II.ii. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern - Branagh '96

In Branagh's production, R&G arrive on a small steam train, evoking their childhood friendship with Hamlet. Almost immediately, they fall into the sort of clever banter they used to indulge in with the witty prince. The setting also seems important. Meeting them outside Elsinore reminds us that they are outsiders to the Court they desperately want to be a part of, but exteriors also give weight to Hamlet's line about being a king of infinite space, and in his black figure against the snow connects Hamlet to the shadowy dream (his unrealized revenge) and the outstretched echo of a hero or monarch who is but a beggar (as he refers to himself soon after). Another reason to place this scene outside is to reveal R&G's duplicity. We have already seen them inside Elsinore, so their surprise "arrival" is a con. When Hamlet tells them their news is not true, it seems at first that he means "the world's grown honest", but it may just as well refer to their entire arrival.

Branagh plays Hamlet as emotional here. As soon as he calls R&G on their untrue news, his eyes start to water, perhaps in anger. He realizes early on that he has been betrayed by childhood friends. This emotion pours out when he confronts them about it. And he does so head on. "I have an eye of you", scripted as an aside, is here a warning. Hamlet in fact uses his emotion to shame them into admitting their connivance with Claudius. He then seems to take them into his confidence, the lie out of the way so to speak, but he may be playing with them. Branagh plays him as sometimes vulnerable, sometimes mad, sometimes angry, giving them knowing, ironic looks. For example, he starts "What a piece of work is a man" while looking at Guildenstern, an edified man he will bring down in the course of the speech. He also looks at each of his friends in turn when he mentions the hawk and the handsaw, playing on the joke that the characters are nearly identical, but also saying that he knows friends from enemies.
For their part, they don't quite know what to make of him, and where Horatio seems to be on the same page as the prince, their interactions are often inappropriate. They are OLD friends in a very real sense (as opposed to LONG-TIME friends). They are only comfortable in nostalgia. They can handle banter and theatrical gossip, but they can't deal with Hamlet's depression or flights of poetry. This culminates in their turning one of the play's key speeches into a gay joke, their chuckling visibly insulting Hamlet. They revert to childhood when interacting with their childhood friend.
The theatrical gossip section is not often played, and Branagh wastes as little time as possible, making the rapid-fire discussion so quick it's hard to really get any meaning out of it. So why is it there (in the text)? It of course tells us something about R&G and Hamlet. Thematically, they're also talking about pretenders. Young actors coming on the scene and stealing the work of more established ones, their worthiness in question. Hamlet relates this to his uncle usurping the throne - and getting the two suck-ups to laugh along with his joke - and condemns "fashion" for elevating both. And then there are the pretenders that are R&G, ironically trying to elevate themselves like the "boys" did. So while Branagh does not necessarily convince us that this section needs to be in play, it does support many of the play's ideas.

II.ii. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

In the next sequence, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern finally catch up to Hamlet. Though in the guise of old school chums, they are really there at the King's behest to spy on the prince. This does not mean they have to be sinister figures. They may, in fact, have Hamlet's best interest at heart (as does the Queen who first sent for them), but they do find themselves at cross-purposes with Hamlet. It is perhaps telling that their conversation is not in blank verse. Scenes with Horatio, who has a similar relationship with Hamlet on the surface (school friends), are still in verse. Do R&G not rate the heightened language of the Court? Where Hamlet treats Horatio as an equal (and at times, even a better), he talks down to R&G, bringing himself to their level and basically running circles around them. It may be interesting to note that when R&G do speak in verse (to the King and Queen, for example), they do so at their own peril, paranoid and halting in their delivery. This is a world they aspire to, but which is forever out of reach. Hamlet has outgrown them.

The sequence also contains the quotable "What a piece of work is a man" speech. As with the previous sequence, here's a link to a website that offers video comparison between more Hamlets than I'm doing. You can compare yourself. But first, lets look at the text itself, in italics to differentiate it from my own comments:

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN

LORD POLONIUS: You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
ROSENCRANTZ: [To POLONIUS] God save you, sir!
Exit POLONIUS

GUILDENSTERN: My honoured lord!
ROSENCRANTZ: My most dear lord!
HAMLET: My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
ROSENCRANTZ: As the indifferent children of the earth.
GUILDENSTERN: Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
HAMLET: Nor the soles of her shoe?
ROSENCRANTZ: Neither, my lord.

This sums up the duo's place in Denmark. They have a tenuous connection to the Royal family, but have not yet managed to rise to inner Court which the aspire to. They'll go on to jealously wonder why Hamlet, who to them, is at the very top of the social scale, feels he is at its bottom.

HAMLET: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?
GUILDENSTERN: 'Faith, her privates we.
HAMLET: In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet. What's the news?

It amuses me that this coarse joke has been removed from my pocket copy of the play, published for use in the school room. Beyond the joke itself, it is telling that Hamlet considers Fortune to be a whore who raised his murderous uncle to the loftiest position in the land, and in so doing, makes a statement about his own mother who let Claudius climb on top of her. It continues Hamlet's motif of linking adultery and sexual sin to the female principle.

ROSENCRANTZ: None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
HAMLET: Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: what have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN: Prison, my lord!
HAMLET: Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ: Then is the world one.
HAMLET: A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

The reader may well find that this line foreshadows the final fate of R&G, so long as one imagines a short stay in a dungeon before their execution.

ROSENCRANTZ: We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET: Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ: Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind.

I've often found that people ascribe their own motivations to others. Those who act in bad faith assume bad faith on the part of others, and so on. How R&G interpret Hamlet's words tells us more about their own thought process than Hamlet's. They are motivated by ambition; he is not. It does beggar the question as to whether they believe Hamlet should be on the throne by filial right. Are they fishing for answers and testing their own theory for Hamlet's distemper? And if that is their belief, the characters would be trapped between a rock and a hard place trying to please both the pretender King and the would-be King, so as to stay in both's good graces. Their death sentence is signed not by their choosing the wrong side (they don't know they're carrying orders to have Hamlet put to death), but for hedging their bets and not choosing a side at all (except their own).

HAMLET: O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN: Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET: A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ: Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
HAMLET: Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

One of two connections made between beggars and kings in the play. Hamlet is consistently deflating his own royalty and that of others. It's part of the fatalism of the play - we all return to the earth in the end - as well as a slight to the current King - if he can be king, then anyone can. This particular line mirrors R&G's own ambitions, the shadows/dreams being their own. Hamlet likens them to beggars, which they are. They beg for attention and power.

ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN: We'll wait upon you.
HAMLET: No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
ROSENCRANTZ: To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
HAMLET: Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

Again, Hamlet confuses a Royal for a beggar. In this case, himself. The theme of this sequence will eventually bloom in "What a piece of work is a man" in which Hamlet

GUILDENSTERN: What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET: Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ: To what end, my lord?
HAMLET: That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no?
ROSENCRANTZ: [Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you?
HAMLET: [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN: My lord, we were sent for.
HAMLET: I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
HAMLET: Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
ROSENCRANTZ: To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they coming, to offer you service.

As part of the various inversions in this section of Scene 2 is the change of tone taking us from Hamlet's sublime and fatalistic speech to R&G laughing at a gay joke. This is another sign that R&G are just on Hamlet's level, intellectually or poetically. It also acts as a bridge for a conversation about Elizabethan theater. Hamlet is very much about a man putting on a play, and from here to the play within a play, it also becomes about theater itself. This section (along with the later speech to the Players) gives us an idea of what Shakespeare's theater was like, but also tells us there was a lot of what he considers bad theater going on. The sequence starts with Hamlet making an ironic comment in the context of his uncle's usurpation of the throne:

HAMLET: He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are they?
ROSENCRANTZ: Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.
HAMLET: How chances it they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
ROSENCRANTZ`I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.
HAMLET: Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? are they so followed?
ROSENCRANTZ: No, indeed, are they not.
HAMLET: How comes it? do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ: Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
HAMLET: What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players--as it is most like, if their means are no better--their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession?
ROSENCRANTZ: 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.
HAMLET: Is't possible?
GUILDENSTERN: O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
HAMLET: Do the boys carry it away?
ROSENCRANTZ: Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET: It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

Are we to understand that Shakespeare, at this point in his career, felt the sting of competition? It's the same today: Things that are popular are not necessarily good art. It's what makes people hide behind the idea that quality is all subjective, when clearly, it is not. At the end of this oft deleted conversation, Hamlet brings things back to his situation, comparing Claudius to bad theater, popular but lacking in quality.

Flourish of trumpets within

GUILDENSTERN: There are the players.
HAMLET: Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
GUILDENSTERN: In what, my dear lord?
HAMLET: I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

At the very end, Hamlet lets slip something of the truth. It may not be right to say that he lets down his guard exactly, because the comment, at least to R&G's ears, is coded. It is not the only time that Hamlet sounds mad even as he tells us he isn't.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - French Rock Opera

Halliday's Fishmonger Scene does away with Polonius entirely and makes it about Hamlet's reading, and in so doing gives us a reflective, personal song that intersects with various ideas in the play. You can listen to it HERE, and I follow the text with a rough translation.

Je lis
Quand la vie est jolie, jolie, je lis
Quand il fait triste, et il fait gris, je lis
Quand je suis seul dans mon lit, je lis
Quand même les rêves me fuient, je lis
Quand je cherche un coin d’oubli, je lis
Quand j’ai besoin d’un alibi, je lis
Quand on me sonne l'hallali, je lis
Quand je perds le goût de la vie, je lis
Quand je lis, je lis, je lis quoi ?
Des mots…

I read
When life is pretty, pretty, I read
When it is sad, and it is gray, I read
When I'm alone in my bed, I read
When even my dreams desert me, I read
When I look for a forgotten corner, I read
When I need an alibi, I read
When they trumpet the kill, I read
When I lose the taste for life, I read
When I read, I read, I read what?
Words...

The short song has Hamlet reading, rain or shine, homogenizing his life which he will later compare to a prison. Most of the lines speak to his fatalism, undercutting the hopefulness of the first in which the near homonyms jolie (pretty) and je lis (I read) are playfully confused. The song could almost be sung with jolie (pretty) in place of je lis (I read) throughout, extending the irony. Is Ophelia on Hamlet's mind still? Is his loneliness (colored by his reading books, to use Polonius' words in a later scene) making his mind wander from the page to the love of his life? There may lie the contempt one might understand from the "punchline". I'm reminded of the phrase Jonathan Swift wrote on the envelope containing a lock of his dead wife's hair, "Only a woman's hair". The words Hamlet reads are meant to be a refuge, but in no way do they replace the relationships he has broken off. Without the comic context of the Hamlet-Polonius interplay, "words, words, words" takes on some of the meaning behind the "What a rogue and peasant slave am I" speech, in which Hamlet is outraged that he must "unpack his heart with words", or the earlier speech on how his grief cannot be properly contained in "actions that a man might play".

The song reveals a possible staging where "words, words, words" can be pronounced in an aside to take on more personal meaning.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Classics Illustrated

The original
It is difficult to convey the comedy of the scene, and the original Classics Illustrated doesn't even try, though perhaps it was removed to avoid getting into the fishmonger/pimp metaphor. So in this version, Polonius and Claudius conspire to send Ophelia to meet Hamlet, and though the "To be or not to be" speech immediately follows, their plan comes to fruition thereafter.

The Berkley versionTom Mandrake's adaptation retains the sequence, but makes deep cuts into it, ending it before Polonius asks Hamlet what he's reading. This removes much of Hamlet toying with Polonius - and all my favorite lines! This is a largely humorless adaptation, Mandrake's facial expressions and atmosphere better suited to anxiety and anguish. His Hamlet is deadly serious, and his Polonius a sad old man, bewildered and saddened by events. We lose nothing of the plot, of course, and has Rosencrantz & Guildenstern show up earlier, before Polonius can get even more insulted, which in this vision, sometimes seems unduly harsh.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Tennant (2009)

There's a major structural difference at this point in Gregory Doran's version of the play. The Fishmonger scene now occurs after "To be or not to be" and Hamlet's staged encounter with Ophelia. This means that he's already angry at Polonius and his meddling, but also that Claudius has already rejected Polonius' thesis about love-induced madness. It gives Hamlet more reason to toy with Polonius, and in the latter's case, either more reason to try and prove his point or simply a more obvious inability to analyze a situation. The way this is played, I'd say the latter. Placing the scene back to back with the Hamlet-Ophelia sequence also creates some staging opportunities. Claudius is still behind a two-way mirror, and Hamlet sticks his face on the glass, trying to see him there. It also gives Hamlet the opportunity to pick up the book Ophelia was reading, so that Hamlet is turning the staging back on Polonius. The older man, of course, doesn't understand this meeting is just as staged as the previous one.

The structure also asks a question regarding why Hamlet came back to the scene of the crime. He's just thrown Ophelia around and been very cruel to her, and done it in front of the cameras (he knows he's being watched, though not from so near). He leaves, then returns. Why? Is he coming back to comfort Ophelia, having calmed down? Or to take her into his secret? Or is he specifically returning to catch Polonius or even Claudius in the act of mopping up, and to further confuse the conspirators?

Hamlet has a good crazy act going in this sequence, while Polonius makes all his asides directly to camera. This trick can be off-putting, but somehow makes the man more senile. I'm not sure if it's an effect of our knowing actors shouldn't look directly into camera (and so a "mistake" in our minds), but it seems more unhinged than simply staring into the distance and speaking to oneself. The barefoot Hamlet is on his back and has the book sitting squarely on his face by the time Polonius asks him what he's reading. This is a doubly clueless question as 1) it's the book Polonius himself might have given Ophelia to read, and 2) Hamlet is merely covering his eyes with it, not reading. The answer is our first triple repetition, "Words". The first is a plain statement of fact, the second over enunciated (not unlike Branagh's third), and the last is asked as a question, a timid one like "is that the right term?" as if Polonius had shaken Hamlet's faith in his answer.

Good comic timing on the slanders too. With each line, Hamlet pauses to look up and check on their veracity as Polonius gets more and more visibly insulted. The exchange subverts many of the usual stagings by placing Hamlet in a lower physical position to Polonius', but this is ironic. Despite being in a prone position, Hamlet dominates here. He attacks Polonius who, in turn, cannot defend himself, only retreat. Hamlet finally stands up at the end, and has one of only a couple of "Doctorish" moments in the entire performance. When checking on Polonius' "lack of wit", he has an evaluating "well..." moment that is very Doctor Who. On the crab line, he grows distracted and walks away.

"Indeed that is out of the air" is made part of the "pregnant" aside here, which makes Polonius seem even more goofy as he attempts to show the audience how perceptive he is. Which leads us to the second repeated line, "Except my life".
The first is a tense, tragic warning, in earnest. The second shows contempt for that life. In the third, he starts shambling towards Polonius, distorting his face like a monster on a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It is a parody of his own feigned madness, taking his act to a ridiculous extreme. Again, Polonius fails to properly gauge the situation and runs off, taking the act for the truth. Hamlet almost screams his "These tedious old fools", exasperated. And yet, Polonius doesn't realize he's being played.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Fodor (2007)

As Polonia speaks to the Royals, Hamlet and Horatio walk in on them (as well as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern). Instead of an intimate conversation between Hamlet and Polonia, it happens in a tightly packed group. This certainly makes Hamlet seem crazier, though the fact that Horatio is also there belies this idea. Hamlet is mocking her (and them all) openly, and Horatio looks on amused. I'm not complaining about Horatio being included in many more scenes, turning her and Hamlet into a cruel double act, but I do wonder about their thinking. If Hamlet is trying to appear insane, then having his best friend as an open accomplice defeats the purpose. Of course, in Fodor's film, all the characters appear insane, so it's possible the distinction is that Hamlet is DANGEROUSLY insane. The Royals might still be able to believe that Horatio humors her friend, but does not realize he's dangerous. Fodor's choices do sometimes tend to create more problems than the problem play already has.

So Hamlet walks in and starts sniffing Polonia, making the fishmonger comment an even ruder proposition than usual (or perhaps restoring that rudeness, since contemporary audiences no longer register it). Fodor plays up the gender change here, for example making Hamlet slap Polonia's bottom on "Friend, look to it". His closeness and varied comments, turned on a woman rather than an old man, gives a threatening sexual charge to the sequence. The implication is that Hamlet threatens his lover's sister with sexual violence. As for the text, the gender is sometimes changed and sometimes isn't. Hamlet says "so honest a woman", but then calls her "sir" and says that "to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one MAN picked out of ten thousand". He even emphasizes it. This does connect to Hamlet's mistrust of the women in his life. He also questions Ophelia's honesty, and of course, feels betrayed by his mother. In other words, one man in 10,000 is honest, but no woman ever is.

Again, a modern staging does away with the book, with "Words, words, words" and with the slanders (which would have had to be completely rewritten since Polonia is not an old man). In this case, we also get only one "except my life", in a mock serious tone following a more clownish answer to Polonia asking to take her leave. Though the characters in the room may be able to dismiss it as mockery - everything else he says and does seems to fall in that category - the audience may infer he's serious because it's already seen the "To be or not to be" speech, recorded on a reel-to-reel in an earlier scene.

Then comes a transition to the next sequence, the child Hamlet dancing and singing in a yellowishly glowing flashback. This lyrical image may represent Hamlet's victory over Polonia in the preceding sequence and the sense of play that informed his behavior. Despite his grief and the revenge that is to come - and this is true in many stagings - Hamlet at this point seems to be having fun with his feigned madness.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Hamlet 2000

This sequence appears before Polonius' talk with the Royals, and so gives it a different spin. In this version of the play, Polonius checks on Hamlet before going to his parents and is the smarter for it, even getting the jump on a startled Hamlet in stark opposition to other portrayals that have Hamlet sneaking up on the older man, on eye over the edge of his book. And of course, there is no book here. Instead, Hamlet is viewing one of his video diaries, one that contains part of the speech that discusses Claudius taking part in the "King's rouse" ("...so oft it chances in particular men..."). Not only does Polonius surprise him, but he has also glimpsed something of Hamlet's true interior monologue. Hamlet is less mad here than angry with himself and trying to cover with feigned madness, throwing Polonius off-track by mentioning his daughter.

The use of the video diary also means we don't get "Words, words, words", sadly, which also means the slanders are absent.

Not for the first time, and a good nine years before the Tennant version, security cameras are used to cover the scene and give the sense of hyper-surveillance that, in Elizabethan drama, is the purview of arrases. Polonius speaks his asides to this camera. Who is watching? Not the King, certainly, because Polonius hasn't yet informed him of his suspicions. His own video diary then, using Elsinore's entire network. Or us, if you want to go postmodern with it.
When he catches up to Hamlet, the prince hides a gun, throwing a shadow over his next line about walking into his grave. Just before the sequence's final repetition, Hamlet pops his head out of the corridor and is himself repeated in the mirrored wall. An image of... a man with two sides to his personality? Or is it that Alice-like, he walks through the looking glass and into a fantasy of his revenge?
Though the first "except my life", as normal, is spoken to Polonius, the next shot has Hamlet repeating the line three times (one more than in the play) as voice-over even as he walks through his uncle's offices with his gun. Shades of the confessional scene that comes later, this time Hamlet cannot do the deed because Claudius isn't there (he's in the pool, upstairs). Hamlet 2000's protagonist appears at that moment quite capable of carrying off his revenge, or is it all fantasy (no one notices or reacts)? The idea is that the more the play progresses, the more time Hamlet has to reflect on his actions, the less he's able to commit murder. A crime of passion is possible for him, but he can't intellectually commit to such an act.

Though the text itself does not feature such a scene, this idea nonetheless runs through the play. Hamlet is, in a way, about morality being an artifact of reason. Where Claudius is able to kill his own brother for passion's sake (the Gertrude defense), Hamlet the university student cannot commit murder once he starts verbalizing his emotions and condition. At the end, he only kills once he's incensed by the sword fight and his mother's murder. Hamlet's killings are done in anger, and though he's intellectualized them a priori, they ARE crimes of passion when they finally occur.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Kline '90

In Kline's version, Polonius skulks around pillars, in and out of sight like a clownish spy. He smiles a lot, sometimes trying to lull Hamlet into a false sense of security, sometimes because he doesn't get the importance of what he's heard. How else to explain his smile when, in an aside, he talks about the "happiness" the prince's madness has hit on. Kline's Hamlet, for his part, does a lot of shouting, but some of his line readings are nonetheless interesting, especially in regards to the accompanying gestures.

When he talks about conception, for example, he blesses Polonius' forehead. Is this meant as an insult? He's just discussed the conception of maggots from carrion, so Polonius may just have been compared to that "fatherly" carrion rather than the Fatherly son. Ophelia has no mother to be that carrion after all, and in the play's structure, has come out of her father whole, just as maggots seemed created from carrion to Medieval eyes.

Hamlet's "Words" are revealed to the clueless Polonius, not as if Hamlet were speaking to a child, but rather to a co-conspirator. He talks to Polonius in his own language, if you will, but mocking that language and the older man's self-importance. On the third "Word", he almost throws the book into Polonius' face, again very tactile and familiar with him. When he talks about the slanders, both characters are sitting on the floor at the same level. One reaches to high, the other mocks him by lowering himself. A mad Hamlet is equal to a supposedly healthy Polonius. The effect is that they both seem out of it in their own way. Hamlet ends that part of the conversation by ripping the offending page out of the book and sticking it to Polonius' anointed forehead. He labels him with those words.
"Except my life" is again a conspiratorial revelation that mocks Polonius' ability to keep a secret. When Polonius stays, despite having just said he was leaving (another failure on his part), Hamlet repeats the line twice, the last in a stage whisper accompanied by a clownish wave of his hand. There is no sense that Kline's Hamlet means it, or at least, that he recognizes his own fatalism here. As soon as Polonius has left, he immediately intones "These tedious old fools!". Amusingly, having heard, Polonius sticks his head in again. Hamlet covers by showing him the book and acting like he was reading from it. Indeed, the line is connected to the earlier slanders. He then goes to sleep on the floor with the book over his head, a visual link to such lines as "the book and volume of my brain". Hamlet has just erased that book and now works on another. The book here played as part of his madness replaces his mind in the short term. We've heard that Hamlet has been walking up and down the lobby reading of late, and this may be an image of an erased man/book, trying to fill himself up with words again, words he unleashes with fury in the rest of the play (to the point of frustration, as the "Rogue and peasant slave" speech indicates).

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Zeffirelli '90

At the end of the previous sequence, mad Hamlet walks into the lobby, ripping pages out of his books and throwing them away, but the fishmonger scene actually occurs in the library. When Polonius walks in, Hamlet climbs to the top of the shelves, underscoring his elevated status (both as a prince and as a character), as Olivier did, throughout the exchange. We also may note here that Hamlet wears only one boot, part of his "disguise" as a madman. Polonius thinks himself clever, picking up a book like he's there only by coincidence, but he never reads much of anything, and that includes Hamlet.

The actors keep the scene light, laughing at misunderstands and word play, though Polonius sobers up when his daughter is mentioned. "Words, words, words" has Hamlet looking through his book as if to check on its contents, then on the final word, confirming this fact to Polonius, and inviting him to climb up the ladder to get closer to him, to his truth. Upon reading the slanders, he rips the dishonest page from the book and throws it, crumpled, at Polonius' head. He follows up, on "go backward", by pushing the ladder back with his foot, causing Polonius to fall.
All of this is playful, if cruel, on the part of both the actors and the director. Polonius scurries off, afraid for his safety, and as he stumbles, Hamlet throws out an almost mocking "except my life". Polonius reaches the door, but stops at another "except...". Will Hamlet say something else? Something more serious? No, as we know, it is again "... my life". And when Polonius is gone, Hamlet realizes that what he said in jest is the truth. The last repetition, softly spoken to himself, reveals how far he is truly willing to go in his quest for revenge. It's a great moment. In a final gesture to punctuate the scene, he drops his book from on high and it hits the floor with a satisfying sound. Though this version of the scene is lighter than others, and the fatalism of some lines underplayed, that fatalism resounds in that final moment.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - BBC '80

Jacobi's Hamlet walks in on Polonius and the Royals, reading and feigning madness. This is very different staging from the usual scurrying away, allowing Hamlet to interact with his parents in this "state". He makes a show of being repulsed by and afraid of his mother, but his furtive looks provide proof that this is an act. His puts a lot into his gestures, for example actively seeing things he mentions as metaphor, pointing to God and to carrion (carrion that shockingly makes him think of asking about Ophelia). This is a character trait he picks up from other places in the play, such as when he makes Polonius look at clouds.

But of course, it's in his interpretation of the words that Jacobi shines most. He gives every line its own nuance. For example, his "God have mercy", usually an annex to his "Well" (i.e. thank the Lord that yes, I am well) becomes a show of exasperation with Polonius. His "Words, words, words" starts out as a strange realization that he is reading words, followed by disgust that that's all they are. Jacobi turns the line into a precursor for Hamlet's distress when he must "unpack his heart with words". For Hamlet, while words are his greatest gift and weapon, they are not enough to express his being - a central irony of the character. Hamlet actively dislikes being bound by his author's words, which is why we often talk about him getting away from Shakespeare.

From moment to moment, Hamlet's attitude may change. At "between who", he becomes conspiratorial, a parody of Polonius' obsession with hyper-surveillance. At "into my grave", where other actors have made the line sarcastic, Jacobi makes his Hamlet feign great fear and anguish, as if he were both misunderstanding Polonius and taking him at his word. He lets out little laughs, lascivious ooohs, and injects comic pauses (for example, when reading the "slanders", as if to confirm the words using Polonius as a template).

"Except my life" becomes a full-blown suicide attempt (again, for show), putting his dagger to his stomach and threatening to push it in.
Polonius' reaction is to quickly walk away, afraid perhaps of being accused of murdering Hamlet, or of pushing him into suicide. As soon as he runs, Hamlet stops this pretense, but it is a dark, cruel joke he revisits more seriously in the "To be or not to be" speech.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Olivier '48

Olivier's Hamlet is far less loony, his madness manifesting itself as deep depression, or else through his words. In this sequence, he is aloof and superior, speaking to Polonius always from a higher vantage point. Again, the idea of status is presented, and though minor cuts keep Polonius from comparing his love sickness to Hamlet's, there is a sense that this man should not try to match or keep up with the prince. He think he can, early on narrowing his eyes when he believes he has confirmation about his daughter's role in this, but the staging never allows him to win. Polonius is always looking up, and Hamlet down. The slanders are directed entirely at Polonius, Hamlet's eyes never moving to the book. He is in control here. That higher walkway also plays delightfully with the phrase "walk out of the air", as Hamlet seems to walk on it, while Polonius could be seen to be in the grave.

The first aside is done away with in favor of Polonius running back to the Royals, hidden behind a piece of scenery, to deliver his lines to them instead of us. This live report does little to change the scene except to make him look more clownish.

As for the sequence's key repetitions, Olivier chooses to deliver each as part of the same line, in the same tone. "Words, words, words" is one line, not three, and his only flourish is to show the book from afar as proof of what he says.
"Except my life" is spoken thrice as he walks off stage, obvious melancholy in his voice, but with very little variation in his tone. There's lassitude there, that of a character who is tired of life. And while it is theatrical in that he raises his voice so that the audience may hear him, Polonius has already run off. It's not for his sake. Must we assume that here he is finally speaking his true self? That would make cool, collected, aloof Hamlet the act, and depressed Hamlet his true self. Is this Hamlet madder alone than when he plays at being mad?

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene - Branagh '96

Branagh makes plain that Hamlet is putting "an antic disposition" on in this scene. When he is first seen reading, he keeps Polonius and the Royals in the corner of his eye. And when Polonius boards him, Hamlet scares him with a death mask, so he was well prepared for this meeting, even if he'll find it rather annoying. The mask is a nice touch, part of the overall fatalism of the sequence, supported by other lines ("into my grave", "except my life", etc.) and invoking the graveyard scene that comes much later.

Hamlet's feigned madness allows him to be mercurial with Polonius, sometimes angry (that he does not admit to being a fishmonger, for example), sometimes serious, sometimes silly. He uses the repetitive lines in the scene to make those changes evident. It strikes me that these have a threefold use: One is to allow Hamlet to quickly change his delivery to simulate insanity, another is to show Polonius off as a dense (or obstinate) man who needs things repeated to understand them, and yet another, more metaphorical, is to tell the audience that Hamlet is a "complete" character who is never just one thing. This is an important point to make about Shakespeare's mature drama and how it was a change from the "cartoonish" theater of his era - from archetypal representations to psychological individuals. So when he says "Words, words, words", each "word" is different. The first is bored with the question, the second makes the answer obvious and the questioner stupid, and the third is completely mad as Hamlet twists his mouth bizarrely around each sound.
Not that he really reads. His slanders seem his own, looking at Polonius as if composing them on the spot. He reads Polonius, not the book. I didn't speak about the crab metaphor in the previous article, but it seems to me, among other things, that it continues the play on disjointed time. Going backward in time is physically impossible, though any murder mystery is essentially a mental game of time travel to the past. The disjointed temporality of the play could be a manifestation of that straddling between the past (the dead father) and the future (the prince's aborted ascension).

As Polonius sweats through the conversation, stopping for asides often to take a break from Hamlet's not-so-veiled attacks, the characters migrate to the exterior of Elsinore, a transition to the next sequence. We're reminded of their individual status here, because Polonius is forced to follow Hamlet into the snow only to ask to take his leave. It's not enough that the prince walk away from him. It's also an indication that Polonius doesn't pick up on things quite as deftly as he believes. Finally, we have the second repeated line in the sequence, "Except my life". Again, Branagh gives each repeated meme its own reading. The first is the more neutral, voice cracking slightly, but not really making a point with it, except perhaps to himself. Does he give away too much? Perhaps that's why he decides to make it part of his mad-speak. The second is said in a hushed and serious tone, a threat. The third is completely loopy, using the kind of sing-song voice you would telling spooky campfire stories. Though there is "method in it", Polonius isn't equipped to discern just what is real, what is implied and what is Hamlet's feigned lunacy, more serious readings forgotten smothered in the mad ones that follow them.

II.ii. The Fishmonger Scene

More than any other in the play, this is the sequence that led to this project. It's a fun scene in which Hamlet plays the madman for Polonius' benefit, taking the piss as it were by transmuting his impatience with the older man's tediousness into rather mean-spirited teasing. Two repetitions - "Words, words, words" and "Except my life" - can be said to have inspired Hyperion to a Satyr. Each actor's interpretation, either giving different line readings to each repeated meme or an overall reading of the line, has become my favorite part of watching any new iteration of Hamlet. Here's a link to a website that offers video comparison between many more Hamlets than I'm doing, if you'd like to compare for yourself. But first, lets look at the text itself, in italics to differentiate it from my own comments:

Enter HAMLET, reading
LORD POLONIUS: O, give me leave:
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET: Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS: Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET: Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

Famously, a "fishmonger" is a colloquial term for a pimp (a rather rude one when you think about the etymology). Either Hamlet knows that Polonius aims to use his daughter against him, or irony is at work. It also lends support to the idea that Hamlet has bedded Ophelia, as do many other sexually suggestive lines throughout the play.

LORD POLONIUS: Not I, my lord.
HAMLET: Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS: Honest, my lord!
HAMLET: Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand.

The play is very much interested in the idea that everyone is an actor. Here, Hamlet acts the fool and Polonius patronizes him, both ironically searching for the truth, but neither showing their true selves. As in the "beauty/honesty" exchange that comes later, Hamlet here says that he'd rather Polonius admit he is a "fishmonger" than keep up pretenses. Avowed criminals are at least honest in that they do not pretend to be innocent.

LORD POLONIUS: That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS: I have, my lord.
HAMLET: Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
Friend, look to 't.

Hamlet again suggest that he has had his way with Ophelia, though naysayers can justify it as simple cruelty towards her father. The potential pun between "sun" and "son", however, may indicate more. Hamlet creates a disturbing image in which he compares children to maggots and women (Ophelia? Gertrude?) to carrion (a dead dog, specifically). There is a streak of self-loathing in this even if Hamlet may sarcastically be comparing himself to the sun and a god. If Gertrude is the carrion, then he is a maggot. If Ophelia, then he is the breeder of maggots and warns Polonius against himself. In the broader picture, what is "bred" in Elsinore is decay. Hamlet warns that everyone's actions are leading to tragedy, including his own. Of course, Polonius doesn't get it.

LORD POLONIUS: [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. --What do you read, my lord?

It's the first we hear of Ophelia's mother (possibly), and an actor could use it as justification for why Polonius is so adamant that Hamlet's madness stems from deflected love.

HAMLET: Words, words, words.

The first crucial repetition.

LORD POLONIUS: What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET: Between who?
LORD POLONIUS: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET: Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.

Hamlet plays more than the fool in this scene, he plays the Fool. This character present in both Greek and Elizabethan drama acts the clown, but tells the truth, usually escaping punishment for the latter thanks to the former. In this sequence, we have Hamlet doing just that (though he is safe for other reasons). He tells Polonius exactly what he thinks, but the veil of madness means he may not be taken seriously. As the scene continues, Hamlet even prophesies his own death:

LORD POLONIUS: [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. --Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET: Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS: Indeed, that is out o' the air.
[Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

The mention of pregnancy has not fallen on deaf ears. Shakespeare, through Hamlet, has just underlined the power of words, after all.

HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.

The second crucial repetition and one that is indeed more "pregnant" than the first. Plus, it's preceded by an excellent barb.

LORD POLONIUS: Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET: These tedious old fools!

At the very end, Hamlet may be letting go of the pretense, commenting on the exchange, though if Polonius is still present (and in the text, he is), it's one more "mad" sting shot in his direction. But as Hamlet's attitude changes in the next sequence (with Rosencrantz & Guildenstern), we must assume he was putting on a show in this one.

II.ii. Brevity - French Rock Opera

Johnny Hallyday's Hamlet is very much about Hamlet's point of view, and while we may hear the peasantry moan in the choir, there really aren't songs to represent scenes in which Hamlet does not appear. Now, while Hamlet does not appear in person in Polonius' big moment, he is present in the form of his letter to Ophelia. After all, it is his words we hear (butchered though they might be by foolish Polonius). Hamlet is such a large character that he tends to be on stage even when he isn't. The letter IS represented by a song called Doubt (click for the You-Tube "video"). As usual, here are the words in French, followed by a very bad (but accurate) translation by yours truly.

Doute
Doute
Que le soleil nous tourne autour
Qu’une étoile morte puisse briller Doute
Que la vérité ne soit vraie
Mais ne doute pas de mon amour Doute
Qu’un Dieu ait tout fait en 7 jours
Et que la terre soit une poussière Doute
De l’infini, de l’univers
Mais ne doute pas de mon amour

COEUR
Piège à bécasses trompe femelles
N’écoute pas le loup qui bêle
Sa langue est d’or, mais ses dents brillent
Piège à pucelles et trompe-filles

Doute
Que l’enfer soit plus chaud qu’un four
Et que la gravité ait un centre
Ô Doute
Qu’un enfant vive dans un ventre
Mais ne doute pas de mon amour Doute
Que mon coeur batte comm’un tambour
Et que ma vie coule des pendules Doute
Qu’un jour je crève comm’une bulle
Mais ne doute pas de mon amour

Doubt
Doubt
That the sun turns around us
That a dead star could shine Doubt
The truth be a liar
But do not doubt my love Doubt
That a God did everything in 7 days
And that the Earth is a dust mote Doubt
The infinite, the universe
But do not doubt my love

CHORUS (choir)
Traps for woodcocks trick females
Don't listen to the wolf that bleats
His tongue is gold, but his teeth shine
Traps for maids trick the girls

Doubt
That hell he hotter than an oven
And that gravity has a centre
O Doubt
That a child live in a belly
But do not doubt my love Doubt
That my heart beats like a drum
And that my life drips off clocks Doubt
That a day I will burst like a bubble
But do not doubt my love

CHORUS repeats twice

We recognize Hamlet's poem immediately ("Doubt") and Hallyday even translates actual elements from it ("that the stars doth move"; "truth to be a liar"). He also picks up lines from elsewhere in the play, such as Polonius' own doubt in the chorus ("springes to catch woodcocks"). So in the same song, Hamlet implores Ophelia not to doubt his love, even as the choir plays Polonius' (and popular opinion? the audience's?) doubts concerning Hamlet's true intentions. While the chorus plays with a distinct animal theme, Hamlet's sections are more nihilistic. The sun is a dead star, Earth is a particle of dust, hell is invoked, and time is an enemy, not a friend. The suggestion of pregnancy is an intriguing one, and makes us wonder if Hallyday thought Ophelia might have been pregnant. There is talk later of breeding sinners, and Hamlet teases/tortures Polonius with the possibility of Ophelia conceiving. Is Ophelia's suicide also an abortion? This isn't something that's attempted in the various filmed versions, but the play hints at it in various ways (and yet, it's the first time I've thought about it).

Of course, we're allowed to doubt this, so Hallyday may be reacting to the suggestion, but doesn't give us a definitive answer (and neither did Shakespeare). It can also be interpreted as Hamlet's trademark nihilism denying his own birth, just as he denies his own mother.

II.ii. Brevity - Classics Illustrated

The original...in which Polonius actually IS brief. The original Classics Illustrated is so fixated on plot that it tries to often distill the drama to that alone. The inexpressive figure work does not, in any case, have the subtlety required to make characters "act". They just render (heavily edited) dialog and walk off panel. It is very strange to read a brief Polonius. None of his usual digressions are present, not even his criticism of Hamlet's letter. He comes in, he tells the King and Queen Hamlet is mad and that a letter from his daughter might shed light on the matter. He reads it, the King agrees while the Queen says nothing and Polonius unveils his plan to spy on the prince. In this cut down version, the King asks Polonius "Do you think 'tis this?", not Gertrude. Since this is her first appearance in the comic, it doesn't fill one with hope that her character will amount to much.
Act 2 Scene 2 is our first look at the King as well (the comic does not show the wedding banquet), and he is basically made to look like an evil wizard with a fat crown on his head. Immediately sinister. Meanwhile, the queen is a buxom, silent woman in light blue, apparently a clueless, but guiltless pawn in the drama, showing more shoulder than character.

The Berkley version
Artist Tom Mandrake gives Polonius his due in his watercolor version, allowing the character to dominate the page. Though there are cuts to the text, his digressions remain, and the number of speech bubbles helps support the idea of his ironic lack of brevity. One major change from all other versions we've looked at is that Polonius recites Hamlet's letter by heart. He does not physically hold a letter in the scene. What does this mean? Did Ophelia allow him to read it, but did not give it away? Is there no "letter" per se, just words he once told her and that she repeated to her father and that he repeats to the King and Queen? The stage directions tell us Polonius "reads", but the dialog itself does not specify a letter. "This" can just be the words, as words in Shakespeare are all-powerful. In a stage/film production, where actors can be more expressive than drawings in a comic (trapped, as they are, in a finite number of poses/expressions), this device could also be used to put Polonius' story into doubt (and as the word "doubt" comes up at the top of the "letter", that's fitting). A sinister, manipulative Polonius could well be inventing or exaggerating the whole thing, and if so, could provide a disturbing portrait of a father talking about his daughter's bosom, etc.

The King, for his part, looks bored through the exchange, I suspect more because he does not truly care about his stepson than Polonius' pedantry. Hamlet arrives reading before the King and Polonius make plans to "further try this". The King is less interested in dealing with Hamlet in this version, but will be swept into action more and more as Hamlet pushes him into a corner.

II.ii. New Arrivals - Classics Illustrated

The originalWe don't learn much about Rosencrantz & Guildenstern in the original Classics Illustrated upon meeting them, only that they are two of Hamlet's friends and that they have been called to help find the cause of Hamlet's strange behavior. One dresses in green, the other in blue. They do not reappear until after the play within a play and are basically used only as escorts for Hamlet to England. Their inclusion here, without having them board Hamlet and drawing the "What a piece of work is a man" speech, is a complete waste.

The Berkley version does not include this first meeting with R&G, but does have them boarding Hamlet as false friends later in the scene.

II.ii. Brevity - Tennant (2009)

From the very start, this Gertrude finds this Polonius tedious, rolling her eyes and his formulations. Claudius shares a secret smile with her, sympathizing, but finding humor in his counselor's natural disposition. Oliver Ford Davies continues to shine as a very distracted Polonius. For example, his attention starts to drift at "time is time", as if lost in the line's philosophical implications. Keeping the control she had the scene's beginning, Gertrude snaps him out of his reverie by clearing her throat. So it's with embarrassment that he pledges brevity.

Side-note on the text: We've often talked about how time works strangely in the play (regarding Hamlet's age, for example, or how quickly the nights go by "why day is day, night is night"). Polonius' emphasis on "time is time" here evokes that theme again. Shakespeare may be admitting that the timeline (as opposed to the time line) will not be explained or explainable. It would be a waste of time. He is deftly deflecting nitpicks regarding the apparent flaws in his story. Such is his power that he actually has us referring to symbolic time as a justification for them.

As he continues, the Queen's reactions do nothing but terrorize him. He knows where he stands with the King, but not his lord's new relationship. It gives him a quick, stammering delivery as he tries to disarm the Queen with his words, overexplaining himself even as she requested he get to the point more quickly. He knows he's testing the Queen's patience, but can't seem to find a way out. When he calls Hamlet mad, the Queen's resounding (and unscripted) "Ha!" perhaps shows him that brevity has its own problems. His statement is insultingly obvious to her.
Polonius calls for his daughter as he gets ready to read the letter she's given him, neatly stored in a portfolio. A servant brings Ophelia in. She basically stands there during what's left of the scene, more papers in her hands. This is because director Doran has chosen to follow the scene order from the so-called "bad quarto" that places the To Be or Not To Be speech and subsequent meeting between the former lovers right after this sequence. We'll see later how this affects our understanding of the play. For now, we're still on Polonius' dime.

He reads the letter as if for the first time, stopping at "bosom", surprised and embarrassed, skipping ahead with that comical "etc.". He keeps the paper away from the Queen until he's finished reading. This is his time to shine, and there's a sense that he's competing with Gertrude for the King's attention. Though he has risen with his lord, he's still a peg too low in his opinion. Watch him in the background when the Queen says of his theory "it may be". He doesn't look vindicated. He frowns, not understanding how she can doubt him ("may" rather than "must").

As for Ophelia's role in this sequence, there are some silent reactions to look for. When Gertrude hears about this "young love", she looks at Ophelia, as if for the first time. It seems the royals were not really aware of the relationship. This makes sense, since Polonius himself had to wring it out of his daughter, so it must have been a fairly discreet affair. And when Gertrude agrees that Hamlet may be going mad for love, Ophelia smiles brightly. An odd reaction perhaps, but Ophelia is focusing on the idea that Hamlet may love her, rather than the madness. At that moment, she is accepted by the Queen as a potential mate for Hamlet, and we find out later that (sincere or not), Gertrude would have liked to see them married. We will have to stay aware of the evolving relationship between the play's two female characters to see how we get from here to there.

II.ii. Brevity - Fodor (2007)

Polonia's brevity speech is a seduction scene. As she makes her case, lacing her speech with false concern and furtive smiles, the tribal drums behind her voice turn to a driving dance beat. The lighting becomes more and more blown out, and the camera represents more and more the King's point of view. His head sways from side to side, like a man hypnotized by a snake, and though they're discussing a serious matter, he smiles through the whole thing.
Gertrude notices the effect Polonia has on her new husband and after failing to dismiss the younger woman's words, she becomes more apprehensive. Lines cut from this section turn one in particular on its head. When Polonia says "Your son is mad", the Queen immediately throws out "More matter with less art", giving it a sarcastic turn that attacks Polonia's bluntness and obviousness. Polonia ignores her, fixating on the King throughout, and continues with "Mad let us grant him then", since everyone agrees with her thesis. Gertrude loses ground quickly through this scene until we're well into the King's POV and her lines turn into a foreign language (sounds like German, but I can't be sure). He no longer hears her.

As Polonia reads her sister's letter, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern look at each other lasciviously. The Ghost is still walking around. The characters in the play are much more exposed in this version, often present when Shakespeare dictated they should not be. As we get to the section's climax and Polonia's plot to spy on Hamlet and prove his madness, the dance beat goes up tempo, and R&G turn into Polonia's back-up band, and then it all cuts out. The lighting effect and music disappear as Hamlet and Horatio enter the room, breaking the spell. Awkwardness ensues...

II.ii. Brevity - Hamlet 2000

From Act II onwards, Hamlet 2000 makes some big structural changes to the play. Scenes are rarely in the order we're used to. In this case, Polonius boards Hamlet reading BEFORE he goes to the King and Queen. He has seen the madness first hand, and is not getting his information from his (tight-lipped) daughter, any intercepted message, or Hamlet's public behavior. When he tells Gertrude her son is mad, there is surprise there. She wasn't aware of any problem since the modern setting has Hamlet often outside the Elsinore building, and she's been too wrapped up in her own happiness besides. There is also something to be said for both Hamlet and Ophelia already acting crazy, as modern youths are more likely to give in to their moods and eccentricities than those of the Elizabethan era.

The scene is set at a pool high in the sky, signifying the opulence afforded these corporate Royals, but also in keeping with Ophelia's thematic link to water. Polonius has brought her (and her rather outrageous baggy jeans) to his meeting with the Royals. He is cocky and proud of himself, at times rehearsed and often expecting reactions and getting none. Bill Murray's comic timing is impeccable here, leaving gaps for the other characters to respond when they don't have any lines. Gertrude's impatience is evident, though she tends to hide it from Polonius by hiding behind her husband's back.
Ophelia, for her part, is disaffected and numb through most of the exchange, having cut herself off from her emotions to bear the humiliation. Her father produces the letter he took from her at the start of the Act, lying about her giving it to him voluntarily. He's bagged it as a piece of evidence. Ophelia reaches for it, like a child whose toy has been taken away, but he keeps it away. It happens again while he unenthusiastically reads it, as she runs for it from out of frame. This is wonderfully comic while also being tragic. The girl then starts walking along the pool's edge as if it were a tightrope. One irony of the play that is brought to light when directors include Ophelia in this scene is that while Hamlet may or may not have gone mad for love, Ophelia most definitely suffers for love and no one realizes it. Hamlet remains the focus of the play, but it's Ophelia who takes her life and should have been on suicide watch. The idea of having her humiliated here makes the adults of the play complicit in driving her to it. And this Ophelia is definitely "on the edge".

Polonius walks towards camera before he asks what the Royals think of him, hiding a smile indicating that, at least in his own mind, he's manipulating them. Not that he has an ulterior motive, but he does like it when he speaks to authority and they listen. This is an arrogant Polonius. As he chides Ophelia about Hamlet being a prince out of her star, he turns to her, chiding her for a second time. That's when she jumps into the water, prefiguring her later drowning.
This is but a fantasy, and we return to the scene. They never saw her jump, but for the audience, it's a sign of things to come. Ophelia has a deep desire to drown out the world around her - showing us the dive muffles the sound of the dialog. The scene cuts the plan between Claudius and Polonius, allow Claudius to just give his counselor a look that makes him feel pressure to promise more detective work.

II.ii. Brevity - Kline '90

Having omitted the first part of the scene, Act II here begins with Polonius' address to the King and Queen. It seems artificially staged, with the three of them just standing there. However, the acting more than makes up for it. Josef Sommer's Polonius is excellent here, chuckling through the entire encounter, his tension and discomfort realized as laughter ("a vile phrase - haha!). His foolishness is presented as mirth while addressing a serious matter, which culminates with irony when he says "and all we mourn for". No wonder Gertrude loses her patience with him.

The Royals are initially warm with the old man, Claudius especially so. There is a kindness there for an old man who has been, at the very least, a friend of the family. When Polonius says that Hamlet is mad, Gertrude acts like this is new information, or at least a new diagnostic. Where we usually have an ironic turn in which Polonius asks conference only to state the obvious, we now have a revelation. It's true that without the front end of the scene, we've lost the Royals' concern over Hamlet (they do not recruit Rosencrantz & Guildenstern before our eyes), but even had we had it, it is his melancholy that's the problem, not outright madness. The Royals were simply not aware of how badly things had become. Kline's vision does not afford them the weariness we've seen from the Royals by this point in other versions.