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pwsull wrote:

And this is why anyone who is really interested takes a university course on Shakespeare (I never did).

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I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

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Clarence, who I indeed have cast in darkness,
I do beweep to many simple gulls -
Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham -
And tell them 'tis the queen and her allies
That stir the king against the duke my brother.

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Now they believe it, and withal whet me
To be revenged on Rivers, Dorset, Grey.

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But then I sigh, and, with a piece of Scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:

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And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

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ButMadNNW wrote (in the MP3 request thread):

Basically, my reading of it is something along the lines of "It is seen too often that we commit horrors, but make them okay because they were performed in the name of our religion (or by upstanding, religious people)." In the original context of Hamlet, Polonius has just asked his daughter, Ophelia, to "walk [here in the hall]... [and] read on this book, that show of such an exercise may color your loneliness." It's pretty likely that the book he gave her was some religious text, and he asks her to make a show of reading it, to indicate to Hamlet when he arrives that she is alone in the room. Meanwhile, Polonius and Claudius hide themselves to spy on the young couple. So, the line that V quotes is Polonius acknowledging that he is asking Ophelia to hide the spying by acting pious.

...

The V context is also interesting: V quotes the line after Willy cries out, "Christ, have mercy!" Considering what he'd just been up to, Willy using a religious exclamation makes V's Hamlet quote very appropriate. Which is just one more thing to love about him - quoting Shakespeare is one thing, but coming up with a line on the spot that's apropos to the real world situation? That takes talent.

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I find it interesting and paradoxical that V himself is up to the same kind of grand manipulations of government and society as Richard III was, albeit with much nobler intent. So perhaps the quote also refers obliquely to himself.

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I wish more of my Shakespeare classmates had actually had a genuine interest in the Bard - it seemed more likely they were seeking the least of evils

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We are oft to blame in this,
'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The Devil himself.

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my reading of it is something along the lines of "It is seen too often that we commit horrors, but make them okay because they were performed in the name of our religion (or by upstanding, religious people)."

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does this mean something like "Hyde my true form, and by hiding it, i may become that which i'm disguised of" ?... How does that apply to that scene (the masks scene of course, not the dance) in the movie? Or it doesn't really apply and he just used it beacuse of the common theme of conceling one's face and playing other roles that aren't quite oneself?
... Maybe the people, by wearing those masks, would become V in the sence that they would give his cause strength and take their fate into their own hands? And thus such disguise should haply become the form of their intent?

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pwsull wrote:

ButMad: such a surprise to see you at this party!

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It's a Shakeapeare reference:

SIR NATHANIEL
Videsne quis venit?

HOLOFERNES
Video, et gaudeo.
(Act V, scene i, LOVE’S LABOURS LOST)

If my slightly rusty Latin still serves me, the interchange translates thus:

"Do you see who's coming/has arrived?"
"I see, and rejoice."

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