GERTRUDE How cheerfully on the false trail they cry. (A noise within)
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
CLAUDIUS The doors are broke.
Enter Laertes with Followers.
LAERTES Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.
FOLLOWERS No, let’s come in.
LAERTES I pray you give me leave.
FOLLOWERS We will, we will.
LAERTES I thank you, keep the door.
[Exeunt Followers and Messenger.] (4.5.109-115)
Gertrude is incensed at these sounds of popular disorder: how cheerfully on the false trail they cry, as if the people shouting in support of Laertes are hounds willing to follow after any alluring scent, no matter how misleading. O, this is counter—the term that would be used in the hunting field of such a false trail—you false Danish dogs! It alliterates nicely, as well as being pejorative; sometimes it’s suggested that this means that Gertrude herself is not Danish-born. Whatever, it’s very much a class-based condemnation of the little people, unreasonable and easily led. What animals!
Perhaps guards are desperately trying to barricade the doors, but it’s not working: the doors are broke, and Laertes and (some of) his followers burst in. (It’s nicely managed: the followers don’t have to come in if numbers don’t allow; they could remain an unseen presence, voiced by whomever is available to shout off-stage, just hovering at the door. It matters, too, what sort of space is being suggested, if Elsinore is more corporate HQ than Renaissance court, for instance.) Where is this king? Laertes is straight to the point, I want to speak with him, face to face, man to man, right now; this king rather than the king, let alone His Majesty, is bitterly sarcastic and dismissive. Sirs, stand you all without; no, really, guys, you don’t need to be in here, stay out there and keep guard—implicitly, stop anyone coming to rescue the king and queen at least until I have this conversation. The followers haven’t quite grasped what’s going on, and also it raises the stakes, the threat level if they insist, while at the same time making it more chaotic, less intentional: no, let’s come in. I pray you give me leave: please, guys? OK? Oh alright, we will, we will. More enthusiasm than sense, this mob? I thank you, keep the door. You stay outside and keep control of access to this room, alright? No one in or out without I say so. I’m the one in charge here for now.