Alas Poor Yorick!

http://www.prosperosbooks.net/2008/02/alas-poor-yoric.html

Kenneth Davis has an interesting angle on the role of long dead Yorick in Hamlet.  Specifically he looks at the absence of a jester/fool character in Claudius' court, what that means, how it disrupts the flow of information, and how Hamlet steps in to fill the role.  I found it fascinating.