The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.2025  Thursday, 8 December 2005

[1] 	From: 	Jim Blackie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 08:37:03 -0800 (PST)
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

[2] 	From: 	L. Swilley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 11:33:12 -0600
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

[3] 	From: 	Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 07 Dec 2005 15:00:57 -0500
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

[4] 	From: 	Scot Zarela <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 14:09:10 -0800
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

[5] 	From: 	Alan Pierpoint <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 23:41:07 EST
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Jim Blackie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 08:37:03 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 16.2014 Hic et ubique
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

Sarah Cohen asked about a question raised by Frank Whigham concerning 
Hamlet moving around the stage when he swears them to silence: is he 
moving in fear or wariness. She points to "Hic et ubique? Then we'll 
change our ground"

Initially Hamlet is trying to elude his partners/friends in order to 
follow the ghost who/which seems to want a private word with his/its 
son. - That is very different from the instances in which Hamlet is 
swearing his friends to silence.

The "Hic et ubique?" line asks/tells us the ghost is here and 
everywhere, therefore inescapable. Why move someplace else then? I think 
it is neither fear or wariness or even searching, but rather his frantic 
excitement over the moment, his adrenaline high, he moves about 
nervously. He shows no fear of the ghost hearing (of course) or of the 
spirit itself. Alternately- as he was (to me) trying to instill fear of 
the ghost in Marcellus, this was an attempt to demonstrate the inability 
of a human to escape the ghost should it need to "do something" to the 
person breaking his word. - In fact, I think that is most probably the 
more correct interpretation.

Jim Blackie

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		L. Swilley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 11:33:12 -0600
Subject: 16.2014 Hic et ubique
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

Might it be that Hamlet understands that the Ghost wants to secure 
secrecy "here and everywhere" and that the moving about would make that 
point - and tend to satisfy the Ghost on it?

    L. Swilley

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 07 Dec 2005 15:00:57 -0500
Subject: 16.2014 Hic et ubique
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

 >where can I find Jenkins and those subtle and apt LNs?

Jenkins was the editor of Arden2 "Hamlet."  I think it is still in 
print.  If you can't get it at www.bardcentral.com, you can get it at 
Amazon.

"LNs" is nothing more mysterious than "long notes" which Jenkins put at 
the end of the book, rather than the margins.

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Scot Zarela <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 14:09:10 -0800
Subject: 16.2014 Hic et ubique
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

Sarah Cohen asks:  "Do most of the members of this list think Hamlet is 
moving away from the ghost?  If so, why?  ...  I have always thought 
that Hamlet is moving towards the ghost during the swearing business. 
After all, he has spent the entire scene chasing it.  ...  If Hamlet's 
fear and wariness overpowers his need to search for his noble father in 
the dust (or the cellarage), when does this happen, and why?  Have list 
members seen a production of Hamlet where the prince was clearly moving 
away from the ghost's voice, rather than following it?  Have any of you 
played Hamlet that way?  Did it work?"

I've seen Hamlet move away from the Ghost's voice, never towards it. 
Occasionally this part of the scene is cut.  (I think Gielgud, when he 
directed the Richard Burton Hamlet, cut the business-you could check 
this in Richard L. Sterne's published journal of the production:  as I 
recall, the reason for the cut was that the director and star agreed 
this particular admixture of comic business into a generally somber 
scene never quite worked.  In Gielgud's production, the Ghost was 
represented as an offstage-mic'd-voice, and an unfocused light.  I can 
certainly see how any funny business would be a wrench there.)

When I have seen the Old Mole scene acted, the motivation for Hamlet's 
move away hasn't always been "fear and wariness":  what's worked best 
for me has been an excess of high spirits, which reads ambiguously as 
both an attractive side of Hamlet's personality, and (especially circa 
1600) a sign of incipient madness ... real or pretended.  Could he run 
towards the voice instead of away from it?  Perhaps, but there's a sense 
of a game of tag here, with its excited reversal: the Ghost eluded him 
at first, so now he runs from it.  (Another game of tag comes later, in 
"Hide fox and all after".)

-- Scot

[5]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Alan Pierpoint <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Wednesday, 7 Dec 2005 23:41:07 EST
Subject: 16.2014 Hic et ubique
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.2014 Hic et ubique

Shakespeare is playing this part of the scene for comedy; none of 
Hamlet's words, from the entrance of Horatio and Marcellus to the last 
"swear," suggest a wish to avoid the ghost.  Therefore, towards.  -Alan 
Pierpoint

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