Word goes round the castle that Hamlet has changed. His clothes are disordered and his talk does not follow. The king and queen want to know why.
The king’s councillor Polonius steps forward. It is his daughter Ophelia, he says. He reads out to them a letter Hamlet sent her.
The king also sends for two others. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they are called. They had been at school with Hamlet.