OSRIC You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is.
HAMLET I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself.
OSRIC I mean, sir, for his weapon. But in the imputation laid on him by them in his meed he’s unfellowed.
HAMLET What’s his weapon?
OSRIC Rapier and dagger.
HAMLET That’s two of his weapons. But well. (5.2.121-129)
It’s almost as if Osric has a script, or has been coached in what to say, how to get Hamlet to agree to what Laertes (or rather Claudius) is proposing. He goes again: you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is. You know he’s amazing! Hamlet’s non-committal, where’s this leading? a bit more prevarication: I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence. Can’t say, really, can I, because that might suggest I was claiming equality with him by knowing his excellence? But to know a man well were to know himself—and besides, in order to know him completely, I’d need to know myself too, and, well, that’s the big philosophical question, isn’t it? Osric offers him a lifeline; this isn’t epistemology, it’s about fencing! I mean, sir, for his weapon! His excellence as a swordsman. With his BLADE. (Yes, it can be camped up, but this is ill-advised.) But in the imputation laid on him by them in his meed he’s unfellowed. Everyone that knows anything about the whole fencing, bladed weapons thing knows Laertes is without equal, absolutely peerless! This seems to have piqued Hamlet’s interest: what’s his weapon? this is a question which does actually make sense in the context of London fencing schools in the late 1590s and beyond, which taught men to fight with a variety of weapons, including (sometimes) the old-fashioned slashing broadsword, as well as rapier (long and thin, with a deadly killing point, designed to pierce clothing rather than armour; punctured lungs a common death wound) and rapier-and-dagger, a standard combination, the dagger for parrying as well as stabbing. That’s two of his weapons, Hamlet complains, pedantically, unable to resist. But well. Whatever.
