Polonius

Family: Danish court · Role: courtier · First appears: Hamlet · Act I, Scene II

Life events

• Polonius orders Ophelia to stop speaking with Hamlet.(Hamlet · Act I, Scene III)
  • With: Ophelia Hamlet
  • “I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.”
• Polonius assigns Reynaldo to investigate Hamlet's behavior in Paris.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene I · 📍 Paris)
  • With: Reynaldo Hamlet
  • “Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.”
• Polonius resolves to inform the King about Hamlet's apparent madness.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene I)
  • With: Hamlet
  • “Come, go with me. I will go seek the King. This is the very ecstasy of love”
• Polonius orders Ophelia to reject Hamlet, after which Hamlet descends into apparent madness.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene II)
  • With: Ophelia Hamlet
  • “That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. Which done, she took the fruits of my advice, And he, repulsed,—a short tale to make— Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, Into the madness wherein now he raves”
• Polonius proposes secretly arranging Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia to test whether love caused his madness.(Hamlet · Act II, Scene II)
  • With: Claudius Gertrude Ophelia Hamlet
  • “At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. Be you and I behind an arras then, Mark the encounter. If he love her not, And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state”
• King and Polonius secretly arrange for Hamlet to encounter Ophelia while they observe unseen.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene I)
  • With: Claudius Hamlet Ophelia
  • “For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as ’twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself, lawful espials, Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge,”
• King approves Gertrude questioning Hamlet while Polonius secretly listens.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene I)
  • With: Claudius Gertrude Hamlet
  • “after the play, Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his grief, let her be round with him, And I’ll be plac’d, so please you, in the ear Of all their conference.”
• Polonius hides behind the arras to overhear Hamlet’s confrontation with his mother.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene III)
  • With: Hamlet
  • “Behind the arras I’ll convey myself To hear the process.”
• Hamlet kills Polonius, mistaking him for the King behind the arras.(Hamlet · Act III, Scene IV)
  • With: Hamlet
  • “How now? A rat? [Draws.] Dead for a ducat, dead! [Makes a pass through the arras.] POLONIUS. [Behind.] O, I am slain! [Falls and dies.]”
• Hamlet kills Polonius in a fit of madness.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene I)
  • With: Hamlet
  • “Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragg’d him.”
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are ordered to bring Polonius’s body into the chapel.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene I · 📍 chapel)
  • With: Rosencrantz Guildenstern
  • “Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragg’d him. Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel.”
• Polonius’s death is publicly acknowledged.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene V)
  • “For good Polonius’ death”
• Laertes learns that his father is dead.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene V)
  • With: Laertes
  • “Where is my father? KING. Dead.”
• Laertes vows thorough revenge for his father.(Hamlet · Act IV, Scene V)
  • With: Laertes
  • “only I’ll be reveng’d Most throughly for my father.”

Hamlet · Act I, Scene III

• child: Laertes “But here my father comes.”
• child: Ophelia “You do not understand yourself so clearly As it behoves my daughter and your honour.”

Hamlet · Act II, Scene I

• sworn: Reynaldo “I will, my lord.”
• child: Hamlet “You laying these slight sullies on my son,”
• ward: Ophelia “No, my good lord; but as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied His access to me.”

Hamlet · Act II, Scene II

• child: Ophelia “I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine—”
• liege: Claudius “I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious King”

Hamlet · Act III, Scene III

• liege: Claudius (Polonius addresses the King as his liege.) “Fare you well, my liege, I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know.”

Hamlet · Act IV, Scene V

• child: Ophelia (The chapter identifies Ophelia's father as Polonius through the king's account of her grief and Polonius's death.) “O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death. [A noise within.] QUEEN. Alack, what noise is this? KING. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. Enter a Gentleman. What is the matter? GENTLEMAN. Save yourself, my lord. The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O’erbears your offices. The rabble call him lord, And, as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry ‘Choose we! Laertes shall be king!’ Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds, ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king.’”

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Extracted from the original text of Shakespeare's Tragedies. Made with Rho MD.