Monday, August 30, 2010

Watch your step son tradition

I've been teaching the Arden 2 and Arden 3 Hamlets (teaching all four Hamlets, the fourth being Jenkins' Arden 2 conflated text) and realized that Hamlet is in the "Watch your step son" tradition: on the one hand, the ghost tells his son Hamlet to watch his step; on the other Claudius says his stepson must not unwatched go. Meanwhile, Hamlet has to determine if the ghost is a faux pa(s).

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