Line 102 of Act IV, Scene 7
LAERTES
A Norman was ‘t?
KING CLAUDIUS A Norman.
LAERTES
Upon my life, Lamord!
KING CLAUDIUS The very same.
LAERTES I know him well.
He is the brooch indeed
And gem of all the nation.
KING CLAUDIUS
He made confession of you
And gave you such a masterly report
For art and exercise in your defense,
And for your rapier most especial,
That he cried out ‘twould be a sight indeed
If one could match you. The ‘scrimers of their nation
He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
That he could nothing do but wish and beg
Your sudden coming-o’er, to play with you.
Now out of this—
LAERTES What out of this, my lord?
KING CLAUDIUS
Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
LAERTES Why ask you this?!
KING CLAUDIUS
Not that I think you did not love your father,
But that I know love is begun by time
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it,
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too-much. That we would do
We should do when we would; for this “would” changes
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this “should” is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th’ ulcer:
Hamlet comes back; what would you undertake
To show yourself indeed your father’s son
More than in words?
LAERTES
To cut his throat in th’ church.
KING CLAUDIUS
No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds. But—good Laertes—
Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.
Hamlet, returned, shall know you are come home.
We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together
And wager on your heads. He, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,
Or with a littls shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.
LAERTES I will do’t,
And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword…
Line 160 of Act IV, Scene 7