Hamlet is the Thing

Thou dost not need be a Shakespeare elite
to comprehend CliffsComplete.

I doth not protest too much when I say
that the commentary therein translates the play.

The introduction tells of Shakespeare and a history of his times--
which provided the inspiration for his plays and rhymes.

The play on page left; the notes on page right
is the staging of each scene within the reader's sight.

The commentary makes its entrance at the end of the scenes.
Then explains in overall-fashion what it all means.

Hamlet is the play, and the play is the thing.
Hold fast and mark what the plot shall bring.

Hamlet

Within Hamlet thou shalt find many a cliche.
They are common in speech and common in the play.

They take root within us and grow in our minds
and commonly cling to us like clinging vines:

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

"There is method in the madness."

"Conscience makes cowards of us all."

And let us not forget Hamlet's soliloquy
of "To be or not to be...".

So here is born that famed soliloquy
within the plot I shall summarize for thee.

Soldiers on duty hath seen a ghost
and ask Horatio to verify what they saw.

The ghost is Hamlet's father, the rightful king,
according to Denmark's law.

Hamlet is summoned and is told by his father that he, the father, was murdered by Hamlet's uncle Claudius who now wears the crown.

Claudius married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet swears he will avenge his father's death, and that Claudius will go down.

Though, revenge is easier said than done.
Hamlet loses Ophelia whose heart he has won.

To her father, Polonius, she must be true.
Spying on Hamlet for Claudius is what Polonius must do.

Trippingly on the tongue the play's players act the play within the play
to trip up Claudius for Hamlet, to trap Claudius' guilt that way.

To kill Claudius, Hamlet contemplates when.
Not while Claudius prays. Hamlet cannot kill him then.

Why doth all these things happen thou may wonder.
Why doth Hamlet's life blow asunder?

If the play is the thing,
the answers it will bring.

Therefore, the answers are the thing.
What more can I say?

Read the thing
and thou shalt know the play.