HAMLET         One speech in’t I chiefly loved – ’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially when he speaks of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory begin at this line – let me see, let me see –

The rugged Pyrrhus like th’ Hyrcanian beast …

– ’Tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus.

The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,

Black as his purpose, did the night resemble

When he lay couched in th’ominous horse,

Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared

With heraldry more dismal, head to foot.     (2.2.383-394)

Hamlet’s really enthused now, back in what seems to be his happy place, theatre: one speech in’t I chiefly loved, oh, there was one bit of that play which I was particularly fond of—yes, ’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, yes, you know the bit, the story he tells (this is generally thought to be a recollection of, and an affectionate tribute to, Marlowe’s Dido, in which Aeneas gives one of the longest speeches anywhere in early modern drama, far longer than any of Hamlet’s speeches)—and in particular, thereabout of it especially, when he speaks of Priam’s slaughter. The killing of an elderly king, by the warrior son of a warrior father, out for revenge. If it live in your memory—if you can remember it (and it’s clearly lively in Hamlet’s memory, for obvious reasons) begin at this line—let me see, let me see. But he can’t quite do it, not immediately.

The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast: Pyrrhus, strong, ripped in fact, fierce, and savage as a tiger… ’Tis not so. No, that’s not it. (Although it sets up an immediate contrast with Hamlet himself, framed as a failure of identification as much as one of memory: he can’t even remember a speech, let alone avenge his father, it’s beginning to seem.) He goes again: yes, it begins with Pyrrhus, I’ve got that right at least. The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, black as his purpose: Pyrrhus was wearing black armour, as dark as his intentions, armour which did the night resemble when he lay couched in the ominous horse. Pyrrhus had originally been a man in black concealed in a dark space on a dark night. But—and the delayed verb, the putting off of action starts to feel important—he hath now this dread and black complexion smeared with heraldry more dismal, head to foot. Before his face, and his body, had been metaphorically black with his intention to commit savage violence; perhaps his face is also imagined to be smeared with charcoal, like camouflage, for a night attack. (Black armour would also not catch the light. In early modernity, armour would sometimes be covered with a shirt for night raids, hence known sometimes as camisadoes, to make it less likely to shine in moonlight.) Pyrrhus has hitherto been sable, heraldic black—but now he’s completely covered in another colour, from top to toe…