The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.2016  Thursday, 16 October 2003

[1]     From:   Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003 04:29:33 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.2003 no spirit dares stir

[2]     From:   Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003 05:01:43 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.2003 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]

[3]     From:   Rolland Banker <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 16 Oct 2003 05:58:22 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1966 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003 04:29:33 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 14.2003 no spirit dares stir
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.2003 no spirit dares stir

I have a hard time believing the facts that everyone in I. ii. accepts
King Hamlet as dead, have elected Claudius as King, and Claudius's own
admission of his culpability in III. iii. are not enough to convince
someone that the "spirit" of the old king is the same as a ghost. He's
dead, and since murdered, as Horatio speaks at length to justify in the
first scene, he's a ghost. What's the big deal or the point to be made?
I think the original audiences would have accepted that fact and moved
on.

Brian Willis

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Bill Arnold <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003 05:01:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 14.2003 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.2003 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]

Robin Hamilton writes, "Lots more, obviously, but it is (at least to me)
interesting that Thomas in 1587 treats the terms 'spirit' and 'ghost' as
partial synonyms."

Which is fine and dandy, but obviously skirts the issue < g >

None of what Thomas did, or did not do in 1587, has anything to do with
what Will S did, or did not do, in Hamlet the play a couple decades
later, agreed?

We can consult all the dictionaries on the planet, nay, in the universe,
and it still is not as helpful as contextual meaning, agreed?

Why, pray tell, do SHAKSPEReans *refuse* to deal with the four cards
Will S dealt us: SCENE ONE, SCENE TWO, SCENE THREE, and SCENE FOUR?

As a Globe Groundlings, we inquiring minds want to know?  We've just
stood through them, our boots all muddied, our breath stenched with
smoke, and we are *convinced* it is the *spirit* of the father of Prince
Hamlet!  Forsooks! what play you all been watching?

Now, through the first four scenes of the play Hamlet by Will S I have
*methodically* walked like a perturbed spirit of the play itself, but at
least you all have seen what Will S did therein. Or have you?  I guess
some of you have Folio Zilch which is the 1819 version with scenes one
through four? Grebanier shot that version down in *The Heart of Hamlet:
The Play Shakespeare Wrote* and I would recommend you all click on and
read the first four scenes of:

 http://chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/hamlet.3.1.html

Now, the question is: will you all *accept* that Will S *paints* a
picture of the spirit of the murdered father of Hamlet in scenes one
through four?  If so, *WHY* did Will S start his play Hamlet so
methodically about a "spirit" and make it the father of Prince Hamlet?

Perhaps, if SHAKSPEReans can deal with this simple dichotomy of good vs.
bad spirits, we can move on to SCENE FIVE, which become *quite*
complex.  Until, then,

"I am thy father's spirit...
Adieu, adieu!  remember me."

Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Rolland Banker <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 16 Oct 2003 05:58:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 14.1966 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1966 no spirit dares stir [spirit vs. ghost]

Bill, your little narrative was appreciated down at my dude ranch on the
"Open Range" of Shakespearian studies and consciousness.

You say,

>'Tis a pity none dare deal with the cards Will S dealt.

As we continue to 'deal' the many permutations of the Hamlet cards that
Will dealt us, you ask who dares to 'play' the hand you are holding, I
have a suggestion.  But first, why limit ourselves? With so much in the
play even Big Blue reprogrammed to only Hamlet permutations would alas
still come up short, more's the pity.

Your expression of pity leads me to ask: In view of Mel Gibson's strong
"Passion"[the movie] for the correct scriptures and 'real' Catholicity
of the Gospel story, might he be the one to produce your version of the
Hamlet cards as it were? Is that the type of treatment you are looking
for?

As I write from Japan though, I urge you not to forget the orthodox Zen
production of Hamlet, it is also just as hermetic.

"Can you pluck the heart out of my mystery?" says Hamlet.

Marcellus of the ghost: "For it is, as the air, invulnerable,"

And now a Zen Moment:

The monk came to Unmon for enlightenment. Unmon said, "Make your bow."
The Monk did so and sat up. Unmon attempted a poke with his staff and
the monk moved so as to avoid its tip. Unmon said, "You aren't blind
then," and told him to come nearer; the monk did so.  Unmon said, "You
aren't deaf then," and added, "You understand?" The monk replied "No."
Unmon said "Aha!  You're not dumb, I see!" The monk realised the
meaning.

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