POLONIUS                  Look you, sir,

Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris,

And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,

What company, at what expense, and finding

By this encompassment and drift of question

That they do know my son, come you more nearer

Than your particular demands will touch it;

Take you as ’twere some distant knowledge of him,

As thus, ‘I know his father and his friends

And in part him’ – do you mark this, Reynaldo?

REYNALDO                Ay, very well, my lord.           (2.1.6-16)

Just a few more words from Polonius, then Reynaldo can be on his way! So, look you sir, he says, this is what you need to do, alright, if you’d be so good? Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris: who are the Danes in town? Start with general enquiries, and how, and who, what means, and where they keep, what company, at what expense: get names, find out what they’re up to, what sort of people they are; where they’re living, their financial position, who hangs out with whom. You want to get the big picture first: be subtle, indirect, roundabout. And finding by this encompassment and drift of question that they do know my son—working your way around, not forcing the conversation, establishing that they know Laertes; well, then you can start to go after specifics, come you more nearer than your particular demands will touch it. But slowly, gently does it! Don’t be direct! You can start to claim some acquaintance with him, but only vaguely, second-hand; take you as ’twere some distant knowledge of him, as thus, ‘I know his father and his friends and in part him’: I know the family mostly, him only a little? probabably his dad best of all, yeah?

Polonius suddenly interrupts himself: do you mark this, Reynaldo? Are you following, are you taking this down? a disconcerting echo of the previous scene when, with the stakes orders of magnitude higher, the Ghost has asked Hamlet to mark.) Ay, very well, my lord. Oh yes. It can be comic if Reynaldo’s got a silent sidekick waiting, to whom he shoots increasingly desperate looks. But Polonius can be pathetic, as well as obsessive; Reynaldo can be sinister. A father is asking someone to spy on his son, after all.