Fascinating stuff, Laraine. Thanks!

] The reading of the famous soliloquy scene as outlined also removes the problem of the violent shift in emotion that otherwise occurs in the subsequent dialogue with Ophelia. The text of the soliloquy blends into the dialogue with Ophelia without a line break or a stage direction separating them. And directors, critics, and actors quite often concede that this part of the scene contains references to the overheard nature of the dialogue. Hamlet here sends the direct threat to Claudius that he is dangerous, that he is focused on revenge, and even that he has his eye on the crown.

I would just like to add this on the side. Took a Master Class some years ago with touring RSC actors who opened my eyes to something I have found very useful over the years as an actor and a reader of Shakespeare: Pay attention to the text, the hints are there. Shakespeare was notoriously bad at giving stage direction short of exeunt or enter. Many directors and actors of Shakespeare think that he had a tendency to give little hints in the text. Breaks in the iambic pentameter are hints as to delivery and a change from verse to prose can indicate emotional changes. Fer instance:

HAMLET
...sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now!
(No break at all)
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

OPHELIA

Good my lord,

(O. finishes his sentance in a way. Be all my sins remembered/Good my lord make up one line in iambic pentameter.)

Continuing...

OPHELIA
How does your honour for this many a day?

HAMLET

I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.

HAMLET

No, not I;
(He finishes her sentance again Or it could indicate a pause for him and then picking up again)
I never gave you aught.
(He doesn't complete his line, and her next line is a full line indicating a pause for her and perhaps confusion at his response?)

OPHELIA

My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.

HAMLET

Ha, ha! are you honest?

OPHELIA

My lord?

HAMLET

Are you fair?

OPHELIA

What means your lordship?

HAMLET

That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should
admit no discourse to your beauty.

At this point he forces the conversation into prose, perhaps indicating a change in emotional content or intent. Prose is generally more familiar than verse. Dovetailing into Laraine's point that Hamlet knows he is being watched and works it for all he is worth.