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| Yorick's Skull (Eugene Delacroix) |
Perhaps the most poignant scene within all of Shakespeare's many plays is the one most commonly referred to as "Yorick's skull."
Yorick, a beloved court jester from Hamlet's youth, is now deceased.
When his skull is exhumed within the adult Hamlet's presence, an opportunity for philosophical angst of the gut-wrenching kind has now begun. Hamlet stares death right in the bony face and cries: Alas, poor
Yorick! I knew him… a fellow of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a
thousand times; and now… Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how
oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs?
Your flashes of merriment, that were
wont to set the table on a roar?
Had Yorick's pelvis instead surfaced during that famous graveyard scene, would Hamlet's words have been nearly as quotable? Probably not – for it is only within recent times that pelvic organs are being equated with "second brains."
In a February 2010 Scientific
American article, Adam Hadhazy discusses the "often-overlooked network of neurons lining our guts…" He contends that this "little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls [and Yorick's], partly determines our mental state [including merriment] and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body."
Could it therefore be that Yorick's songs and kisses [and perhaps death] were at least partly attributable to his intestines? Could
it be that Hamlet – for all of his wavering wisdom – was just too much a product of his times to lament (out loud) the empty space where once a jejunum quivered with delight?
Alas, poor reader!
Even second brains (and third eyes) might never fully know the answers to these
interminable questions…
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorick
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain
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