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Commentary on Act III, scene iv
PRODUCTION NOTES:
Dumbshows were common features in many Renaissance plays. In Hamlet the Players perform a pantomime version of the “Murder of Gonzago” prior to the actual scene, which Hamlet fears may give away his plot too soon. However, dumbshows are rare in modern productions.
In the 1985 National Theater production (with Ian McKellan as Bosola), the scene opened with the Cardinal at prayer. As the Duchess approached him, he arose and suddenly slapped her, which was followed by a blackout, screams, thunder and lightning.
In our 1998 university production, we edited the scene with a few additional lines of dialogue to make a simply transition, two pilgrims commenting on the recent banishment, then the Duchess and Antonio entered.
FIRST PILGRIM:
What think you of this latest turn of fate
Which casts our noble
Duchess and her kin
Unkindly out of doors to face the cold?
SECOND PILGRIM:
Truly they are banished from Ancona's gates
Wherein they did seek
sanctuary from th'approaching storm.
FIRST PILGRIM:
But I would ask what power has this state
Of Ancona, to determine the
rights of a free prince?
SECOND PILGRIM:
Her brother showed
How that the Pope,
forebearing of her looseness,
Has seized into the protection of the Church
The dukedom which she held as dowager.
FIRST PILGRIM:
But by what justice?
SECOND PILGRIM:
Sure I think by none,
Only her brother's
instigation.
FIRST PILGRIM:
Tis strange: who would have thought
So great a lady would have
matched herself
Unto so lowly a person? Yet the
Cardinal
Bears himself much too cruel.
SECOND PILGRIM:
Alas, Antonio!
If a man be thrust into a
well,
No matter who sets hand to't, his own weight
Will bring him sooner
to th' bottom. Come let's hence.
