Last night I was fortunate enough to see the Regents School of Austin performance of Hamlet. My friend Betsy Dupree directed the performance and did a wonderful job, and I look forward to attending more of the school’s plays in the future.
As a matter of fact, I had never encountered Hamlet although I had read other Shakespeare. I was mesmerized by the plot developments, how Hamlet’s feigned insanity created a mindlessly savage ending . . . I could go on. But this statement from Claudius stands out, at the end of his prayer for God’s forgiveness for his fratricide in Act III Scene 3:
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.Shakespeare reveals an important part of the prayer life even as he makes a crucial revelation of Claudius’ character; it’s a two line dissertation on devotion and given the drama of the scene, the viewer probably isn’t snoring when he hears it. This of course is not the first time Shakespeare brings out a divinity in the course of the play or even the act. I’d love to know of a good book that traced these pastorly-sounding lines throughout his works.
