In the scene this question seems to be referring to (late in Act 3, Scene 2), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bring Hamlet a message from Gertrude and Claudius, Hamlet's mother and stepfather. Claudius, they say, is "in his retirement marvellous distempered," which is to say that the play he's just seen, in which a king is murdered by a close relative who then marries his wife, has struck a little too close to home. This, of course, was Hamlet's intention in selecting the play: he expected Claudius to show his guilt if he saw his own crimes reflected. As a result, Hamlet simply toys with the two men, already knowing exactly why the king is so upset.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then tell him that his mother has asked to speak with him in her own private chamber; she hasn't failed to notice Hamlet's (fake) insanity, and she's hoping that she can talk some sense into him. Hamlet responds formally, using the royal "we" and the formal "you," indicating to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he doesn't value them as highly as he once did. The men respond by telling him in a few different ways that they still care about him and asking him to tell them what's wrong.
Grabbing a recorder (the "pipe" referenced in the text), Hamlet asks Guildenstern to play it for him, since he claims to be such a loyal and obliging friend. The conversation goes something like this: "Will you play this recorder for me?" "I can't." "Please?" "Believe me, I can't." "I'm begging you." "I don't know how." Hamlet then responds that it's "as easy as lying," implying that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have been lying to him (or at least hiding the truth) since they arrived, should have no trouble doing something just as simple. He points out the stops (the frets or holes in the recorder that you press to play the notes), but Guildenstern protests that he doesn't have the skill to make the instrument play actual music. This is where Hamlet gets to the point of all of this: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are trying to "play" him (play him for a fool, if you prefer), but it won't work. They've been trying to find his weaknesses ("stops"), sound him out so that they can tell Claudius everything about him, and otherwise get him to do what Claudius wants, but he knows what they're doing and he won't give in. They may think he's like the recorder they hold, easy enough to play, but he warns them that he won't be so easily taken in. Although they can fret him ("fret" meaning both "to annoy" or "to move one's fingers along the frets of an instrument"), they can't play him.
Hamlet's old school chums, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, have been summoned by Claudius to the Danish court to spy on their friend. They've been instructed to find out what's bugging Hamlet. However, Hamlet's no fool; he's on to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; he knows what they're up to, so he doesn't let on why he's been acting so strangely lately. Rosencrantz starts getting frustrated and tells Hamlet that he's not doing himself any favors if he doesn't tell his friends what's wrong with him.
Hamlet then resolves to teach his former friends a lesson. He takes a recorder and asks Guildenstern to play it. Guildenstern protests, saying that he doesn't know how. But it's easy, says Hamlet, you simply play the instrument like you've been playing me. Just as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tried to play Hamlet for a fool by pretending they'd come to Denmark to see him, so all Guildenstern has to do to play the recorder is put his fingers over the instrument's holes and blow into it. It doesn't matter if he can't make a melody; after all, "playing" Hamlet didn't get him to say what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wanted him to say. Playing a recorder is a cinch; it's as easy as lying, and you don't even have to produce a melody from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment