"The Tongue is Mightier Than The Blade"

Hamlet vs. Antony - A Socratic Dialogue in Tactical Differences

Michael Round

November 17, 2009

It was a chance meeting in the outer-echelon of Universe 11_I, when two ancient characters met.  This was Corridor 6 of the Simulacron, where the souls of those once living intermixed with the souls of those only known through the literary realm.

Real characters intermixing with fictional characters. 

The "I" in the universal reference system referred, of course, to "Intellect".  This was a meeting of the minds.

And it was here Hamlet met Mark Antony.

Actually, it was the other way around.

Mark Antony was strolling through the simulated park one evening when he came upon a despondent Hamlet.  Antony invited himself to occupy the empty half of the park bench.

"What's on your mind, friend?", Antony asked, cheerfully.

"Years ago - maybe centuries - my father was murdered.  In the course of my anger and urge for justice, all I loved - including me - were also killed.  And here I am."

"Centuries ago?"  Antony was poised to recommend, loudly, his new friend let history be history, and look to the future.  However, the look in the stranger's eyes suggested this would never be left alone.

"Tell me about your story," he offered instead.

"My father was the King of Denmark, until one day he unexpectedly died.  We attributed it to those accidental fates of life, until I learned otherwise."

"How did you come upon this new evidence?"

"My father told me."

"I thought you said he was dead?"

"It wasn't exactly him, you see.  It was ... his ghost who told me.  And he - it -  told me to seek vengeance against the murderer?"

"And that was ...?"

"My uncle.  My father's brother.  Claudius."

"That's quite a story.  What did you do?"

"I was hungry for vengeance, of course!"

"Of course!"

"But who would believe me?  My fellow citizens?  Would they take the word of a grieving son who had evidence from  a ghost?"

"Probably not."

A peculiar thought came to Mark Antony at this time.  He summarized it as follows: "Let me see if I understand your dilemma."  Antony picked up a stick and wrote in the dirt adjacent the park bench.

"This is your understanding of my problem?  What does it mean?"

"Simple enough.  You were caught in a bind.  You wanted to take action to avenge your father's murder.  What son wouldn't?  Why?  The simple answer was you wanted to be a good son.  Maybe a good person.  Some cliché like that."

"But something was holding you back, making you NOT want to take action regarding your father's murder.  What?  Condemnation by your fellow citizens?  They wouldn't believe you, listening to a ghost?  Maybe it's "You wanted to be a good citizen."

"Fair enough", said Hamlet.

"What did you do?"

"I came upon a plan to get Claudius to reveal himself as the killer!"

"Go on!", said Antony, excited.

"I decided to have a play performed with the King in audience.  I instructed the actors to carry out the play exactly as the ghost had told me my father was murdered."

"Why?"

"As my friend, Shakespeare, wrote ..."

Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaim'd their malefactions;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be the devil: and the devil hath power

To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds

More relative than this: the play 's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

"And I caught the conscience of the King!"

"No."

"Indeed I did!"

"But here you sit, despondent, after all these year - all these centuries - yet you solved your problem?"

"Well, I only wish it were that easy."

"Isn't it that easy?"

"Well - you see - I wanted him to pay - badly - I wanted his soul to suffer.  And in the end, my friends, my family, myself - all were killed."

"Now I understand.  You're mad because you made a tactical error."

"I guess."

"May I tell you my story, as it shares something in common with yours?"

"Your story - with mine?  By all means!"

"You know the story of Julius Caesar?"

"Vaguely - I'm not much a student of history, being locked in the fictional world my whole life."

"Then you may know - vaguely - a bit about me."

Hamlet searched his memories - "You're that Mark Antony?"

"I am."

"You, too, avenged the loss of a loved one!"

"Now wait a minute - it wasn't that easy."

"What do you mean, it wasn't that easy?  You and Octavius tracked down Cassius and Brutus, and the conspirators were eventually killed.  I know you!"

"If that's what you remember about me, you don't know the genius behind my plan."

"What do you mean?"

"Picture me at the capital in Rome.  There's Caesar about to speak, when Cinna, Cassius, and yes, dear friend Brutus, bludgeoning Caesar.  'Et tu, Brute', Shakespeare came to write, though I was there and didn't here Caesar say it."

"Go on."

"What was I to do?  I was right there when the yell went into the crowd about 'Liberty and Freedom'!"  This crowd didn't know what to think.  But forget them - what was I to do?"
"What do you mean?"

"I knew Caesar to be a good man, yet here he was slaughtered by his friends.  I wanted justice!  I wanted vengeance!"

A spark shone in Hamlet's otherwise despondent face.

"But ..."

"But is right", said Antony!  "Imagine if I had acted right there - or on my own in the future.  The crowd was now on there side!  I'd be the one burned at the stake!"

"So you had a dilemma almost the same as mine!"  Hamlet wrote a diagram side-by-side with the earlier narrative:

"Wonderful", said Antony.  "Our problems were identical."

"But here you are, all happy, while I sit here, dejected.  What did you do to solve your problem?  Maybe it will help me understand what I should have done!"

"I asked to give the funeral oration of Caesar."

"And what would you say?  What could you say?  Surely the conspirators were hesitant to let you talk."

"Of course.  I had to be careful.  I had to start out talking as though I were on the side of the conspirators - or at least sympathetic to their cause.  Line by line, I led that crowd along until, at the end, the conspirators were in an all-out sprint to get out of there, the crowd - and me - in hot pursuit!  Here's what I said ..."

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;

The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones,

So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,

(For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all; all honourable men)

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ...

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man….

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

"That's it?"

"What do you mean, 'That's it'?  If it's so easy, why didn't you do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we had the same problem - the exact same problem.  Yours was maybe a bit more difficult than mine, but you came up with a brilliant idea, and got the King to reveal himself!  And then you flubbed it.  One missing thing ...

"And this one missing thing - effectively communicating the idea - is what I did!"

At this time, a third gentleman, older, came strolling by.  "Exactly."

Now Hamlet was really perplexed.  "What do you mean, 'Exactly'?  Exactly what?"

"Exactly what I've been saying for all these years!"

"What have you been saying for all these years?  Who are you?"

"My name is Euripides, and I've been saying for centuries:

THE TONGUE IS MIGHTIER THAN THE BLADE!"

Stay tuned for Part II of III, where our friends meet a soldier from the present ... a present-day conflict metaphorically identical to our issues above.

A CLOSING THOUGHT

The Series Continues - 3 down.  But this is more than just a quick-review of the works of Shakespeare.  The intention of this series is much more.  "Cliff notes" hardly help the reader, in my opinion.  The goal of these "Quick-Start" booklets is to give the reader a great overview of the story and the logic of the flow they can then pick up the actual play, read it, and know exactly what's going on. 

But understanding Shakespearean plays is only one of at least four goals here. 

1. Understanding Shakespeare;

2. Finding the similarities and differences between the stories;

3. Leveraging general principles to understand the world, and ourselves ...;

4. Applying metaphorically - and contextually - scenes and quotes to our own lives.  If a friend has said something bad behind your back, be prepared to say ... "And this was the most unkindest cut of all."  If someone is going on and on - and on, don't say, "Brevity is the soul of wit".  Everyone says that.  The Queen's response to Polonius is the great response when you're impatient:  "More matter, with less art"!  But to apply metaphorically the lines means to know the lines - and contexts.  Hence, this is Goal #4!