Hamlet and Guildenstern's belongings and replaced it with a forged copy indicating that his former friends should be killed instead. A foppish courtier, Osric, interrupts the conversation to deliver the fencing challenge to Hamlet. Hamlet, despite Horatio's pleas, accepts it. Hamlet does well at first, leading the match by two hits to none, and Gertrude raises a toast to him using the poisoned glass of wine Claudius had set aside for Hamlet. Claudius tries to stop her, but is too late: she drinks, and Laertes realizes the plot will be revealed. Laertes slashes Hamlet with his poisoned blade. In the ensuing
Gertrude (Hamlet) Watts portrayed Gertrude in Claire McCarthy's 2018 "Ophelia". "Gertrude and Claudius", a John Updike novel, serves as a prequel to the events of the play. It follows Gertrude from her wedding to King Hamlet, through an affair with Claudius, and its murderous results, until the very beginning of the play. Gertrude also appears as a character in Howard Barker's "Gertrude—The Cry", which uses some of the characters from "Hamlet". "Hamlet" has played "a relatively small role" in the appropriation of Shakespeare's plays by women writers. Margaret Atwood's ""Gertrude Talks Back"", in her 1992 collection of short stories "Good Bones", sees