How can that be -. O, the recorders! Let me see one. Will you play upon this pipe? My lord, I cannot. I pray you. Believe me, I cannot. I do beseech you. To beg eagerly. I know no touch of it , my lord. It is 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. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill. The royal entourage enters. Hamlet manically chatters with Claudius, Polonius, Gertrude and Ophelia, reserving special attention for the latter, whom he sits next to and teases. Ophelia seems confused by this plot but Hamlet tells her to wait for the speaker of the prologue to explain. The prologue is a short little jingling rhyme. The player king and queen then immediately enter the stage.
The king mentions that they have been married thirty years. The player queen expresses a hope that their love last as long over again. The king encourages the queen to remarry if he dies.
The queen protests against this notion vehemently, swearing never to love another if were to she turn widow. With this, the king falls asleep and the queen exits. This evil character creeps up to the sleeping player king and pours poison in his ear. At this, Claudius rises and orders the play to end. He retreats with his retinue. Hamlet and Horatio laugh together, certain now that the ghost was telling the truth. After a short celebration, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter and tell Hamlet that he has made Claudius very angry.
They also say that Gertrude has ordered Hamlet to meet her in her chamber. They then entreat Hamlet to tell the cause of his distemper.
Polonius enters and entreats Hamlet again to see his mother. All exit but Hamlet. In a short soliloquy, Hamlet reflects that he will be cruel to his mother, showing her the extent of her crime in marrying Claudius, but will not actually hurt her. Claudius gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a sealed envelope with orders to convey Hamlet to England and give the envelope to the king there.
Polonius then enters, saying that Hamlet is going to meet with his mother, and declaring his intention to hide behind an arras and listen to their conversation.
He exits. Alone, the king looks into his soul. He is deeply disgusted by what he sees. Gertrude exits. Polonius greets Ophelia and instructs her to pretend to read a book so that her being alone will not seem unusual to Hamlet.
Ophelia complies and waits with a book while the two men hide. Hamlet enters, speaking his "To be or not to be" soliloquy. He ponders the nature of being and nothingness, and then notices Ophelia reading. Hamlet, assuming that she is reading prayers, asks her to pray for him.
She tells him she wishes to return to him gifts he has given her. He responds that he has given her no gifts. She insists that he did give her gifts, and she claims that he gave the gifts to her with words that made them seem symbols of great love.
Again he denies having given her the gifts at all and further denies having ever loved her. He questions her honesty and, in response to her bewilderment, tells her that all men are untrustworthy knaves and that she would be better off in a nunnery. That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern left the actors without an audience deeply wounded the Player and his men.
As actors, the Player explains, their very identity depends on whether someone is observing. The three men reach no conclusions about Hamlet, and the Player leaves to memorize his lines. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin discussing death, specifically what happens when someone dies. Rosencrantz considers life as one long march toward death, but then he begins to despair over his lack of influence, having failed to summon someone into the room to be interrogated by the pair.
A group enters. While Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not necessarily homosexual, their playful interaction points to an ongoing flirtation between the two friends. Rosencrantz, in particular, seems to enjoy baiting and teasing Guildenstern, playfully luring his friend into verbal traps.
For his part, Guildenstern willingly starts conversations, although he knows that the answers Rosencrantz gives to his questions will probably frustrate him.
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