RALPH:  It’s been awhile – perhaps well over a month – since Hamlet swore that he’d avenge his father’s murder by killing Claudius; but in the meantime, the only thing he’s done is to pretend to be crazy – which Polonius believes to be a case of love sickness caused by Ophelia refusing to see him.

SARAH:  Gertrude, however, thinks Hamlet’s deranged mental state comes from grief over his father's death. For his part, King Claudius is uncertain of the cause of Hamlet’s madness, and he plans to investigate further.

RALPH:  Meanwhile a company of traveling actors has arrived at Elsinore, and Hamlet has had one of the actors recite a speech from a play about the Trojan War. The speech describes the death of King Priam, the Trojan King, and the tragic plight of his wife, Queen Hecuba, on the night Troy fell to the Greeks.

SARAH:  After this mini performance, the players – this is the term Shakespeare uses for the company of actors –have exited the stage, leaving Hamlet to deliver his second long soliloquy in which he compares his own inability to take action to the amazing passion of the actor delivering the speech.