Hamlet demonstrates his acute sense of wordplay with his sad cynicism on the subject of honesty. "To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked in ten thousand." But he clearly convinces Polonius that he is not rational. "How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of." Then again, as soon as Polonius exits, Hamlet reveals his true level of reason: "These tedious fools." He understands that Polonius is not the only old man he needs to worry about.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern return, and Hamlet elucidates his astuteness once more. He manipulates his "excellent good friends" into admitting they have been sent for. He calls fortune a whore, suggesting that one can buy luck and fate . . . like friendship. He proves that he understands the duplicitous nature of their visit. He further clarifies his presence of mind through his lucid discourse on the nature of dreams and the paradox of human existence.
Prison imagery surrounds this scene. "Denmark's a prison," he says. In answer to Rosencrantz's retort that "then the world must be one," Hamlet assents but asserts that Denmark is "One o' the worst." The brooding clarity with which Hamlet perceives his predicament reminds us that he has announced that he will wear an antic disposition — that he is faking his madness.
When Polonius announces the arrival of the players and Hamlet again plays with what he perceives as Polonius' meager intelligence, however, Polonius again concludes that Ophelia's rejection is the cause of Hamlet's madness.
