Then, longing to be alone, he abruptly dismisses his guests, and pours out a passion of self-reproach for his delay, asks himself in bewilderment what can be its cause, lashes himself into a fury of hatred against his foe, checks himself in disgust at his futile emotion, and quiets his conscience for the moment by trying to convince himself that he has doubts about the Ghost, and by assuring himself that, if the King’s behaviour at the play-scene shows but a sign of guilt, he ‘knows his course.’

Nothing, surely, can be clearer than the meaning of this famous soliloquy.  The doubt which appears at its close, instead of being the natural conclusion of the preceding thoughts, is totally inconsistent with them.  For Hamlet’s self-reproaches, his curses on his enemy, and his perplexity about his own inaction, one and all imply his faith in the identity and truthfulness of the Ghost.  Evidently this sudden doubt, of which there has not been the slightest trace before, is no genuine doubt; it is an unconscious fiction, an excuse for his delay—­and for its continuance.

A night passes, and the day that follows it brings the crisis.  First takes place that interview from which the King is to learn whether disappointed love is really the cause of his nephew’s lunacy.  Hamlet is sent for; poor Ophelia is told to walk up and down, reading her prayer-book; Polonius and the King conceal themselves behind the arras.  And Hamlet enters, so deeply absorbed in thought that for some time he supposes himself to be alone.  What is he thinking of?  ’The Murder of Gonzago,’ which is to be played in a few hours, and on which everything depends?  Not at all.  He is meditating on suicide; and he finds that what stands in the way of it, and counterbalances its infinite attraction, is not any thought of a sacred unaccomplished duty, but the doubt, quite irrelevant to that issue, whether it is not ignoble in the mind to end its misery, and, still more, whether death would end it.  Hamlet, that is to say, is here, in effect, precisely where he was at the time of his first soliloquy (’O that this too too solid flesh would melt’) two months ago, before ever he heard of his father’s murder.[55] His reflections have no reference to this particular moment; they represent that habitual weariness of life with which his passing outbursts of emotion or energy are contrasted.  What can be more significant than the fact that he is sunk in these reflections on the very day which is to determine for him the truthfulness of the Ghost?  And how is it possible for us to hope that, if that truthfulness should be established, Hamlet will be any nearer to his revenge?[56]

His interview with Ophelia follows; and its result shows that his delay is becoming most dangerous to himself.  The King is satisfied that, whatever else may be the hidden cause of Hamlet’s madness, it is not love.  He is by no means certain even that Hamlet is mad at all.  He has heard that infuriated threat, ’I say, we will have no more marriages; those that are married, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are.’  He is thoroughly alarmed.  He at any rate will not delay.  On the spot he determines to send Hamlet to England.  But, as Polonius is present, we do not learn at once the meaning of this purpose.