Though this be madness, yet there is method in't

The pacy, almost real-time movement continues into another short scene as Rosencrantz announces that they have brought Hamlet to the King. Claudius reveals something of Hamlet's popularity, which hasn't been directly alluded to before. 'He's lov'd of the distracted multitude' (IV.iii.4). Hamlet's wordplay also continues - in somewhat poor taste, perhaps. He refuses to give a straight answer to the question of where Polonius' body lies, but emphasises its corporeal nature as fodder for worms, and jokes that if it isn't found within a month then the King will be able to detect his decaying corpse and 'nose him as you go up the stairs' (IV.iii.36). It is at least a hint as to the location, and enables Claudius to dispatch his attendants in search of it. The air of melancholy and general futility of life that he expressed earlier in the play underlies sentiments such as 'we fat ourselves for maggots' (IV.iii.22). But death is ...

This is another very short scene, of less than thirty lines; the shortest in the entire play, in fact. Hamlet describes the body of Polonius as 'Safely stowed' in the opening line. It's an odd description: indicating something neatly stored or packed away - perhaps concealed - but with the suggestion of later use. Hamlet's speech is disordered and irrational. He speaks in non-sequiturs and riddles when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, emphasising his distrust of former friends in his depiction of them as foolish: mere sponges who 'soak up the king's countenance' but will get their just desserts when they are squeezed out 'dry' in the end. Gone is the iambic pentameter that has mostly shaped Hamlet's speech previously,  but there is an interesting use of double syntax or syntactic slide   at the end of the scene.  (This is where meaning is created in one line and then recreated differently in the next - one of my favourite th...

This scene is short, just 45 lines, and perhaps its primary plot purpose is to have Rosencrantz and Gildenstern despatched to hunt for Polonius' body, last seen being dragged off unceremonioulsy by Hamlet at the end of Act III to 'lug the guts into the neighbour room' (III.iv.214). But very importantly, we also see Gertrude's explanation to Claudius about Polonius' murder - the very thing that Hamlet has asked her not to do. Gertrude describes Hamlet's wild and violent madness as that of 'the sea and wind when both contend/Which is the mightier.' (IV.i.7-8). Claudius is strengthened in his resolve to send Hamlet to England. If you are interested in continuing to collect imagery of contagion, note that Claudius describes Hamlet as the embodiment of a 'foul disease' that has begun to 'feed even on the pith of life' (IV.i.21-23). An enraged Claudius registers 'discord and dismay' in what feels like a flippant couplet at the e...

Now we reach the point of no return for Hamlet - the pivot on which the rest of the play turns. And there is plenty of drama. Having toyed with the idea of murder in the previous scene, his is driven to murderous action in this one - before his father's ghost reappears. The scene opens with Polonius' antagonistic imperatives to the Queen - about how to speak to her son, in order to 'lay home' aspects of his behaviour and 'tell him' that it will no longer be tolerated (III.iv.1-2) - before Polonius secretes himself behind the arras. But a suggestion that Gertrude has mediated on Hamlet's behalf hovers on the air, that she 'hath screen'd and stood between/Much heat and him' (III.iv.3-4). Hamlet, though, is evidently unaware of any such intercession. When he arrives, the dialogue with his mother provides what is possibly my favourite exchange of the play.  Queen Hamlet, thou has thy father much offended. Hamlet Mother, you have m...

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern enter with the King, who confirms his decision to send Hamlet to England with them. It is framed as a protective measure: it would be dangerous 'To let his madness range' (III.iii.2) and it will not do for the King's safety to be compromised, since the fortune of the king determines that of his subjects. This belief is acknowledged by Rosencrantz 'Never alone/Did the King sigh, but with a general moan' (III.iii.22-23), but as ever, dramatic irony is at play here. The divine right theory of kingship (which asserted that kings derived their authority from God, and supported the idea of hereditary monarchy) and Chain of Being (a Christian concept codifying the religious hierarchical structure of all life and matter) have been disrupted. Both were significant ideas in terms of Elizabethan philosophy and ideas about World Order; Claudius is a usurper, not a rightful ruler. Next, Polonius enters, reiterating his intention to 'conve...

Schools closed on Friday afternoon due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our task of remote education now begins in earnest. We study one of the world’s most famous plays - when theatres around the world have been shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. We live in extraordinary times. Like Horatio at the appearance of Hamlet’s ghost during the opening scene of the drama, ‘it harrows me with fear and wonder’ (I.i.47). It is perhaps inevitable then, as I re-read the text, that images to do with infection surface and resonate more powerfully than they have ever done before; while we collectively experience ‘some strange eruption to our state’ (I.i.72). Even Hamlet’s ‘windy suspiration of forc’d breath’ (I.ii.79)  in his opening exchange with the queen now seems to rattle as an early symptom of coronavirus rather than the more usual interpretation as a criticism of the appearance of grief. And don't get me started on Laertes counselling of Ophelia, that ‘in the morn...