Beginning Hamlet: Period or Question Mark
After discussing the basic features of daylight performance on the large platform stage of the Globe, we begin to explore the opening exchanges, with one student performing Francisco, imagined as armed with a pike, and another performing Barnardo, imagined as wearing a sword. You can use a modern edited text and simply explain the alternate punctuation for the fourth speech, or you can start with the Q2 text. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were originally published in a small format known as a quarto because the sheets of paper that composed it were folded twice, creating four leaves that became eight pages. In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, a collected edition containing 36 plays was published in a large format known as a folio, in which the paper was folded only once, producing two leaves that became four pages. Hamlet exists in a quarto published in 1603 and known as Q1; in a much longer version, published in 1604—05, and known as Q2; and in the Folio, also called Fl. The Folio text omits passages included in Q2, includes passages not published in Q2, and presents numerous differences. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine provide a crisp introduction to these issues in their edition of the play [xlii-lii]; and Paul Bertram and Bernice Kliman’s parallel text edition provides a wonderfully convenient way to examine these differences, whether for purposes of research or designing classroom activities. The following passage is from their edition:
Enter Barnardo, and Francisco, two Centinels. Bar. Whose there
Fran. Nay answere me. Stand and vnfolde your selfe. Bar. Long Hue the King. Fran. Barnardo. Bar. Hee.
Fran. You come most carefully vpon your houre, Bar. Tis now strooke twelfe, get thee to bed Francisco. (Bertram and Kliman)
Barnardo calls out “Who’s there” and much to their surprise I ask a question: “What prompts Barnardo to speak” adding, “Your answer cannot be ‘That’s how the play begins!’ I am not asking ‘What makes the actor speak’ to which the answer can be ‘That’s what it says in the script!’ but rather ‘What makes the character speak his first words’ to which the answer must be something that happens on stage.”
Since it is night, Barnardo probably does not see Francisco, but something prompts him to call out. What might prompt him to speak Is it a sound, perhaps Francisco’s footsteps, perhaps his breathing, perhaps he makes a noise with his pike Or does Barnardo see a torch Or is he carrying a torch Or is there a torch held by a bracket in the upstage wall Or is there some other event that prompts him to call out.
They start again, and my second question is “What does Francisco do with his voice” Does he, for example, seek to intimidate a potential attacker by speaking as loudly as possible What else might he do with his voice. They start again and I ask, “What will Francisco do with his pike when he challenges the man whose voice startles him” If he has not already done so—and some students will intuitively do this—Francisco will realize he would lower the pike, pointing it in the direction of the voice. And since the period in his next speech indicates he is confident he knows the man approaching as the man scheduled to relieve him on sentry duty, Francisco probably feels safe enough to raise his pike back to its at rest position.
At this point, you can give them the Folio text or simply explain that in the Folio text Francisco’s second speech is punctuated with a question mark—”Earnardo”—and ask them to perform the segment again. Since Francisco says “Barnardo” he is not yet certain the speaker is Barnardo, and he is likely to keep his pike leveled at the stranger until his next speech, when he becomes certain and raises his pike back to its vertical position, and they move closer to one another.
Depending on your objectives, you can pause to articulate the fundamental points about how reading drama with an actor-like engagement differs from reading it as a literary text. (1) Whereas readers simply take the dialogue as a given, actors must motivate their speeches and actions, and, in particular, must motivate the first speech in a play or in a scene. (2) Actors must explore how to use every element—gestures, stage business, blocking, voice, address, and properties—in creating a realization of the script. (3) Actors must explore the signals provided by different elements of the text, even small elements such as punctuation. And they must experiment with the possible interactions of these elements. In this instance, we are asking, “What difference does it make whether ‘Barnardo’ is followed by a period or a question mark And how does Francisco use his weapon” Putting these two elements together, we are asking “How does the punctuation direct the actor in using the prop” or “How does Francisco’s weapon enable the actor to embody the punctuation”.
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