d eavesdrop on Hamlet's conversation with Ophelia. At that point, Hamlet appears; he is completely engrossed in a book that he is reading as he walks. Polonius asks Claudius and Gertrude to leave him alone with Hamlet so he can see what is on Hamlet's mind. Hamlet's answers to his questions make Polonius more certain that Hamlet is crazy. Actually, Hamlet is baiting Polonius: after Polonius leaves, Hamlet calls him a "tedious old fool." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive and begin to question Hamlet, trying to prove their suspicion that Hamlet's strange behavior is a result of disappointed ambition because he did not succeed his father to the throne. Hamlet outwits them and shows that he is aware that they have come because the king and queen sent for them. When they admit that he is right, he tells them how disillusioned he feels. Nothing in life gives him pleasure. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell him they passed some actors coming to perform at court. Polonius comes in and tells Hamlet what he already knows, the news about the players (actors). Again, Hamlet makes fun of Polonius, but Polonius takes no offense since he is so certain that Hamlet is deranged. Hamlet greets the players and reminds them of a scene from a play he once saw them perform. He begins a speech he remembers, and the first player picks it up where Hamlet stops. Then Hamlet tells Polonius to take the players to their quarters and to be certain to treat them kindly. The first player lingers. Hamlet asks him if he knows a play called The Murder of Gonzago. When the player says he does, Hamlet requests it for the next night's performance and tells the player that he will write twelve or sixteen lines to be added to the play. He then dismisses the player and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Then, in a soliloquy, Hamlet berates himself for not yet having avenged his father's murder. Still troubled by the possibility that the ghost is an evil spirit, not his dead father,...
