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We left Hamlet, at the close of the First Act, when he had just received his charge from the spirit of his father; and his condition was vividly depicted in the fact that, within an hour of receiving this charge, he had relapsed into that weariness of life or longing for death which is the immediate cause of his later inaction.  When next we meet him, at the opening of the Second Act, a considerable time has elapsed, apparently as much as two months.[54] The ambassadors sent to the King of Norway (I. ii. 27) are just returning.  Laertes, whom we saw leaving Elsinore (I. iii.), has been in Paris long enough to be in want of fresh supplies.  Ophelia has obeyed her father’s command (given in I. iii.), and has refused to receive Hamlet’s visits or letters.  What has Hamlet done?  He has put on an ‘antic disposition’ and established a reputation for lunacy, with the result that his mother has become deeply anxious about him, and with the further result that the King, who was formerly so entirely at ease regarding him that he wished him to stay on at Court, is now extremely uneasy and very desirous to discover the cause of his ‘transformation.’  Hence Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been sent for, to cheer him by their company and to worm his secret out of him; and they are just about to arrive.  Beyond exciting thus the apprehensions of his enemy Hamlet has done absolutely nothing; and, as we have seen, we must imagine him during this long period sunk for the most part in ‘bestial oblivion’ or fruitless broodings, and falling deeper and deeper into the slough of despond.

Now he takes a further step.  He suddenly appears unannounced in Ophelia’s chamber; and his appearance and behaviour are such as to suggest both to Ophelia and to her father that his brain is turned by disappointment in love.  How far this step was due to the design of creating a false impression as to the origin of his lunacy, how far to other causes, is a difficult question; but such a design seems certainly present.  It succeeds, however, only in part; for, although Polonius is fully convinced, the King is not so, and it is therefore arranged that the two shall secretly witness a meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet.  Meanwhile Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, and at the King’s request begin their attempts, easily foiled by Hamlet, to pluck out the heart of his mystery.  Then the players come to Court, and for a little while one of Hamlet’s old interests revives, and he is almost happy.  But only for a little while.  The emotion shown by the player in reciting the speech which tells of Hecuba’s grief for her slaughtered husband awakes into burning life the slumbering sense of duty and shame.  He must act.  With the extreme rapidity which always distinguishes him in his healthier moments, he conceives and arranges the plan of having the ’Murder of Gonzago’ played before the King and Queen, with the addition of a speech written by himself for the occasion.