Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king’s rouse the heavens all bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. Claudius says this after Hamlet promises his mother Gertrude that he will remain in Denmark and not go back to school in Wittenberg. The King undertakes to celebrate Hamlet’s decision to stay with festivities, drinking toasts and canon fire. Happy that he can keep a close eye on Hamlet, Claudius is good at hiding his villainy behind a mask of false sincerity and flattery, as he does in this passage.