Hamlet: A Lesson in Espionage

Chapter 6

Les Otho- Agh, thank you! After two weeks I as starting to wonder if I was going to receive any reviews at all. And thank you for what you did say; it is more helpful that it at first appears. As to the language, I guess I must not have done the best job then, but I was trying to retain the high sounding English while rendering some of the more confusing Shakespearean intelligible. I didn't want it to sound like I was just "translating". Again, thank you for your comments, they mean a lot to me.

A/N- So, here is the last part of it. At least the last part of it for now. I may decide to finish out the play later, but be forewarned, it will most likely take on a humorous/silly twist.

And please don't get mad. I skipped through a couple of scenes, partly because it wouldn't have made sense for Polonius to be there, and partly because I had to turn this in the next day. So enjoy!

Polonius was pacing restlessly through the queens solar. He had reported to the king directly after the play, which had started this whole hectic evening in the first place. The old advisor was still unsure what part of Claudius' conscious Hamlet had been trying to catch, but whatever it was, he must have caught it.

After the evening's shenanigans, Polonius was convinced that Hamlet's "madness" was all an act. He had altered the play, "The Murder of Gonzago", to something Polonius had heard him call "The Mousetrap" for the king. And whatever he had done had struck a cord in the king that caused him to near go mad himself. All the while Claudius had his fit, Polonius had watched Hamlet closely. He had observed Hamlet watching Claudius closely with a sick and, at the same time, gratified expression. It had not been the look of a mad man.

And besides that, Polonius had watched him with his friend Horatio and while he conversed with Ophelia. With Horatio he had been perfectly calculating. And with Ophelia he had been acting. Whatever game Hamlet played, it ran deep. But he was sloppy. He was not in control of his face, which gave away his ruse at madness. When he thought he was alone or with someone he trusted, the mad mask came off and his face was like an open book.

Unfortunately, the pages of his face did not tell Polonius what game it was the prince played, or what had happened with the ghost. That was one thing Polonius was sure of; the whole affair here in Denmark came down to the ghost's appearance two night's past.

Polonius frowned and sat on the bed. Hamlet's behavior told him not much more than he already knew, so he turned instead to the play itself. A key was hidden there, if only he could puzzle it out.

The play had begun with a king and a queen, speaking somberly in a courtyard. The king had bid his queen to remarry when he had died, which would be soon for he was of ill health. The queen had protested and declared she would not marry again for love. After a bit of argument over the matter the queen left her lord in the courtyard to sleep a while in peace. She had not but left the courtyard than another figure had entered, hooded and cloaked and appearing sinister.

This sinister figure, whose name was Lucianus, crept up on the sleeping king and bragged his crafty plan to usurp the crown as he poured poison into the sleeping king's ear. At that point Claudius had gone pale, stood, and approached the stage. The play had been cancelled then and there as Claudius and all but Hamlet and Horatio had gone to escort the waning king to his rooms. Whatever ailment seemed to have plagued him had vanished as quickly as it had claimed him.

Now, as Polonius reviewed the details, he was certain it was not an illness. Hamlet's game revolved around Claudius and that damned apparition.

At that moment Gertrude burst through the door, flustered. She stopped when she saw the king's advisor seated on her bed and gave a startled squeak. Polonius quickly stood and moved away from her bed.

"Madam, forgive my intrusion, but your husband bid me here. You sent for Hamlet, and he would know what the prince has to say for himself for his behavior this evening," Polonius explained.

Gertrude frowned at him. "Does my husband not trust his own wife enough to hear it from her?" she asked icily, laying her fan on her vanity.

Polonius bowed low. "No, my lady, it's not that. He would hear it from a third party. And he wishes there be someone here to ward against Hamlet's distemper. If he is truly mad, I would that you were not alone." Gertrude frowned again, but could find no fault with his reasoning, and allowed him to stay.

Polonius, preceded by a few moments of awkward silence, spoke up. "Madam, may I offer you some advice?" he asked meekly. For all that he gave advice freely every day to Claudius, Gertrude was a different matter, and it felt strange offering advice on how to handle her son.

She nodded. "Thank you, my lady. I think you would be wise to play him straight. Be motherly; reprimand him strongly for his antics this evening. Be blunt with him. And I'll bestow myself here behind the curtains."

The queen nodded once more and Polonius pulled the heavy maroon drapes away from the window. Stepping behind them, Polonius cracked the window a bit, to let in some air. Seconds later Hamlet was pounding at the door.

"Are you ready?" the queen asked quietly.

"Yes," he replied. There was no answer, just Gertrude opening the door.

Polonius could hear Hamlet strut into the room and belligerently address his mother. "Now, mother, what is the matter?"

Gertrude exhaled loudly and her voice was tight with anger. "Hamlet, you have very much offended your father."

He wheeled on his mother and snarled back at her. "No, mother, you have my father very much offended."

Gertrude took an involuntary step back. "Why do you answer mockingly? This is no laughing matter!"

"Why do you question wickedly, mother?" Hamlet's voice was harsh and Polonius could hear him tramping about the room. "What is the matter now?''

Gertrude didn't answer right away, but instead asked, "Have you forgotten me?"

Hamlet laughed, long and hard. He laughed a harsh, mirthless laughter that sent a chill up the old advisors spine.

"No, I have not forgotten you. You are the queen. You are your husband's brother's wife. And you are my mother, though at the moment I wish it were no so. See, I know exactly who you are." Polonius heard the sound of Gertrude hurrying to the door.

"I think it's time you left," she told her son coldly. The door opened and Hamlet walked toward it.

"No mother," he said, and Polonius heard Gertrude squeal as Hamlet lifted her bodily from the floor and place her on the bed. "You shall not budge, and I shall not leave, until I set up a mirror and show you what the inmost part of you has condoned."

A sob escaped her lip, and she cried out. "What will you do? Would you murder your own mother?"

Polonius, whose mouth acted far in advance of his mind, cried out for help. He cried out without realizing he'd done so, until he heard Hamlet speak again.

"What mother, a rat? You would spy on your own son?" Polonius heard the sound of metal scraping leather as Hamlet unsheathed his sword. He did not realize what was happening until the cold point of Hamlet's sword had sprouted from his chest.

At once Polonius felt the exquisite pain of the foreign object occupying space in his chest, and a calm sort of cold spread over him. Then the sword was yanked free and Polonius sank to his knees behind the curtain s lost in a wave of fresh pain. Distantly he heard the queen scream and Hamlet re-sheath his blade, but none of it mattered. It was all miles away. He sensed more than felt that his body had toppled over and he now lie on the cold flagstones. As he lay there, staring but unseeing, his senses slowly fading, he sank into darkness and knew no more.

Slowly Polonius came to. He felt as if he were lying ensconced in a vat of molasses; weighted down. Using all his might he sat up, and as he did so he felt as if a burden was lifted from his chest. Slowly and painstakingly he extricated himself from whatever it was that held him. At last he pulled his left food free and he felt a hundred pounds lighter.

He looked down and jumped. He was looking at himself, or what remained of it. It had not been molasses, but his own body that clung to him. He backed up and turned.

"I was waiting for you to wake up," a voice said from behind. Polonius whirled around and gaped. King Hamlet's ghost was standing before him, regal and unchanged. Polonius quickly crossed himself as the ghost chuckled.

"What would you have of me, my lord?" his voice trembled as he spoke, revealing his fright. The ghost chuckled again, walking forward. Polonius backed up and tripped over his body and went sprawling through a wall.

It all came rushing back to him. The curtains in the queen's chamber, Hamlet's violent outburst, calling out for help, the sword in his chest, and dying, he remembered every painful detail. Polonius gave a sob of anguished understanding.

Suddenly the face of the former king loomed over him, pale and translucent. "I only wish to talk." He held out a hand and the advisor took it.

"I'm dead." It was not a question. King Hamlet nodded gravely. He sank to the ground with another sob. He would never speak or hold his daughter again. He very well might never see his son in France again. He would never figure out the mystery of the ghost. His thin frame shook with the force of his anguish. King Hamlet laid an intangible hand on his shoulder consolingly.

The ghostly hand on his shoulder reminded him that the answers she sought were right in front of him. His head snapped up to look into his king's eyes. Polonius could have kicked himself, what a fool he'd been.

King Hamlet must have read his mind, for he laughed and pulled Polonius to his feet. "I see that you are ready to hear the truth." There was laughter in his eyes.

"My lord, what happened to you? What game does Hamlet play that he would kill me over it? What on earth has been going on in Denmark these pat two months?" A flood of questions was in his mind, and he would have asked all of them, had King Hamlet not halted him.

"One by one, sir. Hamlet did not mean to kill you. He thought it was his uncle, and he acted rashly. As to Hamlet's game, he is seeking revenge upon my murderer, and he is playing craftily. You see, two months past, while I was sleeping in my garden, it was not a snake that struck me, but a serpent in men's clothes." His face went hard a moment. "What you saw in the play this night was what actually happened to me. While I slept, my brother, though I find it hard to call him that, spilled poison in my ear. And when I was dead he stole my throne and my wife. He killed me and condemned me to walk forever on this earth, never seeing heaven."

"I bid my son to revenge me and set things straight in the state of Denmark. And I have been wandering through these halls watching where I would to see how it all panned out."It made sense, with all that he had witnessed so far. Claudius' and Hamlet's behavior. The queen's marriage; all of it.

"But my lord, why did you not come to me with this news?" Polonius wanted to know.

"Would you really have believed a ghost in the semblance of your former lord, telling you that your new king was a traitor? Come now Polonius, I know you better than that. You are a wonderful friend, but your first thoughts are for your own welfare. Hamlet already suspected. And even if I would have come to you, I couldn't have. You see, it is very hard to make yourself visible to the living." He chuckled again.

As much as he hated to admit it, the ghost was right; he would not have done anything about it, had he believed the ghost, for fear of losing his position. "Why tell me this now?"

"Because I thought you might want to know the whole story. I did not think it fair to leave you at loose ends for an eternity."

Well, it was very thoughtful of the ghost. Polonius looked around. "So, where do I go from here?"

King Hamlet shrugged. "I don't know. Wherever you want to, I guess. You could stay here, or you could leave, it makes no never-mind to me. I believe I will do some traveling though. There are so many places I want to see that I never saw when I was alive. That's the problem with being king." He winked at Polonius and left through the opposite wall.

How long Polonius stood there, watching the wall, he did not know. But eventually he decided to stay here at the palace. He grinned to himself. As a ghost he gained a whole new level of spying capabilities. The grin widened into a smile and he turned himself to face the great hall. He strolled off in search of Hamlet and his parents. Now that he knew the story, he wanted to see it acted out. And when this story was finished, there would be a new story to watch.

A/N- and there is the "conclusion". Like I said before. I will most likely finish out the play, but I'm taking a break from it now. And as always, reviews are very much appreciated. Thanks!!!