Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Four - “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions…”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Four - “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions…”

It does not seem strange that Gertrude’s (Hamlet’s mother) first action after she sees Hamlet kill Polonius is to run to see Claudius, her new husband. He is with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When Gertrude is alone with Claudius she tells of how Hamlet seems mad and how he killed Polonius. Claudius observes that Hamlet was trying to kill Claudius himself. Claudius is clever here because rather than stating that Hamlet should be shipped away directly for the murder (or because he poses a threat to Claudius himself) Claudius uses political stability and all his “majesty and skill” to frame that, for the good of Denmark, Hamlet needs to shipped to England straight away. Claudius calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern back into the room and informs them of Polonius’ murder and asks them to find Hamlet and the body of Polonius.

Having “safely stowed” Polonius’ body, Hamlet encounters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and speaks in riddles about the whereabouts of Polonius’ body. He accuses them of being sponges to and spies for King Claudius. Eventually, Hamlet agrees to go with them to see the king.

Hamlet is brought before Claudius and when asked where Polonius body is, he cleverly meanders around ponderings of how Polonius is at supper with worms before he eventually reveals that he is under a set of stairs: “

“Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain

convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your

worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all

creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for

maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but

variable service, two dishes, but to one table:

that's the end… In heaven; send hither to see:

if your messenger find him not there,

seek him i' the other place yourself.

But indeed, if you find him not within

this month, you shall nose him as you go up the

stairs into the lobby.”

Claudius send his attendants to look for Polonius’ body and informs Hamlet that he will leave straight away for England. Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and others leave. Alone, Claudius reveals that he he  will send to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders to request the killing of Hamlet.

On his way to the port, Hamlet encounters a Norwegian Captain of Prince Fortinbras’ army who is taking letters to confirm the safe passage of Norwegian troops through Denmark on their way to fight a war against Poland. When Hamlet asks about the reason for the war, the Captain relies that there is little reason since they will battle over “a little patch of land that hath in it no profit but the name”. Then when left alone for a bit, Hamlet muses over how such a bloody battle could be fought for nothing yet he himself who the murder of his father seems unable to exact revenge. Hamlet decides that he must act to defend all he holds dear.

“How all occasions do inform against me,

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more…

Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means

To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:

Witness this army of such mass and charge

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd

Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death and danger dare,

Even for an egg-shell… How stand I then,

That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

Excitements of my reason and my blood,

And let all sleep? … O, from this time forth,

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!”

We switch back to Elsinore, where Gertrude and Horatio talk of how badly shaken Ophelia seems by the death of her father. Ophelia enters, seeming to have sunk into childlike insanity, singing childish songs and adorned with and carrying flowers. Claudius enters and seeing Ophelia he says that her madness comes from her father’s death. Ophelia exits and Claudius reveals that more trouble is brewing since Laertes has heard of his father’s death and has secretly come back from France.

Serendipitously (or at least dramatically on cue) a disturbance is heard outside and a messenger reveals to Claudius that an angry mob has arrived with Laertes crying that their request that “Laertes shall be king”. Claudius allows Laertes in and Claudius calms Laertes initially by reinforcing that he is not responsible for Polonius’ death. Then Ophelia in all her simple insanity, not seeming to recognize her brother. She exits having served her dramatic purpose. Claudius then is able to calm Laertes to listen to him tell him all he knows. Laertes consents to this and Claudius further placates him with the promise that, “Where th’ offence is, let the great axe fall.”

Meanwhile, Horatio receives news in a letter from Hamlet that the ship he was on was captured by pirates and that Hamlet has returned to Denmark. Hamlet also has letters for King Claudius and his mother Queen Gertrude. Horatio takes the sailors and their messages to Claudius and then he will go with the sailors to where Hamlet is in hiding.

We shift back to Claudius who has calmed Laertes and explained to Laetres that he has not punished Hamlet for Polonius’ murder, because of the Queen and the fact that the common people seem to love Hamlet so much. The letters arrive from Hamlet informing Claudius that Hamlet will arrive back tomorrow. Laertes wants to seek his revenge on Hamlet, and Claudius says that he will arrange a way for Laertes kill Hamlet. Claudius and Laetres decide to lure Hamlet into a duel with Laertes, that Laertes will use a sharpened sword dipped in poison so that even a scratch will kill Hamlet. Claudius also suggest that they have a backup plan of a poisoned cup of wine to drink from in celebration.

Gertrude then enters with the tragic news of Ophelia’s death.

“There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:

Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.”

Laertes leaves devastated. Claudius and Gertrude follow worried about where this new distress will take Laertes.