Good evening and welcome to another episode of Brush Up, Your Shakespeare, where we make

Shakespeare fun and easy, the way it was always meant to be.

This is episode 16, and today we will be covering three scenes from Hamlet. We are now in

Hamlet Act 4 and the scenes we will cover are 1, 2 and 3. Now that Hamlet has murdered Polonius as he hid behind the

heiress in the Queen's chambers, the momentum really starts to pick up. The next three scenes reflect that momentum by being rather short,

so they go off bang, bang, bang.

Not only is the plot of the play picking up momentum,

Shakespeare is struct of the play picking up momentum.

Shakespeare is structuring the play to reflect that momentum.

In Act 4, scene 1, Queen Gertrude finds her husband Claudius and reports what has just transpired in her chambers.

And here is the title slide for the show tonight, Hamlet Act 4, scenes 1 through 3.

And the Queen says, Ah mine own Lord what have I seen tonight.

The King says what Gertrude how does Hamlet the Queen says mad as Sea and Wind, when both contend which is the mightier, in his

lawless fit behind the heiress, hearing something stir, whips out his rap, his rap, and in this brainish apprehension

or deranged misconception,

in this brainish apprehension kills the unseen good old man.

In other words, he kills Polonius.

Claudius recognizes he could have met the same fate had he been hiding with Polonius as he did in a previous scene and Claudia says oh heavy deed it had been so with us had we been there

now that us is the royal week.

What he's saying is I would have been killed too

if I'd been hiding behind the era

instead of Polonius or with Polonius.

...