Audio Books : Literary : Other quality : English

 I have of late—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air—look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

...Hamlet as an exemplar of the split modern mind – and Shakespeare as a master of prose as well as poetry. This is the 1971 bbc production with Ronald Pickup in the title role. Pickup is not one of the great Hamlets but nevertheless this is a very satisfying reading if only because of the copybook pronunciation of Shakespearean verse. The production begins with a solemn Reithian announcement which might seem to date it, but it's perfectly modern to me. The sound, a CD rip, is excellent