This bit seems like a crazy bit.
Like, Hamlet asking himself a question and then answering it?
It’s a bit – odd. Unless this is a printing error.
What if it was meant to be:
HAMLET: The Mousetrap
KING: Marry, how?
HAMLET: Tropically.
Etc
That makes sense to me. But, of course a good Hamlet could make sense of the other as well. Though, certainly, those two lines are often cut. Because what are they doing there? Tropically? Huh? Vienna is not in the tropics. And why are all the people in Vienna named like Italians?
Does he mean Venice when he says Vienna? I’ve done that.
I don’t understand this bit at all.
Marry, how is it called The Mousetrap?
Because Hamlet called it so.
(And it is designed to catch the little mouse that is Claudius’ conscience.)
The Hamlet Project 