HAMLET         Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio.

My father, methinks I see my father.

HORATIO        Where, my lord?

HAMLET                                 In my mind’s eye, Horatio.

HORATIO        I saw him once – ’a was a goodly king.

HAMLET         ’A was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again. (1.2.179-187)

Bitter sarcasm from Hamlet (and it is also quite funny, in the mental images it elicits): thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. It was all about making the most of the leftovers!—that was the reason for such haste, such a small gap between my father’s funeral and my mother remarrying. It was, above all else, concerned with the sustainability of the turkey curry buffet. Then he drops his guard: would I had met my dearest foe in heaven or ever I had seen that day, Horatio. No, it was terrible, worst day of my life, I’d have rather dealt with anything else, anything at all. Even more unguarded, the thing he can’t stop thinking about, the face that’s always on his mind: my father, methinks I see my father—I see not just his face, all the time, but imagine his disappointment, bewilderment, pain, anger, at such a betrayal.

Is that the ‘in’ that Horatio needs? So, you say you think you’ve seen your father: where, my lord? Oh, in my mind’s eye, Horatio. Constantly. And out of the corner of my eye, and on every face that I look at, gone when I look back the second time; that’s what grief is like. Horatio retreats, loses his nerve, or biding his time? I saw him once—’a was a goodly king. A platitude, but a kindly meant one: I did see him, he’s not just an abstraction to me, I know he was your father and also a good, honourable king. Hamlet might hold up his hands, helplessly: ’a was a man, he was a man, THE man, a great man, and a human being too, and he was my DAD, take him for all in all. And he’s gone, dead and gone. I shall not look upon his like again. I, not we. He’s irreplaceable, I’ll never meet anyone else like him. No one can take his place.