CLAUDIUS The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
LAERTES My dread lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France,
From whence though willingly I came to Denmark
To show my duty in your coronation,
Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. (1.2.47-56)
A slight, calculated swerve as Claudius seeks to reinforce, to the assembled company, that he relies on the loyalty of Laertes’s father and therefore *of course* he’ll grant Laertes’s request: the head is not more native to the heart, the hand more instrumental to the mouth, than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. Calculated flattery: couldn’t do a thing without him, government would be impossible, he’s the real power behind the throne, you know! And the implication, surely, is that Polonius occupied the same role under the old king? There’s no suggestion that’s he’s new to the job; Claudius is taking the opportunity to seek his continued loyalty through flattery, to make sure that he’s completely transferred his allegiance from the old regime. Claudius is canny, but he knows he has vulnerabilities. This isn’t about Laertes, it’s about Claudius and his political instincts. What wouldst thou have, Laertes? Go on, lad, spit it out!
My dread lord—humble, correct, tutored by his father—your leave and favour to return to France. I just want to go back to my life in Paris! From whence thou willingly I came to Denmark to show my duty in your coronation (I’m completely loyal, I’m not going to foment rebellion abroad, for instance, because that’s one of the risks here, a faction of Old Hamlet loyalists in exile) yet now I must confess, that duty done, my thoughts and wishes bend again toward France and bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. Please may I return there? What’s Laertes doing in France? Study, religion, business, art, fashion, food, love—women, men? living the high life? Scope for an actor to think about. The possibility, too, that Denmark is a place that young men leave as a matter of course. Laertes is being sincere, formal, slightly fussy (the hendiadys: thoughts and wishes, leave and pardon) in its verbosity. His father’s son, it will become clear, at least in some things.