I broke off from my reading of Hamlet in the most recent Arden edition, the 2nd Quarto version, confident that it would be easy to resume. And it was! Reading Acts 3 and 4 over the last couple of days have reminded me of the extraordinariness of the play. Shakespeare was working with a degree of creative energy that it's difficult to think of any other work surpassing. Even the digressions - Hamlet's advice to the Players, for example - burn off the page. It's only when we get to Claudius dealing with the insurrection of Laertes that things let up, and even then WS is dealing with the edgiest political material possible, given the times in which he was writing.
No wonder the play doesn't hold together. It explodes as a result of its sheer intensity. There's no way any reader or viewer can explain, or come to terms with it all. There's no way Act 5 can make satisfying sense.
At least, I don't think there is. But I'm dying to read it again to find out.
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