 You've often heard that old saying things are not always what they seem Well, let us be brutally frank with you tonight and say that it is our happy duty to demolish completely that ridiculous little phrase With this objective reappraisal Things are always and only what they seem it depends entirely on the point of view It is upon this premise then that tonight we would like you to take a closer look at Hamlet Prince of Denmark From Hollywood CBS radio presents the CBS radio workshop Dedicated to man's imagination the theater of the mind Tonight transcribed for your amusement or fury according to your temperament or philosophy another point of view or Hamlet Revisited being an analytical misrepresentation of Shakespeare's greatest hero figure Compiled especially for the workshop by Ben Wright and William Conrad and now once again here is mr. Conrad Now with regard to Hamlet It seems a little more than strange to us and historical debate gives us grounds that if Hamlet were such a hero in Denmark He would automatically have been elected king upon the death of his father and yet he was not We wonder why Again, it seems highly probable that Claudius did not kill Hamlet's father purely from jealousy or desire to use at the throne But simply because he was a patriot with the highest moral motives who realized that the danger to Denmark made the removal of a useless king a national necessity and again historical debate gives us most valid grounds for this supposition and Finally it occurs to us that there was really nothing rotten in the state of Denmark, but Hamlet made it so You will of course demand proof and proof you shall have Firstly, however, we must confess that though we use only the words of the Bart of Avon in our drama We've had to make deep and prolonged cuts for the sake of timing for the play uncut as of course You're all well aware run some four and a half hours Well without further ado ladies and gentlemen, we present for your consideration another point of view or Hamlet revisited Our scene Denmark Elsinor Castle The new king Claudius has been enthroned and having offered himself in marriage to his brother's widow Gertrude has been accepted by her Most gratefully for she is well realized that marriage to Claudius will mean not only happiness and security for herself But will provide a strong and guiding hand for her moody and difficult son young Hamlet and Here on our first scene Claudius is trying most sincerely to make friends with his stepson Now my cousin Hamlet and my son a little more than kin and less than kind How is it that the clouds still hang on you? Not so my lord. I'm too much of the Sun Now Claudius rather taken aback by this unpleasant bit of double-talk But determined to make a go of things looks pleadingly to his queen for a little help in the awkward conversation Gertrude ever helpful tries this piece of sensible advice on Hamlet. Good Hamlet cast thy knighted color off and let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark Do not forever with veiled lids seek for thy father in the dust Thou knowest is common all that lives must die Passing through nature to eternity. I madam It is common if it be Why seems it so particular with thee seems madam? Nay, it is Well, obviously the young man is annoyed at mama too But the Claudius dear soul that he is is quite determined to be in the true sense of the word a dad to his stepson And is now prepared to jackknife backwards to keep the peace for let's not forget that this little altercation takes place in front of the entire court So how is this for a beautiful piece of understanding and moderation? It is sweet and commendable in your nature Hamlet to give these morning duties to your father But we pray you throw to earth this unprevailing woe and think of us as of a father For let the world take note you are the most immediate to our throne and With no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son Do I am part toward you and we beseech you? Bend you to remain here in the cheer and comfort of our eye our chiefest courtier cousin and our son Let not thy mother lose her prayers Hamlet. I pray thee stay with us I shall in all my best obey you madam And now surely you've got to admit that that's just about as petulant as stamp of the foot as you can look for in a month of ballet Rehearsals and rather ugly behavior for a hero Now does Claudius swing one at Hamlet for this bald is she frontry? He does not and why? Because he is obviously read all the books about bringing up children properly and knows very well the dangers of submitting them to the Traumatic shocks of anger Now the dear oh Claudius a dad is very simply a dad and he's duty bound to see the youngster through the Difficult years and let's not forget for one second that our young Hamlet is only 31 or 32 at the most Now note this for a superb example of turning the other cheek Hamlet has just Suckingly mild I shall in all my best obey you madam to which Claudius says it is a loving and a fair reply Be as our self in Denmark now quite honestly. Have you ever heard anyone be so warm or charming yet? This is Claudius speaking the very man that we are asked nay forced to call villain Now to expand our premise. Let's listen to a fragment of Hamlet's outlook on life Of course, he comes downstage center for this as he is want to do with all his little pleasantries Oh that this too-too solid flesh would melt Thor and resolve itself into a dew Or that the everlasting had not fixed his cannon against self slaughter No God God How weary stale flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world Well, one could say that that's a fairly unhealthy attitude toward life, but let's try to be understanding Understanding let's try to be as understanding as Claudius now. Perhaps Hamlet is sick with love After all the court Chamberlain has a most attractive daughter miss Polonius or Ophelia to her friends and Hamlet has certainly been playing a bit of footy-footy with a much to the distress of her father For even Polonius seems to have a pretty good idea of Hamlet's moral worth Consider now his advice to her for the Lord Hamlet do not believe his vows for they are brokers Not of that die, which their investments show but mere implorators of unholy suits breathing like Sanctified and pious boards the better to be guile This is for all. I would not Inclaim terms from this time forth. Have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet Look to it. I charge you Now of course Ophelia is not a particularly bright girl and not a very stable character either In fact pretty easily knocked off balance as we find out all too soon But back to Hamlet for a moment It might be well at this time to point out that our young hero suffers from hallucinations You will remember of course that he's convinced that he's had a long chat with the ghost of his deceased father Also that papa's spirit has begged him to avenge his death etc etc etc. Now, of course Unfortunately, we cannot prove that Hamlet is a chronic alcoholic But it is not beyond the realm of possibility that on the night in question. He may have had Well, let us say one too many However for the moment Hamlet does nothing about revenge Merely contending himself with a visit to his lady fair to do a little courting and the effect on affiliate is not surprising She comes belting into her father not only bewildered, but terrified my lord listen What is the matter? Oh, I lost my lord. I've been so frightened with what to the name of God My lord is I was sewing in my chamber Lord Hamlet with his doublet all embraced no hat up on his head His stockings fouled and guarded and down jive into his ankle pale with his shirt His knees knocking each other. He comes before me married for thy love my lord I do not know but truly I do fear it what said he he took me by the wrist and held me hard Then goes he to the length of all his arm and with his other hand this or his brow He falls to such perusal of my face as he would draw it long steady. So Now a question gentle listener As the boy next door ever behaved in that manner toward your daughter I mean when she was just sitting there on the front porch tending to her knitting Well, that's pretty frightening behavior. Don't you think and it would take a good deal of understanding? Understanding a quality in which more than anything else our Claudius abounds The very first thing he does when he realizes that Hamlet not only is a problem But has one is to invite regardless of expense to the management to have Hamlet's old school friends to Elsinor for a long vacation Hoping that they may get Hamlet out of himself with a few brisk games of ping-pong or croquet or whatever And how does Hamlet react to all this? The usual gambit. He is abominably rude to his friends suspects them of treachery An incipient paranoic if there ever was one and finally having dismissed them in a most cavalier fashion Cuts back sharply at what he feels about his stepfather poor old Claudius Well, this time we're only going to give you a snippet of the speech because Well, it's really rather frightening Bloody, bawdy, villain Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kind-less, villain Very unstable this young prince and rather a cad too as you must agree when you hear our next scene Do you recall what our hero says to little Ophelia the girl whom he has professed to love? I did love you once indeed my lord you made me believe so you should not have believed me I loved you not I was the more deceived get thee to a nunnery Why would so be a breeder of sinners help him you sweet heavens if thou dost marry? I'll give thee this plague for dowry be thou as chaste as ice as pure as snow thou shalt not escape Calumny Get thee to a nunnery Or if the wilt needs marry marry a fool For wise men know well what monsters you make of them Now honestly doesn't that rather shock you? Well, there's more yet for instance has it ever struck you how conceited Hamlet is a veritable know-it-all You remember in what terms he talks to the actors when they visit Elsinore for a one-night stand. No Listen speak the speech. I pray you as I pronounced it to you trippingly on the tongue But if you mouth it as many of your players do I had as leaf the town crier spoke my lines Now isn't that a gracious little speech one might suppose that a professional theater company might know how to read their lines Therefore it seems that our hero figure is not only a cad appallingly ill-mannered but conceited beyond belief and Now we must add to these strange hero virtues his extraordinary propensity for intrigue Yes, that's right intrigue You must realize that since the day the crown was ripped Unceremoniously from his grimy little fingers Hamlet has gone his petulant way Making life just as difficult as possible for his uncle Quartius But he finally really gets down to business and comes up with his Unpleasant a piece of underhanded nonsense as you could wish for what This I'll have these players play something like the murder of my father before my uncle I'll observe his looks. I'll tent him to the quick if he but blench. I'll know my course Item gift from Hamlet to stepfather Claudius and mummy to on the aisle for this gloomy little one actor Charming it but Claudius goes along with it for he wants more than anything else to make Hamlet happy And so the evening arrives and the stage is set the audience assembles and The play begins The drama proceeds and as it draws toward the end a quiet uneasiness falls over the audience And now the death scene It takes place in a garden the player king lies down to take a nap The onlookers have long since caught the parallel to their own king and they wait Expectantly breathlessly for the entrance of the serpent Ah, but wait, there will be no servant in a moment an entrance will be made by the king's brother He will creep quietly to the king's side and pour a vial of poison into the king's ear. He's making his entrance now. Listen Poor old boy, you know, it's no wonder he's upset who wants to be Continually reminded of past unpleasantnesses of that sort after all it was a necessity of state wasn't it? Ah, but Hamlet. Well, our hero is feeling just dandy. Thank you Here he is now that there is so successfully cleared the hole It is now the very witching time of night When church yards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on Well, that's about as quaint a set of night thoughts as you could wish for Yet it is in this same frame of mind that our young friend trots upstairs to kiss mommy goodnight But enroute he happens to pass the open door beyond which he sees his badly shaken stepfather at his prayers We are now permitted to hear another side of Hamlet's nature, which frankly makes our hair curl and only heightens our compassion for poor old Claudius Softly now come in a bit closer Now that's it what rests now Try what repentance can What can it not? wretched state Now might I do it Pat now he is praying and now I'll do it And so he goes to heaven No Absurd and know thou a more horrid hand When he has drunk the sleeper in his rage at gaming Swearing or about some act that has no relish of salvation in it Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven and that his soul may be as damned and black as hell Where to it goes Now we feel that that is pretty revealing However having delivered himself of these few kind words our hero pops in to say goodnight to mama Well now we're very sorry But we simply cannot bring ourselves to tell you what he says to mommy in there Nor what he does in a bedroom But you can take it from us that when he leaves mama is due for quite a heavy dose of phenobarbital In order to catch 40 winks that night the following scene However will give you a pretty fair wrinkling as to what happened as Gertrude rushes madly into her husband's chamber. Oh my good lord What have I seen tonight what Gertrude what does Hamlet mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier in his lawless fit behind the aris hearing something stir He whips his rapier out and cries a rat a rat and in this brain ish apprehension kills the unseen good old man It had been so with us and we've been there this liberty is full of threats for all to you yourself to us to everyone Last how shall this bloody deed be answer? Well, there you are Do you have a pen knife handy good Notch one killing for Claudius done for the common good call him villain now notch one murder for Hamlet None solely because Polonius happens to have been eavesdropping in the queen's bedchamber However, call Hamlet hero so far so good one apiece even Steven But meanwhile back in the throne room Claudius realizing that things are getting a little out of hand with his fractious boy has made a decision He's subtly leads up to it Now Hamlet, where's Polonius at supper At supper where not where he eats but where he is eaten a certain Convocation of politic worms are Ian at him. What does that mean by this? Where is Polonius in heaven? So did the to see if your messenger find it not there seek him in the other place yourself But indeed if you find him not within this month, you shall knows him as you go up the stairs into the lobby Hamlet This deed for thine the special safety which we do tender as we dearly grieve for that which thou has done Must send the hence with fiery quickness Therefore prepare thyself the mark is ready and the wind at help the associates tend and everything is bent for England for England I hamlet Good Did you expect a touch of remorse from our hero perhaps? Oh, no not a bit of it one word. That's all good However, you haven't forgotten Ophelia. Have you well, we should hope not that's right the rather dim but pretty young thing that Hamlet has cared for so gently here she comes now and sad to say Is nutty as a fruitcake? Well with reason though after all her lover has just made a pen cushion of her poor old father There's nothing to be done about it There's Rosemary that's for remembrance pray love remember and there's pensies That's for thoughts and there's fennel for you and Columbine's there's room for you and here's some for me We may call it our Brasso Sunday's and really not come again and well And there she goes out of doors down to the nearest stream and then Plunk right into the middle of it to do a little boating on her back with flowers for company fatal of course she drowns however box score for murder Claudius villain one Hamlet hero two unless you want to quibble about Ophelia's death being accidental We don't we say murder notch to for Hamlet But at least Claudius has finally gotten Hamlet out of the country with his two chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and that certainly must have been a relief, but it didn't last long though No backbouncers happy Hamlet having in the meantime Contrive the death of both of his dear old school chums and why oh Some delusion that they were going to have him killed in England and in fact He mentions as evidence a letter that he is supposed to have seen expressly ordering this written by Kindly old Claudius now what can one think after all what a young man believes in Ghosts and is quite convinced that he's had a long chat with one a ghost mark you We feel that a pinch of salt is indicated Now then with our hero back home again and in fine-fettle here is the murder score for the second half Claudius one Hamlet four and Do you know what he does the first crack out of the box on his homecoming? He makes a circus out of his fiance's funeral and right in front of her brother Learty's to and the whole court Well, here's Learty's now quite understandably mourning his loss. Oh treble whoa Full ten times treble on that cursed head whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense deprived the of Hold off the earth the while Till I've caught her once more at my arms and then Hamlet a little jealous of Learty's being Downstage center and feeling that he should get in on the act pops up with this. What is he whose grief bears such an emphasis? This is I Hamlet the dame Oh Why I will fight with him upon this theme until my eyelids will no longer wag. Oh my son. What theme I loved Ophelia 40,000 brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my some What would thou do for her? Would weep would fight would fast would tear Thyself does thou come here to whine to out face me with leaping in her grave Be buried quick with her and so will I I'll rant as well as thou and He does too Well ladies and gentlemen We are now rapidly approaching the end of our play and it's well worth bearing in mind that it is not until the end of The play approaches that our friend Claudius causes us Slight twinge of uneasiness. Oh, yes, you're quite right the dual scene and the poison swords Now let me ask you another question At what point would your patience have run out put yourself in that place and in that time? Now here is Claudius the head of a state threatened with invasion by the power hungry young Fortenbross of Norway and Claudius is trying desperately to put that state in order and he might well have had a good chance Had it not been for his stepson Hamlet he has done everything in his power to keep Hamlet on an even keel. He has in fact Then kindness itself while Hamlet with great precision is knocking off one by one his entire court and finally has the bead drawn on Le Attis Now we feel that Le Attis cannot be blamed for hating the man who was directly Responsible for the death of his dear sister who also secured his papa without so much as an I beg your pardon And in all fairness we cannot blame Claudius for helping Le Attis to his revenge Now unfortunately being a little pressed for time. We have had to condense the last scene the dueling scene However, we feel that you're all familiar with the gory details So we will just make the pertinent points and they are as follows Yes, there goes Gertrude poison, you know And that of course will be the end of Le Attis. Yes poison on the end of the sword And that was poor old Claudius and here come Yes, that's right Hamlet Now let us move in ladies and gentlemen and here Hamlet's last speech his dying speech for here We make a point and a big one as you shall discover for with his last breath Our hero proves himself beyond the doubt a traitor to Denmark Oh, I die Horatio The potent poison quite or crows my spirit. I Cannot live to hear the news from England But I do prophesy the election lights on fought in brass He has my dying voice You have just heard Hamlet Prince of Denmark cast his vote for Fortenbrass of Norway relentless and savage enemy of Hamlet's own country and That is our last point ladies and gentlemen To recapitulate then qualities for our hero Hamlet He is vain bad-mannered suffers from paranoic delusions is an intrigue a cad and a traitor But for our villain Claudius He is patient kindly and understanding a bounds with moral courage love and selfless patriotism Final score in the Scandinavian murder stakes villain Claudius one Hero Hamlet by means both direct and indirect seven There you are ladies and gentlemen that is our case And we rest it Oh, oh one final note Did you realize that the Danish name Amblath or Hamlet in its anglicized form means? The bungler Good night CBS radio has presented the CBS radio workshop tonight another point of view or Hamlet Revisited this scandalous misrepresentation was transcribed and produced by Antony Ellis and written by Ben Wright and William Conrad The felony was compounded by mr. Conrad's direction Those aiding and abetting with portrayals were Ben Wright John McIntyre Jeanette Nolan Sammy Hill and Fred Mackay music was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. This is Hugh Douglas Here's exciting news You may enjoy reading who's who on the CBS radio workshop in the current issue of TV radio mirror magazine Many of the performers on radio workshop are pictured in rehearsal and future shows are outlined all of us associated with CBS radio Workshop say thanks to TV radio mirror Stay tuned for five minutes of CBS news to be followed on most of these stations by my son Jeep