Chapter 16, The Evening; Chapter 17, Emperor Zhark; Chapter 18, Emperor Zhark Again Summary

In Chapter 16 Hamlet enters Thursday's mother's house with Emma. They had taken in a theater's presentation of the play, Hamlet, and the living Hamlet seems to not have liked it. When he settles down and stops spouting off Shakespearean lines that require footnote translations from Fforde, the truth comes out. He was not angry over the performance but with the competition afterward in a bar, in which twelve other Hamlet-types and he recited the same soliloquy, and he came in last place. The drinkers in the bar had served as judges.

Thursday retreats to the kitchen. While there, in a dramatic show of electrical energy, Emperor Zhark shows up with two of his ruthless soldiers. The author emphasizes that among tyrants, Zhark was the worst...