From Conversations with Frank Budgen
The indispensable Biblioklept finds James Joyce discussing Shakespeare's Hamlet with Frank Budgen:
Hamlet is a human being, but he is a son only. Ulysses is son to Laertes, but he is father to Telemachus, husband to Penelope, lover of Calypso, companion in arms of the Greek warriors around Troy and King of Ithaca. He was subjected to many trials, but with wisdom and courage came through them all. Don’t forget that he was a war dodger who tried to evade military service by simulating madness. He might never have taken up arms and gone to Troy, but the Greek recruiting sergeant was too clever for him and, while he was ploughing the sands, placed young Telemachus in front of his plough. But once at the war the conscientious objector became a jusqu’auboutist. When the others wanted to abandon the siege he insisted on staying till Troy should fall. [Read more]Also at A Piece of Monologue
- Shakespeare's Hamlet: Polonious on Conduct
- Hamlet: Play or Novel?
- James Joyce: Political Controversialist
- Literary Mentorships: James Joyce and Samuel Beckett
- Joycean Literature: Literature & Poetry 1910-2010
- James Joyce: Death and Wake
- Is Modernism Boring?
- 'A House of Life': Anthony Burgess on James Joyce
- Re Joyce