An Egyptian friend of mine was recuperating from a minor surgry. I went to visit him with a bulky tray of take away charcoal grilled chickens and a liberal salad collection from the most renowned Turkish restaurant in the city. Another Egyptian, a former radio broadcaster and programmer and a colleague of the infamous Ahmed Saeed but a great hater of him and His Master's Voice Nasser, brought up the subject of Hamlet while munching chicken and dipping in homos-bit-heena, and he made a rather intriguing remark about Hamlet's father's ghost appearing in military dress. He explained that by saying that Shakespeare believed that the sword is mightier than words (cf: Hamlet's remark to Polonius "words, words, words"), and that man is at his best when he is a fighter and not a writer, a warrior and not a philosopher, and that the West today is ruling the world due to military might. Questions to be asked, to be considered and to be answered, as Falstaff says in HENRY IV, Part 1.

The Egyptian went further to say that Shakespeare by dressing the ghost in military attire meant that Shake believed that military might is the only way to "set things right", to use Hamlet's words. Hence, Hamlet's failure contrasted with Fortinbras' success, because Hamlet uses philosophy whereas Fortinbras uses the army. The Egyptian elaborated by saying that in the 15th century, the Pope called commanders and with his sword pointed at the map of the world and he said that the eastern hemisphere is the responsibility of the the Portugese and the western hemisphere is the responsibility of the Spanish ...


The Egyptian claims that the imaginary dagger-- a dagger is usually in the shape of a phallus-- coined by Macbeth's disturbed brain is intended by Shake to serve as a semiological reference to Macbeth's impotence--and Macbeth who seems to have suffered a great deal of sexual frustration, we have seen him in the light of impotence when Lady Macbeth says to him enticising him to kill the king, "If thou darest do it, then you were a MAN." MAN not in the human sense: very far from it, but in the VIRILE. The Liverpudlian Shakespearean critic LC Knights was aware of this point, hence his great essay, "How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth?"The Egyption claims that the imaginary dagger-- a dagger is usually in the shape of a phallus-- coined by Macbeth's disturbed brain is intended by Shake to serve as a semiological reference to Macbeth's impotence--and Macbeth who seems to have suffered a great deal of sexual frustration, we have seen him in the light of impotence when Lady Macbeth says to him enticising him to kill the king, "If thou darest do it, then you were a MAN." MAN not in the human sense: very far from it, but in the VIRILE. The Liverpudlian Shakespearean critic LC Knights was aware of this point, hence his great essay, "How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth?"