Hamlet - Act 3 Scene 2
A hall in the castle.
Enter HAMLET and Players
Termagant and Herod are characters from mystery plays, which had been popular during Shakespeare's childhood. Both characters were traditionally passionate, ranting parts.
HAMLET
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,
trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many
of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke
my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your
hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent,
tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of your
passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that
may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to
hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion
to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the
groundlings, who for the most part are capable of
nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would
have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-Herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
First Player
I warrant your honour.
This speech is often taken to be Shakespeare's own advice to performers, and it has much to recommend it. It's worth remembering that the scene also sets up an amateurish aristocrat who is dispensing advice to a group of seasoned professionals. The Players' reactions will be telling: they may hang on Hamlet's every word, or they may ignore him in their preparations.
Hamlet's comments on the shortcomings of some players can be another meta-theatrical joke, either sniping at some rival company or else mocking members of Shakespeare's own troupe.
HAMLET
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be
your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the
action; with this special observance, that you o’erstep
not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first
and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to
nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own
image, and the very age and body of the time his form
and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off,
though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the
judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in
your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O,
there be players that have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that,
neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of
Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and
bellowed that I have thought some of nature's
journeymen had made men and not made them well,
they imitated humanity so abominably.
First Player
I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.
Having just exhorted the Players to prepare, Hamlet sends not only Polonius but also Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after them as well. This may indicate his impatience to put his plan into effect, or his desire to be rid of the others, or both.
HAMLET
O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your
clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for
there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on
some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though,
in the mean time, some necessary question of the play
be then to be considered: that's villanous, and shows a
most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make
you ready.
Exeunt Players
Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN
How now, my lord! Will the King hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS
And the Queen too, and that presently.
HAMLET
Bid the players make haste.
Exit POLONIUS
Will you two help to hasten them?
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN
We will, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
What ho! Horatio!
Enter HORATIO
"Sweet lord" is still a formal address, but hints at a greater intimacy between Hamlet and Horatio than when we last saw them in 1.5.
In his effort to demonstrate the sincerity of his respect for Horatio, Hamlet is blunt to the point of being insulting.
Does Hamlet's evaluation of Horatio match with the audience's? Horatio has had some moments of faltering, in addressing the Ghost in 1.1, and in pursuing Hamlet in 1.4, but Hamlet was not present for either of those.
"Heart's core" and "heart of heart" is a multi-lingual pun, as the Latin for "heart" is "cor" (or "coeur" in French).
Hamlet appears to have entrusted Horatio with the details of his father's murder, though this conversation takes place offstage. This revelation further indicates the growing friendship between Hamlet and Horatio.
Just as Polonius engages Claudius to observe Hamlet, Hamlet now engages Horatio to observe Claudius.
HORATIO
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO
O, my dear lord–
HAMLET
Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath sealed thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee – Something too much of this –
There is a play tonight before the King;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.
Danish march. A flourish. Enter CLAUDIUS, GERTRUDE,
POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN,
and others
CLAUDIUS
How fares our cousin Hamlet?
In Shakespeare's time, the chameleon was thought to eat air; the pun on "air" and "heir" makes Hamlet's comment a veiled barb at Claudius, indicating Hamlet's distrust or disdain for Claudius' promise to make Hamlet his heir.
HAMLET
Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air,
promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.
CLAUDIUS
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.
HAMLET
No, nor mine now.
[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar may have been performed shortly before Hamlet premiered, and it is quite possible that the actor playing Polonius had also played Caesar. Hamlet's mockery of Polonius thus also makes for a self-referential theatrical joke.
POLONIUS
That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET
What did you enact?
POLONIUS
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the Capitol;
Brutus killed me.
HAMLET
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.
Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
GERTRUDE
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet presumably moves or gestures toward Ophelia at this point. Though she has no lines at this point, she will have some kind of physical and/or facial reaction to Hamlet.
HAMLET
No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
POLONIUS
[To CLAUDIUS]
O, ho! do you mark that?
Hamlet's interaction with Ophelia here is intimate, bordering on sexual (somewhat depending on how hard he emphasizes the first syllable in "country"), made all the more uncomfortable and humiliating by the memory of his treatment of her in 3.1 and the fact that she is now in public, before her father and the King and Queen.
HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia seems relatively self-possessed under the circumstances, and appears steadfast in her belief that Hamlet is genuinely mad and in need of help.
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing.
OPHELIA
You are merry, my lord.
Hamlet's comment here may be whispered to Ophelia, or it may be loud enough to elicit a reaction from the entire court.
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but
be merry? For, look you, how cheerfully my mother
looks, and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA
Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a
suit of sables. O heavens! Die two months ago, and not
forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory
may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r lady, he must
build churches, then; or else shall he suffer not thinking
on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for,
O, the hobby-horse is forgot.'
The dumb-show was a convention from older plays, in which the main plot of a play was acted out in a condensed mime form, explaining the action of the story, and possibly sending it up as well.
Staging this scene is a challenge: ideally, the audience can see the Players' show, and Hamlet, and is also able to watch Claudius for signs of guilt.
Regardless of the details of the murder, the seduction of the Queen may already start to make the court uncomfortable.
Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters
Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him,
and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him.
He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him
down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him.
Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours
poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the
King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some
two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her.
The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with
gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts
his love
Exeunt
OPHELIA
What means this, my lord?
HAMLET
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.
OPHELIA
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
There is a substantial delay between the Prologue's entrance and his actual speech. Does he have a long, slow entrance, or does he stand ready while Hamlet and Ophelia converse?
Enter Prologue
HAMLET
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.
OPHELIA
Will he tell us what this show meant?
"Naught" means wicked or indecent; it's still used now as the root of "naughty," though it would have had a stronger, more forceful meaning for Shakespeare's audience.
HAMLET
Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it
means.
OPHELIA
You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
Prologue
For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
Exit
A "posy" or "poesy" was a short bit of verse inscribed on the inside of a ring. Hamlet's response is rude, but the Prologue does seem unusually short.
HAMLET
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA
'Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET
As woman's love.
The style of the play is archaic and elaborately artificial, with its rhymed couplets, classical allusions, and heightened language evoking old, traditional plays, and making Hamlet seem more modern and realistic by comparison.
Enter two Players, King and Queen
Player King
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
Player Queen
So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women's fear and love holds quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is sized, my fear is so:
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
Player King
'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honoured, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—
Player Queen
O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second but who killed the first.
Wormwood is proverbially bitter, and Hamlet is probably referring to the reception the Player Queen's sentiment would have at Claudius and Gertrude's court.
HAMLET
[Aside]
Wormwood, wormwood.
Player Queen
The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.
The Player King's meditation on changing passions and changing fortunes links to Hamlet's earlier observations about shifting fashions, in 1.4 and in 2.2.
Player King
I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity;
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.
But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
The audience has been prepared to watch for Claudius' reaction later, but Gertrude's reaction through this section might be significant as well.
Player Queen
Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
HAMLET
If she should break it now!
Player King
'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.
Sleeps
Player Queen
Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!
Exit
Hamlet's ongoing interruptions of the play seem to work counter to his plan, and may indicate his own rising passions and lack of control, even as he searches for a reaction from Claudius.
HAMLET
Madam, how like you this play?
GERTRUDE
The lady protests too much, methinks.
HAMLET
O, but she'll keep her word.
CLAUDIUS
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?
HAMLET
No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the
world.
CLAUDIUS
What do you call the play?
A galled jade is a horse which has been beaten and bruised; the sense is that such a horse would wince or flinch from a blow, while a well-treated horse (whose "withers are unwrung") would not react. Hamlet's comment ironically claims that innocents like himself and Claudius can watch the play without fear or strong reaction.
HAMLET
The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is
the image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the
duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis
a knavish piece of work: but what o'that? Your majesty
and we that have free souls, it touches us not: let the
gallèd jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
Enter LUCIANUS
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
OPHELIA
You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
Hamlet describes himself as a puppeteer, providing dialogue or acting as go-between for Ophelia. The term "love" here is ambiguous, referring both to the emotion itself and to a person or suitor.
Hamlet once more twists Ophelia's words to make a sexual reference. She uses "keen" to mean "insightful or clever," while he uses it to mean "eager for sex."
The Player portraying Lucianus is clearly waiting for Hamlet to finish speaking, and is upbraided and cued to speak.
HAMLET
I could interpret between you and your love, if I could
see the puppets dallying.
OPHELIA
You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
HAMLET
It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.
OPHELIA
Still better, and worse.
HAMLET
So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;
pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:
'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'
LUCIANUS
Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately.
Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears
Throughout this exchange, Lucianus and the Player King are stuck on stage; at some point, the Player King presumably rises from his feigned sleep, though he may try to cling to his performance until the last possible moment.
HAMLET
He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago:
the story is extant, and writ in choice Italian: you shall see
anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
OPHELIA
The King rises.
HAMLET
What, frighted with false fire!
GERTRUDE
How fares my lord?
POLONIUS
Give o'er the play.
CLAUDIUS
Give me some light: away!
All
Lights, lights, lights!
Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO
Hamlet's song recalls his earlier image of the "gallèd jade."
HAMLET
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungallèd play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers — if the rest
of my fortunes turn Turk with me – with two Provincial
roses on my razèd shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of
players, sir?
HORATIO
Half a share.
Hamlet's comment is ambiguous-- "this" may refer to his management of the play, or to his song above. To "turn Turk" means to convert to Islam (as some English merchants did in order to trade with the Ottomans), so the overall sense is that, if Hamlet's fortunes change for the worse, he has proven worthy of joining a theatre troupe.
Hamlet appears convinced that Claudius' guilt has been proven, while Horatio never actually elaborates on what he saw, and neither confirms nor contradicts Hamlet's conclusions.
HAMLET
A whole one, I.
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself, and now reigns here
A very, very – pajock.
HORATIO
You might have rhymed.
HAMLET
O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand
pound. Didst perceive?
HORATIO
Very well, my lord.
HAMLET
Upon the talk of the poisoning?
HORATIO
I did very well note him.
This line echoes Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, a revenge tragedy which features a play-within-a-play, and whose popularity may have influenced Shakespeare to write Hamlet.
Hamlet's interaction with Horatio has some of the same manic qualities he displayed in 1.5 after his encounter with the Ghost; with the arrival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he adds some of his "mad" behaviour, twisting and misinterpreting their words. Guildenstern uses "distempered" to mean "angry," and Hamlet twists the meaning to refer to drunkenness.
HAMLET
Ah, ha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
For if the King like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
GUILDENSTERN
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
HAMLET
Sir, a whole history.
GUILDENSTERN
The King, sir–
HAMLET
Ay, sir, what of him?
GUILDENSTERN
Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.
HAMLET
With drink, sir?
Guildenstern uses "choler" figuratively, to mean anger; Hamlet again plays on this meaning, interpreting "choler" literally, as bile, and prescribing "purgation," a treatment which would involve inducing vomiting or defecation.
GUILDENSTERN
No, my lord, rather with choler.
HAMLET
Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify
this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation
would perhaps plunge him into far more choler.
GUILDENSTERN
Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and
start not so wildly from my affair.
HAMLET
I am tame, sir: pronounce.
GUILDENSTERN
The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit,
hath sent me to you.
HAMLET
You are welcome.
Guildenstern appears to have reached the end of his tether, and is now presenting Hamlet with an ultimatum, threatening to leave if Hamlet continues misbehaving.
GUILDENSTERN
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right
breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome
answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not,
your pardon and my return shall be the end of my
business.
HAMLET
Sir, I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN
What, my lord?
Hamlet may be acting out of playful mischief or cruel malice, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make excellent straight men for his wit.
HAMLET
Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,
sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;
or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more,
but to the matter: my mother, you say –
Rosencrantz may take over the conversation because Guildenstern has become too frustrated to continue, or else they may be acting in concert, working to bring Hamlet to Gertrude.
ROSENCRANTZ
Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her into
amazement and admiration.
HAMLET
O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But is
there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration?
Impart.
ROSENCRANTZ
She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to
bed.
Hamlet's idiom here is odd; the typical phrasing would be "one-tenth," indicating that he would obey even if Gertrude were less of a mother.
HAMLET
We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you
any further trade with us?
ROSENCRANTZ
My lord, you once did love me.
Hamlet swears by his hands, referencing the Catechism: "to keep my hands from picking and stealing."
HAMLET
So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
ROSENCRANTZ
Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You
do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you
deny your griefs to your friend.
HAMLET
Sir, I lack advancement.
ROSENCRANTZ
How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself
for your succession in Denmark?
The proverb is "while the grass grows, the horse starves," i.e. Claudius remains king, while Hamlet is perpetually the heir, denied his birthright.
The image is one of hunting: Hamlet accuses Guildenstern of sneaking downwind of him, in order to drive him into a trap.
Guildenstern attempts to cover for his offense by claiming that it comes from his love for Hamlet. Either Guildenstern is unconvincing, or Hamlet is in no mood to be put off with a politic response.
HAMLET
Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,' – the proverb is
something musty.
Re-enter Players with recorders
O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with
you – why do you go about to recover the wind of me,
as if you would drive me into a toil?
GUILDENSTERN
O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
unmannerly.
HAMLET
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this
pipe?
GUILDENSTERN
My lord, I cannot.
Hamlet's request is repeated four times, suggesting that both his insistence and Guildenstern's evasions build in intensity, reaching a crescendo with Hamlet's exclamation and explanation.
HAMLET
I pray you.
GUILDENSTERN
Believe me, I cannot.
HAMLET
I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN
I know no touch of it, my lord.
HAMLET
'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your
fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth,
and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you,
these are the stops.
GUILDENSTERN
But these cannot I command to any utterance of
harmony; I have not the skill.
Hamlet's outrage (and, possibly, genuine sense of betrayal) here is understandable, though it calls into question his own frequent manipulation of others, especially his treatment of Polonius.
The image of the pipe also echoes Hamlet's earlier comment to Horatio, whom he regards as a stoic, not "a pipe for Fortune's finger/ To sound what stop she please."
HAMLET
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery;
you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of
my compass: and there is much music, excellent voice,
in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak.
'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a
pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can
fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.
Enter POLONIUS
God bless you, sir!
POLONIUS
My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.
HAMLET
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a
camel?
POLONIUS
By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET
Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS
It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET
Or like a whale?
POLONIUS
Very like a whale.
Hamlet's aside here may be for himself, or the audience, or for Horatio. Horatio has no lines between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's entrance and the end of the scene, but he remains on stage throughout. He may be a passive observer, but he may also comment non-verbally, either supporting Hamlet or repudiating his behaviour.
HAMLET
Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool me
to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.
POLONIUS
I will say so.
HAMLET
‘By and by’ is easily said.
Exit POLONIUS
Leave me, friends.
Exeunt all but HAMLET
Nero famously had his mother, Agrippina, assassinated. Hamlet addresses his feelings about Gertrude indirectly: he must be harsh with her, without giving in to any desire for violence. The split between intent and action is now presented as intentional, even beneficial, or at least necessary.
’Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! Now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!
Exit