The King and Queen enter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and others. King Claudius has summoned Hamlet's two school chums to Elsinore to have them spy on the Prince and report back to Claudius, recounting Hamlet's every move. The Queen promises them handsome compensation for their spying and assures them that Hamlet's own good requires the service. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree. The two leave to seek Prince Hamlet, and the King and Queen turn their attention to Polonius, who claims to have the answer to Prince Hamlet's affliction He promises to elaborate further after Claudius receives his newly arrived ambassadors from Norway.
When Polonius exits, Gertrude scoffs at the old man's intimations. She remains certain that Hamlet's woes are caused by the old king's death and her hasty remarriage. Polonius returns with Ambassadors Voltemand and Cornelius. They bring news from Norway that the old and ailing king, brother to the slain King Fortinbras, has managed to restrain his nephew, young Fortinbras, from invading Denmark. In return, however, the old man asks that Denmark provide some assistance in Fortinbras' campaign against Poland — that Claudius allow Fortinbras to pass through Denmark on his way to Poland.
As soon as the ambassadors leave, Polonius launches into an elaborate discussion on the meaning of life and duty, promising to be brief and then launching into further wordiness. Finally, Polonius asserts that Hamlet is mad. Having no patience for Polonius, Gertrude admonishes him. Again promising to be less loquacious, Polonius makes showy, wavy motions with his arms and then reads a letter he confiscated from his daughter, written in the Prince's hand. Polonius criticizes the highly dramatic, artificial prose with random rhymes in which Hamlet has written the note and tells Claudius and Gertrude that he has forbidden Ophelia to accept any advances from the Prince. That is the order, Polonius claims, that has led poor Hamlet into madness.
