I.ii. Ghost Stories - Tennant (2009)

Hamlet hears steps behind him, quickly wipes a tear and walks off camera as Horatio and the soldiers walk in. As soon as he sees who it is, we get an excited embrace. The soldiers remain at attention in the background. The staging contrasts an intimate friendship and the more hierarchical relationship between prince and soldiers and so gives us a Horatio that is closer to Hamlet than in some versions. I've spoken before of the divide that exists between the two friends, but here we get the feeling Hamlet sees Horatio as an equal.

The soldiers may well fear that admitting to seeing a ghost could lead to reprisals, which is a reasonable motivation for them to go to Horatio first. In this scene, they let him take the lead and tell THEIR story. Marcellus only jumps in when Horatio hesitates (showing he doesn't know Elsinore very well, he needs prompting as to what the location is called).
Without Horatio finding the right details to convince Hamlet, would the prince have believed this story? It's all about trust. Horatio, after all, is an educated man like he is, one not prone to superstition. Horatio has trouble bringing himself to tell the story, because it doesn't fit his/their world view. This version plays it very much like Horatio at first chickens out. "I saw him... once." He has to steel himself to finally say he saw him yesternight.

As for Hamlet, Tennant continues to play the grief as waves of sadness that sometimes assail the character, his voice breaking in points, but on an even keel otherwise. In my experience, that's exactly what grief is like. His body language changes with the talk of the ghost. He crosses his arms, a barrier of doubt between himself and the other characters. Though he tests them at first, especially the soldiers' loyalty (perhaps thinking Horatio is their dupe), he soon believes.

Cuts
There are a number of small cuts in this scene, a line here and there. One's line's absence in particular revealed something about the text. "Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven / Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!" is cut. Usually, it comes just before "My father!--methinks I see my father". There is a dramatic irony here, as Hamlet mentions in succession heaven and his father. One line may inspire the other, but Hamlet is about to find out that his father is actually in hell. Later, he'll be unable to kill the praying Claudius from fear he would send him to heaven, which indeed would have sent his dearest foe there. Heaven and hell, another mirrored reflection in the play, and the two brothers each on the wrong side.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - French Rock Opera

This part of the scene is covered by a short 1min15 song called Le Spectre du Roi (The Spectre of the King). Part of it can be heard HERE, as usual, and the last bit is HERE. The complete lyrics in French and an attempted translation follow:

Le Spectre du Roi
Du fond du royaume des ombres
Le vieux roi nous est revenu
Son ombre est ressorti de l'ombre
Et nous l'avons vu, nous l'avons vu

Si le roi refuse sa tombe
Et qu'il revienne, comme je vous vois
J'irai au royaume des ombres
Chercher le comment, le pourquoi
J'irai au royaume des ombres
Chercher le comment, le pourquoi

The Spectre of the King
From the depths of the realm of shadows
The old king has returned to us
His shadow has come out of the shadows
And we saw him, we saw him

If the king refuses his tomb
And he returns, as I see you
I'll go to the realm of shadows
Find the how and the why
I'll go to the realm of shadows
Find the how and the why

The first four lines are choppily sung by a children's choir, turning Horatio and the soldiers into fairies or spirits. It's an odd choice, but Hallyday does this a lot to differentiate Hamlet from other characters. It does work on the context of the song at setting up a supernatural element. Once those are done, the electric guitar jumps in (Hamlet is a rock star in this) and Jos Dassin-like, Hamlet speaks rather than sings his lines. This is his soliloquy, and the echo on his voice has the same effect as the voice-over used in some of the movie versions. He repeats the last lines a few times, crying in the wilderness at nothing, and the music peters out before he does before the next track comes on.

Looking at the lyrics themselves, Hallyday would have Hamlet go to hell itself to get answers from the Ghost. Not something that happens in the play, but as we'll see, some directors like to turn the Ghost's surroundings into a hellish place, and playing on the irony of the play, we might infer that the Ghost may walk the soil of Denmark because it has slipped into an evil realm thanks to its corrupt leader.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Classics Illustrated

The Original
The original Classics Illustrated spent a lot of time on the first Ghost scene, and so little on Scene 2, that it felt no need recaping Horatio's story a mere two panels after it happened. (In fact, all of Scene 2 is reduced to 2 panels.)The gist of the scene is told in a caption, with Hamlet's short soliloquy featured in a thought bubble - the equivalent of the voice-over technique. Economical, even if it removes any nuances in the Hamlet-Horatio relationship.

The Berkley version
Conversely, Mandrake spends two pages on this part of the scene, with Horatio and Bernardo (Marcellus is not in this adaptation) seeming to come out of the water-colored fog that often serves as the moody backdrop of the story. Though much of the text is used, the "test" is not. Hamlet believes immediately, but the period pictured is conducive to such beliefs (and the comic book form is replete with the supernatural, so there is that built-in suspension of disbelief). I especially appreciate the way Mandrake nuances the lines by fiddling with the lettering. For example, Horatio's first line is rendered as "Hail to your [change bubbles and in a small font:] lordship*". The asterisk and drop in volume make Horatio suddenly stop, perhaps realizing he has caught Hamlet in a private moment. He's awkward around the prince and later has much hesitation in his speech: "My lord, the... king... your... father..." It's a good line reading, and we could speculate about why Horatio is so awkward. Is it a natural class-based timidity? Is he self-conscious about Hamlet's grief, uncomfortable as many people are in such situations? Or did Hamlet embarrass him with his funeral/wedding crack?

I'm less enthusiastic about one line change: "I think I saw him yesterday." Is "yesternight" so difficult a word to understand from the context?

One thing that is a little off-putting about Mandrake's work in this adaptation is the way he moves the "camera". We go from close-ups, to "spy" shots where the characters are in silouette behind windowpanes, to oddly angled top shots. This may be to create the sense of a disjointed Denmark, and on the second page of this scene, he creates an edgy panel layout that works in the same way.
Hamlet has just heard about his father risen from the grave and suddenly, the panels are anxious and broken. His world is being shattered. It is a panel structure that does not recur again in the book. Mandrake has chosen it to be the pivotal moment upon which everything turns. After this point, there can be no turning back. I haven't really heard this discussion before, but one could say that if Horatio had kept the ghost story to himself, the tragedy would not have happened. Meta-textually, there is something interesting about the character who will become its teller in the last scene CAUSING it to happen in the first place.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Fodor (2007)

In Fodor's more experimental contemporary version, Horatio and the "soldiers" board Hamlet during the wedding party (Hamlet does not, however, have a talk with his parents, nor intone his soliloquy). This is intercut with other parts of Scene 2 and 3, all going on simultaneously. Without Hamlet's usual introduction, Fodor is free to rid him of his melancholy, and in fact, this Hamlet seems mostly amused by the proceedings, including the tale of his father's ghost. Throughout the scene, he's distracted by Ophelia (who is in the middle of Scene 3), constantly looking over to her. Our first introduction to Hamlet brands him as the White Pawn.This is an important shift from other versions of the play. First of all, his color is White, as is that of Claudius and Gertrude, whereas Polonia, Ophelia and Laertes are Red - two families pitted against one another in a grand chess game. By making Hamlet the Pawn, Fodor robs the character of his usual power. Usually, Hamlet dictates the terms of the play. We say "Olivier's Hamlet", for example, not because he directed it, but because he played the title role. It's what's inside the actor that changes our understanding of the play because the character IS the play. Hamlet is not a pawn, he rules this universe, and the plot is resolved only when HE says he's ready. But not here. The experimentalism of the film is what often takes center stage, and the unknown actor who plays Hamlet has less to bring to the role. And by this, I don't mean to slight William Belchambers, but rather that the director has cut many of his lines and moments, choosing to make the mise en scène the real star of the show. Making him the Pawn weakens him before the other characters, including his female Horatio, who is more driven than he is. Speaking of Horatio, I happen to think Katie Reddin-Clancy's performance is one of the better things about this version. She is dubbed the White Knight. In the film's chess metaphor, that makes her equivalent to Laertes. Both are strong influences in the lives of their respective Pawns (Hamlet and Ophelia) and in this version, both are resentful of the Pawns' relationship - Laertes as scripted, and Horatio from her attitude. The Knight is a "driving" influence, the "motive horse" to the Pawn's more limited movement and better able to see the big picture (the Knight's ability to "jump" over other pieces). The chess metaphor is an interesting way to look at the royal relationships in the play, but is not pursued beyond these introductions. It is doubtful, in any case, that it could have carried through to the end and still made sense. By virtue of being intercut with other moments, we do not see Horatio board Hamlet. She's already telling the ghost story when we get to her. The scene is played unlike any other version's, being even more cynical than Hamlet 2000's. Hamlet is dismissive, sarcastic and aloof, punching holes in Horatio's story, while she loses patience with his attitude, rewarding sarcasm with sarcasm. His questions are treated like stupid ones, to be answered in a "you know very well what I mean" tone, rolling eyes and all. They have a very familiar relationship (in the absence of any class system), but argumentative. Part of the reason may be Horatio's new gender. Having Hamlet and Ophelia an item, and Horatio strictly relegated to the "friend zone" creates sexual tension between them. Hamlet isn't just laughing at the ghost story, he's also distracted by Ophelia. He's dismissing Horatio herself, not just her story, and this creates a noticeable spark. In the end, he agrees to do the watch with them tonight, which Horatio accepts with a silent ok. It's the best she's going to get given the situation. As written, Hamlet is looking for a reason to kill his uncle (and then a reason not to), but in Fodor's Hamlet, we have an oblivious Hamlet who cares nothing about his mother's new husband until the Ghost actually forces a promise out of him.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Hamlet 2000

There's a buzz at the door, interrupting Hamlet's soliloquy. It's Horatio, his girlfriend Marcella (the female Marcellus) and Elsinore security guard Bernardo. It's our first introduction to all these characters, done in a way as to reduce their importance in the story. Bernardo's uniform places him at the bottom of the security totem (well under police and military). Marcellus, the role ripped from its soldierly roots, becomes an accessory to Horatio. And Horatio himself is a cold Brit with a modern accent, whose more cynical (i.e. also modern) relationship with Hamlet borders on the aloof. Hamlet is consequently a lot more incredulous (which makes sense in a modern context where ghosts are largely relegated to superstition). Instead of an embrace, this Horatio gets a curt "What make you from Wittenberg?" as in "What are YOU doing here?" Their relationship is harsher, less tender, but probably just as honest. In this version, the various cut lines prevent Hamlet from correcting Horatio when he calls himself a truant, and so we might wonder what kind of people this Hamlet runs around with. Certainly, his lifestyle doesn't match his parents'. The story of the Ghost is seen for the first time as a flashback (a flashback we discussed along with Act I Scene 1), recreating a fog-bound Denmark on a black and white security monitor. Though getting it second hand like this, we might be inclined to mistrust Horatio's tall tale, but the tellers' anxiety is shown through their smoking (helpful, seeing as Karl Geary's performance is entirely too stonefaced for my tastes). Despite Hamlet's misgivings, he doesn't really test the story, in large part because the lines refer to armor and beards and other details the film's aesthetic hasn't made use of. A strange mistranslation occurs in one of his final lines: "I'll require [requite] your loves" turns a promise into a demand. It works for this harsher (more spoiled?) Hamlet, but still sounds wrong to the trained ear. For the short soliloquy that follows, director Michael Almereyda uses some tricks taken from Olivier. He has the camera follow Hamlet from a strange angle, as if representing the Ghost's point of view (another reason why we, the audience, should trust Horatio's story), and he uses voice-over rather than have Ethan Hawke speak aloud (pretty standard, and also creates the effect of the Ghost's presence, over-hearing his thoughts).

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Kline '90

Kline's Hamlet does not look up when Horatio and the soldiers (in modern dress uniforms) walk in. When he does realize who accosts him, there is immediate warmth and the sense that these two men already share a bond. Horatio is teary-eyed - did he notice Hamlet's red eyes? Is he also grieving for his friend's father? Or is this an effect of the awe generated by the charismatic Hamlet character (even if Kline doesn't quite project it)? In any case, the relationship is a tender one, and even Hamlet ironic turns lack any barbs. Just soft, self-deprecating wit that even a third party (Horatio) cannot take to be aggressive. A Hamlet emerges here that isn't as sanguinary as some of the others, possibly a byproduct of setting the play later. He finds the situation impossible to bear, but his tone makes it seem like the fault is in himself. He's the problem because he can't bear what others seem to take in stride.

He's taken totally unawares when Horatio tells him he saw his father "yesternight", another example of Kline's best bits involving a shellshocked Hamlet. Horatio delivers the story in a convincing trembling voice (Peter Francis James' performance is one of the better things about this version) and Hamlet is completely taken in.
He SO wants to believe, in fact, that his questions don't constitute a test, but rather seem to be leading the witness. He's convincing himself that the story is credible. And it's true that, upon inspection, Hamlet's lines in this section ARE leading questions. He either asks a confirmation or gives multiple choices, but his questions are not open-ended. This attitude changes the way the lines are read. When played as a test, "His beard was grizzled--no?" is a trap, and Horatio corrects Hamlet with "It was, as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd." Here, Horatio's line is a confirmation as if "grizzled" and "sable silver'd" were synonyms, the second just more respectful of royalty than the first. The story animates Hamlet for the first time as he swears to meet the Ghost. The embrace often associated with Hamlet's recognition of Horatio comes here instead.
And it's an ardent one (I don't want to bring too much attention to the homoerotic context of these scenes, but this Hamlet's effete mannerisms might make this an issue later on). As far as staging goes, this may represent Hamlet finally having something to latch on to. Horatio is hope personified.

The less said about Kline's spooky delivery of the next aside the better. It is the stuff of campfire tales.

A line revealed by its omission
While looking at the nips and tucks suffered by the text in the last two adaptations, I noticed a line that should have sprung out at me before. When Horatio calls himself a truant (cut from this version), Hamlet says "I would not hear your enemy say so, Nor shall you do mine ear that violence". How could I never have noticed that this foreshadows the circumstances of his father's death?

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Zeffirelli '90

As with Olivier's interpretation, Zeffirelli's places Scene 3 before this part of Scene 2, further elongating (or muddling) the timeline. And as with Olivier, this allows him to cut straight to the night of Hamlet's encounter with the Ghost when this scene ends.In this version, Hamlet seems to have been waiting for Horatio. Though he welcomes him to Elsinore, he shows no surprise. "I do forget myself" is almost more of a friendly form of address. In Zeffirelli's elastic timeline, Horatio may have been there for some time, and only now gets an audience with the prince, who has, it must be said, kept largely to himself in dark rooms. We do know that the Ghost appeared to him only "yesternight", so this may place his appearance at well after the incestuous wedding. Hard to say.

It's our first look at Horatio, played by Stephen Dillane (who recently played Jefferson in John Adams). He doesn't look quite as posh as other Horatios do, but the film's medieval stylings makes almost everyone look more like men-at-arms than scholars. Speaking of soldiers, three accompany Horatio rather than two. Is this a misreading of the play that would include Francisco in that party (the actor is credited as such)? Strange given that all three are relegated to bit parts. I'm thinking that Scene 1 was filmed but wound up on the cutting room floor. Their presence gives Hamlet pause. Why are they following him so closely? What are they doing there in company of his fellow student? He momentarily mistrusts the situation, and yet he speaks on.

Among the snips and cuts made to the scene is Hamlet's "In my mind's eye", but it's clear where Hamlet actually sees his father. I still grieve for the figure of speech. The line is no doubt cut because the Ghost has not yet appeared in the story, nor even been revealed. Horatio's question "Where?" would have seemed bizarre without our foreknowledge of its existence. Horatio's role may have been cut down to size, but Dillane still makes him the doubter of the excised Scene 1 by showing embarrassment about what he must tell Hamlet.
"Look, I know what I'm going to say will sound mad, but bear with me." Perfectly piched between two students of the same skeptical school. However, it is my belief that the staging of the telling of the tale works against its actual intent. Through another change of venue, Horatio and his merry men lead Hamlet to a more secluded spot. He takes him by the arm and he tells the story while walking. If there was ever a Hamlet where Horatio was set up as the evil mastermind, this is how you would do it. Though I'm sure it was done to keep things energetic, the image is that of the prince being taken for a ride.
Remember: In this version, we the audience haven't seen the Ghost as yet. Horatio could be fabricating the whole thing, and Hamlet may just be unstable enough to hallucinate the Ghost later (we'll explore that in the staging of the later scenes). As soon as there's talk of his father's spirit, Hamlet seems completely taken in, overwhelmed by emotion (which Gibson usually plays as being about to throw up). The biggest cut in this scene is the "test". This Hamlet does not doubt, nor does he question (which is at cross-purposes with his earlier mistrust). If Horatio IS trying to bring him down, you have to show it (visually, since the lines don't support it). Zeffirelli does not, and so the impression we get from this scene must be considered a flaw in his staging.

Another change brought on by cutting the test, and perhaps the reason why it was actually cut, is the removal of any mention of the Ghost's armor. When we finally see the Ghost, he is in fact not dressed in armor, but in black robes. In losing Scene 1 and the Norway plot from Scene 2, we've already lost any mention of Denmark ever being at war. That, in turn, removes the ambiguity of Hamlet Sr.'s relationship with Gertrude. If he was not gone to the wars, it may indicate there was no room for an affair nor any overlap between the two brothers. We'll have to stay sharp when looking a future lines regarding this subject.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - BBC '80

I admit it, I have trouble sizing up Derek Jacobi's Hamlet sometimes. He always gives wonderful line readings, but I'm not always sure how they fit together from moment to moment. His Hamlet is incredibly mercurial, perhaps unstable from the first. Is his Hamlet truly mad? And since when has he been so?In this case, Hamlet does embrace a hesitant Horatio. This Hamlet is cut off from other characters ("poorly attended") and latches on to the first friendly, or should I say neutral, face he sees. From Horatio's awkwardness, one can imagine Hamlet making him a closer friend than he really is, letting him into a secret and personal world he would not have been privy to outside of this crisis. The same goes for Marcellus to a lesser extent. He REALLY doesn't know Bernardo, Jacobi throwing in a moment of non-recognition beautifully. Throughout the scene, the soldiers will stay back, accentuating the hierarchical class structure we discussed in previous articles. Farther from Hamlet in class than Horatio is, they stand at a remove from him even on their lines.

As in Olivier's staging, Horatio does a double-take when he hears that Hamlet sees his father. Jacobi's Hamlet responds differently though. He's hurt, as if Horatio is joking and/or being insensitive. This may spur a quick change in Hamlet's mood, as he becomes rather argumentative after this point. Perhaps it's Horatio's fault in trying to get back into Hamlet's good graces after this faux pas, but Hamlet is troubled by his friend seeming to tell him what he wants to hear (compare to the fawning Rozencrantz and Guildenstern). Is this yet another false friend?
The questions about the Ghost have very much the bent of a test. Hamlet hardly lets him answer before he asks another question, keeping him unbalanced and holding a distrustful expression.

If Hamlet and Horatio are mirrors of a kind, then we can also interpret Hamlet's reaction as that of a skeptic. He doesn't wholly believe the story of a ghost, just as Horatio didn't. Even once he accepts their story, he remains sarcastic with them, even in his show of love. When he then talks about foul play, does he fear a hoax? Usually, the line is about some foul deed that has led to a revenant leaving its grave, but here may refer to the revenant's validity. Is it that he thinks his father SHOULD NOT be in armor if he does walk the earth? Say he wasn't buried in his armor, for example, in which case, that hoax may be from hell itself (a spirit, but not his father's).

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Olivier '48

Olivier actually follows the soliloquy with Scene 3, placing it almost simultaneous with the end of Scene 2. At the end of it, Ophelia sees Hamlet from afar in the position we left him in, and he sees her. But more on this when we sink our teeth into Scene 3. The end of Scene 2 follows from that moment, with three shadows falling across Hamlet's way.As usual, Hamlet does not recognize Horatio right away, here because his friend is just a shadow. He must come out of his gloom to actually see him. Through the staging, the idea of a castle full of ghosts resonates. Not only is there a Ghost walking about, but the way the camera moves is spirit-like, lovers glimpse each other from afar, haunting each other in plain sight as visions, and the play of shadows seen here. Hamlet could be alone in that castle as shades solidify in his presence.
Unlike Branagh's Hamlet and Horatio, Olivier's don't share a joke at this point. In fact, there's an awkward moment created by Horatio when he tells Hamlet he came for the funeral. Instead of letting Horatio off the hook with terse humor (as in the Branagh version), Hamlet puts him on the spot, practically accusing him of being insincere. The Hamlet-Horatio relationship is much more hierarchical in this film, with Horatio clearly afraid of Hamlet and his moods. And he should be. Olivier's Hamlet DOES try to catch the trio in a mistake, quite confrontational in his "Then you saw not his face".

The whole matter of the Ghost is introduced as Hamlet looks into the distance, so that when he says "Methinks I see my father", Horatio thinks he really did see him there. An understandable mistake, if a bit on the nose with the staging.
Once the three men have left, Hamlet is alone with his thoughts once again. Olivier puts emphasis on the fact his father's spirit is "in arms", which we must look at. Hamlet Sr. appearing as a warrior (when he wasn't killed in that uniform) is significant. The spirit goes to war against the new regime, representative of old values bucking against the new. His last appearance in his wife's closet is the only one where he is wearing something else. In that scene, he restrains Hamlet's violent temper. His intentions are different regarding Claudius and Gertrude, and he wears the proper attire for each.

The scene ends with a fade to black, as if prompted by Hamlet's prayer that "night were come". And as we cut to night, we understand why someone who place Scene 3 before this.

I.ii. Ghost Stories - Branagh 96

As long as we're in the ballroom, the shot remains unbroken. Branagh's Hamlet may be a visual cinematographic feast, it is still squarely in the realm of theater, and the performances are probably the better for it. As Horatio and the soldiers walk in, Hamlet, coming out of his first soliloquy, is on automatic pilot. He gives them a greeting without recognizing them. Here is a man who's received everyone's condolences or congratulations, most of them hypocritical (in his view). So there's a bit of a double-take:Though Hamlet is quite happy to see Horatio, there is no loving embrace as there sometimes is in other versions. Branagh tries to "earn" their later intimacy, here keeping it to a friendly and enthusiastic shaking of hands. When performed, the lines take on their full meanings, and I keep noticing things I wouldn't normally have from just reading the text (see previous article). For example, how long has it been since Hamlet saw Horatio? They were at Wittenberg together, but Hamlet's probably been home less than two months (since his father's death). It could be less. Travel being a slow proposition in this era (Horatio arrives late for the funeral), he might not have gotten the news until late, then undertaken the trip, and so arrives with his mother already in the arms of another man. There's no real sense that he was at Elsinore when his father's murder occurred. And yet "I am glad to see you well" and the actors' performance seem to have the two friends separated for a good length of time. Is this just more of the play's "elastic time"? Time is out of joint once again.

As mentioned in the previous article, Hamlet and Horatio are not of the same social class, but Hamlet likes to consider him so (part and parcel of his gracious "princeliness"). When Horatio calls himself Hamlet's servant, Hamlet responds with an equalizing comment: "I'll change that name with you". He accepts neither of Horatio's attempts at self-deprecation (servant and truant) because he places his friend on par with himself, and he is neither.

Note also the difference between Marcellus and Bernardo. Marcellus is addressed by name, so Hamlet knows him. Cast as an older man, he probably served under his father and Hamlet trusts him. Bernardo is only addressed as "sir" (and barely at all), leading me to believe Hamlet doesn't know who he is. In effect, Horatio and Marcellus are vouching for him by allowing him to be present.

Thanks to the actors' quiet intensity, another line I'm picking up on here is "He was a man, take him for all in all". Hamlet has just spent some time deifying with analogies to Hyperion and Zeus, but now he's "just a man". God or ghost, Hamlet Sr. is now a creature of the supernatural, and one of Hamlet's difficulties is figuring out on which side of the afterlife his father rests. It also puts in question whether Claudius is a "man" at all, since he does not compare to, say, Hyperion, and Hyperion is analogous to "man". I'll try to remember this line when we get to Hamlet's "What is a man?" where again man is "like a god".
Then, change of venue and the first cut since Claudius and Gertrude left the stage. Hamlet says "Let me hear", but doesn't want to do it in the open. We soon understand why as he steps into a secret passage into the study. The ballroom is full of access points from which someone might spy or catch the characters in conversation. As Horatio tells the story, there's a cute moment from Jack Lemmon/Marcellus I never noticed before. On Horatio's "whilst they, distilled Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Stand dumb", Marcellus gives him this look:
It's the only time he takes his eyes off Hamlet (in fact, all eyes are on the protagonist's reactions), as if in slight outrage that Horatio would calumniate him so. And yet, he can't quite mount a defense. Horatio is on Hamlet's level, and he's just a lowly guard. It's not his place to speak and he has to bear it. It's a nice, subtle character moment that goes with the exasperation evident elsewhere in the play. First, Horatio won't believe him about the Ghost, and later, he is forced to swear multiple times ("We have sworn already!").

In the previous article, I said Hamlet's questions about the Ghost could be a kind of test to see if the trio really saw what they think they saw. Branagh doesn't really play on that. Instead, his Hamlet seems worried about the state of his father's spirit ("look'd he frowningly"). And still, he mistrusts the apparition from the first. "If it assume my noble father's person" implies a doppelganger. He'll have to see for himself, and lets Horatio and the soldiers out from yet another secret door.
The staging continues to support the paranoia and conspiratorial mood of the play. When they're gone, Hamlet starts speaking in voice-over for a line and a half before using his voice again, something he also did at the start of Scene 2. Branagh keeps bouncing between the two modes, keeping it dynamic, but also for believability's sake. The voice-over section comes while his friends might be in earshot.

Hamlet's reaction is a scholarly one. He goes to his books and looks up "Daemons".
He calls the Ghost his "father's spirit" but also "doubts some foul play". Once could think he means the murder of his father with the latter line, but they might also be misgivings about the identity of the spirit. The book underscores that interpretation and supports the action of the end of Act II Scene 2, and Hamlet's doubt over the Ghost's motives.

I.ii. Ghost Stories

The final section of Scene 2 is Horatio's revelation to Hamlet about the ghost of his father. Because it treads over the same narrative ground as Act I Scene I and does so more dramatically (i.e. without speeches about historical context), this scene is often used to justify cutting Scene I. Consequently, many versions of the play will have us meet Horatio and the soldiers here. Either way, it's the scene where Hamlet and Horatio's friendship is first revealed and explored.Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO
HORATIO: Hail to your lordship!
HAMLET: I am glad to see you well:
Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
HORATIO: The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
HAMLET: Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
MARCELLUS: My good lord--
HAMLET: I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
HORATIO: A truant disposition, good my lord.
HAMLET: I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

The relationship as written makes Horatio the commoner and Hamlet the aristocrat, but despite the conventions of class that subjugate one to the other, there is also friendly camaraderie between them. Hamlet teases his fellow student and Horatio is self-deprecating (as per their respective hierarchical positions), but they are still able to share a private joke, equals on an academic level. Hamlet has much the same relationship with Rozencrantz and Guildenstern later, though the missing element there is love. They are false friends, while Horatio is a true friend. By doubling R&G, he also indirectly doubles Horatio's worth. If they characters are balanced against each other in the play, it takes two of Hamlet's treacherous friends to balance Horatio's loyalty.

HORATIO: My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
HAMLET: I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
HORATIO: Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
HAMLET: Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!

Though Hamlet has kept quiet about his opposition to his mother's hasty marriage to this point, he now opens up. Certainly, he's spoken of it to himself in the soliloque, but here makes Horatio his sounding board. Horatio is in many ways Hamlet's "control subject". He is Hamlet without the tragic experience (loss of a father/whoring of a mother) from the same school (of thought). When Hamlet speaks to Horatio, he might as well be talking to himself, and in Horation we might see what Hamlet was before his father died. As we'll see shortly, both men have the same open but skeptical mind vis-à-vis the supernatural.

What is perhaps stranger is that Hamlet opens up in front of Bernardo and Marcellus. Does he know these men to be loyal to his father rather than the new king? Or are soldiers, like servants, considered insignificant, mute and dumb?

My father!--methinks I see my father.
HORATIO: Where, my lord?
HAMLET: In my mind's eye, Horatio.
HORATIO: I saw him once; he was a goodly king.

It would be natural for Horatio to wonder here if the ghost hasn't already appeared to Hamlet.

HAMLET: He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
HORATIO: My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAMLET: Saw? who?
HORATIO: My lord, the king your father.
HAMLET: The king my father!
HORATIO: Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
HAMLET: For God's love, let me hear.
HORATIO: Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,

More on the social class of the soldiers: Horatio tells THEIR bit of the story as if it were his own. As Hamlet's friend and a learned man, he may be better at telling it, but on a class level, perhaps he is closer to Hamlet's position than they are, and would never speak directly to him unless asked to. Hamlet can hear this and trust it from Horatio, but not from them alone.

Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me

Nor to Hamlet, an echo of his dread father.

In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.
HAMLET: But where was this?
MARCELLUS: My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
HAMLET: Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO: My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.
HAMLET: 'Tis very strange.
HORATIO: As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
And we did think it writ down in our duty
To let you know of it.
HAMLET: Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
Hold you the watch to-night?
MARCELLUS BERNARDO: We do, my lord.
HAMLET: Arm'd, say you?
MARCELLUS BERNARDO: Arm'd, my lord.
HAMLET: From top to toe?
MARCELLUS BERNARDO: My lord, from head to foot.

It'll be interesting to see how the various versions make the two characters speak the same line simultaneously and not make it seem artificial (if they do at all).

HAMLET: Then saw you not his face?
HORATIO: O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
HAMLET: What, look'd he frowningly?
HORATIO: A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
HAMLET: Pale or red?
HORATIO: Nay, very pale.
HAMLET: And fix'd his eyes upon you?
HORATIO: Most constantly.
HAMLET: I would I had been there.
HORATIO: It would have much amazed you.
HAMLET: Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
HORATIO: While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
MARCELLUS BERNARDO: Longer, longer.
HORATIO: Not when I saw't.
HAMLET: His beard was grizzled--no?
HORATIO: It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd.

This is all part of Hamlet's skepticism. He asks about specific details to see if the trio's story is coherent.

HAMLET: I will watch to-night;
Perchance 'twill walk again.
HORATIO: I warrant it will.
HAMLET: If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.
ALL: Our duty to your honour.
HAMLET: Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
Exeunt all but HAMLET
My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Exit

Hamlet gets a short aside once Horatio and co. are gone, in which he ponders just why his father's spirit has not been allowed to rest. He suspects something already (his "prophetic soul" later), since his own spirit cannot find rest in the world of the living.