Hamlet为了转移Claudius对他的戒心假装成傻子。但是国王的谋士Polonius却相信哈姆雷特的疯是相思病害的，因为哈姆雷特和Polonius的女儿Ophelia一块出去约会了。Poloniu强迫Ophelia和哈姆雷特断绝关系，以此逼疯哈姆雷特。  就连Hamlet的两个好友Roencrantz和Guildenstern也是 Claudius派去监视哈姆雷特的奸细。
一批演员要为国王演戏，哈姆雷特说服他们演一出由哈姆雷特导演的戏。他在戏中增加一些线索。他想通过演戏来找到谋杀他爸爸的凶手。哈姆雷特想借此观察 Claudius 的反应。

这是哈姆雷特装疯后，和POLONIUS的一段对白：
HAMLET: Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS: Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET: Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
LORD POLONIUS: Not I, my lord.
HAMLET: Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS: Honest, my lord!
HAMLET: Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
LORD POLONIUS: That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS: I have, my lord.
HAMLET: Let her not walk I am the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to it.
LORD POLONIUS: What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET: Between who?
LORD POLONIUS: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET: Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
LORD POLONIUS: [Aside]  Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET: Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS: Indeed, that is out of the air.
HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.
LORD POLONIUS: Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET: These tedious old fools!

重点讲解：
在这段哈姆雷特装傻卖疯的对话中，哈姆雷特似乎有前言不搭后语之嫌，但是字里行间还是能看出哈姆雷特的旁敲侧击的讥讽。
1.you are a fishmonger你是一个鱼贩子
2.one man picked out of ten thousand：万里挑一
3.the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion
　太阳在死狗身上养了一堆蛆，就像神亲吻腐尸。
4.conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.Friend, look to it.
　要树立祝福的观念，但是当你女儿怀孕了就不必了，你一定要弄清楚。哈姆雷特在此以劝说者身份向POLONIUS挑衅。
5.I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward。
　我认为不是诚实让他们垮下的，象我一样老时，如果是螃蟹要学会倒着走路。
6.Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
　这是POLONIUS自言自语的一句话，他确信哈姆雷特有点傻，但是话里话外又含杀机。