Hamlet agrees to let the rest of the speech wait until later, and he asks Polonius to see to it that the players are “well bestow’d.” Polonius apparently thinks it’s beneath him to be real nice to a bunch of traveling players, and answers that he will “use them according to their desert.” Hamlet gives him a tongue lashing, saying “God’s bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?” (2.2.529-530). Polonius has nothing to say to that, and tells the players to follow him. As everyone is leaving Hamlet announces that “we’ll hear a play tomorrow,” and then detains First Player to make the arrangements. Hamlet wants a particular play, The Murder of Gonzago, and he asks the player to memorize an extra speech which Hamlet would write and put into the play. Later, we find that this particular play interests Hamlet because it tells of a king who was, like King Hamlet, poisoned in his garden by his wife’s lover. First Player says that it will be no problem to put Hamlet’s speech into the play, but we never hear of it again. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are still hanging around, but Hamlet coldly dismisses them, and he is alone with his thoughts.
Exit all but Hamlet:
Hamlet’s second soliloquy begins, “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” (2.2.550). Hamlet is disgusted with himself because First Player could weep for Hecuba, but Hamlet “can say nothing; no, not for a king, / Upon whose property and most dear life / A damn’d defeat was made” (2.2.569-571).
Remember that Laertes has gone to France and Polonius has sent Reynaldo after to spy on him, so some time has passed since Hamlet has promised the Ghost that he would “sweep” to revenge. Yet Hamlet is not blaming himself because he hasn’t killed Claudius, but because he hasn’t said anything. Half-mockingly, he says that if the player had the same “motive and cue for passion” he would “drown the stage with tears.” And then he turns the mockery back upon himself, saying that he is a “dull . . . rascal.” The Ghost told him that if he didn’t take revenge he would be “duller than the fat weed / That roots itself on Lethe wharf.” So Hamlet seems to be accusing himself of not having the player’s passion, of not hating Claudius strongly enough, of not loving his father strongly enough.
Next, Hamlet asks, “Am I a coward?” But it’s not a really a question. He’s trying to work himself into a state of passion. He imagines someone insulting him in the most outrageous way, pulling his nose, calling him a liar, and says that he should “take it” because if he weren’t “pigeon-liver’d” he would have killed Claudius, gutted him, and fed the guts to the hawks. He flies into a rage at the very thought of Claudius, calling him “bloody, bawdy villain! / Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!” (2.2.580-581).
As the words come rushing out, Hamlet hears himself, and is even more disgusted. Instead of doing anything, he “Must unpack my heart with words, / And fall a-cursing like a very drab [a whore], / A stallion [a male whore].” Now he is cursing because he doing nothing but cursing, and he realizes it, saying “About, my brains!” “About” is an order, as you might give to a horse, when you want him to turn around. Hamlet is telling himself to stop, take a breath, and try to take a new look at the situation.
He has heard that guilty people at a play have been “struck so to the soul” that they have betrayed their guilt. That’s what he will try on Claudius. He’ll keep a careful watch on Claudius during The Murder of Gonzago. Perhaps he suspects himself of just finding another reason to not do anything, because he justifies himself by reasoning that “The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil” (2.2.598-599), and may be misleading him to damn him. He would be damned if he killed an innocent man, but this is the first time that he has shown any doubt that the Ghost is anything but his father’s spirit, or any doubt that Claudius is guilty of murder. Nevertheless, he declares that “the play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”