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O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

ACT lll Scene l

POLONIUS
............... My lord, do as you please;
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief: let her be round with him;
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference.

CLAUDIUS
It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.

and again

ACT lll Scene lll

POLONIUS
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

CLAUDIUS
Thanks, dear my lord.

[Exit POLONIUS]

Claudius has lately committed regicide. Given the
circumstances, he can have little doubt that in the
course of the exchange his wife is to have with her son,
it is almost a certainty Hamlet means to acquaint his
mother with the truth surrounding Old Hamlet's death.

As Claudius's survival rests upon his treason remaining
undiscovered his primary concern should be to limit the
number of persons having knowledge of it.

Why then, does he so readily acquiesce to a plan which
has the potential to hasten his downfall?

Posted by Prince Hal on March 26, 1997 at 11:20:07

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