The scene shifts to a "room of state in the castle." Various royal figures come in. Claudius and Gertrude talk with Laertes about his upcoming journey to France. Laertes's father Polonius admits that he has agreed to his son's trip. The King and Queen then turn to Hamlet. Perturbed by Hamlet's continuing deep mourning for his father and his increasingly erratic behaviour, Claudius and Gertrude try to persuade him to be more cheerful. Claudius tells him that it is normal for fathers to die, but the prince is not comforted by this.
When they leave, Hamlet complains in his first soliloquy ("O that this too too solid flesh would melt") that his mother has jumped into "incestuous sheets" with her brother-in-law too quickly after the death of Hamlet's father. Horatio and the sentries come in and Hamlet warmly greets his friend, who has recently returned to court from the university at Wittenberg. The three tell Hamlet about the ghost they have seen at the castle and the prince resolves to see the apparition himself.
Claudius and Gertrude send two student friends of his-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-to discover the cause of Hamlet's mood and behavior. Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies. That night, the Ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that Claudius murdered him by pouring "juice of cursed hebenon" in his ear, which caused his blood to "curd" and his skin to be covered with a "vile and loathsome crust." The Ghost demands that Hamlet avenge him. "Well said, old mole!" replies the prince, and he tells Horatio and the rest of his crew that he is going to "put on an antic disposition" from this point on and that if they run into him around the castle they should not say such things as "Well, we know," or "We could, an if we would," Or "If we list to speak," or "There be, an if they might,"[7] that would give him away. He is, however, uncertain of the Ghost's reliability.
Polonius is Claudius's trusted chief counsellor; his son, Laertes, is about to resume studies in France; and his daughter, Ophelia, is courting Hamlet. Neither Polonius nor Laertes approves of the match, and both warn her off. Shortly afterwards, Ophelia meets Hamlet secretly but is so alarmed by his strange antics that she tells her father of Hamlet's state. Polonius blames an "ecstasy of love" for Hamlet's madness and informs Claudius and Gertrude. At their next tryst, Hamlet rants at Ophelia, accusing her of immodesty and dismissing her to a nunnery.
