possibility to repent his sins, he didn’t receive mercy. 3 adjectives: 1. Unshouseled = didn’t take the household before dying; 2. Disappointed = not prepared for death; 3. Unaneled = having died without receiving extreme unction. Hamlet doesn’t feel up to the task for revenge and feels empathy “alas, poor ghost” = genuine feeling. Hamlet is torn (more a blending) between 2 different systems of values: old (ethical function of revenge) and new (only God can take the life of people, if I kill another person is something unchristian). ___________________________________________________________________________ OVERVIEW OF ACT 1 Horatio: Hamlet’s best friend, skeptical and sensible —> he doesn’t believe that the ghost appeared to the guards. He represents the audience’s perspective = the ghost gains the spectators’ disbelief and suspension. Scene one: introduction of the doom impending on Denmark [predictions of the guards in interpreting the apparition of the spirit: the second coming of Christ]. Likewise the first coming of Christ, which brought doom to Palestine, the ghost is bringing doom to Denmark, which is compared to the second coming of Christ under a Christian point of view. Second scene: in contrast with the first one (set outdoors at niche, cold and ghostly atmosphere, dark). Here we have light, trumpets, party, jovial atmosphere indoors. Claudius’ speech: oxymoronic language (gives an indication of the personality of the character). Hamlet wears black, not celebrating the marriage, he is mourning the loss of his father. He is in contrast, he suffers from melancholy (depression). GALEN’S THEORY - 4 TEMPERAMENTS 1. SANGUINE 2. CHOLERIC - Laertes (foil of Hamlet) 3. MELANCHOLIC 4. PHLEGMATIC - women (Ophelia drowns in water, tears). Melancholy is associated to the sad passions, leading the person to suicide, sort of 7

domenica 8 novembre 2020 attachment to death. We can’t talk about life without thinking of death (to be or not to be, act 3). Melancholic people think more deeply (know thyself = introspection), connect more deeply with other people (empathy). Romantic age: genius = best temperament for an artist. In psychoanalysis this temperament is a psychological state connected to mourning. For the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, melancholy is dangerous —> people should find a remedy for the black bile (ingesting certain foods, going to bed early, not studying too long). An excess of black bile would lead to insanity which would impair mental skills and lead to inaction, paralysis and inability to move. English malady derives from melancholy: the spleen, nervous diseases. Hamlet's first words are: a little more than kin, and less than kind (verso 65) the nearer in kin, the less in kindness: più si è parenti, meno si è ben disposti = parenti serpenti. This is a rude confrontation, a way of talking back disrespectfully. “I’m too much in the sun” (sun/son = plays with words, he is clever —> he is suffering because he is the son of Claudius). “Tis not alone my inky cloak … That can denote me truly (1.2. 76-83) = it’s not his black garment that can define him —> “there is a lot more about me than the way I look”. Very important contrast between “it seems” vs. “it is”. Importance of essence as opposed to appearance. Gertrude is interested in the way it seems to her that things are like, but instead she should go beyond the external surface, the performance of sadness. Because mourning /sadness can be a performance, but what is important is the feeling, the essence. Hamlet’s soliloquy in scene 2 “O that this too too sallied flesh would me” 129-59: he considers suicide a way out from the pain of life, but he knows that God commandment is against suicide. A believer can’t take his life. Suicide is contemplated as a sort of relief, something sweet = this a melancholic aspect. Hamlet has the function to tell us to go beyond the surface (ongoing metatheatrical reflection). Claudius, King, Denmark (“we”). SPEECH: He mixes the memory of the death of King Hamlet with the need to remember himself as a K...