owly what effect it might have upon him, and from his looks he
would be able to gather with more certainty if he were the murderer or
not. To this effect he ordered a play to be prepared, to the
representation of which he invited the king and queen.

The story of the play was of a murder done in Vienna upon a duke. The
duke's name was Gonzago, his wife Baptista. The play showed how one
Lucianus, a near relation to the duke, poisoned him in his garden for
his estate, and how the murderer in a short time after got the love of
Gonzago's wife.

At the representation of this play, the king, who did not know the trap
which was laid for him, was present, with his queen and the whole court:
Hamlet sitting attentively near him to observe his looks. The play began
with a conversation between Gonzago and his wife, in which the lady
made many protestations of love, and of never marrying a second husband,
if she should outlive Gonzago; wishing she might be accursed if she ever
took a second husband, and adding that no woman did so, but those wicked
women who kill their first husbands. Hamlet observed the king his uncle
change colour at this expression, and that it was as bad as wormwood
both to him and to the queen. But when Lucianus, according to the story,
came to poison Gonzago sleeping in the garden, the strong resemblance
which it bore to his own wicked act upon the late king, his brother,
whom he had poisoned in his garden, so struck upon the conscience of
this usurper, that he was unable to sit out the rest of the play, but on
a sudden calling for lights to his chamber, and affecting or partly
feeling a sudden sickness, he abruptly left the theatre. The king being
departed, the play was given over. Now Hamlet had seen enough to be
satisfied that the words of the ghost were true, and no illusion; and in
a fit of gaiety, like that which comes over a man who suddenly has some
great doubt or scruple resolved, he swore to Horatio, that he would take
the ghost's word for a thousand pounds. But before he could make up his
resolution as to what measures of revenge he should take, now he was
certainly informed that his uncle was his father's murderer, he was sent
for by the queen his mother, to a private conference in her closet.

It was by desire of the king that the queen sent for Hamlet, that she
might signify to her son how much his late behaviour had displeased them
both, and the king, wishing to know all that passed at that con