Hamlet and CarnivalNatália Pikli, PhD
-”with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” – King Claudius appropriating the role of King Carnival? (Bristol)
-The Gravediggers/Clowns – equlaity, levelling of Death/laughter
-Hamlet’s mocking the Ghost: ’old mole’ – hysterical laughter
-Hamlet’s ’antic disposition’ and carnivalesque madness (father = mother 4.3.)
-Hamlet mocking/tricking Polonius (the fool and his dupe)
- ”get thee to a nunnery” – cloister and brothel – ambivalence
-Ophelia’s song of madness and sexuality:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't, if they come to't;
By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.
Hamlet and the ’ghost’ of popular culture
3.2. (before the dumb-show begins)
HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing.
OPHELIA
You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA
Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
the hobby-horse is forgot.'
HAMLET:
Úgy hát megérjük, hogy valamely nagy embert félévvel is túlél az emlékezete; csakhogy,
Mária ugyse! Templomotépítsen ám, különben eszébe sem jut senkinek; úgy jár, mint a
fa ló,melyneksírverse így hangzik: »Mer’ ó! mer’ ó! már a faló el van feledve.«(Arany János ford.)
•jig, hobby-horse, church ale, country/cuntry manners
•nostalgia (Merry Old England), Yorick’s skull
Cobbes prophecies, his Signes and Tokens, 1614
But when the Hobby-horse did wihy,
oh pretty wihy,
Then all the Wenches gaue a tihy,
oh pretty tihy.
•Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, 1583
Thus al things set in order, then haue they their Hobby-
horses, dragons & other Antiques, togither with their baudie Pipers
and thundering; Drummers to strike vp the deuils daunce withal […] marche these heathen company towards the Church-yard, their pipers pipeing, their drummers thundring, […]dancing, […], their handkerchiefs swinging about their heds like madmen, their hobbie horses and other monsters […] The behavour of the Deuills skirmish […]& in this sorte they go […]in the temple of God. & into the Church, (though the Minister be at praier or preaching), dancing & swinging [t]heir handkercheifs ouer their heds in the Church, like deuils incarnate, with such […]noise, that no man can hear his own voice. Then, the foolish people they looke, they stare, they laugh, […], & mount vpon […]pewes to see these goodly pageants solem[ni]zed in this sort. Then, after this, about the Church they goe […]and again, & […]into the church-yard, where they haue commonly their […] banqueting houses set vp, wherin they feast, banquet & daunce al that day & (peraduenture) all the night too. And thus these […]furies spend the Sabaoth day.
‘hobby-horse’
Palimpsest of meanings:
-The morris dance and the hobby-horse
-fool
-shrew, prostitue
-children’s toy
-an Irish breed of horse (small)
Oxford English Dictionary: frequently in texts from the 16th-erly 17th c.