The Clown at Midnight

Well, most kind... 

Parting is such sweet sorrow. 

Captain, have we not heard 

The Chimes at Midnight...?

General Chang

Makes a Fool 

of Captain Kirk 

The Clown at Midnight is Hamlet 

because The Mousetrap is exactly 

in The Middle of The Play.

It's a Play within The Play -

- a False Reality -

- a bad JOKE.

Hamlet is The Clown at Midnight 

because he should KNOW (He DOES know) 

that The Ghost/Hurt up on The Ramparts 

of Arkham/Elsinore is NOT His Father, 

because His Father is DEAD and at Peace --

So His Father would never tell him 

to commit Murder to avenge His Death, 

because His Father would NOT be in HELL 

(as The Ghost claims that it is, because King Hamlet was murdered), 

because he KNOWS that Evil Spirits take on the form, face and voice of Friends and Loved Ones to get The Living to Damn their own souls to Hell, and because he knows that he shouldn't accept what The Spirit tells him to do, just because he WANTS to believe that it is True. 

But he DOES, anyway, even though 

he KNOWS -

- by virtue of Reason -

-that it's a Lie.

Paul Scofield in Hamlet (1990) - Ghost Scene