Now, this is his big statecraft scene, and establishing Polonius as his foremost advisor can be played as a political move. Because he was the advisor to the king before Claudius, he’s a mainstay in the court, he’s old as balls &c and Claudius’s primary motive is to get everyone on board with this whole ‘hey I get we’re all sad my brother’s dead but look I married his wife and things are fine’ thing. But it’s possible to play a Claudius who likes and trusts Polonius, or even included Polonius on Plan Murder My Brother.
August Jeske does not play that Claudius. He is so fucking sick of Polonius. Even in that first scene, where Claudius asks ‘Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?’ he lets Polonius give a few lines before cutting him off, like yes, I did the thing, I pretended to care what you think. He’s respectful to Polonius’s face, but whenever he turns his back, his body language is so done and so ready to talk to someone else. (Like Laertes! Laertes is a nice young man, even if he’s kind of boring.)
So Act 2, Scene 2 is the scene where Polonius lays out his ‘your son’s insane because of my daughter’ theory. Claudius cares because Gertrude cares, but he’s a little sardonic in the exchange
[…] And I do think, or else this brain of mine
O, speak of that! That do I long to hear. Less eager to hear this precious bit of wisdom from his advisor and more ‘well, this’ll be good.’
He more or less accepts Gertrude’s explanation of
I doubt it is no other but the main—
The way he says ‘sift’ is telling about how he thinks this interaction is going to go. Polonius is going to say a whole bunch of nonsense and they’re going to have to sift through it. Personally, I think the thing that makes it bearable for Claudius is being on a team with Gertrude. When Polonius starts talking, he gives her a knowing look of we’re going to be here a while.
The way she sits is supercute btw. Her body language is super polite and attentive, but every once in a while Claudius rolls his eyes and she gives him a look.
Also supercute is the rolling please get on with it hand gesture Claudius gives and Gertrude translates on
And Gertrude gratefully holding Claudius’s hand when it’s all a bit too much. Sorry, somewhere along the line this stopped being a close reading about how much Claudius hates Polonius and how much Claudius and Gertrude support each other.
When Claudius says
he leans in to ask her, in a way that it shows it’s her opinion he cares about, not Polonius’s. She supports him in being done with Polonius. She’s willing to be the Polonius sifter in this relationship. That’s a true marriage.
This is something else that varies in productions. Sometimes Gertrude is on the sidelines of the conversation and you can see all the decisions are being made by the two men. It can be very frustrating and tragic how little respect she gets. But, you know, those Claudiuses have to respect Polonius at least a little bit, and this Claudius doesn’t. He’s willing to go along but he never likes spending time with this man.
I’ll close out with a classic Claudius eyeroll. He’s so fucking over Polonius.
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath used to do, that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.
His father’s death and our ⟨o’erhasty⟩ marriage.
Well, we shall sift him.
and manages to look the sassiest a man has ever looked closing a book.
More matter with less art.
⌜to Queen⌝ Do you think ⟨’tis⟩ this?
It may be, very like