The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0836  Sunday, 16 December 2007

From:		Arnie Perlstein <
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Date:		Thursday, 13 Dec 2007 19:57:48 -0500
Subject:	The Manipulators of _Hamlet_

(Thanks to all for some very interesting answers about Helena's 
soliloquy, I had nothing new to add in response, but was educated by 
several of the comments)

If I may request a new thread....

Reading Scott Shepherd's message about Polonius as master manipulator of 
_Hamlet_ makes me wonder if it might not be fun, and also interesting, 
to have a round or two here about the various theories, crackpot and 
otherwise, that have been put forward over the centuries, as to who the 
"real" manipulators of _Hamlet_.

It seems to me that Shakespeare, anticipating the likes of Agatha 
Christie, deliberately built in a great deal of suggestiveness as to the 
identity of the one or more secret schemers of the play, so that many 
different candidates for such a role would be plausible. Starting with 
the hero, of course.

And if anyone who brings such a theory forward also knows who was the 
first and/or most notable famous exponent thereof, from across the last 
four centuries, of any of these theories, even better!

Arnie Perlstein
Weston, Florida

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