Reciting Shakespeare - Act 2 - Scene 2 - "I heard thee speak..." - 2015.10.28
Channel: Russ McClay
Date: 2015-10-29

Reciting a bit from Act 2, Scene 2 in Shakespeare's Hamlet.  

I started studying Shakespeare and particularly Hamlet for the first time about a year ago.  It's obvious I have no stage training, but memorizing and then reciting these bits brings me a special kind of satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment.  

This is one of my favorite bits in Hamlet, largely because it's a great example of Shakespeare brilliance in choosing ancient stories for his own stories.  Look up Aeneus, Dido, Priam or Pyrrus in a dictionary or on Wikipedia and be prepared for a very deep and rich history in mythologies, facts and fiction.

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The section recited is in Hamlet (II,ii):

HAMLET

I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the
play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
caviare to the general: but it was--as I received
it, and others, whose judgments in such matters
cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well
digested in the scenes, set down with as much
modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
indict the author of affectation; but called it an
honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and
thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of
Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin
at this line: let me see, let me see--
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'--
it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.'