(We’re mashing up current events with Hamlet, the whole play, and you can start here in the middle or with this post.)

Hamlet has just uncovered that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s business model involves selling his online data to advertisers; that is, that King Claudius ordered them to spy on him. Even though he now knows the cameras and microphones are live, and in Claudius/Biden’s America always will be, Hamlet in his large-heartedness finds himself confiding in them.  (Your secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather means their promise to the king and queen won’t be compromised):

Hamlet: “…so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and
your secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather. I have of late –
but wherefore I know not. – lost all my mirth, forgone all custom
of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition
that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory;
this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging
firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it
appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors…”

You couldn’t find a better expression of an adolescent’s pandemic shutdown depression. Shakespeare sees all. But then Hamlet, even as the joy he has taken in living shrinks, enlarges himself to say this:

Hamlet: “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express
and 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? Man delights
not me; no, nor woman either,…”

Time and again, we see Hamlet’s fellow-feeling and generosity of spirit persist even as his own connection to the world drains away. It is almost as if the less of a stake he retains in the world, the more clearly he can appreciate its wonders. It’s like Trump smiling on the golf course, even after all that was done to him.

Struggling to cheer Hamlet up, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, RINOs though they are, mention to him that on their way to Elsinore, they overtook a troupe of traveling players that was coming to the court. Hamlet is delighted, and even as they’re speaking, the players arrive:

Hamlet: “Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. …..You are welcome.
But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived,”

Guildenstern: “In what, my dear lord?”

Hamlet: “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

[Polonius enters]

Polonius: “Well be with you gentlemen!”

Hamlet: “…Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.”

1st Player: “What speech, my lord?”

Hamlet: “…I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never
acted….’Twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially
when he speaks of Priam’s slaughter, If it live in your memory,
begin at this line; let me see, let me see…”.

In the ancient Greek tale of the Aeneid, the slaughter of Priam, the Trojan king, is performed by Pyrrus, Achilles’ avenging son. An avenging son. Ah. So that would be Hamlet, and all of us. The player gives the speech at great length. Here’s a taste of it: (His antique sword refers to Priam’s sword, which he can no longer wield; fell means terrifying):

First Player: “…His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
Th’ unnerved father falls….”

Repugnant to command. The hand refusing the orders of the will. Ah. Is that what’s happening to all of us in the face of the extraordinary surveillance powers of the tech oligarchs, the willingness of corporations (NBA, Nike) and other powerful institutions (NCAA, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Gates Foundation) to censor and cancel us? Well, let’s see what happens in Act V. The Player continues, to Hamlet’s delight, though not to Polonius’:

Pol: “This is too long.”

Hamlet: “It shall to the barber’s with your beard, – Prithee, say on.
He’s for a jug or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on…”

The players do say on, and after their impromptu performance, Hamlet directs Polonius to make sure they are well paid and taken care of.

(Desert means what they deserve):

Hamlet: “…Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed?
Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and
brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have
a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.”

Polonius: “My lord, I will use them according to their desert.”

Polonius believes in Critical Race Theory, which is a form of cultural Marxism. Remember, Marxism says we are all slaves to our socio-economic class. The rich must oppress and the poor must be oppressed. And CRT says that we are slaves to our race. White people must oppress and people of color must be oppressed. And it’s eternal; you know, systemic. Hamlet’s answer dispenses with this dangerous childishness:

Hamlet: “Use every man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape
whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity. The less
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.”

More tomorrow, and I hope you’re enjoying!