The Hamlet Podcast

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Sable and Silver
As mentioned in the episode, there are heraldic connotations to sable as a colour. As well as being a rather luxurious (and warm) fur, to which Hamlet himself will make reference later in the play, there's a long tradition of sable being a colour used in heraldry. Shakespeare had already linked the two in his twelfth sonnet:

When I do count the clock that tells the time, 
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; 
When I behold the violet past prime, 
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, 
Then of thy beauty do I question make, 
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow; 
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Sable shows up in several royal coats of arms throughout Europe, and is often matched with argent, or silver. Shakespeare's own coat of arms is described thus, in a draft from October 1596:

The arms are blazoned. “Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the first, steeled argent [a gold spear tipped with silver on a black diagonal bar]; and for his crest, or cognizaunce a falcon his wings displayed argent, standing on a wreath of his colours, and supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid, set upon a helmet with mantles and tassels as hath been accustomed.”

Santiago de Compostela
Located in Galicia in northern Spain, Compostela has been a site of pilgrimage since at least the 9th century. The Camino, or Way of St. James, was a major pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. (it has grown in popularity since the 1980s as a retreat from modern life.) The shell of the scallop, or cockle, has long been the symbol of its pilgrims, thanks to various legends associated with the region and St. James.

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”.

Scene Lengths
The longest scene in all of Shakespeare is Love's Labour's Lost Act 5, Scene 2. It's followed by Act 4 Scene 4 of The Winter's Tale, and then Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet. The division of scenes is far more an editor's than a theatre maker's domain, since of course a production can choose to separate and subdivide the actions of a scene in performance. 

Seven Ages of Man
As You Like It contains Shakespeare’s beloved speech about the stages of human life. Here it is, in its entirety!

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Sinews
I would dearly love to have some kind of fascinating reason for Shakespeare being interested in the operations of the sinews in the human body, stemming from an event or medical discovery that happened in or around 1598 or 1599. If you know of one, I'd be thrilled to hear about it!

Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a dramatic device whereby a playwright has a character speak to themselves alone on stage. The word itself comes from Latin (solus, alone, and loquor, I speak...). Shakespeare's plays are filled with countless examples of the form, in comedy, history, and tragedy, and indeed the device has been popular from as far back as the writings of Montaigne (believed to have inspired Shakespeare) all the way as far as contemporary versions of it, such as Netflix' House of Cards. 

Sources
The original source texts for this story date very far back in Scandinavian legend - and indeed comparable stories happen in Ancient Roman legend and the Icelandic sagas. Many of the key elements of the story of Hamlet appear in Saxo Grammaticus' 'Deeds of the Danes' - Gesta Danorum - written about 1200AD. In the 1570s a French translation of the story appears in  François de Belleforest's 'Tragic Tales' - Histoires Tragiques. Thereafter things get tricky. Perhaps there was a first version, an Ur-Hamlet (see below!) that Shakespeare wrote himself and then re-edited later in his career. Perhaps there was a version of the story by Thomas Kyd. Nothing has survived the lottery of time, so it's all conjecture.

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!

Spying
There is a terrible price to pay for spying in this play. It is set up early in the seemingly-unimportant scene between Polonius and Reynaldo, wherein the father despatches a servant to spy on his son abroad. This is Polonius’ modus operandi, it seems. As soon as there’s another problem, his suggestion is another spying trick. Later in the play, he is dealt his own reward when he winds up behind another arras, this time with less intent, and is stabbed by Hamlet. It’s a neat trick, and at some level perhaps it is Shakespeare’s comment on the spycraft so enthusiastically employed in Elizabeth’s England.

Stage Directions
As mentioned within the episode, it can be an amusing or a frustrating project to mine any edition of a Shakespeare play for stage directions. Sometimes editors have characters exit at particular points, depriving them of the chance to hear a necessary piece of information. Sometimes entries are likewise re-arranged. As a rule of thumb, I'd personally tend to double check the folio and track through the scene to ensure that no opportunities are missed. A perfect example of this is in King Lear. The play starts with Edmund being introduced - and thereafter he watches the entire scene and all the chaos that ensues. He stays on stage throughout, watches everything, and then is left there when the scene ends. Act I Scene ii begins with his soliloquy, laying out his evil plans. But we need him to have stayed and seen everything first!

Suicide
There is much discussion of suicide in this play. This first of Hamlet's soliloquies starts with his wish to end his life, and the theme will of course be picked up in the more famous 'to be or not to be' soliloquy later in the play. Later in the play it is debated whether or not Ophelia can have a full Christian burial because her death might have been a suicide too - and so the issue haunts the entire play. 

Swaddling Clouts
The phrase “swaddling clouts” refers to the swaddling clothes familiar to Christian listeners who recognise it from the description of the Nativity. From the King James version of the Gospel of St. Luke: “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

Switzers
The word appears nowhere else in Shakespeare. Switzers had already been employed around Europe as mercenaries and guards for hire for over a century by the time Hamlet was written - perhaps it is a fashionable comment, a joke that has been lost. (Although the image of an inept leader mobilising armies under his sole control remains as chilling and as reckless today as it must have then…) The Papal Swiss Guards have guarded the Vatican since 1506, and are as such one of the world’s oldest continuously-serving military forces. Recruits must be Roman Catholics from Switzerland, between the ages of 18-30, and must have undergone basic training in the Swiss army.

Synod
A synod is a council of a religious group, usually meeting to discuss an issue of doctrine. Historically, the word applied primarily to a meeting of bishops of the Catholic Church. Amazingly, every single time Shakespeare uses it in one of his plays, he does so to refer to the collected gods of the ancient world.

Swounds
Swounds or Zwounds is the latest entry into our catalogue of minced oaths. This one is “by Christ’s wounds

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Tables
Hamlet's reference to the tablets (tables) of his mind constitute an image of which Shakespeare seems to have been rather fond. He makes extensive use of it in Sonnet 122 - which I've included below.
Sonnet 122
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full character'd with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain
Beyond all date, even to eternity; 
Or at the least, so long as brain and heart 
Have faculty by nature to subsist;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd. 
That poor retention could not so much hold, 
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; 
Therefore to give them from me was I bold, 
To trust those tables that receive thee more: 
   To keep an adjunct to remember thee 
   Were to import forgetfulness in me.

Tamburlaine
Tamburlaine is a sprawling play by Christopher Marlowe. Based on the life of Timur, the central Asian emperor, it was one of the first major artistic and commercial successes of Elizabethan drama. It and The Spanish Tragedy were vital to Shakespeare’s development, and each casts a shadow over Hamlet.

The Taming of the Shrew

At the end of this play, Katherina, the titular heroine, gives an extraordinary speech about women and their men. It continues to baffle interpreters, because it is such a volte face for the character. You can listen to the book club podcast about the play here. Kate’s speech includes the following image, which Claudius echoes.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.

Tellus
Less well-known than the ideas of gods of the sea or the sky, or indeed even Gaia, mother earth, Tellus (fully titled Tellus Mater) is a personification of the Earth. The combination between Neptune and Tellus is a very poetic way of describing planet earth - water and land.

Termagant
The origins of the name are complicated - cases have been made for it having come from German, Latin, Italian, English or French. (You can check wikipedia for a detailed analysis of them all…) The name emerged as a personification of a god worshipped by Muslims, but it has almost nothing to do with actual Islamic worship. The character appeared in medieval poetry and drama, usually as an example of a terrible villain (and therefore an excuse for bombastic, over-the-top acting!)

Theatrical attire
Hamlet here alludes to rather fancy clothing as a requirement for joining a theatre company; he suggests that he would need a forest of feathers (presumably an extravagantly plumed hat) and “provincial” (aka French, or Provençal) roses embroidered on his fashionable “razed” shoes. This might be something worth incorporating into a production’s costume design - the Players could arrive in dramatic fashion with such elements in their attire, so that these lines make more sense when Hamlet reaches them.

Thou and You
In Old English, thou was singular and you was plural; but sometime in the 13th century, English started copying the French manner of speaking that used the plural as a polite form. So, just like vous in French, you became a means of addressing someone formally. There's a lot of status in play with who uses which form, and to whom. You was more formal, so servants would use it to their employers, children would use it when addressing their parents, and so on. It could also be a social or societal divider. You was said to those above you on the social ladder, and then thou in return was used for those below. Likewise lower social classes use thou when addressing each other. Curiously though, thou was also used to indicate a particular kind of intimacy, as when a character might speak to God. With all of this going on, it's clear that changing from thou to you or you to thou in a conversation always conveys a contrast in meaning - a change of attitude or an altered relationship. Sometimes it is as an insult - if someone uses thou to address someone to whom they owe greater respect - and sometimes (as in this episode) it's a sign of dropping formality to express closeness or intimacy. 

Town Crier
The town crier was a figure with various public duties, foremost among them the announcement of important information. He also accompanied people to the workhouse, escorted criminals to the stocks, and various other duties.

Twas a Rough Night
In the aftermath of Duncan's murder, the Porter appears to break the tension and to answer the earnest knocking at the door. He opens to greet Macduff and Lennox, who describes the strange events of the night - 

LENNOX
The night has been unruly. Where we lay, 
Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say, 
Lamentings heard i'th'air, strange screams of death, 
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird
Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth
Was feverous and did shake. 

MACBETH
'Twas a rough night.

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Unmanly grief
The question of what it means to be a man (and what it means to be a woman) crops up repeatedly in the play. Here's the first instance of the issue, with Claudius's dressing down of Hamlet in his grief. 

Upstart Crow
Greenes, Groats-worth of Witte, bought with a million of Repentance (1592) is a tract published as the work of the deceased playwright Robert Greene. It is studded with references to other playwrights and writers who were contemporaries of Greene, and is most famous for its reference to Shakespeare as an "upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." There's currently a BBC sitcom called after the slander - Upstart Crow will have a new season in late 2018. 

Ur-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. As mentioned in the episode, Thomas Lodge refers to it, and it was sufficiently current in the public imagination for Thomas Nashe to have mentioned it in comparison with Seneca in his address to the Gentlemen Students of Oxford. All we really know about the play is that it featured a character called Hamlet and a ghost character that exhorted him to revenge.