Hamlet: Horatio

So I know this is cheating, cause I obviously haven't read Hamlet since I started this project. But considering I've seen it performed a few hundred times, have been in a production of it, and own three different versions of it (including the Branagh coffee-table edition) and, oh yea, took an entire college upper-level course dedicated to it, I think I can check that one off the list. In fact, that course inspired me to get a journal to write down my thoughts while I was reading for the class. I actually have three different entries that I will be transposing into this blog. Adding more fun stuff, of course...

The first, and one near and dear to my heart, is Horatio. Hamlet's sidekick. His loyal companion.

Horatio is the perfect name for a pet. And not any pet. I've had the two beta fish and named them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (short lifespan and all), but to me Horatio is the name of a good, strong pet. Like a dog. Because he is Hamlet's constant, loyal companion even to the point of offering his own life when he sees Hamlet's slipping away. That is a friend.
The origins of this character must be a blast to research for any actor portraying him. He is a college student, very intellectual, and more studious than the rowdy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. What is interesting is how Hamlet greets him...

"HAMLET: ...Horatio,--or I do forget myself."

Is that statement made because he doesn't recognize him? Has he grown in the few weeks that Hamlet has been back to Elsinore? Or was Horatio Hamlet's freshmen room mate who was all brains but never partied with Hamlet when he was out wenching with Rosey and Guildy? I think that because of the relationship written in...

"HORATIO: The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever."

Poor servant? Friend? Don't even play the lover card, I'll smack your face...

"HAMLET: Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?"

Ok, so Hamlet seems to have been the royal student of the year at Wittenberg, which is a very Protestant reference in this very Catholocised play...but more on that another time...
So it seems to me, looking strictly at these words, that one can play either that the confusion by Hamlet at the beginning can either be due to the fact that he is helluh depressed and in "Hamlet Mode" or that Horatio wasn't the popular kid in Hamlet's posse, but cares about him enough to see how he is handling life now that pops is out and Claudius is all up in the Queen's business...
So what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?

"HORATIO: A truant disposition, good my lord."
Truant = Slacker.
"HAMLET: I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant."

But, Hamlet! You didn't recognize him before. What the heck, dude? Now you are all like "I know you are a freaking brainiac...and you would rather be reading Plato than dealing with my family's drama". I mean, we know Horatio is a Student. With a capital "S". One of the most famous quotes berates him for that (say it with me now...)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

I totally now picture the backstory of Horatio as that guy who sits in the library and just reads. And when people need someone to write their paper, they are all like "Yo Horatio...I need someone to wrote this Socrates shit for me!" And he's all like "That would be unethical." Horatio is Spock.
He even takes care of Hamlet's girl when he is gone off to England.
Why does Horatio become Ophelia's keeper? And was he there when she died? Or was it just Gertrude. Also, why does he even stick around when Hamlet is peaced off to England? I know he probably feels obligated to care for Ophelia, who at this rate has a brother who is doing who-knows-what and who-knows-who in France and a father who Hamlet accidentally killed. She's got some issues and I wouldn't leave her alone. But Claudius doesn't exile him, Hamlet's loyal friend, after Hamlet is sent to England to be killed. Why is Horatio kept around? Is Claudius going to try to turn him to the Dark Side?
Spock will never turn.
In the Bad Quarto there is actually a scene between Gertrude and Horatio, where Horatio tells the Queen all about how Claudius tried to kill Hamlet in England. Well, you can see why that shit was cut. Talk about ruining a perfectly good debatable death! But Horatio never talks to the King. In fact, the two are never seen at the same level in a scene except for the Ophelia crazy scene, where Horatio has a respected level as a caretaker for the crazy bitch.
After Ophelia dies and Hamlet returns, he once again becomes the faithful companion. Never leaving Hamlet's side, even to the bitter end. Which is when Hamlet urges him to not follow him to death...but to live...long...and prosper. :-)