Polonius

Polonius, the king's counsellor from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," appears to me to be a Reactive. Among the reasons (which I may come back to) fare:
-- A person of his age at the time the play was written would have been a Reactive, raised during the Reformation.
-- Polonius is often said to be based on William Cecil Burghley, a (Reactive) counsellor to (also Reactive) Queen Elizabeth.

One problem is the traditional portrayal of Polonius as a sycophantic buffoon. This isn't easily squared with the practical attributes associated with the Nomad archetype. There are ways to play him that make this quite reasonable, though, especially when the Act II scene with Reynaldo is included. His surveillance of his son Laertes shows that he is very careful with those close to him, and able to plan an eminently practical method of determining just what is happening in Paris.

Except, of course, that halfway though a sentence he loses his train of though and has to ask Reynaldo to remind him where he was. One could treat this as another bit of trickery on his part, making sure that Reynaldo is paying attention. I might have said so myself ... Until yesterday, when exactly that happened to me while trying to explain How Something Works. So now, I'd have to say that it should be played straight. It's just an example of what sometimes happens when you are Of a Certain Age. As we all are, eventually.