Nick Nolte gives a brilliant speech in this movie in which I dont know what it means, but he mentions "What is this quintessance of dust" and the "paragon of animals". He says on the jetty at the beach to Dreyfuss. Can someone translate the whole speech he says word for word?
Sure thing!
First, here's exactly what he says:
What a piece of work is 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?
So, yeah. It's from Hamlet. Act 2, Scene 2. It's probably the 2nd best-known piece from Hamlet, after the "To be or not to be" bit.
If you look up the words you might not know (like promontory or quintessence), and put yourself in Hamlet's shoes, you can piece it together well enough.
Basically, Hamlet is trying to explain, to his two college buddies, why he's so bummed out, and suddenly acting a little crazy.
He's talking about the incredible potential that mankind has. How grateful and amazed he is, to be human, to be alive! The beauty of the world around us! And yet, to me, it's all just a castle made of sand.
And it works really beautifully in "Down & Out In Beverly Hills", as well. The bum and the billionaire, watching a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific. Jerry (Nick Nolte's spiritually-uplifting bum) was just admitting to some of the lies he had been telling, about his own past, to Dave (Dreyfuss's bored, uptight billionaire, suddenly enjoying life again).
Dave then asks if Jerry was really an actor.
He could've just replied, "Yeah. That one happens to be true." Instead, he proves it.
The "speech" itself is fairly well-known, so any first-year drama student would know it by heart. But the delivery... Ahh, yes. The delivery leaves little doubt that he really was a damn good actor. That he coulda' been a contender. But the fates were not kind, and now he's wandering, hungry and penniless, in the shadows of the Hollywood sign itself.
But you have to go back to the original source, Hamlet, to really appreciate the context.
Prince Hamlet's two college buddies (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) just showed up, unannounced, right after Hamlet started acting a little crazy. He suspects that the king and queen asked them to check up on him. Should he trust them? Was their arrival more the queen's idea? Or the king's?
So he flat-out asks them, and after a minute of nervous glances and half-answers, they finally admit the king and queen sent for them.
This is my basic modern version of what Hamlet says next (compare to the original text at the bottom of this post):
I'll just tell you why they asked you to check up on me. So you don't have to keep prodding me for clues, and then you can report back to the king and queen as though I didn't know they sent for you.
I have, lately, lost all happiness and hope. I don't do any of the things I used to enjoy. And, indeed, I'm now so depressed that even the Earth itself has become an empty and isolated place. The air I breathe, the sky... Look! This majestic sky! The sun glowing, highlighting the clouds... Just a foul gathering of gasses.
What a piece of work is a man! (Fairly self-explanatory. What a piece of work we all are! Some versions have this line as "is a man", others just say "is man". Either way, he's talking both about each individual's potential, as well as our species as a whole.)
How noble in reason! (Our potential for compassion and wisdom. The way we might now imagine someone like Gandhi or Martin Luther King)
How infinite in faculty! (How "smart" we are capable of being. Thinking about the Einsteins and such.)
In form and moving, how express and admirable! (How graceful! Imagine an Olympic gymnast or a ballerina.)
In action how like an angel! (Imagining something like a firefighter, perhaps. A savior, risking disaster to save others.)
In apprehension how like a god! (Sometimes not just angelic, but actually divine!)
The beauty of the world! (And what a beautiful place we get to live in!)
The paragon of animals! (We're the most amazing animal ever born! A paragon is the purest, best example of something. Some would read this passage differently, as if meaning "the amazing variety of animals!" Either way, you can see how he's just expressing his awestuck appreciation for all his blessings, and all that mankind is capable of...)
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? (In Shakespeare's time, quintessence was the essence of the divine. The 5th element, that holds earth, water, fire, and air together. The perfect, magical ether of God. So, a quintessence of dust would be like a great castle of sand. An impressive spectacle to behold, on the outside, but utterly fragile and, to Hamlet's eyes, ultimately pointless.)
And lastly, this is what it all looks like, in the original Shakespeare:
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. 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 vapours.
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?
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fanaticita
8 years ago
This piece from Hamlet was also sung (yes sung!) in the musical Hair.
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