Act Three
Act
Three Scene One
Sub
Scene Six
The
hawks circled
Much
forgotten by Ophelia, her woes were not for her alone but heard by two others,
who had remained in the shadows.
Claudius
made his way towards Polonius silent like the mouse, as an actor will move to
take his place, lest the audience was to be distracted. Normally, a loud voice
would have resonated with the arrival, but then Claudius felt like a mouse whispering
toward Polonius.
“Love?
His affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a
little” Claudius baffled. “Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul
over which his melancholy sits on broods and I do doubt the hatch and the
disclose.”
Claudius
was unsure if the madness of Hamlet may not be but a plot to attack him.
Ophelia's earlier confession had brought up his own, but the disclosure was
deferred by the arrival of Hamlet. Here Hamlet had denounced himself to have
loved Ophelia.
Does
Hamlet plan to be alone without hurting anyone while he pursues his hunt for
the death of his father? The baggage of loved ones in battle weakened the
strength to act. But who does he want to hunt? Claudius has thought of himself
or Gertrude. They were the ones to hold all of Denmark upon the death of the
King.
“l
may be some dangers; which to prevent, I have in quick determination thus set
it down.” Claudius pondered his action.
“To
have him sent off will be the better option,” Claudius muttered off his option.
It has to be far from Norway. A scandal
in Norway so soon will hit the headlines detrimental to his accession. “I
cannot have that. It may ruin my reputation.”
“Away
he must leave soon but to where?” Claudius thought hard and then he knew of the
location.
“He
shall with speed to England.” Claudius looked at Polonius. “For the demand of
our neglected tribute. haply the seas, and countries different with
variable objects, shall expel. This something-settled matter in his heart, whereon
his brain still beating puts him thus from the fashion of himself. What thinks
you on ’t?”
“He
liked England as to what I know of young. He was sent there for the summers by
the King, not to abode here.” Claudius explained his choice. Untold to
Polonius, Claudius has the strength of men there; they work for him and abide
by his commands.
“The
King held Norway, while the Emperor rules England, the isles off the main
continent..” It was the saying of the scene; the King sanctioned it for he knew
England to him was a smaller stage to the continent there.
“I
will not have triumphed over by him.” Claudius borrowed from Cleopatra. “The
son he had as Cleopatra did with her son to Caesar. It will take the same
ending.”
Cleopatra
had used her son named to be of Caesar’s blood to make herself the Queen of
Rome, unchallenged yet unaccepted then. “As I had waited, I came, I saw and I
will conquer thee…. In due time.”
After
the Assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the Ptolemaic
Kingdom (r. 305–30 BC), which had ruled Egypt since the Wars
of Alexander the Great brought an end to Achaemenid
Egypt (the Thirty-first Dynasty), took the side of Mark
Antony in the last war of the Roman Republic, against the eventual
victor Octavian, who as Augustus became the first Roman
emperor in 27 BC, having defeated Mark Antony and
the pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, at the naval Battle of Actium. After
the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, the Roman Republic annexed the
Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
Claudius
had resolved to be in the smaller conquest, but he will win it all in the end.
“Hamlet
will suffer as Cleopatra’s son, killed by the victor.” Cleopatra’s son was
lured to Rome and executed by the Rome Emperor.
“Did
you say something? I was away in my thoughts.” Polonius had half-listened to
the other.
“However,
what you may have said, as I could have heard, it shall do well. England it
will be.” Polonius agreed to the call more so he will be away from Ophelia
whose virtue he may snatch lustful in the mind.
“But
yet do I believe the origin and commencement of his grief sprung from
neglected love.” Claudius moved to approach Ophelia. He was followed by
Polonius.
“My
Lords?” Ophelia was in her thoughts and had forgotten the two in hiding.
“How
now, Ophelia? You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said. We heard it all.—My
lord, do as you please” Claudius pushed the task toward Polonius.
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. If she finds him not, to England send
him, or confine him where your wisdom best shall think.”
Polonius
knew that it was his task then. A victory or defeat will be his fate.
“For
Ophelia, I am to do.” Polonius voiced out. “Let him have his madness on the
play. Then I will do the needed.”
“It
shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” Claudius acted as
the Emperor. His soul will not be tainted by the works of his underlings though
the works were his in the lead.
“Come,
Ophelia. I will see to you from now.” Polonius held out his arms to his
daughter. “I know best for you.”
“Yes,
father.” Ophelia ever the obedient one.
.
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