Critics have been commenting on Hamlet since the mid 1600’sand just about every feature that’s in (and not in) the play has been covered. But it’s only recently that the very first part of the opening scene has come in for any notice. I have used this scene for years in my “everything (almost) you need to know about Shakespeare” lecture because it demonstrates Shakespeare’s dramaturgical skills and at the same time shows what an Elizabethan playwright was up against in almost every play: no set, no lighting except the afternoon sun (or rain) and only a few effects (a trap door, a balcony, live sounds.) And yet Elizabethan theatre – especially the tragedies – rely on atmosphere for success. How was it done?

Let me remind you of the text:

Enter Bernardo and Francisco two Centinels.

Bernardo: Who’s there?

Francisco: Nay answer me: Stand & unfold your selfe.

Bernardo: Long live the King.

Francisco: Bernardo?

Bernardo: He.

Francisco: You come most carefully upon your houre.

Bernardo: ‘Tis now strook twelve, get thee to bed Francisco.

Francisco: For this releef much thankes: ‘Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.

Bernardo: Have you had quiet Guard?

Francisco: Not a Mouse stirring.

Bernardo: Well, goodnight. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus. The Rivals of my Watch, bid them make hast.

           First Folio text.

Now, many things can be said about this opening. One can argue, politically, that there is a need for posted guards because war agains tNorway is in the offing. Or that the scene establishes the locality of Elsinore(which it really doesn’t). Or that it gives the audience time to be quiet.

But it is very important to be clear on exactly what is happening here and how Shakespeare uses a seemingly innocuous dialogue between two unimportant characters to set up the appearance of the ghost scene and, indeed, the rest of the play. Because the moment seems innocuous it was, indeed, missed by early editors and commentators and also because it did some of the basic playwrighting grunt work that we no longer tend to need, or think we need or even recognize. For example, I can think of almost no modern production of Hamlet – stage or screen (outside the modern Globe) – that presents this scene in afternoon light. But that very Elizabethan afternoon light was the primary reason for the opening line: “Bernardo?” It’s too dark (in the play, not the Globe) for Francisco to see him clearly (torch or not) and this is how Shakespeare ‘shows’ that to us. This is just one example of the playwright doing the work of the lighting designer, to tell us that it is dark (without having the character state baldly as in the first scene of The Seagull, “My how dark it gets at night”), reinforced by “’Tis now strook twelve”.

So, what is going on here? Darkness, fear, foreboding, weariness and cold. When Bernardo says, “Who’s there”? (and he may have shouted it or he might even have whispered it) he is showing us that he cannot see in the darkness and that he is so frightened that he has forgotten the simplest principles of how the changing of the guard works. Francisco remembers the correct sequence and reminds the figure in front of him that the watch word must be spoken or something fatal might occur, but even though he knows that Bernardo will relieve him at twelve and that it is exactly twelve (“most careful upon his houre”) he still finds that he has to ask him who he is. These are two extremely uneasy, even frightened men, at least one of which openly confesses to being “sick at heart.”

The password of the watch is a simple one: “Long live the King” and I see nothing mysterious in it at all. In, fact, its brilliance lies in its banality – like using your birthdate as your Facebook password. Yet it is also hugely ironic and foreboding. The king who was to live long, died suddenly. The new king who is to live long, will not. The man who should be king will not live long enough to be king. To be king is very dangerous in this world.

“For this releef much thankes” also speaks volumes in the double meaning of relief.

And why are they so afraid, so uneasy that they are acting unprofessionally. It’s been quiet, although cold. Not a Mouse stirring. Clearly the quiet, the un-stirringness is not what they expect, is not the usual, so what is the usual? Something is very wrong here and now we want to know what it is – just like Bernardo wants Horatio and Marcellus to hurry up and not leave him alone too long.

Simple, spare, not a wasted or difficult word and we have the visual, the emotional, the atmospheric and we want to know what’s coming next. That’s great writing so slick it often passes without notice.

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