Comparing Productions of Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii. (Part 3 of 4)

A short excerpt from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2 as seen in multiple film productions.

Part 1 includes:

Sir Laurence Olivier and Felix Aylmer (Hamlet - 1948)
Sir Derek Jacobi and Eric Porter (Hamlet - 1980)
Iain Glen and Ian Richardson (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - 1990)
Mel Gibson and Ian Holm (Hamlet - 1990)

Part 2 includes:

Kenneth Branagh and Richard Briers (Hamlet - 1996)
Ethan Hawke and Bill Murray (Hamlet - 2000)
David Tennant and Oliver Ford Davies (Hamlet - 2009)

Part 3 includes:

Richard Burton and Hume Cronyn (Hamlet - 1964)
Tony & David Meyer and Quentin Crisp (Hamlet - 1976)
Wilson Belchambers and Lydia Piechowiak (Hamlet - 2007)
William Houston and David Powell-Davies (Hamlet - 2003)

Part 4 includes:

Kevin Kline and Josef Summer (Hamlet - 1990)
Innokenti Smoktunovsky and Yuri Tolubeyev (Gamlet - 1964)
Pirkka-Pekka Petelius and Esko Nikkari (Hamlet liikemaailmassa - 1987)
Adrian Lester and Bruce Myers (Hamlet - 2002)



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LORD POLONIUS O, give me leave: How does my good Lord Hamlet?

HAMLET Well, God-a-mercy.

LORD POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord?

HAMLET Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

LORD POLONIUS Not I, my lord.

HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man.

LORD POLONIUS Honest, my lord!

HAMLET Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

LORD POLONIUS That's very true, my lord.

HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?

LORD POLONIUS I have, my lord.

HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't.

LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord?

HAMLET Words, words, words.

LORD POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord?

HAMLET Between who?

LORD POLONIUS I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLET Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.

LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

HAMLET Into my grave.

LORD POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' the air. Aside How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.

LORD POLONIUS Fare you well, my lord.

HAMLET These tedious old fools!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• hamlet
• polonius
• comparison
• shakespeare
• claudius
• richard burton
• hume cronyn
• william houston
• Quentin Crisp
• fishmonger

[tambourinechick]

I love comparing film versions! But that second clip was . . . um . . .

different . . .

[Mithracalin]

I know you have probably posted these videos a long while ago, and may not be keeping up with the comments anymore. However, that being said these videos were incredibly useful for me in creating a final paper in my Shakespear & Film class as I was doing close analysis of the gestures and characterization of various actors portraying Hamlet.

Thank you very much for these videos, I appreciate the time you took to put them up and they were very useful to me.

[Gumblej6ck]

Ooh, now I really want to see William Houston's version.

[Thorne42]

The other three clips in this video plae in comparison to Richard Burton and Hume Cronyn's. Their's was absolutely fantastic!