Who was “that old fool Claudius in Hamlet”? I harrumphed last week in a point-scoring put-down of the Sunday Times for its leader writer’s mistake in confusing the Danish Prince’s murderous uncle with Polonius.

Even as I did so I was about to prove myself an old fool, too. Joan Crouch, in a letter to the Editor, tactfully points out an error of my own, which others spotted too. This was to call Polonius “Desdemona’s old dad”. He was, of course, father to Ophelia (and Laertes).

In the context, the error was particularly regrettable — to me at any rate!

The mistake arose because I wanted to refer to the character without again calling him Polonius. I did not think hard enough, and wrongly linked him with another much-mistreated heroine from a different Shakespearian tragedy.

I did something similar a few years ago in a review of an RSC production of The Tempest at Stratford. I praised the actor playing Ferdinand for his performance as Sebastian. In doing this, I had confused this play’s shipwreck victim with another from Twelfth Night.