ABSTRACT
Hamlet's two scenes with the players have been often commented upon from varying points of view. The dumbshow before the play-within-the-play of 3.2 has received most attention; but other parts of the scenes have been discussed as examples of Hamlet's ideals of playwriting or of Shakespeare's own ideals of acting, or as containing topicalities of concern to players and playgoers in Shakespeare's time though perhaps no longer of concern in ours. The topicalities that have received most attention are the references to the competition of the children's companies with the adult companies, and the indications of personal animosities among rival groups of playwrights and actors. A third set of topical references have to do with the attacks upon the stage that were continuous through most of the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Though Hamlet is concerned with the problems and limitations of human knowledge, it is even more concerned with the greater mysteries of the will.
