Hamlet

[nivrip]

Back from a trip to Stratford on Avon. Saw Hamlet at the RSC, never having seen it before or even knowing the story. Luckily I read a synopsis of the plot before going and it helped enormously. Just knowing something of the story and the characters makes life much easier as getting into the beginning of Shakespeare's plays can be difficult.

Here is a list of well known phrases that are used in everyday English, all which come from Hamlet.

The mind's eye
All that lives must die,
The primrose path...
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
To the manner born (not manor)
O, answer me!
Murder most foul
There are more things in heaven and earth,
The time is out of joint ...
Brevity is the soul of wit,
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't (not quite as we say it)
What a piece of work is a man!
The play's the thing
To be, or not to be:
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Get thee to a nunnery
O, woe is me,
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Hoist with his own petard
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him
And dog will have his day.
The rest is silence

Amazing. And all those just from one play. He really did mould our language.

 

[Becky]

Back from a trip to Stratford on Avon. Saw Hamlet at the RSC, never having seen it before or even knowing the story. Luckily I read a synopsis of the plot before going and it helped enormously. Just knowing something of the story and the characters makes life much easier as getting into the beginning of Shakespeare's plays can be difficult.

Could agree more! I find it quite hard to follow unless I know a little about the story and characters beforehand. I've never seen Hamlet, I should really keep an eye out for it.

Here is a list of well known phrases that are used in everyday English, all which come from Hamlet.

The mind's eye
All that lives must die,
The primrose path...
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
To the manner born (not manor)
O, answer me!
Murder most foul
There are more things in heaven and earth,
The time is out of joint ...
Brevity is the soul of wit,
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't (not quite as we say it)
What a piece of work is a man!
The play's the thing
To be, or not to be:
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Get thee to a nunnery
O, woe is me,
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Hoist with his own petard
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him
And dog will have his day.
The rest is silence

Amazing. And all those just from one play. He really did mould our language.

Very true! I wonder how many were common terms in those days and which he came up with himself?

 

[Anon_F]

I thought Hamlet was a cigar brand?

 

[exmoor]

I thought Hamlet was a cigar brand?

 

[crazylegs]

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've seen 'amlet inni?

I saw'd it at school, I was taken against my will on a coach to The Old Vic. Didn't understand a damn thing, bored witless. I was probably 15 years old.

I also had to endure Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead on another similar occasion, apparently it was a satire on Shakespeare. My view? Same as Hamlet

I'd rather watch a Die Hard fillum

Yes, I know, I am a Philistine with Chav tendencies, no hope for me....

I wonder whether I might apreciate it now?

PS: I also took part in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was at Primary School, where we all regularly fell into schoolboy sniggers every time somebody said 'Puck'. Deffo no hope for me eh?

 

[muckshifter]

↑ what he said ↑








ps, I had a wet midsummer's night dream, that count? ... what, what, what'd I say?

 

[bootneck02]

Now, Now, Mr Mucks, and no that does not count and at your age too, tut, tut

 

[Urmas]

ps, I had a wet midsummer's night dream, that count? ... what, what, what'd I say?

Um... according to an old piece of Finnish Midsummer magic, you can see your future widow on the shore if you stand up on a rowboat, utterly drunk, your fly unzipped.



The man's fly was undone, and Scully told Mulder that "most drowning victims are found with high levels of alcohol in their blood and their flies unzipped".


Urmas—Licensed To Spill