Hamlet’s Soliloquy as a Song

By John Farrier in Book & Literature, Entertainment, Music, Video Clips on Nov 12, 2011 at 6:55 am


(Video Link)

Courtney Welbon had to memorize the “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet for school and decided that she’d have an easier time at it if she turned it into a song. It’s now a light and cheerful work.

Good work, Ms. Welbon. But as always, Shakespeare sounds better in the original Klingon.

-via Blame It on the Voices


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  1. ted
    Nov 12th, 2011 at 9:34 am

    I think I preferred Gilligan’s rendition.

  2. emmakate
    Nov 12th, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Why do teachers love to come up with such useless assignments such as memorizing a soliloquy when they could be teaching you how to balance a checkbook? (yes, I know those things are unrelated, but I’m just saying that one is more useful than the other)

  3. xcentric
    Nov 12th, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    @emmakate — one can never tell what will be useful in the future. Vocabulary I learned from the Hamlet soliloquy I had to memorize in high school came up in conversation just yesterday. And my computer has balanced my checkbook for me for several years.

  4. ted
    Nov 12th, 2011 at 10:32 pm

    I still remember the passage from Macbeth:

    If it were done when tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.
    If the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch with his surcease success,
    That but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all,
    Here but here upon this bank and shoal of time, we’d jump the life to come.

    Memorizing poetry is fun. It makes you think more about the words: how they sound, what they mean, etc…

    Why would they teach you how to balance a chequebook in English class, anyway?

  5. samuel
    Nov 13th, 2011 at 9:56 am

    I can’t wait for a pomplamoose cover of this… Will it come? we live in hope…

  6. John Farrier
    Nov 13th, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    I don’t remember any of my memorized Shakespeare, but reading him definitely enriched my life.

    Schools can teach both practical skills and cultural heritage. And like ted said, there’s no need to teach checkbook balancing in an English class.


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