The Hamlet Project

Did Claudius always have witchcrafty wit?
When the Royal brothers were boys,
Was Claudius the smart one, the crafty one, the brains of the operation?
Was Hamlet the brawn? Practical at sledding poleaxes or beating up his younger brother?
I wonder if Claudius often got his brother into trouble –
If he got him punished for things he himself had done.
I wonder if Claudius talked his brother into circles, fooling him,
Damning him with these spell like words.
Perhaps, to Claudius, there was always great injustice in the succession.
Perhaps, he’d always felt he deserved the crown, that the system was unjust
Because it promoted the thicker of the two.
What sort of wordy witchcraft did Claudius perform even during his brother’s reign?
Was he constantly attempting to unseat his brother before he finally resorted to murder?
Did he try Iago’s tactics? Aaron’s? Don John’s? Richard the Third’s?
Or did he bide his time – planning, quietly scheming for this violent moment?
What finally pushed him toward the fateful poisoning?
What indignity did he feel he endured? What slight?
Or did everything coalesce to that fratricidal moment in the garden?
How many fratricides did he commit in his mind before the one he actually committed?