He and Laertes grapple, but the fight is broken up by Claudius and Gertrude.

Claudius reminds Laertes of the planned fencing match.

When Fortinbras arrives to greet King Claudius, he encounters the deadly scene: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet are all dead.

By the end of Shakespeare's play, Prince Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Polonius, King Claudius and Gertrude all lie dead.

Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and Lord Chamberlain to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others.

Polonius ' death at the hands of Hamlet causes Claudius to fear for his own life, Ophelia to go mad, and Laertes to seek revenge, which leads to the duel in the final act.

Before Laertes returns to France ( he had returned to attend the coronation of King Claudius ), his father, Polonius, gives him advice to behave himself in France.

In the next scene, King Claudius arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.

Among the memorable performances ( including some from before Papp had the Delacorte for his Shakespeare ) were George C. Scott's Obie-award winning Richard III in 1958 ; Colleen Dewhurst's Kate, Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra ( opposite George C. Scott's Mark Antony ), and Gertrude ; the Prince Hamlet of Stacy Keach opposite Dewhurst's Gertrude with James Earl Jones ' King Claudius, Barnard Hughes's Polonius and Sam Waterston's Laertes ; Sam Waterston's Hamlet ( opposite the Gertrude of Ruby Dee ) with the Laertes of John Lithgow and Andrea Marcovicci's Ophelia ; the Benedick and Beatrice of Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes in Much Ado About Nothing with Barnard Hughes's Keystone Kops version of Dogberry ; the early work of Meryl Streep as Isabella in Measure for Measure ; Mary Beth Hurt as Randall Duk Kim's daughter in Pericles ; James Earl Jones as King Lear ( 1973 ) with Rosalind Cash and Ellen Holly as his wicked daughters ; Raul Julia as Edmund in Jones ' 1973 King Lear, as Osric to Keach's Hamlet, and as Proteus ( in a musical adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona which transferred to a Broadway run ).

He cast himself as Polonius, Horatio, and Laertes ; Jess Borgeson as the prince ; Michael Fleming as Bernardo, Claudius, and the Ghost of Hamlet's father ; and Barbara Reinertson as Ophelia and Gertrude.

As his " practice stab ," Laertes kills himself, and Hamlet proceeds to murder Claudius.

When Laertes seeks revenge for his father Polonius ' death at Hamlet's hands, Claudius finally concocts a ' surefire ' plan to deal with Hamlet once and for all.

Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother.

It leads Hamlet to a secluded place, claims that it is the actual spirit of his father, and discloses that he — the elder Hamlet — was murdered by his brother Claudius pouring poison in his ear.

Together, Claudius and Polonius convince Ophelia to speak with Hamlet while they secretly listen.

When the murder scene is presented, Claudius abruptly rises and leaves the room, which Hamlet sees as proof of his uncle's guilt.

On his way, Hamlet passes Claudius in prayer, but hesitates to kill him, reasoning that death in prayer would send him to heaven.

Hamlet, believing it is Claudius hiding behind the arras, stabs wildly through the cloth, killing Polonius.

" The Ghost appears, urging Hamlet to treat Gertrude gently, but reminding him to kill Claudius.

Claudius, now fearing for his life, finds a legitimate excuse to get rid of the prince: he sends Hamlet to England on a diplomatic pretext, accompanied ( and closely watched ) by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Alone, Claudius discloses that he is actually sending Hamlet to his death.

Claudius, unsure that capable Hamlet could receive even a scratch, plans to offer Hamlet poisoned wine if that fails.

After several rounds, Gertrude toasts Hamlet — against the urgent warning of Claudius — accidentally drinking the wine he poisoned.

Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword, and then forces him to drink from his own poisoned cup to make sure he dies.

At one point, as in the Gravedigger scene, Hamlet seems resolved to kill Claudius: in the next scene, however, when Claudius appears, he is suddenly tame.

His very first words in the play are a pun ; when Claudius addresses him as " my cousin Hamlet, and my son ", Hamlet says as an aside: " A little more than kin, and less than kind.

In this reading, Hamlet is disgusted by his mother's " incestuous " relationship with Claudius while simultaneously fearful of killing him, as this would clear Hamlet's path to his mother's bed.

Carolyn Heilbrun's 1957 essay " The Character of Hamlet's Mother " defends Gertrude, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew of Claudius poisoning King Hamlet.

Before the mention of Alemanni in the time of Caracalla, you would search in vain for Alemanni in the moderately detailed geography of southern Germany in Claudius Ptolemy, written in Greek in the mid-2nd century ; it is likely that at that time, the people who later used that name were known by other designations.

Accounts vary wildly with regard to this private incident and according to more modern sources, it is possible ( but exceedingly convenient ) that Claudius died of natural causes ; Claudius was 63 years old.

I, Claudius 1976 Agrippina is played by Barbara Young

Clodius is an alternate form of the Roman nomen Claudius, a patrician gens that was traditionally regarded as Sabine in origin.

There is some speculation that the inscription was added by Claudius himself decades later, and that he originally did not appear at all.

There is no evidence that Claudius had a direct hand in the assassination, although it has been argued that he knew about the plot — particularly since he left the scene of the crime shortly before his nephew was murdered.

The conspiracy of Gaius Silius in the year after his Censorship, 48, is detailed in the section discussing Claudius ' third wife, Messalina.

There is no evidence that the character of Claudius ' policies and edicts changed with the rise and fall of the various freedmen, suggesting that he was firmly in control throughout.

This is the diagnosis used in Robert Graves ' Claudius novels, first published in the 1930s.

( Claudius is actually the last person known to have been able to read Etruscan.

Since Claudius ( like most of the members of his dynasty ) heavily criticized his predecessors and relatives in surviving speeches, it is not hard to imagine the nature of Suetonius ' charge.

Claudius is the source for numerous passages of Pliny's Natural History.

The influence of historical study on Claudius is obvious.

Even his version of Claudius ' Lyons tablet speech is edited to be devoid of the Emperor's personality.

Claudius has been portrayed in film on several other occasions, including in the 1979 motion picture Caligula, the role being performed by Giancarlo Badessi in which the character was depicted as an idiot, in contrast to Robert Graves ' portrait of Claudius as a cunning and deeply intelligent man who is perceived by others to be an idiot.

There is also a reference to Claudius ' suppression of one of the coups against him in the movie Gladiator, though the incident is entirely fictional.

In the novel I, Claudius by English writer Robert Graves, Caligula is presented as being a murderous sociopath from his childhood, who became clinically insane early in his reign.

: Aelianus Tacticus, Greek military writer of the 2nd century, resident at Rome, is sometimes confused with Claudius Aelianus.

* ( genitive ) " of man " a possessor ( e. g., the man's name is Claudius )

* Robert Graves ' novel I, Claudius is written as a recently-discovered autobiography penned by the late Emperor.

However, Caligula is shown in a later episode to confess to his uncle Claudius that he killed his father in revenge for trying to discipline him, by working on his father's superstitions ( planting various ' curses ' around his father's residence ) and eventually frightening him to death-therefore, Piso and Plancina were technically innocent ( Zeus, by Jove!

* nautae ( genitive ) " the sailor's / of sailor " ( e. g. nomen nautae Claudius est the sailor's name is Claudius )