Victoria+Champion

Dear Diary,
====On this day Prince Hamlet and I were taking a promenade through the gardens when the Prince lost his footing. The Prince took in an unfathomably large morsel of soil; luckily he remained unscathed. Just as I feebly witnessed this upheaval the most glorious of jokes emerged in my skull! What does one call the young royal who keeps falling down? Out of quips aren’t you? One calls him Prince Harming! Oh, how blasé the Prince was with that gag of mine.====

====Not one of my finest comics, but at the time I was bemused. I suppose that is what hours spent on foot in the royal garden with a Prince of six years will do to an aging Jester. The leather-like souls of my feet are soaking in a special mixture the apothecary made for me as I inscribe.====

====Queen Gertrude once again banished Prince Hamlet and I to the gardens while King Hamlet and his brother, Claudius, quarrelled in the ballroom. The palace has been in a state of bedlam for months, with no resolve in sight. What could have possibly fashioned this disarray? I am yearning to know. Their voices carried like low, rumbling thunder from outside. The storm is still just beginning to brew.====

====Alas, I am merely the Jester so jest I shall. I began to juggle to distract the young Prince from the soil gritting through his teeth and the squabble taking place inside. Oh, how I was longing for Prince Hamlet’s nursemaid to return. The warm, sultry air left my juggling sticks sliding out of my grip. Or perhaps that was merely my old, diseased muscles deteriorating before mine eyes.====

====It was just then that I heard the loudest clatter emerging from the palace. The King had marched out of his own palace, with Polonius nobly following at his side. Their frames slowly dissipated into the distance. Prince Hamlet lost his smile.====

====Upon re-entrance to the palace there was no talk of King Hamlet’s behaviour. Gertrude and Claudius resided to the King’s table to feast; without the King. As the nursemaid coifed Prince Hamlet’s hair in the hopes that he would appear apt for the feast the Prince asked her where his father was. The Prince was hastily hushed then enticed with sweets to not ask once again.====

====It was just when the palace was falling under a slumber that I heard King Hamlet enter. I had deemed that the King’s presence would permit me to alleviate my fretfulness and embrace tranquility. I had been erroneous.====

====There is an uneasy power within this palace, a power strong enough to reason a King to flee. Scrawling from my quarters I feel troubled. The King had clearly not left to fulfil one of his many virtuous royal duties. But rather this matter comes into view to be a matter that is meant to stay within the royal family.====

Yorick