laertes

According to Wikipedia: > He is chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia.

But without this scene, Polonius advice to Laertes stands alone and is taken in earnest.

But immediately after, Polonus hires a spy to report on Laertes conduct in Paris, and literally instructs the spy to slander Laertes in order to trick people into revealing if these slanders are correct.

But the main takeaway is that Polonius is an idiot and his advice to Laertes should be considered platitudes at best and terrible counsel at worst.

His entire speech to Laertes was clear and actionable advice.

Claudius sees that Laertes is powerful enough in witchcraft to kill his own sister, and that is why he sets up this duel where both Hamlet and Laertes will kill each other, one by sword, the other by the poisoned cup of victory beer.

But since drowning requires witchcraft, the explanation given is that this was a treacherous act by Laertes (Polonius's son, Ophelia's brother), who was of course sent off to France where he boozed and gambled away his money irresponsibly.

So Laertes did the only thing he could do to raise a lot of money on short notice, afflicting her with the curse of drowning so as to sell her innocent body to malevolent witches to zombify as they willed.

My father wrote in my sixth-grade yearbook quoting Hamlet - Polonius to his son, Laertes: "To thine own self be true." No!

Laertes therefore is pissed at Hamlet for robbing him of any benefit of killing his sister.

Not to mention comic scenes in the history plays (for example, pretty much any scene with Falstaff in Henry IV), and even in some of the tragedies (for example, Osric inviting Hamlet to duel with Laertes)?

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Polonius to son Laertes.