"Our Chiefest Courtier, Cousin, and Our Son" (Hamlet - Act 1 / Scene 2, Claudius Speech #2)

Claudius' second speech of Act 1 / Scene 2 is crucial. This speech occurs right before Hamlet's first monologue of the play, and it is also amid the first conversation that Hamlet and Claudius have in the span of the show.

In this speech, Claudius asks Hamlet to stop grieving for the death of his father. He claims death is a natural part of life. Claudius also refuses Hamlet's request to return to school at Wittenberg. This speech is important because Hamlet, quite frankly, hates Claudius, and this is part of the reason why.

Claudius married Hamlet's mother, tells him to stop grieving his dead dad, and then refuses his desire to return to school. Hamlet does not like this, and he monologues about it shortly after this speech. I'll be breaking down that monologue in another post.

For now, let's focus on this speech. As usual, I'll attempt to break this down line by line:

It's sweet of you, baby Hamlet,

To continue to grieve dad Hamlet's death.

Surely you know, though, that your dad lost his dad,

And his dad lost his dad, and so forth.

In obligation as a son, you must for some time

Mourn. But to persist

At continuous sorrow is

Stupidly stubborn. This is unmanly grief.

It is not of the divine will, to have

An unprotected heart, an impatient mind,

An unschooled understanding.

As with any vulgar thing,

Why should we

Take it (the death) to heart? It's a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead and nature.

There is a common theme of

Dead fathers, and reason has always cried,

From the first corpse to your father,

"This must be so". I beg you, Hamlet, throw down

Your unending woe and think of me

As a father. Let the world know,

You are the next in line to the throne,

And with no less love

Than an actual father gives his son,

I give love to you. As for your desire

To return to school in Wittenberg...

It is against our desire,

And we beg you to remain

Here under our watch.

Please, our "chiefest courier, cousin, and our son".

Claudius is sort of a pompous human. He tries to make everything happy when it cannot possibly be that way. He tries to treat Hamlet like a son, but Hamlet doesn't want that. Claudius is very bad at picking up on social cues, and he often refers to himself in the "we" and "us". I don't know why, but it annoys me.