]can he really be ignorant of what is going on in Elsinore? I wonder how much he knew of what was going on between Claudius and Gertrude before the King was murdered, and I also wonder what he knew about the murder itself. Could he have known it was murder, and that Claudius did it?

I think you could play him as if he knows it, and he's so much in love with the idea of the power that it gives him that he goes right along with all of Claudius' schemes because it makes him feel important.

But I'm not sure about Polonius. There are scenes when he acts like a perfect fool--for example, when he meets the players and tries his best to ruin the emotion in the Priam/Hecuba speech.

There are other scenes when he may be playing at being a fool, such as when he talks to Claudius and Gertrude about Hamlet's love. Is he really that stupid, or is he putting it on so that he will seem guileless when in fact he's trying to make himself more important.