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"Upon his will, I sealed my hard content"
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 57-61

An explanation of wordplay in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Laertes

Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

Polonius 

He has, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
By laborsome petition, and at last
Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. 
I do beseech you give him leave to go.

In this moment of wordplay, Shakespeare is playing on the fact that an official document like a will was sealed by pressing a hard stone into the wax: “Upon his will (desire), I sealed (granted) my hard (hard-earned) consent.”