Trust in Princes

Hamlet as the "Ill-Made Knight." How many of us have wrestled with the character of Hamlet? Was he insane? Was he feigning insanity? Did his "antic disposition" lead him into insanity? And what about all the contradictions? Contemplative down to his very marrow, yet everything he does on stage is on impulse. A likeable character (witty, a punster, and a rhymer--even his uncle admits of "the great love the general gender bear him"), yet he is responsible for one of the larger "body counts" in any stage production. Theories for his "particular" behavior abound. Trust in Princes takes its cue from T. H. White's Sir Lancelot in Once and Future King, offering up an adolescent Hamlet as an "Ill-Made Knight" of sorts. Herein, Hamlet's desire to be a good king, like his father, runs into a growing low self-image that crumbles all the more as he deals with a problematic, lustful thought-life--an almost double life. As he comes to rely on the good character of all those around him whom he loves, we see building in him tremendous relationships--two loving parents, a sweet Ophelia, a trustworthy Horatio, praiseworthy Laertes (his hero), the affectionate mentorship of Yorick (the king's jester), and the sound tutelage of Marcellus (in this story, the master of the sword). Will these relationships see him through the storms of life, or will he descend into that feared insanity, reeling in disillusionment as he learns the truth: that the biblical injunction, "Put not your trust in Princes," has a double edge to it?

-- Julian Marck