What IS Claudius doing in this moment?
Presumably, he’s near the queen and could call out for assistance before Osric. He has good reason not to draw anyone’s attention to the queen’s collapse but what is he doing? Caring for her? Standing frozen with terror that his whole scheme is crashing down around him?
Has he caught her? Is he trying to keep her quiet?
I mean – given what she ultimately says, he may be afraid she will out him. Would he try to cover her mouth, try to shhhhh hush her?
He could presumably try and keep her quiet for his own purposes and look as though he’s trying to quiet her for her health.
There’s a whole lot of talk about Osric being in on the king’s schemes but if he were fully in on it, would he be drawing everyone’s attention to the villainy in progress with the Queen? He might know some but he probably doesn’t know all.
The Hamlet Project 