Quote 7
KING CLAUDIUS
[aside] O, 'tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my
conscience.
The harlot's cheek beautied with plast'ring art
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O heavy burden!
(3.1.56-62)
Unlike Polonius, Claudius knows that all his scheming might catch up with him in the end. What's interesting about this passage is the way his sexist remarks align his own deception with the use of cosmetics. The king compares his "painted word[s]" (every lie he tells) to the way a "harlot" "plasters" her face with makeup. It sounds like, in Hamlet's world, women are fundamentally deceptive.
KING
'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,
Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father.
[…] but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief.
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschooled:
(1.2.90-92; 96-101)
Translation: stop acting so ridiculous about your dead dad. According to King Claudius, Hamlet's excessive grief for his father is "unmanly." Why? Bereavement, says Hamlet's new stepdad/uncle, makes him appear weak, unreasonable, and without discipline —all things associated, in Claudius' mind, with women. Gee, with a role model like this, it's no wonder Hamlet's so messed up.
Quote 9
KING
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder.
(3.3.40-42)
As King Claudius prays, he acknowledges that, by murdering his brother, Old Hamlet, he has brought upon himself the first ("primal") and oldest ("eldest") "curse," which is a reference to the biblical story of Cain, who committed the first murder when he killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4.10-12). Apparently, family feuds go way back. Way back.