The Hamlet Podcast

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Garbage
In Shakespeare's usage, garbage had a much fouler meaning, to do with offal and entrails. It still meant worthless material, as today, but likening Claudius to such foulness is a direct attack. 

Gentleman
In Act 4 Scene 5, the Gentleman, who is sometimes called a messenger, could be Marcellus, the palace guard we met all the way back in Act One. He could be the same Gentleman who appeared at the beginning of the scene. I’ve even seen the lines given to Horatio (although this didn’t work as well…)

Geography
The world of Shakespeare's Denmark is - unusually perhaps for Shakespeare - quite geographically specific and correct. Denmark, Norway and Poland were all fairly familiar in the minds of Elizabethan England, and far less romanticised than the Italian locations of several of his comedies. 

Gertrude in the First Quarto
A major difference between the various texts of Hamlet is that in the First Quarto, Gertrude is substantially more on Hamlet’s side. As of this moment in the play, she agrees to “conceal, consent and do my best, what stratagem so’ever thou shalt devise”. Obviously there’s a lifetime of study and investigation available to those who would enjoy combing through the textual differences between the various versions of this play, but it’s worth noting big changes like this when they crop up!

Gigantomachy | The Giant Battle
The Gigantomachy (lit. “giant battle”) was maybe the most significant battle waged in all of Greek mythology. It was fought between the Giants (children of Ouranos and Gaia) and the Olympian gods (Zeus and his brothers, sisters, children and so on). An example of its importance is that it is one of the major inspirations for the art work on the Parthenon in Athens - one of the most significant temples ever built in Greece. There are further references to battles between the gods and others coming up later in the play, so it’s not unreasonable to think that Claudius is doing so here.

Goblins
Goblins (and sometimes the deluxe version, Hobgoblins) appear occasionally in Shakespeare's plays. Surprisingly, the most supernatural of all the plays, Macbeth, doesn't feature any, but they get mentioned in a good variety of others. There are a great many variations of goblins across Europe - from the friendly trickster hobgoblins of English lore to the malevolent Erlking or Erlkonig immortalised in Schubert's fiendish art song. The only Danish goblins I can find in literature all appeared a good while after Hamlet, and were all written by Hans Christian Andersen. It's worth noting that Hamlet's reference in this chunk of text is not in any way cute or kid-friendly - he's thinking that the apparition before him could be a fiend from hell. 

'Good Mother'
There aren't a great deal of notes to share for this episode, but it's interesting that in various texts of the play the world 'good' is also transmitted as cold, and even cooled. Each of these various words has its merits - depending on how snarky Hamlet is to be with his mother. 

Ghosts in Shakespeare
John Mullan's very helpful article on ghosts in Shakespeare is available from the British Library website - click here. 

Greek Mythology
Although Shakespeare was decried as having "small Latin, and less Greek" there is plenty of reason to believe that he was well-versed in classical mythology and literature from both civilisations. Whether he could read ancient Greek is up for debate, but certainly his astonishing breadth of reference is never in doubt. Laertes gets his name from Homer. As discussed in this episode, there are perhaps echoes of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (one of the wonders of the Ancient World) and the letters of St. Paul to the Corinthians - also written in Greek. 

H

Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness
This book was recommended to me over the summer and I haven’t managed to get a copy until quite recently. It’s quite a heavy read, as Prof. Lewis is very erudite, but his insights are fascinating. You can get it here.

Hecate
Hecate was the ancient Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, necromancy and nighttime. She appears in a scene of Macbeth when the witches conjure her and dance with her before Macbeth appears.

Hecuba
Hecuba (or Hekabe), wife of Priam, features in an impressive variety of literary works. As well as several episodes in Homer’s Iliad, she is the lead character in two separate plays by Euripides. The Trojan Women happens in the aftermath of Troy’s capture by the Greeks. All of the women are assigned as slaves to the Greek warriors, and Hecuba watches as several of them are carted off. In this part of the story, Pyrrhus gets even more revenge against Priam’s family when he ensures that the last living male Trojan prince, Hector’s son Astyanax, is murdered, thrown from the walls of Troy. Hector’s widow, Andromache, is given to Pyrrhus as a slave. Hecuba herself is given to Odysseus, and the next play, Hecuba, takes place after they leave Troy. Finally the queen is allowed just a tiny bit of revenge, against the king Polymestor who murdered another of her sons. She blinds the king and is turned into a dog, so that she can escape her captors.
Hecuba also appears in Dante’s Inferno, described as Ecuba trista, misera e cattiva - poor Hecuba, sad and captive.

Hellmouth
The hellmouth was frequently a spectacular scenic effect in medieval dramas and pageants. Sometimes it was elaborately constructed and had its own wagon - as in the illustration here. Hamlet (or at very least Shakespeare) doubtless saw some kind of performance featuring such an effect, and it's likely he has it in mind in his theatrical speech in this week's segment of the text. 

Hendiadys
Hendiadys (Greek for 'one through two') is a figure of speech whereby two ideas are combined to form a single image. A very simple example is a describing a cup of tea as "nice and hot". It features a great deal in the Bible, and indeed there are over sixty examples of it in Hamlet alone.

Heraldry
There's quite a notable contrast between King Hamlet's relations with Norway - ending with a violent, medieval single-combat, and Claudius' diplomacy. The world of 'laws and heraldry' seems to be over, and Hamlet has something of a nostalgia for his father's way of operating. 

Hercules
The great hero Hercules was famous for completing the twelve labours, but in drama it is the darker sides of his story that have been immortalised. Both Euripides and Seneca wrote version of the story of how he was driven mad by the Furies, and in his madness, murdered his own wife and children. As a character particularly associated with dramatic madness, it is perhaps no accident that Hamlet mentions him even here, even this early in the play. Hamlet himself will manipulate people's assumption that he's mad as the play goes on. 

Hercules (Seneca play)
Seneca's version of Hercules is a complicated, literary play that was very likely written to be read (or read aloud) rather than performed in full. It expands on Euripides' version of the story of Hercules and his madness, imposed on him as punishment by his father's wife Hera. The play (fully titled Hercules Furens) contains passages of extraordinary beauty and a variety of very quotable maxims, but as with most of Seneca's dramatic output doesn't hold its weight on stage. 

Herod
There are in fact a few famous Herods in the Bible. Herod the Great (responsible for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem) was the client king of Judea at the time Jesus was born, and also ordered the massacre of the innocents. Herod Antipas, his son, is the Herod who appears in the stories of John the Baptist and Salome, and was also in part responsible for the death of Jesus. The name is associated with the worst excesses of Biblical debauchery and murder - again an excuse for exaggerated acting.

Hey-Day
Hamlet means something like ‘high spirits’ or vigorous activity here. Our sense of hey-day as the zenith of vigour or capacity emerged a little later, but can still impart some meaning to the phrase.

George Hibbard edited a major edition of Hamlet for the Oxford Shakespeare in the late 1980s. His focus was very much on the Folio text of the play and anything that didn’t appear there appeared only as an appendix. For a very brief overview of who’s done what in recent editions of the play, check out this review of the Arden Shakespeare 3rd edition: click here.

Hic Et Ubique
There are various suggestions as to what the significance of this phrase might mean. Hic et ubique means 'here and everywhere' in Latin - referring to the property of being able to exist in a particular place and also be everywhere at the same time. 

Hobbyhorse
The hobbyhorse was integral to May Day celebrations in medieval Catholic England. Referring to it here as having been forgotten, Hamlet is drawing our minds back to the older world of his father’s reign - already being replaced by Claudius’ new regime.

Hoist on his own Petard
Hamlet’s image of a bomb-maker being blown up by his own bomb is famous to us nowadays because the words are perpetually tied to each other. It’s actually a very bathetic image. The word petard came from French, and is derived from the French word for a fart. It’s surely no accident that it’s a kind of fart-bomb that Hamlet uses to describe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s potential failure.

Honour at the stake is an image that Shakespeare uses in multiple plays - it appears here in Hamlet, and also in Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida and All’s Well That Ends Well - Olivia, Achilles and the King of France are all concerned that their honour or their reputation is under attack, often with surrounding words that make us think of the dogs attacking the bear in the bear-pit.

OLIVIA (Twelfth Night, Act III scene i)
Have you not set mine honour at the stake
And baited it with all the unmuzzled thoughts
That tyrannous heart can think?

ACHILLES (Troilus and Cressida, Act III scene iii)
I see my reputation is at stake
My fame is shrewdly gored.

KING (All’s Well That Ends Well, Act II, scene iii)
My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,
I must produce my power.

A few other instances make it very clear that when Shakespeare is talking about the stake, it’s to do with bear-baiting rather than witch-burning. (Except when there’s a woman like Joan of Arc or Beatrice making the reference, and in those instances there’s usually language to do with fire to make it very clear!) These quotations come from Macbeth, Henry VI, Julius Caesar and King Lear - each is a clear echo of the practice of bear-baiting.

MACBETH (Macbeth, Act V, scene vii)
They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.

Richard Plantagenet (Henry VI pt 2, Act V, scene i)
Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, 
That with the very shaking of their chains 
They may astonish these fell-lurking curs: 

OCTAVIUS (Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene i)
Let us do so: for we are at the stake, 
And bay'd about with many enemies; 
And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, 
Millions of mischiefs.

GLOUCESTER (King Lear, Act III, scene vii)
I am tied to th' stake, and I must stand the course.

Hoodman’s Blind
Versions of Blind Man’s Buff, or Marco Polo, or as Hamlet calls it ‘Hoodman’s Blind’ appear in playgrounds or swimming pools all over the world and throughout history. According to wikipedia, a version of the game in Ancient Greece was known as “copper mosquito”. (Sadly I have no idea why!) Hamlet mentions the game here to infantilise Gertrude, to berate her for being duped by some devil into picking Claudius - because for him there can be no other logical explanation.

Horace
The episode mentions a variety of sources that Shakespeare blended to create the character of Horatio. One further echo might be the Roman poet Horace - Horatius - whose influence within a standard classical education should not be overlooked. Horace wrote poetry in a wide variety of genres, but he is known for his approachability, the charm of his approach, and the pleasure of his poetry. A friend one would definitely like to have. He is referred to in a good few of Shakespeare’s plays. In Ben Jonson’s satirical comedy Poetaster, he includes Horace as a caricature of himself.

The Humours
The four humours date back at least to medicine in the time of Hippocrates. Ancient Greek medicine identified four humours - black bile (whose name in Greek gives us the word melancholy), yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Galen suggested that an excess of any of these led to one of four personality types as mentioned in the episode - melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic and sanguine. Although rejected by most of modern medicine, in this breakdown we do have the seeds that grew into personality indicators like the Meyers-Briggs test and its many off-shoots.

Hunting
Rhodri Lewis’ recent book Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness has a spectacularly good chapter all about imagery of hunting in the play. It’s an extraordinary new interpretation and very much worth a look. (Good news is that a paperback version is also available.)

Hyperion
Hyperion was one of the Titans, eventually overthrown by the Olympian gods. He was the father of the Sun, the Moon and the Dawn (Helios, Selene and Eos, respectively.) He appears early in the play in comparison with a satyr, and as Hamlet mentions him later, we are invited to remember the comparison, making Claudius out to be little more than a drunken, sex-obsessed half-goat.

Hyrcania
Hyrcania was an ancient province of the Persian Empire, south east of what is now known as the Caspian Sea. In antiquity, it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. The tigers for which the region is famed - more often known as the Caspian Tiger - died out in the 1970s. A famous specimen was to be seen in the Berlin Zoo until the end of the 19th century.

I

Iambic Pentameter
The basic rhythm of all of Shakespeare's dramatic verse is iambic pentameter - a line of five feet (a pentameter) usually made of five iambs. An iamb is a combination of an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable. The example used in this episode is 'champagne'. The reverse of an iamb is a trochee - a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. The example from episode 34 was 'never'. 

Ilium
Ilium is another name for Troy - it is from this name that we get the title Iliad. (It literally means ‘the poem about Ilium’…) Its location has been variously disputed throughout history.

Incest
As discussed back in Episode 15, incest would have been a contentious topic in Shakespeare's England - particularly when the incest instance of a man marrying his dead brother's wife. (This had happened when Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.) 

Intertextuality
Intertextuality is an academic discourse that explores the conversations between texts - it is relevant here because Shakespeare’s audience would have recognised Shakespeare’s joke about Polonius having played Julius Caesar. The hint is that the same actor could very likely have played Polonius and Caesar - and indeed there are further correlations because both characters are stabbed.