This balance is not quite obvious. So. He wins the thing for Claudius. If he doesn’t – he doesn’t gain anything but a few points in the duel. And his shame. There’s no real clear balance. It’s not like he’s saying, ”If I lose, I will lose nothing.”
He’s not saying, “What have I got to lose?” He’s laying out a losing proposition – which he’s not wrong about at all – but in such a way that it SOUNDS like something we’re more accustomed to.
The Hamlet Project 