read, imagine her as disconsolate in the background, absorbed in her own sorrow. It is in the first Scene of the third Act. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been dismissed and the King says to the Queen, “Good Gertrude, leave us too.” Then he adds, aside, for her private ear, his apology for asking her to leave:
That he, as ’t were by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.
Her father and myself, lawful espials,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If ’t be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.”
Not a word of this Aside did Ophelia hear. The Queen replies, “I shall obey you.” Then, as she is leaving the room, she turns to Ophelia and says tenderly,
That your good beauty be the happy cause
Of Hamlet’s wildness; so shall I hope, your virtue
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.”
If Claudius’s words had been spoken aloud, the Queen would hardly have repeated Hamlet’s name; Ophelia would have already heard it, and the Queen would have spoken of his wildness, not of Hamlet’s wildness. The heartbroken Ophelia, hardly lifting her eyes, says timidly: ‘‘Madam, I wish it may.”
The Queen goes out, and Polonius bustles up, saying to his daughter, “Ophelia, walk you here.” Then, turning to the King and courteously waving him to the door, with “Gracious, so please you,” adds, as an Aside for the King’s ear alone, “We will bestow ourselves.” Then, as he approaches the door, he turns back and addresses Ophelia with “Read in this book, That show of such an exercise may colour your loneliness.” Then he rambles on, moralizing on “sugaring o’er the devil himself with devotion’s visage,” etc., but no further word to Ophelia. They hear Hamlet coming and at once withdraw. What intimation or faint hint, even, has Ophelia received that the King and her father are to be in concealment and overhear her interview with Hamlet? She had been told merely to remain there with a book in her hand, and await the Prince. When the Queen left the room, Ophelia had as
