Which are your favourite lines from Hamlet, Richard? If you were rehearsing I imagine you had a solid familiarity with it. During our peak I memorised loads of chunks because I adore them so much (and because I really love knowing things by heart - a couple of times in the last 20 years I’ve memorised all squillion verses of The Raven, because it’s so immensely satisfying to recite). Besides the soliloquies, I learnt the ‘woo’t eat a crocodile’ speech from Ophelia’s graveside, and the ghost telling Hamlet how awful the afterlife is, and of course, the ‘quintessence of dust’ (rewatching snatches of my son’s retelling the other day, I loved his attention to detail in making Rosencrantz and Guildenstern titter after Hamlet says ‘… man delights not me,’ inferring Hamlet’s eye roll as he goes on to say ‘no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.’ And my eldest chose to memorise Polonious’ delightfully absurd ‘best actors in the world for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral.’; that one is far too complicated for me to remember! but I know it’d be nothing to you Rich, with your startlingly good memory, most remarkably demonstrated in your TMWRNJ style biblical recitation. (BTW, really appreciated your book club recommendation of The Great White Bard, so interesting and engaging. Currently reading Catherine Nixey’s Heresy, which is a real page turner, so thanks for that too).
I don’t know the play that well. We were doing sketches not the play and it was 35 years ago! I learned To be or not to be at school for my own amusement and that’s the only bit I know well
Although NOT relevant to the time-scale mentioned in today's blog, a decade or so later, in the mid-noughties, Tom Goodman-Hill played Peter Cook in a stage play, "Pete and Dud: Come Again". And, at around the same time, Rhys Ifans played him in the C4 film, "Not Only But Always".
Which are your favourite lines from Hamlet, Richard? If you were rehearsing I imagine you had a solid familiarity with it. During our peak I memorised loads of chunks because I adore them so much (and because I really love knowing things by heart - a couple of times in the last 20 years I’ve memorised all squillion verses of The Raven, because it’s so immensely satisfying to recite). Besides the soliloquies, I learnt the ‘woo’t eat a crocodile’ speech from Ophelia’s graveside, and the ghost telling Hamlet how awful the afterlife is, and of course, the ‘quintessence of dust’ (rewatching snatches of my son’s retelling the other day, I loved his attention to detail in making Rosencrantz and Guildenstern titter after Hamlet says ‘… man delights not me,’ inferring Hamlet’s eye roll as he goes on to say ‘no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.’ And my eldest chose to memorise Polonious’ delightfully absurd ‘best actors in the world for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral.’; that one is far too complicated for me to remember! but I know it’d be nothing to you Rich, with your startlingly good memory, most remarkably demonstrated in your TMWRNJ style biblical recitation. (BTW, really appreciated your book club recommendation of The Great White Bard, so interesting and engaging. Currently reading Catherine Nixey’s Heresy, which is a real page turner, so thanks for that too).
I don’t know the play that well. We were doing sketches not the play and it was 35 years ago! I learned To be or not to be at school for my own amusement and that’s the only bit I know well
Although NOT relevant to the time-scale mentioned in today's blog, a decade or so later, in the mid-noughties, Tom Goodman-Hill played Peter Cook in a stage play, "Pete and Dud: Come Again". And, at around the same time, Rhys Ifans played him in the C4 film, "Not Only But Always".