Act I Scene 3 - Zeffirelli '90

Ophelia is played by Helena Bonham Carter, looking very young for her 24 years of age in this picture, an impression supported by the acting and costuming. Bonham Carter plays the character with a mercurial hold on her emotions. Tearing up readily, but also laughing childishly, moving in and out of each mood quite easily. It's a characterization that befits her later madness, but seems a product of her age at this point. Like a child, she looks down when chided, avoids looking at her father and brother directly when she doesn't want to hear what they're saying. There's a petulance to her attitude that tries to get away with the things she's been forbidden to do. As for the costume, the white symbolizes rather broadly her innocence, but also prefigures the nunnery speech. As Laertes speaks to her, she scratches at a leaf she's embroidered, playing on the plant motif associated with Ophelia (even without the "green girl" line).

Laertes, for his part, walks in and talks about Hamlet with a strong sense of urgency. In this version, we have a Laertes who seems desperate for his sister not to fall for Hamlet, although his lines are cut before there's talk of her virginity. It's less seedy that way, although Ophelia's apparent youth does a lot of the work to still get that point across. So it seems the House of Polonius is only really worried that Hamlet's enduring melancholy makes him a bad match for Ophelia. Not an unnatural thought. Is Hamlet only drawn to Ophelia because he's in pain and she offers comfort? When he wakes from the grief, will he then no longer need or want her? By removing the family's obession with her maidenhead, the scene seems more familiar and natural. Laertes is merely urgent because this is a matter he wishes to resolve before he leaves.

Ian Holm is Polonius
As the discussion moves outside, Polonius comes shouting and hits Laertes with his many pieces of advice. Laertes does not listen, moving towards his horse as his father runs behind, losing breath. He drones on an on, either ignored or chuckled at by his children. Polonius is more of a dotard here than in some other versions, which is too bad given Holm's acting ability. I chalk it down to the many cuts suffered by the play in this film, which in Polonius' case, tend to rob him of his dark side. We are left with an old fool few really listen to (or do at their own peril). And he isn't helped by the costume design. When he talks about "rich not gaudy" apparel, it's hard to understand why he would. Everything is so drab in this Elsinore that he seems to chide his son for wearing a single broach. And if the "apparely oft proclaims the man", what should we make of his black robes? He is far less sinister than such a thing should indicate.

As Laertes leaves, we have a shift for both remaining characters. Ophelia darkens. From her perspective, the play is about loss, and Laertes is the first to go (second if we count her mother, third if she knew Hamlet Sr. at all). Laertes' departure is the first step towards leaving her alone and vulnerable in Elsinore. Polonius becomes more manipulative here, capable of quiet study and parental outrage and anger. This is not a side to him Zeffirelli allows us to see very often, but of course, Holm plays it wonderfully. The question this asks if whether Polonius treats Laertes and Ophelia differently, which of course he must. A later scene in the play (but not in the film) shows him meddling in his son's affairs as well, but here we're left with the impression that it's the classic double-standard for male and female progeny. The son seems to have mastered the father and is in charge of his own destiny (has has convinced Polonius to let him leave), while the daughter must remain in her father's control.

There's a nice moment from Bonham Carter in this section: When Hamlet's love is put in doubt, a look flits across her face that says she really DOESN'T know what to think. She's never really thought about it, or never wanted to. She is simple-minded when it comes to affairs of love, though she defends her stake in the relationship. When she finally obeys, there is anger and revolt in her voice, not penitence. What is her unspoken threat? That she WILL see Hamlet after all? That she'll make life miserable for her father? None of this can really be explored within the text.

Hamlet the stalker
Speaking of the text, Zeffirelli abandons it for a complete invention: He has Hamlet overhear most of this scene. This isn't too far out of the play's reach, since people are constantly listening behind and arras in the play, but Shakespeare still did not mean him to be present. He comes in on "hoops of steal", ironically the "friend" Polonius refers to, and follows along from the high ground and hears both Laertes and Polonius warn Ophelia away from him, and he hears her say she will obey. What effect does this have on the story and the character? It perhaps speaks to the question of whether Hamlet is mad or not in the play. Knowing about this piece of family drama, Hamlet may in fact stage his mad farewell to Ophelia. Hamlet is less mad, though more ruthless, if he does so. No longer a scene occurring in private whose purpose is to cut ties with Ophelia lest she be mixed up in the vengeance plot, what Hamlet learns in this scene may turn it into a savage manipulation of Polonius through his weak point (Ophelia). Consider how he then consistently uses Ophelia against her father. We'll have to examine Mel Gibson's performance closely to see just how much he resents either Polonius or Ophelia for this abortion of his love life.

Act I Scene 3 - BBC '80

The BBC presentation sets Scene 3 on the docks, created simply but effectively with the white studio walls, a false horizon, a few sailor extras and seagull sound effects. Laertes' departure is more immediate, and consequently, emotions perhaps flare more hotly. This is our first introduction to Ophelia, played by Lalla Ward, which I find immensely distracting personally because of her connection to Doctor Who (in which she played the Time Lady Romana opposite Tom Baker's Doctor). At 29, Lalla is a bit old to play the part, something she shares with other leading ladies in the BBC's Shakespeare series (Penelope Wilton in Othello, for example). What you gain in acting experience, you lose in the character's necessary naivety. Necessary? That's the question here. Lalla's Ophelia seems wiser than others' - she doesn't try to play the "green girl" - so at this point at least, it is a legitimate performance choice. She is thoughtful to the point of making us wonder if she and Hamlet HAVE consummated their relationship. Her fleeting smiles seem designed to pacify her brother and father, deflect attention from her guilt. She looks away, or at her feet, often. She has something to hide.

Eric Porter's Polonius is younger and more robust than the usual actors cast in the role, which makes him seem less of a dotard. There's a kindness there, and between all three family members, that feels genuine even through remonstrances. As he gives Laertes advice, Ophelia is seen in the background. She is beaming at first, smiling at her father's ways, but soon turns dour at the mention of a quarrel. Does this remind her suddenly that she and her brother just had a disagreement? Not that she disagreed outwardly much, but inwardly, there's another story crossing her face.

As Laertes says his final goodbyes (accompanied by one of those awkward kisses on the lips), Polonius is listening. This is what sparks the next part of the scene and paints Polonius as an eavesdropper.
This is a trait that blooms later. Nice of the staging to include here, where so often, it just seems like Laertes is being careless, or else doesn't think it's a private matter. Polonius' kindness carries through to his talk with Ophelia. He knows he's hurting his daughter by preventing her from seeing Hamlet, but sincerely believes it's for her own good. Though he's a touch patronizing, he consoles rather than chides.
"I'm really sorry about this" is written on his face throughout. This wiser Ophelia still obeys, but there is a sense that Polonius must plead with her to do so. She obeys out of love and respect for him, not out of fear. This gives her more power than she is usually afforded in the play, and we'll see how that impacts the rest of her scenes. In keeping with this idea, Polonius does show surprise that she speaks "like a green girl", evidently expecting more rational thought from her. It remains to be seen of Lalla Ward is miscast or an attempt to put Ophelia closer to Hamlet's maturity level.

Act I Scene 3 - Olivier '48

The camera, mobile as ever, tracks through a corridor and finds Laertes seeking his sister out, as lyrical music plays. This is our first introduction to a lovely young Jean Simmons as Ophelia. Simmons plays her as a dreamer, slightly naive and child-like. Her family may well have cause to fear for her. Flower patterns on the walls and an open window (with a strange landscape if we're high up on a cliff) place her in nature. The association to flowers is well exploited in her madness and suicide, and for the first time, I note here there is a pun on that idea in the text - she is a "green girl".
Laertes catches her reading a note from Hamlet (perhaps the very note that Polonius later reads the the King and Queen), which gives him occasion to warn her off the moody prince. This is a departure from other representations. It makes Laertes less unnaturally obsessed with his sister's virginity. He doesn't broach the subject without provocation. This allows for a kinder and gentler relationship with Ophelia. She is not chided, but kindly advised, which fits her teasing manner later. Speaking of which, "Do not, [...] Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven" strikes me for the first time as foreshadowing. By warning her off Hamlet, he sows the seeds of her destruction. At least, that is how she may later interpret events. Her death, implied in the way to heaven, will be a difficult one.

She hides the note as her father arrives to gives his blessing and advice. To highlight her childishness, Olivier has Ophelia punctuate her father's advice with gestures. Pixie-like, she smiles and teases her brother through the whole speech. It's quite entertaining. It starts with "familiar not vulgar" as she puts her hand on her brother's shoulder as a sister would. On "hoops of steel", she hugs him tightly.
The talk of a quarrel has her pulling at his dagger. On "apparel", she tugs at his collar. And on the topic of lending and borrowing, she teasingly fishes into his purse. A very nice way to stage a scene that might otherwise be tedious (directors and actors must continually fight against Polonius' tediousness), making a point about Ophelia herself in the process.

After Laertes leaves, Polonius interrogates his daughter about Laertes' counsel and thus, about Hamlet. And again, it's much kinder than in other versions. When he tells her she speaks like a "green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance", his tone is not that of surprise. That's what she IS. It's the answer he expected, and now he will tell her how things really are. Again, subtly different line readings and performances bring new interpretations to the fore, which I had not considered just looking at the text. Ophelia HAS to be "green" (or seen to be so), or else she would not need her family to protect her virginity. So there is no outrage at her naivety from Polonius, only statement of fact.

As previously mentioned, Olivier breaks Scene 2 up after the soliloquy to insert Scene 3. This is frequently done to get all the introductions out as early as possible, but in this case, there's more going on.
By overlapping the two scenes, Ophelia gets to glimpse the melancholy Hamlet from a distance (post-soliloquy but pre-meeting Horatio). It's a silent goodbye that creates a relationship between the two (as with Branagh's flashbacks). The play doesn't give us a happy moment between the lovers before things start to go wrong. Any happiness between them is only spoken of and not seen. Why is a question we might try to answer at some point.

Act I Scene 3 - Branagh '96

Though the scene is meant to take place in Polonius' house, this is very rarely done in the films. Branagh goes for the outside of the palace and in fact uses the entire scene to establish more of the world of Elsinore. We've seen the gates in Scene 1, and the throne room, study and secret doors in Scene 2. In Scene 3, we move outside and see castle exterior, as well as the chapel, where other scenes will later take place. Laertes and Ophelia have a tender and playful relationship, hugging as they walk, slapping each other with gloves, laughing, smiling and teasing (both each other and their father). One thing I notice from having Michael Maloney do the entire speech is that he's his father's son. Not only do the two have the same misgivings about Hamlet seeing Ophelia, but Laertes is perhaps just as tedious as his father. He makes his point, then makes it again, and Maloney is pitch perfect in his taking a breather only to jump on the same point again. On Branagh's end, when he has to change shots, he uses a dissolve instead of a cut, which makes it look like Laertes has been talking for hours.

At one point, the pair see Hamlet from afar, supervising fencers and in essence, setting up how the duel at the end will be fought.
Here and upon leaving at scene's end, Laertes seems overwhelmed with a sense of destiny. He is distracted at the sight of Hamlet and rapiers, and when he says goodbye, it's as if he might never see his family again. We know the story well, even its characters can't be too oblivious about it.

Polonius then arrives and another dissolve takes us into the chapel where Polonius delivers his famous advice. It's a jarring piece of editing that makes you wonder if it's a flashback, except that at the end, Laertes refers to his warning about Hamlet which took place in the previous section. Apparently, weather conditions forced the production into interiors, but the effect is still strange. I'll forgive a lot of things like this based on the line "Time is out of joint" however. Richard Briers puts just the right emphasis on "To thine own self be true", and the churchly surroundings lend the speech the sound of a sermon.

Though there is a "churlish priest" in Hamlet, he is not seen before Ophilia's burial. By then, Polonius is dead. Priests in Shakespeare are frequently advisers and councilors, so placing Polonius in a chapel gives him that role, even if he subverts it. He is councilor to an evil man. He advises his son with platitudes, and his daughter against love. This is something that subtly runs through this version of the play, and I'll mention it from time to time.

Before Laertes leaves, he kisses his sister once more. Does this look more romantic than it should?
If there is something off putting about brother and sister kissing, it's because it's not much seen in contemporary culture. I generally dislike the Freudian tendency to suggest incest in the play, but Laertes and Ophelia kissing does translate something modern audiences may not get from the words themselves. Visually, the kisses suggest that Laertes and Polonius' concerns about Ophelia's virginity are a bit unnatural. Whether that's a modern interpretation and not relevant to Shakespeare's day (when virginity was more highly prized) I'll leave to the reader. Branagh seems to suggest that something is off about these relationships and about their closeness.

When Laertes finally leaves, Polonius closes the gates behind him and addresses Ophelia about this Hamlet business. That shot creates a much darker Polonius than we're used to.
As written, Polonius IS a much darker character, but cuts to the text remove much of this from the character. Here, he is a foreboding figure, one to be feared by Ophelia, who after all, is vulnerable in this world of men and politics. He soon throws her into the confessional (used by Claudius later) and, again the perverse priest, forces a confession out of her.
This small act of violence harks to such as lines as "to cut his throat i' the church". The confession isn't really one since Ophelia says nothing's going on. And as written, that may be true. Branagh intercuts the scene with a flashback to a sex scene, showing that Ophelia is lying to her father. Flashes of this are seen on words such as "tenders" (visualizing the double entendre), "blood burns" and "tongue", all eroticized in Ophelia's mind. And while at first it might seem ambiguous - is it Polonius' imagination or Ophelia's memory? - Ophelia is eventually left alone with those thoughts, so they are hers. Interestingly, "I shall obey" is said in voice-over after Polonius leaves. So while she may have been lying when she said nothing was going on, she ISN'T lying about obeying her father.

Act I Scene 3

Though Laertes had lines in Scene 2, Scene 3 is our first real introduction the characters of Ophelia and Polonius. In the latter, we have the third image of fatherhood in the play, and if Hamlet and Laertes are to be contrasted, we need to also contrast Polonius with Claudius (also Laertes' other father) and Hamlet Sr. In Scene 3, Shakespeare gives us the second of three fathers counseling their children. Claudius chided Hamlet and asked him to stay in Scene 2 and the Ghost will spur Hamlet to revenge in Scene 4. In Scene 3, Polonius does the reverse for each of his children. He sends Laertes with doting advice, and forbids Ophelia to fulfill her destiny. Though the most "present" father in the play, his influence also tends to be the weakest.

As for Ophelia, is she to be a contrast to Gertrude? There's an interesting inversion in the play where the young hot-blooded girl is kept chase and the more mature, "tamer" woman is a wanton. In the following lines, the relationship between all three members of the Polonius family (and if I speak of inversions, it's that it is an inversed Hamlet family, with the mother dead) are introduced to the reader/viewer. I will cut in when something catches my attention. Shakespeare is the one in italics. Oh, and the brilliant one.

SCENE III. A room in Polonius' house.
Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA

LAERTES: My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:
And, sister, as the winds give benefit
And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
But let me hear from you.
OPHELIA: Do you doubt that?
LAERTES: For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.

The position of Ophelia in the play is very weak, often thought of as an object manipulated by men, caught between her father's and brother's will, Claudius' schemes and Hamlet's love. The very first time she speaks, she is ignored. Laertes does not actually answer her question, but instead follows his own train of thought and warns her against Hamlet. Note also the use of "violet" here, a flower we return to in Ophelia's madness. The violet is described as impermanent and fleeting, and Ophelia later comes back to this image with the violets that all wilted when her father died. This double use creates a link between the two scene between Ophelia and her brother. Love is fleeting (here) as is life (there), and by implication so is Ophelia's health and sanity. Like the violet, Ophelia is "in the youth of primy nature". She too is "sweet". And like most characters in the play, her life is impermanent.

OPHELIA: No more but so?
LAERTES: Think it no more;
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Laertes invokes Hamlet's royal destiny here. The idea that Hamlet's will is not, ultimately, his own stands in stark opposition to "To thine own self be true" (a line I will come back to in due course). As the play unfolds, Hamlet will continually stop himself short of fulfilling his destiny, whether we're talking about avenging his father or becoming King of Denmark.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.

More imagery related to a corrupted natural world, as spring is subverted in Denmark's unweeded garden. The play does tend to show sexuality as a corruptive element. Laertes and Polonius do not wish to see Ophelia stained, and Claudius sleeps in incestuous sheets. Those that obviously had sex before the start of the play are either dead (the Ghost and Ophelia's mother) or doomed to die (Getrude and Polonius). Perhaps they are right to steer Ophelia away from it, and Hamlet is later right to push her to go to a nunnery. She does not, and she dies.

Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
OPHELIA: I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.

Ophelia's warning about hypocrisy is a recurring theme in the play. We'll soon have the notoriously foolish Polonius impart his wisdom to Laertes, and otherwise have a number of characters lying to Hamlet and to others, feigning to be what they are not.

LAERTES: O, fear me not.
I stay too long: but here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS

A double blessing is a double grace,
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

POLONIUS : Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!

Polonius gets his first proper scene and it's one that highlights his foolishness. He chides his son for being tardy and then sits him down for a long chat. Polonius gets it wrong for the first, but certainly not the last, time. Polonius is written with dramatic irony in mind, and characterized as tedious (at his most benign) or pompous (at his least). The advice that follows was meant to parody the maxim writers of the Elizabethan Age, equivalent to today's slogan-happy self-help books, but Shakespeare comments on the play at the same time.

And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

For example, here. Hamlet will struggle with this for most of the play, trying to understand the true "proportion" his thoughts and actions.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

How does this relate to the bond between Laertes and Hamlet? Though they have a falling out, their souls are in the end bound together, following each other closely to the afterlife.

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware

And is this a reference to the Laertes-Claudius partnership? The dangling "Beware" is as much for this as for the next line.

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.

"Beware of entrance to a quarrel", the exact event that leads to Laertes' undoing.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,

There we have it. Each of Shakespeare's great plays, I find, has a line hidden in it that expresses its theme. And I say hidden because it seems to come early and in a context that doesn't draw attention to it. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, it's "they stumble that run fast". In Hamlet, it's "To thine own self be true". This is the advice that Hamlet does not follow and that causes the tragedy.

And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
LAERTES: Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS: The time invites you; go; your servants tend.
LAERTES: Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
What I have said to you.
OPHELIA: 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES: Farewell.

Exit

POLONIUS: What is't, Ophelia, be hath said to you?
OPHELIA: So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
POLONIUS: Marry, well bethought:
'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late
Given private time to you; and you yourself
Have of your audience been most free and bounteous:
If it be so, as so 'tis put on me,
And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly
As it behoves my daughter and your honour.
What is between you? give me up the truth.
OPHELIA: He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
Of his affection to me.
POLONIUS: Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
OPHELIA: I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS: Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;
Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA: My lord, he hath importuned me with love
In honourable fashion.
POLONIUS: Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
OPHELIA: And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
POLONIUS: Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

Yet another image of nature subverted. A couple of things jump out in the wake of Polonius' speech to Laertes. For one thing, Polonius is a hypocryte. Having told Laertes to be true to himself, he forbids the same to Ophelia. He once again sets himself up to "get it wrong" by instigating the factor he will later believe is the cause of Hamlet's madness. His portrayal of Hamlet as a sexual predator is also contradicted by the rest of the play (though directors coud choose to play this differently).

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire. From this time
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate
Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young
And with a larger tether may he walk
Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile. This is for all:
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you: come your ways.
OPHELIA: I shall obey, my lord.

Exeunt

Polonius is a lot harsher than Laertes. Where the brother didn't doubt that Hamlet loved her NOW, the father is convinced he never has. Both of them worry a great deal about Ophelia's virginity (which today adds to the unnaturalness of the play, but was a fairly common concern back in the day), but we have to wonder why. As the play will show, Gertrude had earmarked Ophelia to be Hamlet's wife, and certainly the Polonius family was closely tied to Hamlet's. If there's a concept of having to marry another country's princess to forge an alliance, it's not mentioned in the play. It does not seem to be a way to resolve the conflict with Norway, which is populated only with male characters. We're left with more questions. HAS there been something going on and so, Ophelia is lying? Polonius' command that she should not even SPEAK with Hamlet... Is that because he worries Hamlet will turn her against him and Claudius? What does he know about Claudius' ascension that we don't? Or is he simply worried that Hamlet's mental instability will cause problems for her? In a less sinister vein, having lost a wife, does he simply not want to lose the daughter that is taking care of him in his old age?

Directors will sometimes try to give us a clue as to his motivation. Something to watch.

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.

A Midwinter's Tale

Everything that's part of the Hamlet performance in Kenneth Branagh's A Midwinter's Tale / In the Bleak Midwinter on one tidy you-tube.

I wait for it to come out on DVD one day, but I thought Hyperioneers would enjoy seeing a version what is perhaps inaccessible to them otherwise. Now you'll know what I'm talking about!

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.