Laertes Quotes

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute; no more.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Laertes plays the role of protective brother as he exhorts Ophelia to refuse Hamlet’s romantic advances. He dismisses the prince’s attentions as no more than a passing thing, claiming he is using her as a plaything – “a toy in blood” he describes it in the line before this passage. Using a metaphor, he compares Hamlet’s kind of love to a violet, sweet and perfumed, but only lasting a minute.

But you must fear,
His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Laertes tells Ophelia that Hamlet cannot marry who he wants to. He is bound by the requirements of the royal family and must marry with the safety and security of Denmark in mind. In other words a marriage between Ophelia and Hamlet is impossible.

Then if he says he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster’d importunity.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Laertes warns Ophelia that she will stain her reputation if she gives up her virginity to Hamlet. When he speaks of opening her “chase treasure,” this is a metaphor for losing her prized and precious virginity. Ophelia’s brother is being misogynistic here as he puts the burden of shame on her and not Hamlet if she surrenders to Hamlet’s persistent seductions.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. We first meet Ophelia in this scene. Laertes has been warning her not to trust Hamlet’s romantic declarations. Using a metaphor, Ophelia promises to keep Laertes’ lesson “as watchman to my heart.” But she also deftly turns her brother’s religious advice back on him. For he is about to depart for study in Paris, a city full of moral temptations for a young man. Ophelia tells him not to preach like a hypocritical pastor, showing her the “thorny way to heaven” while himself treading the “primrose path” of pleasures. After warning her to keep her chastity, she tells him not to be a “puffed and reckless libertine.”

Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, – to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. This famous piece of fatherly advice is by Polonius to Laertes just before the latter leaves for France. Polonius is bidding his son farewell and giving him this rather long list of advice on how he should behave. It shows how much Polonius loves his son. But it also shows the hypocrisy of Polonius as a lot of the advice he dishes out, ironically he doesn’t follow it himself. A case of, do as I say, don’t do as I do.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. The keynote of Polonius’ famous speech to Laertes who is about to depart for Paris are these final words of wisdom. He counsels his son to be true to himself, which means he cannot be false to anyone else. One cannot overlook the deep irony in Polonius’ oft quoted exercise in sagacity and moral advice. For Polonius is a hypocrite who doesn’t practice what he preaches. After offering his blessing to Laertes to go to Paris, the deceitful Polonius sends someone to spy on him, he spies on daughter Ophelia and Hamlet, and he interferes in Ophelia’s romantic relationship with Hamlet, which contributes to her taking her life.

And there put on him
What forgeries you please – marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him, take heed of that,
But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1. Polonius desires domination over his son Laertes. Polonius wants Reynaldo to spy on his Laertes while he is away in college. He gives instructions to Reynaldo to find out indirectly about Laertes by speaking to other people. He can make up stories, nothing so bad that it would shame Laertes, but stories about the wild and crazy things young men like Laertes typically get into.

How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with:
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds, I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5. Laertes breaks into Elsinore Castle with armed men and confronts Claudius, with sword in hand, demanding to know what happened to his father Polonius.

Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 7. Claudius to Laertes, who has returned from Paris on news of his father Polonius’ death. The King is trying to manipulate Laertes into killing Hamlet for him. He is daring him to be man enough to revenge his father’s death, casting doubt on whether his grief is real or just a show. The two-faced Claudius is pretending to be the bereaved young man’s friend, while pouring poison into his ear.

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
It is our trick, nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out. – Adieu, my lord:
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 7. Gertrude has just told Laertes that Ophelia has drowned. Laertes cannot hold back his tears for the sister he loved. He has lost his father and now his sister. This turns out to be the breaking point for Laertes and sets him firmly on a revenge quest against Hamlet. Crying is not a manly thing to Laertes, he says that after he stops crying "the woman will be out."
    • 1
    • 2
Close