After the killing

Late, in a room of the castle. Gertrude tells Claudius what has just happened in her bedroom. Hamlet has killed Polonius — by accident, she presents it; in his madness, lashing out at someone he could not see. The body is somewhere in the castle. Hamlet, she says, is "mad as the sea and wind when both contend which is the mightier." Even now, he is weeping over what he has done.

Claudius is genuinely shaken — the sword that went through the curtain could have gone through him — but recovers within ten lines. The killing is also useful. He now has the public reason he needs. Hamlet must be sent to England immediately, "for our own safety and the safety of the kingdom." If Hamlet had killed Claudius outright, the people would not have understood; this they will understand. Polonius's death must be covered up gently, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must find the body before any servant finds it.

He calls them in. They are dispatched to find Hamlet and bring him in, and to recover the body of Polonius. The scene is brief and businesslike; Claudius is back in command, and a chess-piece has just been removed from the board in a way that gives him exactly the next move he wanted.