The wise Polonius from HamletIn Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, there is one character, besides the protagonist, who is very quotable because of the wisdom of his comments. This is the father of Laertes and Ophelia, namely Polonius. It is the subject of this essay. In "Shakespeare's Nomenclature", Harry Levin discusses the name "Polonius" and other names in the play: The Latinism Polonius reminds us of the Polish question, controversial in Hamlet, where the onomastics are polyglots. If Marcellus and Claudius are Latin, Bernardo and Horatio are Italian, and Fortinbras means “strong arm” not in Norwegian but in French (fort-en-bras). On the other hand, Polonius' son has a Greek godfather in Laertes, the father of Odysseus. Scandinavian first names, at least the Germanic Gertrude, stand out because they are in the minority. (79) What's in a name like Polonius? Here's a literary critic who heeds his advice: Rebecca West in "A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption" talks about Polonius: Polonius is interesting because he was a cunning old schemer who, like an iceberg, showed no signs of only an eighth. of itself above the surface. The harmless wisdom of the world that rolled off his tongue in butterballs was only a tiny part of what he knew. It has not been sufficiently noted that Shakespeare would never have delayed the action for Polonius to give his son advice on how to conduct himself abroad, unless the scene had helped him develop his theme. But “This above all: be true to yourself; And it must follow, as night the day, that thou canst then deceive no one” (I.3.78), a considerable . . . value when uttered by an old gentleman who is currently going to commission a servant to spy on his son, and to profess great concern about the morality of his daughter, when it was clearly necessary to send her back to the country s 'he really wanted her to do it. keep everything [. . .].(108)Polonius's entrance into the play takes place during a social gathering of the royal court. Claude has already been crowned; Queen Gertrude is there; Hamlet is present in black mourning clothes. When Laertes approaches Claudius to bid him farewell before returning to school, the king asks Polonius: "Have you got your father's leave?" What does Polonius say? And the father responds conscientiously: