Playing with Actors: Deleted Scenes from the First Paper

During my research for my first paper, which focused on Polonius from Hamlet, I discovered a very interesting article relating to the term actor vs player, and the implied meanings that these terms contained for Shakespeare's era. Unfortunately, I felt it was too tangential to include in my paper, despite it's interesting findings. But alas, that is how the editing process goes sometimes. Having been unable to reflect upon this article in my paper, I would like to expand upon my reflections in the blog.

Let us start with the infamous lines from which I speak:

Hamlet: My lord, you play’d once i’ th’ university, you say?  

Polonius: That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.  

Hamlet: What did you enact? 

Polonius: I did enact Julius Caesar. I was kill’d i’ th’ Capitol;  Brutus killed me.

Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.
Be the players ready?
(3.2.98 – 107)

There are actually two places in which Hamlet mocks Polonius in small interchange, the second, involving the calf reference, has many loaded connotations which I analyze in detail in my paper, the first though is quite interesting in itself, though perhaps more subtle to modern audiences. The interchange provides a very interesting situation which creates a layered pun. On the surface, the very fact that Polonius uses the term 'actor' and then Hamlet responds with "what did you enact"(italics mine), shows the surface level in which Hamlet may be playing at Polonius's position at court. That is easy enough even for modern audiences to interpret. But, there is another level to the pun when put into a historical context.

The second level of this pun can be seen as what is known as a company joke: "Commentators have seen a company joke here, referring to the roles taken by these same actors in recent performances of Julius Caesar."(Bishop 65). Theater was the equivalent of movies for modern audiences, and just as the same big name actors often populate the summer blockbuster films, the same actors would obviously be recognizable across the various productions by the theater troop. Shakespeare was probably well aware of this, and had no problem poking fun at the idea of a familiar actor.

To even increase the complexity, I am going to argue that there is even a third layer embedded in this pun.  The pun can be looked at in the context of the language of the time. This was a time when theater was beginning to regain it's stature as a respected art form, and there was a huge debate going on in popular culture of the time over whether "actor" or "player" was the correct term to use for theater performers. Tom Bishop explains the pun in this way:

Polonius’s preference for avoiding the vocabulary of players and playing here suggests something about the contest between two sets of terms for the theater around 1600... A quick inspection of Shakespeare’s use of the terms player and actor reveals... that player or playing is the usual professional term, while actor tends to designate an amateur. Perhaps related to this distinction, and building on the difference in prestige, actor also tends to occur in Shakespeare in situations of praise, player of dispraise. (Bishop 66)

This use of conflicting terms seems to show Shakespeare, through Hamlet, being facetious about the issue. Hamlet refers to the theater performers as "players", and treats them very professionally and with great respect. Polonius, on the other hand, refers to himself as an "actor", which can be seen as an attempt to be snooty or "high-brow" by using the latinate term. Hamlet mocks Polonius by responding with "enact", an obvious play on "actor". Hamlet obviously does not see Polonius as particularly good at anything, especially theater, considering just a few scenes earlier Hamlet made fun of Polonius getting bored with all but the most bawdy or violent of plays. Hamlet is being facetious, knowing Polonius won;t understand that he is actually being made fun of, not praised. This playing of words can be seen as Shakespeare making fun of the fuss that critics are making over the term, as much as Hamlet is making fun of Polonius.

Works Cited

Bishop, Tom. "Shakespeare’s Theater Games." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 40.1 (2010): 65-88. Print.