More evidence that, for better or worse, Claudius trusts and relies on Polonius as an advisor. At this point, from Claudius’s perspective, it’s pretty imperative to get Hamlet out of the way–the “all but one [shall live]” threat would be reason enough–yet he still checks with Polonius first.

The Arden Shakespeare rather surprisingly suggests that “These lines could be taken to imply that Ophelia did not know her father and the King were spying,” but adds that this is unlikely given the setup of the scene. More likely is that parts of Hamlet’s dialogue are spoken in lower tones, or that the King and Polonius’s hiding place was distant enough from the conversation that they could have missed parts of it.

The Arden adds that the line can “express either kindness…or [dismissive] cruelty.”

…in order to prevent [that danger], I have quickly determined and written out this order: Hamlet will be shipped to England ASAP, as part of a mission to demand tribute that the English owe us.

The backstory on the “tribute” is unclear. The Arden Shakespeare notes that “Some editors note a possible topical allusion here to the ‘Danegeld’, but this is not really necessary.”

See note on Ophelia’s “woe is me” in 3.1.

Though “woe is me” is one of those classic Shakespearean-sounding phrases, it occurs only 4 times in his works–twice in Hamlet and twice in much less famous plays (Titus Andronicus and 2 Henry VI). The other occurrence in Hamlet is in the Player Queen’s speech in the next scene, which could double as an Ophelia-like commentary on Hamlet:

But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you.

If Hamlet (as most critics assume) knows by now that Polonius is spying on them, her lie here presumably spurs him to further anger.

Ophelia, for her part, is trapped in a terrible dilemma: lie to the angry Prince (her former suitor/lover) or betray her father.

Hamlet’s multiple “Farewells” in this scene (followed by continuing bluster) recall Laertes’s dialogue with Ophelia in 1.3, as well as Polonius’s multiple farewells, and Reynaldo’s patient attempts to escape them, in 2.1.

This is the most direct evidence we get of Ophelia’s feelings for Hamlet: left alone for a moment, she affirms that she believed Hamlet’s vows of love, and that she’s now “deject and wretched” at his vicious behavior. (But she still stops short of saying that she loved him back.)

music: musical, sweet.

For an expression of a similar idea, see 2 Samuel 1: “How are the mighty fallen!”