I.v. Swearing Oaths - French Rock Opera

At around this point in the Hallyday's double album, the timeline gets a little tenuous. Songs are, by their nature, not as linearly narrative as drama is, and are closer cousins to the soliloquy. Interior voices, heightened reality. In Hallyday's Hamlet, where does the first Act end and the second begin? I believe the shift from one to the other is represented by the next two songs, Je suis fou (I Am Mad) and On a peur pour lui (We're Afraid for Him). The first is Hamlet's self-acknowledged switch from sanity to madness, the other the reaction his friends have to his change in behavior. As usual, expect a certain amount of doggerel in the translations:

Je suis fou
Je suis fou comm’une tomate
Je ne tiens plus sur mes pattes
Je marche et vais de travers
Je vois rouge et je suis vert

Refrain:
Pardonne-moi, fou du roi
Si je suis plus fou que toi

Je suis fou comme une ficelle
Je me déroule, je m’emmêle
Je me détache, je m’accroche
Je m’use et je m’affiloche

Je suis fou comm’un navire
Et je vogue sur le délire
Plus d’étoiles, une nuit d’encre
Je ne sais où jeter l’ancre

Je suis fou comm’un soleil
Que se soit par la bouteille
Que ce soit par Ophelie
Je couche avec la folie

I Am Mad
I am mad like a tomato
I can't stand on my own paws
I walk and go astray
I see red and I am green

Refrain:
Forgive me, king's jester
If I'm madder than you

I an mad like a string
I unfurl, I get tangled
I detach, I get snagged
I get used and I get frayed

I am mad like a ship
And I float on delirium
No more stars, an inky night
I don't know where to drop anchor

I am mad like a sun
Whether through the bottle
Whether through Ophelia
I sleep with madness

This lament pretty definitely tells us that Hallyday considers Hamlet's madness to be real. This is Hamlet's voice and he doesn't leave any room for ambiguity. He expresses sadness at what he has become, and in the closing parts of the song, starts laughing maniacally as the chorus throws high-pitched "He is mad!" at him and he repeats key lines from the song. Many of the similes used will seem strange in English, but that's because they were chosen for their rhyme schemes in French (a mad tomato?). On the other hand, those nonsense words invoke Hamlet's madness. The mention of madness in a bottle may, in fact, be more about Hallyday's own experiences with the rockstar lifestyle than Hamlet's, given his railing against the king's rouse.

Also note the foreshadowing of Ophelia's madness and Hamlet's relationship with poor Yorick. The latter creates an early link between Hamlet's madness and the king's jester who in part helped raise him. We'll have more cause to talk about Yorick as another father figure in Hamlet's life down the road.

That was Hamlet's interior monologue. Now comes the reaction.

On a peur pour lui
J'ai peur pour son coeur
J'ai peur pour sa tête
Et ses maux de coeur [not sure]
Il se monte la tête [not sure]

J'ai peur pour sa tête
J'ai peur pour son coeur
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
On a peur pour lui
On a peur de lui
etc.

We're Afraid for Him
I'm afraid for his heart
I'm afraid for his head
And his heartaches [not sure]
Something gets to his head [not sure]

I'm afraid for his head
I'm afraid for his heart
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
We're afraid for him
We're afraid of him
etc.

Half this track, about a minute, is just eerie driving music. If the Rock Opera were actually to be staged, we could well imagine some sort of action occurring here. It's noteworthy that while Hamlet's descent into madness is a relatively straightforward lament, Horatio's perception of the same even is creepy and strange. After that minute, the chorus shows up with an altogether too happy sing-along with a couple of undecipherable lines (I've been looking at various sources, but they either don't give lyrics for this track or else don't make any grammatical sense). The mix of concern and fear inspired by Hamlet's behavior takes us into the second Act, from Horatio and Marcellus to the whole of the Court.