Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet and Guildenstern

Doubt still lingers as to whether Eugène Delacroix discovered Hamlet through a newly available French translation or through staged productions he saw in Paris or London. What is certain is that the play—about a Danish prince struggling to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of his scheming uncle, Claudius—fully captured the artist’s imagination. Beguiled by its Romantic sensibilities, Delacroix spent nearly a decade making a series of lithographs inspired by Hamlet. In 1843, he finally published them as a vanity project at his own expense. These were not “illustrations” but images to be viewed independently of the corresponding text. In this scene, the seventh in the series, Hamlet poses a derisive question to his childhood friend Guildenstern, newly arrived at court: “Do you want to play a little on this flute?” This hints at Hamlet’s suspicion that Guildenstern should not be trusted, and is in effect playing him like a flute. Hamlet poses this question as they prepare the play-within-a-play intended to entrap Claudius in his guilt.