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Since he and Laertes are bleeding, Hamlet now knows that Laertes’s sword is unbated (unblunted). He may not realize that it’s poisoned, but he knows for sure that the duel is fraudulent and potentially deadly. Yet he wants to keep going.

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swounds: swoons.

A final lie from Claudius. Still hoping to cover up his crimes and hold on to power, he tries to blame Gertrude’s collapse on womanly frailty rather than poison.

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Horatio is now the only character, besides Hamlet, who knows the full extent of Claudius’s villainy. Even Gertrude, as far as we know, isn’t aware that Claudius tried to have Hamlet executed abroad.

This knowledge will become crucial as Hamlet deputizes Horatio “to tell my story” at the end of the play. Hamlet may well be sharing all this information for that reason: he knows his time is short and his reputation “wounded.”

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Unbated and envenom’d: unblunted and poisoned.

By holding the poisonous “instrument” in his hand, Hamlet symbolically takes the place of both Laertes (his “foil”) and Claudius (whose place he also takes in the anecdote that starts this scene).

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Laertes may be going easy on Hamlet, in hopes that he’ll accept the poisoned cup as “reward.” His next line seems to indicate that he intends to finish Hamlet once and for all.

1984 RSC production with Kenneth Branagh as Laertes, Roger Rees as Hamlet, and Brian Blessed as Claudius

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Gloss via Shakespeare Navigators:

Isn’t it possible [for you] to understand [the kind of language you use] when someone else speaks it? You can do it (i.e., understand what Hamlet is saying).

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What…gentleman: What’s the point of mentioning this gentleman? (Hamlet is still mimicking Osric’s pretentious language.)

Osric is so confused or embarrassed by Hamlet’s mockery that he loses the thread of which “gentleman” they’re talking about–even though he brought him up in the first place.

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Hamlet mocks Osric down to the smallest fault of language.

As the next line indicates, Laertes’s dagger is a poniard.

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How long Hamlet lasts will vary by production, but it’s much less than half an hour. In the 1996 Kenneth Branagh film (which uses the uncut script), Hamlet dies about 5 minutes after this line–about 6 after he is wounded.

Still, he holds out longer than everyone else who’s been poisoned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ETo8vLfksw

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In saying that the treachery Hamlet seeks is “here,” Laertes means 1) that his sword is also poisoned, 2) that the culprit is present, and 3) that he himself is implicated in the treachery. This is the beginning of the remorseful note that Laertes will die on.

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