By: The Gertrude Group (published by: Sabrina Tibaudo) Act Two By: The Gertrude Group (published by: Sabrina Tibaudo)

Scene One Polonius asks Reynaldo, his servant, to go and spy on his son, Laertes. Ophelia tells her father, Polonius, that Hamlet broke into her room looking ‘As if he had been loosed out of hell’.

Scene One (continued) Once Polonius heard this news, he felt that the cause for Hamlet’s madness was his love for Ophelia.

Scene Two The king asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s childhood friends, to go and spy on Hamlet to find out why he was mad. Polonius then came in and told the king and queen that Hamlet was mad with the love for Ophelia.

Scene Two (continued) Guildenstern and Rosencrantz talk to Hamlet, and Hamlet confesses to them that he was only pretending to be mad. Polonius then arrives where Hamlet was ( and Polonius was then convinced of Hamlet’s madness) and with Polonius comes the actors.

Scene Two (continued) Hamlet asks the actors to perform and after the performance, Hamlet pulls one of the actors aside and asks him to include a dozen or so lines in the play that was supposed to reenact Hamlet’s father’s death.

Scene Two (continued) Hamlet then feels like a coward for instead of avenging his father’s death by killing Claudius, the new king, he adds lines to a play to see how Claudius reacts.

The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.