TEXT:
SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the castle.
Enter GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman
*as mentioned in this episode, the sources differ over who says what. I’ve marked these below; Q2 is the Second Quarto, F is the Folio.
GERTRUDE
I will not speak with her.
Gentleman
She is importunate, indeed distract:
Her mood will needs be pitied.
GERTRUDE
What would she have?
Gentleman (Q2) - Horatio (F)
She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
HORATIO (Q2) - Gertrude (F)
'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
HORATIO (Q2) - Gertrude (F)
Let her come in.
NOTES:
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. In Ben Jonson’s satirical comedy Poetaster, he includes Horace as a caricature of himself.
The Spanish Tragedy
The Spanish Tragedy was written by Thomas Kyd in about 1582. It is a grim story of murder and revenge, and was hugely influential - and enduringly popular. The play was the first ever revenge tragedy written for the English theatre. It crops up in references within plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and many others. Its surtitle, "Hieronimo is Mad Again" is a reference to the play's protagonist, who pretends to be mad in order to lull the victims of his ultimate revenge. The Spanish Tragedy is also notable for featuring the first instance of a play-within-a-play - the dramatic device of having characters in a play put on a play themselves. It starts with a ghost who appears, hungry for revenge, and ends with the deaths of nearly all of its main characters. Just like Hamlet!
Saxo Grammaticus
Many of the key elements of the story of Hamlet appear in Saxo Grammaticus' 'Deeds of the Danes' - Gesta Danorum - written about 1200AD. As well as being an essential source for the medieval history of Denmark, it’s also landmark document in the histories of Latvia and Estonia. Saxo Grammaticus lived c.1150-1220, and his name means “Saxo the Literate”.
The Lost Hamlet
The Ur-Hamlet (the German prefix Ur- means "primordial", or original) is a play by an unknown author, though it is maintained that it could have been written by Thomas Kyd (who wrote The Spanish Tragedy) or perhaps by Shakespeare himself. Scholarship dates it to sometime during 1587. No printed copy of the text survives, but it is mentioned in various places. All we really know about the play is that it featured a character called Hamlet and a ghost character that exhorted him to revenge. It’s possible there might have been a proto-Horatio figure too, but this is little more than conjecture.