by
F.H.G. Percy
Madness in Elsinore is Sanity in Southwark
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F.H.G. Percy has produced an indispensable addition to annotated texts of Hamlet, all of which reveal uncertainty or ignorance of the
meaning of many textual enigmas. His examination of Hamlet's 'mad' remarks ' he never talks nonsense ' made in seriousness or jest,
determines a continuous thread of topical allusions, readily understood by the audience at the theatre, prompted by Polonius's signal
to them in his asides: 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't', and 'How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness
that madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of.'. |
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Here such cruxes as 'You're a fishmonger', 'I am but mad north-north-west', 'I know a hawk from a handsaw', 'the hobby-horse is
forgot' and many more editorial problems have been solved. |
| No reader, playgoer, student, teacher, actor, even director of Hamlet can fail to improve their understanding of the play by reading this fresh, original yet scholarly examination of the most daunting drama of the English stage. |
Illustrated 112 pages Paperback 210x148mm ISBN 0-95183-2-4
£12.50 ( plus £1.00 P&P)
Orders to the publisher, M. Legat, Rosmic Books,
Bookends, Lewes Road, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex RH17 7DP