seen indirectly, as if masked. We, the audience, are immediately captivated by Hamlet, who strikes us as one of those kinds of people that we dare not match wits with in real life, but we are happy to be voyeurs of. Hamlet's thoughts move in a chess-like fashion where what he reveals to us only intrigues us as to what is kept hidden. Prior to this passage, Hamlet is all "fun and games," treating Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as dear chums. Yet, if "Hamlet" were a comedy, we could appropriately have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stand mouths gaping while Hamlet delivers a devastating checkmate with the introduction, "I will tell you why." Hamlet's hair-splitting intelligence reveals his awareness of every facet of his circumstances, and also his clever dealing with his present situation, mentally staying one step ahead of everyone else. As if a psychic, Hamlet assures Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that their secret deal with the King and Queen will not be revealed so that they need not "molt no feather." As Hamlet describes the state he is in, no more than what is already known is revealed, though more is hinted at. In fact, Hamlet feigns a digression from revealing the cause of his black mood and plunges into an "epic" depiction of his present temperament in comparing the earth and "majestical" sky as a dull background to the thoughts in his head. Hamlet then seems to lose himself in the moment and brings up the nobility of man, which also becomes an unworthy thought for Hamlet's head. Yet, within these strikingly meaningless illustrations of earth, sky, and man hides the truth of Hamlet's meditations. In the descriptions of earth and sky, Hamlet is showing his disgust with the world. This is overshadowed by Hamlet's boredom with man, which is actually his distaste of his uncle, the king, and his mother, who is the "woman neither," w...