PAINTING FOUR
TREACHERY, SEEK it OUT!
Treachery! seek it out., Oil on linen, 30 x 40 x 7/8 in (76.20 x 101.60 x 2.222 cm), Click on image for lightbox view.
Whenever stage combat is employed in a production, the actors must rehearse it, under the guidance of a fight director, to block, time-out and practice any sword-fighting, stunts or hand to hand action. In this painting, we see the actor playing Laertes advancing towards the viewer with his fencing foil raised and ready to strike. The viewer is placed within the point of view of the actor playing Hamlet. The two are rehearsing the last scene in the play - Act V, Scene II - in which Claudius has convinced them to settle their impasse over Hamlet’s complicity in Ophelia’s death, by dueling to the death themselves. The title of the painting evokes a call from the author to the reader, speaking through Hamlet, to seek out the treachery that has been wrought upon his own inherited legacy of land and money, as well as in the context of these paintings - his literary output.
Around the rehearsal room we see the trappings of the production. Among the props are the king and queen’s thrones, the empty one being emblazoned with the de Vere coat of arms in marquetry and gold leaf. Also along the wall reflected in the mirror are spear-axes, mobile torch lamps, another throne like chair (from Gertrude’s chamber scene), a ewer and several goblets representing the poisoning that occurs in this scene, the skulls from the graveyard scene, along with Hamlet’s book and letter.
The actress playing Gertrude is asleep in the second throne signifying her character’s death in this scene. The fight director here stands in for Claudius in the composition of the scene, encouraging Laertes (standing in for Thomas Cecil) to exact revenge. The actor playing Horatio looks on, concerned. He is also the only person in this tableau whose face we see both directly and in the reflection in the mirror signifying that he lives on to tell Hamlet’s story. The actors playing Laertes and Hamlet are wearing quilted fencing padding each bearing the coat of arms of the actual people their characters represent.
Some of the easter eggs included in this paintings subtly drive home the idea that this autobiographical Hamlet is indeed about de Vere. The time on the clock reads 17:40 in 24 hour time and the second hand is also pointing to 17. There are 17 dashes of spike tape on the floor denoting the line of the proscenium and separating the two rehearsing fighters and the number 40 (denoting the measurements of the front edge of the stage) can be seen near the mirror encircled by an extension cord. There are de Vere coats of arms on the fencing jerkin and on the empty throne. A triple tau can be found on Hamlet’s fencing glove tag. The label on the duffel bag reads Exeter, or the name of the Earldom granted to Thomas Cecil’s branch of the Cecil family. The white tote bag bears a Sidney Tennis logo, a play on another fight in De Vere’s life (on a tennis court) between he and Sir Phillip Sidney. Coincidentally, Sidney has also been brought forth as an authorship candidate.