...After the reference to Hecuba the actor needs a rising crescendo, and Shakespeare provides it for him: What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for...with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty and appal the tree, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Hamlet's 'kin' and...

...voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing. For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep...he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? (2.2.553-64) Here, as elsewhere when he himself is cast as a spectator of grief, Hamlet 'weeps at not...

..."distraction in his aspect" (2.2.554-55) display and provoke a "dream of passion" for "nothing": "What's Hecuba to him, or he to [Hecuba] / That he should...the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?" (2.2.559-62). Hamlet's complaint recalls the Augustinian criticism so popular among the Reformers:...

...Player's commemoration is 'all for nothing. For Hecuba' (II. ii. 534-5), begging the questions, What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba That he should weep...do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That 1 have?144 Here, the player is a comparative model for the performance of remembrance. However, Hamlet's...