LAERTES        To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms

And like the kind life-rendering pelican

Repast them with my blood.

CLAUDIUS                  Why, now you speak

Like a good child and a true gentleman.

That I am guiltless of your father’s death

And am most sensibly in grief for it

It shall as level to your judgement ’pear

As day does to your eye. (A noise within)    (4.5.144-151)

It’s not quite a concession but a grand gesture at least, oh yes, I would absolutely like to know who my father’s enemies were, and who were and are his friends: to his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms (and here surely he stretches them out as if offering a grim embrace, meaning that blade or gun is no longer directed straight at Claudius?) and like the kind life-rendering pelican repast them with my blood. I will put my life on the line to serve my father’s friends; I will be like the pelican which feeds its chicks with its own blood. (Although the pelican is usually imagined as female, here it’s an aptly confused and extreme image of parental care and duty, of sacrifice and purgation.)

Claudius has got Laertes exactly where he wants him, primed to see his future actions—guided by the king—as those of a loyal son: why, now you speak like a good child and a true gentleman. You’re all honour and filial piety! Good boy! Good job! So, the thing to remember is: that I am guiltless of your father’s death—got that? not my fault—and am most sensibly in grief for it it shall as level to your judgement ’pear as day does to your eye. I’m really cut up by your dad’s death! Both of those things, my blamelessness, and the fact that I’m suffering too, must be as clear to you as daylight. I’m being absolutely straight with you. Absolutely straight.

But then there’s a noise within…