Why didn't Claudius and Gert hire Horatio instead of R&G?

[Miss Plum]

I want to say Claudius AND Gertrude because she's in on it as much as he is although their motives are slightly different; she wants Hamlet to cheer up while he wants to find out if Hamlet's onto the murder.

Anyway, R&G are guys Hamlet presumably hasn't seen in a while, maybe years. Meanwhile, there's Horatio right in the court with Hamlet's full confidence and affection. Do Claudius and Gertrude bypass Horatio because they sense he ain't going to do no undercover work?

[Charles Darnay]

I want to say Claudius AND Gertrude because she's in on it as much as he is although their motives are slightly different; she wants Hamlet to cheer up while he wants to find out if Hamlet's onto the murder.

Anyway, R&G are guys Hamlet presumably hasn't seen in a while, maybe years. Meanwhile, there's Horatio right in the court with Hamlet's full confidence and affection. Do Claudius and Gertrude bypass Horatio because they sense he ain't going to do no undercover work?

We know that Hamlet comes back for his father's funeral which is less than two months before the action of the play: "But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two!"

So it has probably only been a month or so since he saw R&G last.

Aside from that, there are a few possible reasons. Claudius knows that Horatio is not as spineless as R&G. There is that point - now very underplayed in our society - that these two traitorous, disloyal characters are clearly Jewish (by virtue of their names.) Horatio on the other hand is a good an honourable Christian. Such a Christian friend would never turn on his dear friend, but offer R&G some favour and they will do whatever. (NB: this is how 16th-17th century England would have viewed it, not how I see it personally.)

[Miss Plum]

Thank you, Charles Darnay. Once again, your reward for answering my question is . . . another question (soon to be posted above).

[Macintosh]

As with most things, I try to look at the prima facie evidence first. How a thing first seems may be the real substance of that thing.

I think the reason Claudius didn't contact Horatio is simple: Horatio is a genuine pal of Hamlet -- they're apparently college roommates, after all, and Horatio, despite all his slights, is loyal to Hamlet, an honorable guy, and would certainly not spy on his buddy. R&G are typical smarmy hangers-on, despite their having been pals of Hamlet during what I'd guess were pre-teen years. And they are as venal as are Claudius and Gertrude.

[Charles Darnay]

Maybe. R&G were Hamlet's childhood friends, but they were also with him at Wittenberg. But that doesn't matter too much. From a purely textual purpose, it is very easy to read too much into the first part of II.ii - where Claudius and Gertrude speak to R&G. Gertrude, I believe, wants what is best for her son, and Claudius only wants, at this point, to find out what is happening and if there is a potential threat. There is nothing too sinister in them bringing R&G to cheer Hamlet up and find the cause of his madness.

The interesting part is the first meeting of Hamlet and R&G in the play. Now I go back and forth on this part, and may be reading too much into it myself, but I detect a change in Hamlet at this part. He begins with a high brow/low brow battle of wits about the whore that is Fortune. Still playfully he subtly slides into the more morose notion of Denmark as a prison. He then says: "to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended." I believe he wants to be honest with R&G, and is so until they are unwilling to be honest with them - when they lie to him about coming to Elsinore. From this point on, Hamlet turns on them quickly.

Horatio never once lies to Hamlet.

[Macintosh]

Excellent analysis, Charles. Hamlet's of course very suspicious of anyone schmoozing up to him, and quickly ferrets out the motive behind R&G's visit -- "We were sent for."

Hamlet also talks about binding those few true friends with hoops of steel, and R&G certainly don't meet that criteria. Horatio's also the one person whom Hamlet takes into his confidence for the mousetrap play.