Hamlet 3

Polonius:
Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings..

...This must be known, which being kept close, might
move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

-This passage is important to the play as a whole, because it is the first time that other characters can see that there is something wrong with Hamlet. While they figure that his behavior is due to his own internal conflicts, they fail to see that their own king is the reason for his grief. It also shows how quickly the characters have replaced the old King Hamlet with King Claudius, because they don't even consider the fact that Hamlet's father is dead as a reason for his distress.

-The passage is somewhat ironic, in that Polonius is going to the King to discuss how "the ecstasy of love, whose violent property" can lead "to desperate undertakings". The King himself, however, is a victim of this himself, having killed Hamlet's father in order to be with his wife. This passage could also refer to the murder where Polonius says "I am sorry that with better heed and judgement I had not coted (observed) him". Polonius is the councillor to King Claudius, and this line makes the reader aware of the irony created by his bringing this issue to the King's attention without having observed that the King is guilty of it himself.