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

The final scene of Act IV sees  Claudius and Laertes concoct a murderous double-poisoning plot against Hamlet, and the Queen brings news of Ophelia's death. Before the scene begins it seems that the King has been telling Laertes his version of Polonius' death, along with his belief that he, Claudius, was his next target. Claudius gives a couple of reasons for not already having taken more extreme measures against Hamlet: firstly to please Gertrude, and then through a second reference to Hamlet's popularity with the people, the 'great love the general gender bear him' (IV.vii.18). But there is emphasis on action, and that action springs from Laertes, 'my revenge will come' (IV.vii.29); 'devise it so/That I might be the organ (IV.vii.68-69) from Laertes, and Claudius, in the business of egging him on, 'That we would do/We should do when we would' (IV.vii.117-118). Unlike Hamlet of course, who didn't avenge his father's death by k...

Continuing the frenzied pace of this act, we meet the Queen and Horatio with a 'Gentleman' in mid conversation about Ophelia's grief-stricken state of mind and 'distract' behaviour. (Hamlet himself doesn't appear in the next three scenes.) Gertrude determines 'I will not speak with her' (IV.v.1) but is persuaded to 'Let her come in' (IV.iv.16) just fifteen lines later - after the indirect threat to Hamlet that Ophelia 'may strew/Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds' (IV.v.14-15). There is evidently sufficient sense in the things that Ophelia says to cause trouble for the King. (It is worth remembering that the the handling of Polonius' death is causing political tensions and adding to the civil unrest.) Ophelia enacts being mad with grief, and matches the description that she 'Speaks much of her father' (IV.v.4), but does so mostly through song. She leaves just prior to the arrival of a livid Laertes, so...