Welcome to The Tragedy of Erik!

My name is Erik B. Anderson. I am the King of Funny Faces.

My father B. Bruce Anderson, was eulogized by me as "The King of Funny Faces" at his Memorial Service in April 2003. As his eldest son, I am honored to inherit this title.

Here's something else you should know about my father:



Don't believe me? Read this from the National Institute of Health:

PSP gets progressively worse but is not itself directly life-threatening.

I have a lot of opinions about the play "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" because it so closely resembles so many events in my own life.

Here is one such opinion:

Down With Polonius


Please enjoy the following scenes from the calamity that made so long life.

Sincerely,

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

Act 1, Scene 1 - It (harrows) me with fear and wonder

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain

Act 1 - Scene 1 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***



BERNARDO: Who's there?
FRANCISCO: Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
BARNARDO: Long live the king!



BERNARDO: Looks he not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.



HORATIO: Most like. It (harrows) me with fear and wonder.





MARCELLUS:
It faded on the crowing of the cock
Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our savior’s birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning sings all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to char,
So hallowed and so gracious is that time.

***



HORATIO:
Break we our watch, and by my advice
Let us impart what we have seen tonight
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.

To be continued...

Act 1, Scene 2 - to persever in obstinate condolement

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain

Act 1 - Scene 2 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***



KING
‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet.
To give these mourning duties to your father



But you must know your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow.



But to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness



QUEEN
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.



HAMLET
I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

***

HAMLET
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

To be continued...

Act 1, Scene 3 - He himself is subject to his birth.

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain

Act 1 - Scene 3 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***


LAERTES (to OPHELIA):
Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will; but you must fear,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own.
(For he himself is subject to his birth.)

To be continued...

Act 1, Scene 4 - The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain

Act 1 - Scene 4 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***

HAMLET
The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.



HAMLET
The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse



MARCELLUS
Something is rotten in the state of Schooley’s Mountain.

To be continued...

Act 1, Scene 5 - Murder most foul!

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain
Act 1 - Scene 5 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***



GHOST
I am thy father’s spirit.
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
And for the day confined to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison house
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love—

HAMLET
O god!

GHOST
Revenge his most unnatural murder.



HAMLET
Murder?



GHOST
Murder most foul, as in the best it is,
But this most foul, strange, and unnatural



Adieu!



Adieu!



Remember me!



HAMLET
Rest, rest, perturbed spirit

HAMLET
So, gentlemen,
With all my love I do commend me to you,
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do t’express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together,
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let’s go together.

To be continued...

Act 2, Scene 2 - to define true madness...

The Tragedy of Erik:
Prince of Schooley's Mountain

Act 2 - Scene 2 (Abridged)

Photos from Erik's Personal Collection
Words by William Shakespeare

***


POLONIUS
My liege, and madam, to expostulate.
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, (since) brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad
“Mad” call I it, for, to define true madness,
What is ‘t but to be nothing else but mad?

Click on image to read more.

But let that go.

***

POLONIUS
What do you read, my lord?

HAMLET
Words, words, words.

POLONIUS
What is the matter, my lord?

HAMLET
Between who?

POLONIUS
I mean the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLET
Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here


Click on image to read more.

That old men have grey beards, that their faces are
Wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
Plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of
Wit, together with most weak hams; all which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I
hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for
Yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if, like a crab
You could go backward.



POLONIUS, [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is
method in’t – Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

HAMLET
And into my grave?

POLONIUS
Indeed, that’s out of the air. [aside]
How pregnant sometimes his replies are!


HAMLET [aside] These tedious old fools

***

ROSENCRANTZ
To think, my lord, if you delight not in
Man, what Lenten entertainment the players shall
eceive from you. We coted them on the way, and
Hither are they coming to offer you service



HAMLET
He that plays the king shall be welcome – his
Majesty shall have tribute on me. The adventurous
Knight shall use his foil and target, the lover shall
not sigh gratis, the humorous man shall end his
part in peace, (the clown shall make those laugh
whose lungs are [tickle] o’ the sear,) and the lady
halt for ‘t? What players are they?



HAMLET
I am but mad north-northwest



HAMLET
When the
wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.



POLONIUS
The best actors in the world, either for
tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comi-
cal, historical-pastoral, (tragical-historical, tragical-
comical-historical-pastoral) scene individable,or
poem unlimited.



Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
Plautus too light. For the law of writ and liberty,
These are the only men.



HAMLET
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure Hadst thou!


September 2008

HAMLET
Now I am alone.
what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

To be continued...