Cornell University professor Richard Klein makes the case for chewing the fat, literally, in his new book, "Eat Fat" (Pantheon; $24).
Among the scholar's observations is that William Shakespeare intended Hamlet, role model for sensitive men everywhere, to be fat. Says his own mother, Gertrude, when sonny-boy returns from a duel, "He is fat and scant of breath."This isn't the image of such theatrical Hamlets as Lawrence Olivier and Ralph Fiennes, but Klein supplies good evidence, such as in Act 1, Scene 2, Hamlet's Weight-Watcherish, "Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!"
Hamlet's fatness "is both the sign that he has been chosen for sacrifice and an index of fertility," writes Klein. "To fatten, in Elizabethan speech, meant not only to make grow but to grow succulent."
Have another slice of pumpkin pie, ye pinchable princes and princesses of Denmark.
- Leah Garchik