So, who IS "Yorrick Kaine". Let's look at the alias he chose and see whether this gives us any clues...

1.) "Yorrick": The obvious source ffor this name would be the dec eased court jester whose remains appear near the beginning of 'Hamlet'. This may be TOO obvious... An alternative possibility would be a time-travelling Neanderthal in some of Christopher Stasheff's SF books, who adopted this name (knowing of the aforementioned jester) because he thougt that his own jokes (mostly puns) were funny, which is a less obvious source but perhaps an interesting coincidence. Obviously the name would be known to anybody who's seen the play (which, given the way in which the literary universe seems to work in Jasper's books, might include some characters from even earlier stories...) but I suggest that people from societies where the name was actually in more widespread use might be more probable than others to consider it as an alias.

2.) "Kaine": If I remember correctly then one or more Shakespearean actors bore the surname "Keen", of which this might be a distorted version. It could also be a modified version of either "Kane", as in 'Citizen Kane', or even of Judaeo-Christian mythology's "Cain". However I don't think that this could be the fictional character named "Kane" (who was based on that biblical brother-slayer) who was the protagonist in a series of Fantasy/Horror novels by the late Karl Edward Wagner, since for one thing the description doesn't fit and for another those books are still all in copyright.

So this pagerunner has a first name that was probably taken from a presumably-Danish jester and a surname that might be taken from the name of a fratricide... and an interest in acquiring political power. Based on these points I would like to suggest two possible identities for "Yorrick Kaine"...

1.) Hamlet's fratricidal & usurpatious uncle Claudius, who would have known the original "Yorrick" and might if that name was in wider usage in Denmark at that time (which seems likely to me, since unique forenames _ unless caused by misspelling, or accidents during naming ceremonies _ are rather a rare occurrence) have known enough other namesakes to consider this a perfectly ordinar choice of names.
2.) Yorrick the Jester himself, from when he was still alive in the play's back-story (from which he could probably have escaped more inconspicuously than any characters playing greater parts in the works where they appeared could have left those), inspired to seek power by what he'd seen of court life, using "Kaine" as a surname in the hope that its potential link with the crime of fratricide would lead anybody who detected both his actions and his work-of-origin to suspect Claudius (based on the above reasoning) instead of himself.

Hmm, my personal theory involved Mr Ff's love of historic aircraft and bad puns, and it basically runs that 'Yorrick Kaine' is merely a poor pun on 'Hurricaine'.

EDIT --> except spelt correctly, obviously



Post Edited (02-21-03 20:18)

PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Is it an anagram of summat? What was that anagram site we used last time?



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Wasn't Kane also the name of "Grasshopper" in that '70s show, "Kung Fu"?

(Snatch the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper....")

He was also the leader of 'Nod' in Command and Conquer - a game I could never take seriously after I realised that the guerilla vehicles were in bright primary colours with oversized wheels.

As for anagrams (punctuation added for reasons of 'sense'):

"Ay, kick Renoir!" has a certain je ne sais quoi... Shame it was a Gainsbrough.

Other good 'uns:

Re: Kinky Cairo
corkier in yak
crayon (ie kirk)
icky ikon rear
icy rink, Korea
icy kino raker (????)
Korea ky ricin (there's a conspiracy in that one waiting to get out)

Thanks to [www.mi.uib.no]



Post Edited (02-22-03 02:34)

PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Okay, more clutching at mouth operated drink manipulation devices...

[www.betterhealthcareproducts.com] - it's twisted, and bent, and I can't justify it any further than that...

There's also a Parson Yorick in Tristam Shandy...

Beyond this, no idea

Personally I reckon 'Yorick Kaine' might be Feste (mentioned later) - Yorick and Feste are both jesters from the works of Mr Shagdspeller, and if he was copying old characters then Yorick (in Hamlet) may even be the same ereson as Feste, just badly rewritten.

(btw, with all that fratricide and making people laugh, plus an interest in politics, are we really sure he should be a Whig? Surely he's one of the 'other' lot?)



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Yorrick = Feste? Hmmm, that's an interesting theory, it's certainly at least as plausible as either of my suggestions...

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Warning! Product may contain Newts...

By the way, talking about Shakepeare's 'Yorrick' reminds me of a true story that I read about years ago and think might amuse some of you... Apparently one English actor (whose name I've unfortunately forgotten...), back in [later] Georgian or Regency times, was so determined never to retire from the stage that he left instructions in his will for his skull to be cleaned up and presented to his old troupe's props department, on the condition that whenever they subsequently performed 'Hamlet' "he" would get this role...

Yes, I think that was indeed the case.

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Warning! Product may contain Newts...