So Claudius thinks Hamlet’s popular with the people because he’s handsome? Is that the idea here? It’s funny because the distracted multitude must not be so enamored of Hamlet, otherwise they might have clamored for him to be king after the death of his father. It takes no time at all for Laertes to hustle up some multitudes to support him – so one would think that if Hamlet were popular enough, the people might have been moved to at least pipe up and be like, “Hey what’s going on here? Isn’t Kingship supposed to travel from father to son?”
But as far as we know, nothing like this happens. Maybe the people don’t like Hamlet quite as much as Claudius thinks.
