There’s the Rub

(“There’s the rub.” Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1)

We recently saw Hamlet in Denver’s Wolf Theatre at the DCPA. The extremely well-done production had us mesmerized as we, the audience, along with his friends and family watch Hamlet slip into and through his psychosis. Is it a feint or has he crossed into deep melancholy with such determination that he cannot pull himself back? It is Shakespeare and more than anything else it is the poetry, the language, the words. The words, the phrases. By my unofficial count and using some internet research there are about fifty or so words or phrases peppered throughout Hamlet that are in somewhat common usage today. Some were coined by Shakespeare, and others used by him were from other sources most notably the bible. It was curious as sometimes the phrase was interpreted out of context by the audience and brought about the laughter of recognition. We can’t help ourselves. It’s the familiarity.

You can spend quite a bit of time diving deep into research as to what words and phrases Shakespeare has handed down to us (I am very well aware of this as I did go down that particular rabbit hole (not his by the way)). Besides the obvious in Hamlet, “Get thee to a nunnery” or “To be or not to be” or “Something is rotten in Denmark”, my newly discovered or rediscovered favorites are, in no particular order “…brevity is the soul of wit”, Act 2, scene 2, “This above all: to thine own self be true”, Act I, scene 3, “…sick at heart”, Act I, Scene 1 and because Halloween is upon us “Make your hair stand on end”, Act 3, Scene 4, along with “Murder most foul”, Act I, Scene 5 to list as they say but a few.

All of this comes at a time as I am taking a deep dive into words reading Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “The Blue Book” on language games and understanding how words and language interrelate and are a consequence of interpretation and context.  As a writer, I have found myself sometimes anguishing about the right word and spending time peeling away the meanings of a word and its origin as well as its sound and meter. Of course, the word must fit the character, the time, and the genre. Also reading George Orwell’s, Politics and the English Language, his criticism on the ugliness of political language. For fun, I’m reading Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy.

Recent publication news is that “The Death of Leonardo”, a tale of two men discussing Leonardo DaVinci’s death as they reflect upon unfinished affairs in their lives, will be published in The Bookends Review. More on that later as publication dates are released.

 Work has me wrapped up in Trade Winds, a novel, which has businessman Kenneth Jorgen trying to deal with the present while examining his past, as his father slips into dementia. In TRADE WINDS family secrets are revealed as Kenneth puts together his family’s history with some help from his father and a supportive Doctor caring for the elder Mr. Jorgen.

I had to laugh to myself at the end of the play as the residents of Elsinore had an Oprah moment, “And you get a murder. And you get a murder. And you get a murder.”

Until the next time.

Note on the cover photo: “Castle” was captured on a trip to Salzburg, Austria. Hohensalzburg Fortress as seen from across the valley (2023)