Polonius is Claudius's trusted chief counsellor ; Polonius's son, Laertes, is returning to France, and Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, is courted by Hamlet.

Both Polonius and Laertes warn Ophelia that Hamlet is surely not serious about her.

By the end of Shakespeare's play, Prince Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Polonius, King Claudius and Gertrude all lie dead.

He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes.

Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and Lord Chamberlain to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others.

Polonius ' death at the hands of Hamlet causes Claudius to fear for his own life, Ophelia to go mad, and Laertes to seek revenge, which leads to the duel in the final act.

Laertes is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia.

In the first Act, Laertes is seen warning Ophelia against Hamlet's romantic pursuit of her, saying Hamlet will soon lose his desire for her, and that it is not Hamlet's own choice but the king's as to whom he will marry.

When Ophelia appears in her mad condition, Laertes laments, saying that if she had her wits she could not persuade him more to revenge.

At her funeral, he jumps in the grave for Ophelia, Laertes asks why the normal Christian burial ceremony is not being carried out for his sister, and rebukes the priest for questioning her innocence.

Among the memorable performances ( including some from before Papp had the Delacorte for his Shakespeare ) were George C. Scott's Obie-award winning Richard III in 1958 ; Colleen Dewhurst's Kate, Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra ( opposite George C. Scott's Mark Antony ), and Gertrude ; the Prince Hamlet of Stacy Keach opposite Dewhurst's Gertrude with James Earl Jones ' King Claudius, Barnard Hughes's Polonius and Sam Waterston's Laertes ; Sam Waterston's Hamlet ( opposite the Gertrude of Ruby Dee ) with the Laertes of John Lithgow and Andrea Marcovicci's Ophelia ; the Benedick and Beatrice of Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes in Much Ado About Nothing with Barnard Hughes's Keystone Kops version of Dogberry ; the early work of Meryl Streep as Isabella in Measure for Measure ; Mary Beth Hurt as Randall Duk Kim's daughter in Pericles ; James Earl Jones as King Lear ( 1973 ) with Rosalind Cash and Ellen Holly as his wicked daughters ; Raul Julia as Edmund in Jones ' 1973 King Lear, as Osric to Keach's Hamlet, and as Proteus ( in a musical adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona which transferred to a Broadway run ).

In the end, it is Hamlet ’ s hesitation that causes the death of himself, his mother, Laertes, and Ophelia.

He cast himself as Polonius, Horatio, and Laertes ; Jess Borgeson as the prince ; Michael Fleming as Bernardo, Claudius, and the Ghost of Hamlet's father ; and Barbara Reinertson as Ophelia and Gertrude.

An early appearance of the phrase in print occurs in Shakespeare's 1602 play Hamlet ( Act I, Scene III ), where Ophelia, rebuffing her brother Laertes ' insistence that she resist Hamlet's advances, warns Laertes against hypocrisy: Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Her brother, Laertes, returns from France, horrified by his father's death and his sister's madness.

Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely responsible ; then news arrives that Hamlet is still alive — a story is spread that his ship was attacked by pirates on the way to England, and he has returned to Denmark.

Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by her mournful brother Laertes.

Distraught at the lack of ceremony ( due to the actually-deemed suicide ) and overcome by emotion, Laertes leaps into the grave, cursing Hamlet as the cause of her death.

He and Laertes grapple, but the fight is broken up by Claudius and Gertrude.

Scholars have often speculated that Hamlet < nowiki ></ nowiki >' s Polonius might have been inspired by William Cecil ( Lord Burghley )— Lord High Treasurer and chief counsellor to Queen Elizabeth I. E. K. Chambers suggested Polonius's advice to Laertes may have echoed Burghley's to his son Robert Cecil.

Laurence Olivier announced her birth to the audience at a performance of Hamlet at the Old Vic, when he said that Laertes ( played by Sir Michael ) had a daughter.

Odysseus keeps his identity to himself at first, but when he sees how disappointed Laertes is to learn that this " stranger " has no news of his son, Odysseus reveals himself, and proves his identity by reciting all the trees he received from Laertes when he was a boy.

Aristotle is said, in a brief epitome of his Magicus given by Diogenes Laertes, to have compared Zalmoxis with the Phoenician Okhon and Libyan Atlas.

The nurse was killed by Artemis on the journey by sea, but the sailors continued to Ithaca where Odysseus ' father Laertes bought him as a slave.

He was killed by Odysseus ' father, Laertes.

As a girl she was bought by Laertes, Odysseus ' father.

Laertes is often portrayed by seemingly humble actors of the screen, to give a loyal, wholesome appeal to the character.

He finally opened the play in New York in 1900, but during the first week, he was stabbed in the foot by Laertes ' sword and was stricken with blood poisoning, closing the production.

The king's plan fails ; Queen Gertrude drinks from the poisoned chalice instead of Hamlet and dies, and Hamlet, after being struck by the poisoned foil, captures the same sword and strikes Laertes.

Laertes () is a character in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

Elsewhere, he has also appeared as Laertes in Hamlet at the Bristol Old Vic ( 1991 ) Brian in William Gaminara's Back Up the Hearse and Let them Sniff the Flowers at the Hampstead Theatre ( 1992 ), Roland Maule in Noël Coward's Present Laughter at the Globe Theatre ( 1993 ), Biff in Death of a Salesman, alongside Ken Stott and Jude Law, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse ( 1994 ), Tony in The Servant at the Birmingham Rep ( 1995 ).

Knowing of Hamlet's jealousy of Laertes ' prowess with a sword, he proposes a fencing match between the two.

Laertes, enraged at the murder of his father, informs the king that he will further poison the tip of his sword so that a mere scratch would mean certain death.

Claudius reminds Laertes of the planned fencing match.

A courtier, Osric, interrupts to invite Hamlet to fence with Laertes.

Between bouts, Laertes attacks and pierces Hamlet with his poisoned blade ; in the ensuing scuffle, Hamlet is able to use Laertes's own poisoned sword against him.

In his dying moments, Laertes is reconciled with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's murderous plot.

When Fortinbras arrives to greet King Claudius, he encounters the deadly scene: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet are all dead.

All three disappear: Laertes leaves, Hamlet abandons her, and Polonius dies.

Instead it's an intelligent, beautifully read ..." Stacy Keach played the role with an all-star cast at Joseph Papp's Delacorte Theatre in the early 70's, with Colleen Dewhurst's Gertrude, James Earl Jones's King, Barnard Hughes's Polonius, Sam Waterston's Laertes and Raul Julia's Osric.

He also appeared in the plays Henry Sweet Henry ( 1967 ), Your Own Thing, Rockabye Hamlet ( 1975 – 76, Laertes ), More Than You Deserve, Sunset, and All Bets Off.

The next day he and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laertes, who likewise accepts his identity only when Odysseus correctly describes the orchard that Laertes had previously given him.

* Merugud Uilix maicc Leirtis (" On the Wandering of Ulysses, son of Laertes ") is an eccentric Old Irish version of the material ; the work exists in a 12th-century AD manuscript that linguists believe is based on an 8th-century original.

* Like Laertes, who received the famous list of maxims from his father Polonius, Robert Cecil received a similar list from his father Burghley — a list that E. K. Chambers suggested as Shakespeare's likely source.