Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Two – “I have of late—but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth…”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act Two – “I have of late—but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth…”

When I read a great play like ‘Hamlet’ and I then come across an act or set of scenes that weaves plot, character, speeches, intention, light lyrical poetry and poetic imagery driven by the deep and dark murky mire of the soul, I feel elated and truly humbled at the same time. Act Two of 'Hamlet' is brilliant.

It starts calmly and domestically enough with Polonius sending his servant Reynaldo to Paris, France to not just take money and letters to his son Laertes, but to spy on him and his every activity. What it is to be so trusting as a father. Ophelia enters, shaken and upset because Hamlet has come in the early morning to her chambers “with his doublet unbraced” and a wild look. Hamlet then took her by the wrist and held her hard and perused her face intently and then left without uttering a word. Polonius concludes from all this that Hamlet is madly in love with Ophelia and that it is the madness of love that is responsible for all his strange behaviour.

In another part of the castle, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude welcome two of Hamlet’s university friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who Claudius has summoned to the palace to find the cause of Hamlet’s melancholy. Gertrude looks to them to cheer up “too much changed” son up. Although they are Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree to act as spies for Claudius.

Then Polonius enters, with news that the ambassadors who were sent to the old King of Norway have returned. The news is good and it is revealed that the king chastised young Fortinbras for trying to rally forces against the Danes and he gave him money to attack Poland instead. The king has averted war with Denmark but asked that Fortinbras’ troops be allowed to travel through Denmark on their way to attack Poland. Caludius agrees and is happy that peace is maintained.

Polonius then turns Claudius and Gertrude’s attention to Hamlet and after a meandering and ponderous prelude, he puts it to the king and queen that Hamlet is mad – for love of Ophelia which he bases on Hamlet’s behaviour and love letters from Hamlet to his daughter Ophelia which he promptly shares with them by reading them out aloud. Moreover, Polonius suggests that they spy on Hamlet on one of his walks by hiding behind an arras or wall hanging and watch Hamlet meeting with and interacting with Ophelia. Claudius likes the idea and when Prince Hamlet is seen approaching Polonius decides that he will have an initial conversation with him. Claudius and Gertrude exit.

Hamlet is quietly reading and contemplating, when he is interrupted by Polonius who takes Hamlet’s witty intellectually barbed quips to be proof of Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius leaves, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive and while they claim that they are merely there to see Hamlet, it becomes obvious that Claudius and Gertrude have sent for them. Hamlet says that his melancholy is probably the reason for the king and queen sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:

“I have of late--but

wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all

custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily

with my disposition that this goodly frame, the

earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most

excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave

o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted

with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to

me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.”

Rosencrantz then reveals that he hopes that Hamlet’s spirits are lifted by a troupe of players that they have “coted” on their way to Elsinore. Hamlet asks about the players and realizes that they are the players that he used to “take delight in” in the city and he asks about why they are traveling and would even visit a place like Elsinore. He hears that they are just as good but their style is a bit out of fashion now. Trumpets blow to proclaim the entrance of the players and Polonius announces the diversity of their performance styles. This whole scene gives a incredible insight into the nature of acting troupes of Shakespeare’s time. Hamlet prompts them to perform a speech about the Trojan King Priam and the fall of Troy and they comply. Then Hamlet tells them that they should perform The Murder of Gonzago that night but with the addition of an insertion of a short speech which Hamlet himself will write. They all depart and Hamlet is left alone.

Hamlet derides himself for his inability to show the feeling that these players seem to show and he decides that he will use the play to trap the king by forcing him to watch a scene very close to the events about his father’s death as told to him by the ghost. He sees the play will help to serve his own purposes.

“… O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul so to his own conceit

… and all for nothing!

For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have…

I should have fatted all the region kites

With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,

And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion… I'll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be the devil: and the devil hath power

To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds

More relative than this: the play 's the thing

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.”