riety, which convey nothing but lies (Greer 56-57).
Hamlet by this time knows the truth himself about Claudius' role in his father's murder. However, he does not want to take the action of vengeance which that knowledge requires of him, so he convinces himself to seek more evidence of Claudius' guilt. In supposedly seeking the truth, however, he presents an utterly artificial play-within-a-play, and busies himself with the most petty concerns in doing so, lecturing the actors on how to deliver their lines: "Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the towncrier spoke my lines" (Shakespeare 754).
Hamlet cannot keep himself from slipping into layer upon layer of self-deception as he delays his dutiful vengeance and rationalizes those delays with contemplative monologues berating himself above all
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