HAMLET. To be or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die--to sleep-- No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache (2/2) #Choices

#Hamlet_2026 Hamlet: Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. (III.1.92-97)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 14, 4/9- Act III s2 HAMLET. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced to line 91, HORATIO. If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. [Flourish, enter trumpets, kettledrums, King, Qn, Pol, Oph, Ros, Guild et al]

OPHELIA O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword; Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down! #Hamlet_2026 Act III s1 (146-150)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 13, 4/8- Act III s1 Location. Elsinore, a room in the castle. KING. And can you by no drift of circumstance to end of sc., KING. It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. [Exeunt] (1/2)

“The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape” #hamlet_2026

Helen Weinzweig, if you like Helen Garner, Carson McCullers, Barbara Comyns. (Read with #NYRBWomen23 and @joiedevivre9.bsky.social )

HAMLET and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. #Hamlet_2026 II,2,595-598

Payer closed his eyes. "Is this a purely hypothetical inquiry or are you ready to back it up with a certain figure that might help me bear the indignity of simply being alive?" 233 Survival & reinforcement by reading detective stories, not the Bible. #SatantangoTogether

HAMLET. Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion Could force his soul to his own conceit ...and all for nothing! Act II s2 The famous soliloquy where he ponders, regroups, plans.

#Hamlet_2026 Day 12, 4/7- Act II s2 from 475 1. Play. Anon he finds him Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls to end of sc., HAMLET. ...The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. [Exit] (1/2)

Futaki: "packed, he had left no sign that he had ever been part of this world...But however many.. months, perhaps years of hope lay before him-since he was quite sure his lot was finally cast for the better...,he found it ever harder to resist a suffocating sadness" p185💙 #Satantangotogether

#SatantangoTogether "We think we’re breaking free but all we’re doing is readjusting the locks."

HAMLET. I remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. *sallet: highly seasoned salad (2/2)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 11, 4/6- Act II s2 from 379 [Flourish for the Players.] GUIL. There are the players. to 474 POL. and good discretion. (1/2)

#Hamlet_2026 II,2,250 William Shakespeare Arden London/ New York 1982 HAMLET There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Montaigne, Essais, III, 13 „Notre grand et glorieux chef-d’œuvre c’est vivre à propos.“

Beautiful. These are Belarusian ones (years ago, there was a woman from Belarus selling them at our farmer's market).

Gyula is by Romanian border. #SatantangoTogether Due to the wars (129+ yrs!), most of the native Hungarian population fled from Gyula & Békés County. Landowner J. Harruckern invited German, Hungarian & Romanian settlers, who re-established the town in early 18th c. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyula,_...

#Hamlet_2026 Hamlet: Words, words, words (II.1.205) Maybe my favourite line in my favourite play.

Ukrainian Easter eggs! @lizoksbooks.bsky.social

HAMLET. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form & moving how express & admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? (2/2)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 10, 4/5- Act II s2 from line 235 [Enter Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern.] POLONIUS. Fare you well, my lord. to 378 HAMLET. It is not very strange. ... 'Sblood. There is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. (1/2)

Red cover edition: 4/5- 230 4/6- 235 4/7- 244 4/8- 250 4/9- 258 4/10- 264 4/11- 266 4/12- 274 4/13- the end

'...The imagination never stops working but we're not one jot nearer the truth.' Petrina finally relaxed. He knew now that 'everything was all right' & also what he should say so his companion might be his old self again. 227 #SatantangoTogether Hero worship beats existentialist despair- (1/2)

Reminds me of... #PrincessBride #Vizzini #WallaceShawn

POL. [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.--Will you walk out into the air, my lord? HAM. Into my grave? POL. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on.... (2/2)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 9, 4/4- Act II s2 from 102, QUEEN. More matter, with less art. to 234, HAMLET. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal--except my life, except my life, except my life.* [Enter Rosen. & Guilden.] *Echoes Act I. (1/2)

#SatantangoTogether nothingchangedoutside itwasneithermorningnoreveningitjust carriedondawnortwilightwhichever . . .

#Hamlet_2026 Day 8, 4/3- Act II s2 Location. Elsinore, a room in the castle. KING. Welcome, dear Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. to line 101, POL. Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go.

“Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword; Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword.” #hamlet_2026

Her frenetic, accelerating thoughts on the page as words melted together into clumps- a verbal frenzy! About the end of V The Perspective, As Seen From The Front #SatantangoTogether

"The cemetery of home, education, nerves, heritage, and tics. Fading, it is sad; remaining, it is a needle. Trees, flowers, noble old houses, triumphant farms on the outskirts of town--little distraction to the heart (1/2) Part 1, #SleeplessNights by Elizabeth Hardwick Not for the faint of heart. 📚

#Hamlet_2026 Week 2 begins 4/3- Shakespeare is intent upon studying the effects of grief, not only upon Hamlet but, with contrasting effect, upon Laertes and Fortinbras, who suffer analogous losses. [Hamlet] possessed qualities & abilities typical of the Renaissance ideal.... (1/2)

OPHELIA. And with his head over his shoulder turned He seemed to find his way without his eyes, For out o' doors he went without their help And to the last bended their light on me. (2/2) He is silent on this visit, communicating with eyes & gestures- she's his last hope for human affection.

#Hamlet_2026 Day 7, 4/2- Act II s1 Location. Elsinore. Polonius' house. POLONIUS. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo to end of sc., POL. This must be known; which, being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love. Come. (1/2)

HAMLET Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past That youth and observation copied there; And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, . . . #Hamlet_2026 Act I s5 (98-103)

#SatantangoTogether "...they trusted the new would not only replace the old but utterly erase it."

HAMLET. Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge. Act I s5 (2/2)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 6, 4/1- Act I s5 (long scene) [Enter Ghost and Hamlet] HAMLET. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further. to end of sc., HAMLET. The time is out of joint. O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let's go together. (1/2)

HORATIO What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o’er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness? #Hamlet_2026 Act I s4 (69-74)

#Hamlet_2026 I,4,84-85 William Shakespeare Arden London/ New York 1982 HAMLET Still am I called. Unhand me, Gentlemen. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me. Robert Thew (1758-1802) D‘après Johann Heinrich Füssli

...Schmidt (he having drawn Futaki aside in attempt to explain whatever had happened, saying, "You know, friend, it would never have occurred to me to do that. It was just that a saucepan fell off the table & the rest just sort of followed.") V Perspective as seen from the front #SatantangoTogether

HAMLET. ...and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this? wherefore? What should we do? [Ghost beckons Hamlet.] . . . MAR. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. HOR. Heaven will direct it. Act I s4 (2/2)

#Hamlet_2026 Day 5, 3/31- Act I s4 Location. Elsinore, Platform of the watch. HAMLET. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. to end of sc., MARCELLUS. Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt] (1/2)

"How then, she had asked herself, did one know one thing or another thing about people, sealed as they were? Only like a bee, drawn by some sweetness or sharpness in the air intangible to touch or taste...." 51 A favorite part from #VirginiaWoolf To the Lighthouse #Woolfpack Lily & Mrs R

POLONIUS. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. ... Costly thy habit that thy purse can buy, ...to thine own self be true. Act I s3 #GoodAdvice #Hamlet_2026

#Hamlet_2026 Hamlet: But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (I.2.88-89)

My edition (red cover w/ James Wood comment): Copyright 1985 Translation copyright 2012 Szirtes Publisher's Note: New Directions is grateful to Ottilie Mulzet for translating the passages on pp.16-17 & 170-178 that have been added to the 6th printing. women are sniffling is on p.176!! #editions