To Be, or Not to Be, I There's the Point
-Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the First (or Bad) Quarto
When it comes to Shakespeare, there is little doubt that he clipped, edited, and stole the storylines for many of his plays from story tellers throughout the ages. There's also little surprise that play goers and even actors would try to reconstruct his work to share with others. Thus, was born a "bad" Quarto, which to Shakespearean scholars, is a reproduction that was supposedly pirated - either written down shorthand as it was being heard, or even reconstructed from memory after a production. Because it is not linked to an actual scribing of the play, it is considered to be corrupt (prone to errors, paraphrasing, etc.), and thus, "bad".
This doesn't mean, however, that the plays as written in the Quarto were unplayable, just that they had significant drift and difference from their First Folio inscribings that many scholars call into question their veracity in terms of them being actually recorded as Shakespeare wrote them.
We asked Penczak what drew him to this piece of work. “The opportunity to counter scholars and critics,” he said, “who dismiss, or worse, snicker at it in comparison to [the Second Quarto, First Folio], and so on. I like to think I'm illuminating their dim view by demonstrating how actable it actually is.”
Joe Penczak is a fairly new professional actor but has been acting all his life. He “started a non-profit Theater company - Troupe of Friends - that mounts free Shakespeare in the park each summer.” We love this.
Joe Penczak as Hamlet in Hamlet (First Quarto):
THE MONOLOGUE: HAMLET (FIRST QUARTO), ACT III SCENE 1, HAMLET BY JOE PENCZAK
“To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full Quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.”
MORE ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE PROJECT
Our goal of Shakespeare from the Ground’s Monologue Project is to collect a library of Shakespearean monologues to share with our community for virtual entertainment while we are still socially distanced. You don’t need to be a professional actor to participate. If you’re inspired and ready to record, great! If you need help selecting your Shakespeare Monologue or getting it recorded, reach out and we’ll help you get the ball rolling. Are you ready to take to the boards once again…virtually?
