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The
Unofficial Chronology of Dame Judi Dench's Career
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Hamlet |
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The daughter of Dymas, wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Paris and Hector. After the fall of Troy, she was taken captive by the Achaeans and enslaved. Hecuba was a queen of the ancient city of Troy. Legend tells that she was transformed into a dog because of her association with the fall of that city. In various scenes depicting the Trojan war, she is portrayed on Greek vases as a beautiful young woman. A fresco in the Casa di Cecilio Iucundo at Pompeii shows a sad Hecuba looking down from a window on the procession that returns Hector's body to Troy. HECUBA, in Greek mythology, wife of Priam, king of Troy, to whom she bore Hector, Paris, Cassandra, and 16 other children. Following the fall of Troy and the death of Priam, the aging Hecuba was taken prisoner by the Greeks. During the siege of Troy, her youngest son, Polydorus, had been entrusted to the care of the king of Thrace. On the way to Greece, where she was being taken by her captors, Hecuba discovered that Polydorus had been murdered on the Thracian shore. In revenge, she put out the eyes of the king and murdered his two sons. According to legend Hecuba met death in one of three ways: in despair at her capture she leapt into the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles); she was killed for abusing her captors; or she was metamorphosed into a dog. I found this explanation (below) on a question and answer website ... Gertrude and Hecuba The reactions of Gertrude and Hecuba to the violent death of their husbands (both kings as well) are opposites. When her husband is murdered (by her brother-in-law, though she does not know it at the time) Gertrude probably mourned him, as it seems that she genuinely loved him. But rather quickly she re-marries and, particularly distasteful to Hamlet, her husband's brother. This changes the mood of the castle from one of mourning to one of celebration in a short time. Hecuba, on the other hand, reacts to her husband's (Priam) murder more as Hamlet would have liked his mother to. She is distraught and pious. When Priam is slaughtered she becomes uncontrollable -- "When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport / In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, / The instant burst of clamor that she made / (Unless things mortal move them not at all) / Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven / And passion in the gods." Not included in the portion of the Aeneid that Shakespeare uses is the description of Hecuba frantically pleading with Priam not to try to fight -- "My poor husband, what made thought / Drove you to buckle on these weapons? / Where are you trying to go?" (Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Book II, lines 675-677 this gives good background to what Shakespeare used and shows more the pious behaviour of Hecuba). What I am trying to get at is that Hecuba reacted to her husband's death as Hamlet would have liked to see his mother react to her husband's murder ... Note from Chris: Hope this is a help... It
certainly helped me understand this better. Hecuba (DJD) is watching
someone cut up her In
my opinion, Dame Judi deserved an Oscar for her 60-second (no dialogue)
performance as Now,
watch it again. Cast (in credits order) Kenneth Branagh .... Hamlet
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Video Clip of Dame Judi's Performance as 
