Hamlet’s friend Horatio tells Hamlet about the Ghost, and Hamlet visits the battlements with his friend. Polonius turns up and gives his son some advice before Laertes leaves Polonius then reiterates Laertes’ advice to Ophelia about Hamlet, commanding his daughter to stay away from Hamlet.
He tells her not to take Hamlet’s expressions of affection too seriously, because – even if Hamlet is keen on her – he is not free to marry whom he wishes, being a prince. Laertes leaves Denmark for France, bidding his sister Ophelia farewell. At the same time, Claudius and Gertrude entreat Hamlet not to return to his studies in Germany, at the University of Wittenberg. Claudius gives the young man Laertes, the son of the influential courtier Polonius, leave to return to France to study there. Hamlet also resents his mother, Gertrude – who, not long after Hamlet Senior’s death, remarried … to Claudius. At the royal court, Prince Hamlet (the dead king’s son) shows disgust at his uncle, Claudius, who is king, having taken the throne after Hamlet’s father, Claudius’ brother, died. The ghost of the former king, Hamlet, is seen, but refuses to speak to any of the soldiers on guard duty. The play begins on the battlements at Elsinore Castle in Denmark one night.