for more than a century, shakespearean scholars have identified several of the play's major characters with specific members of the elizabethan court. in 1869, george russell french theorized that "hamlet"s polonius might have been inspired by william cecil (lord burghley)—lord high treasurer and chief counsellor to queen elizabeth i. french also speculated that the characters of polonius's children, ophelia and laertes, represented two of burghley's children, anne and robert cecil. in 1930, e. k. chambers suggested that polonius's advice to laertes may have echoed burghley's to his son robert, and in 1932, john dover wilson commented "the figure of polonius is almost without doubt intended as a caricature of burleigh, who died on 4 august 1598". in 1963, a. l. rowse said that polonius's tedious verbosity might have resembled burghley's, and in 1964, hurstfield wrote that "[t]he governing classes were both paternalistic and patronizing; and nowhere is this attitude better displayed than in the advice which that archetype of elder statesmen william cecil, lord burghley—shakespeare's polonius—prepared for his son".