Enter POLONIUS, GUILDENSTERN and ROSENCRANTZ.
HAMLET How now, my lord, will the King hear this piece of work?
POLONIUS And the Queen too, and that presently.
HAMLET Bid the players make haste.
[Exit POLONIUS.] Will you two help to hasten them?
ROSENCRANTZ Ay, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
HAMLET What ho, Horatio!
Enter HORATIO.
HORATIO Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO O my dear lord – (3.2.44-52)
Plotty plotty, busy busy: Hamlet has to ensure that Claudius is actually going to come to see the play that he’s been so carefully organising: how now, my lord, will the King hear this piece of work? He’s polite to Polonius, his mind on his scheme, and he can’t afford to get drawn into an argument or even a distraction; Polonius isn’t especially courteous, for once: and the Queen too, and that presently. Yes, immediately, right now! Polonius is being accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—as a minder because they can’t be trusted? at their instigation because they’re desperate to do something to redeem themselves? because they’ve been ordered to have another go at getting into Hamlet’s confidence?—but Hamlet’s not having any of that. Bid the players make haste, will you two help to hasten them? And so he manages to dispatch Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern in one go. Result.
This is Hamlet in focused, efficient mode, also knowing he’s got one chance to do this and it’s a risky enterprise. So he calls the only person he’s sure he can trust: what ho, Horatio! (What does Horatio DO, most of the time? Reads, probably, reasonably contented. Maybe some birdwatching, sketching, writing. Making little films.) Horatio’s pleased to be called, appears immediately: here, sweet lord, at your service. Hamlet has been anything but sweet in the last few moments (a production with a very early interval, or with two intervals, can neutralise the nastiness of the nunnery scene a little by putting an interval in between 3.1 and 3.2) but Horatio is still going to be nice, kind, affectionate; he could say good lord, but he says sweet. It’s touching. (It’s notable that these friends speak in verse together; Hamlet tends to prose with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and with the players.) And Hamlet starts to let his guard down a little, letting the strain show for a moment, Horatio, you’re the only person I trust, you’re my best friend, Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man as e’er my conversation coped withal. I trust you, and I trust your judgement. And Horatio is moved by this: O my dear lord. You’re too kind. How can I help?