Hamlet tells Horatio, and incidentally Marcellus (because he is privy to knowledge that the ghost has appeared and spoken to Hamlet), that he will feign an "antic disposition" because, in a very human way (and Hamlet is nothing if not very human) he needs an ally. Realize, Horatio is the only character in the play who is totally honest. Even Hamlet presents a false visage to everyone else in the play, save Horatio.
Hamlet is not crazy. His antic disposition is all guile, a shield and delay tactic that affords him some time to plan and test his theories. Claudius knows this from observing Hamlet in the nunnery scene "... what he spake, though it lacked form a little,/ Was not like madness." And any reader or theatergoer would be wise to not mistake moments of desperate passion for madness. The “mad in craft” aspects of the play give Shakespeare a chance to work through one of his favorite motifs–the metatheatrical awareness that so many of his characters possess. Throughout the play Hamlet is actor, director and playwright–never more keenly aware of his own role on the stage than in Act V when mortally wounded he says to the court who have been watching their monarchy implode:
You that look pale, and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time, as this fell sergeant death
Is strict in his arrest, oh I could tell you –
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