Everyone Eats

Act 4, Scene 3, Lines 19-35

King:  Now Hamlet, where's Polonius?

Hamlet:  At supper.

King:  At supper where.

Hamlet:  Not where he eats, but where he is eaten.  A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.  Your worm is your only emperor for diet.  We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots.  Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service- two dishes but to one table.  That's the end.

King:  Alas, alas!

Hamlet:  A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King:  What dost thou mean by this?

Hamlet:  Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.



When Hamlet refuses to tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern where he hid Polonius's body,  Claudius summons Hamlet in attempt to coax the temporary resting place out of the stubborn man.  Claudius's efforts turn up futile, as Hamlet is stubborn as a mule and would rather argue semantics than divulge the information to his stepfather/ uncle.  Even though this angers Claudius, Hamlet's tirade on returning to nature states that Polonius's resting place does not matter to him and he has the same apathy towards the life cycle.

Hamlet goes on to discuss how we all eat to be eaten, and he just sped up Polonius's perticular baking time.  Also, the more richly we the people eat, the more richly the decomposers dine, although it does not matter how well we eat because we will all one day become someone else's food.  We "we fat ourselves for maggots" (line 25), or consume to be consumed, which does not have much of a purpose in Hamlet's point of view.  We as a human race tend to ignore this endless cycle, wanting to forget that no matter how we live our lives, we will all be on the same level when we die; we will all become "dishes but to one table" (line 29) and provide similar sustenance to those who feast on flesh.

Hamlet debates the food cycle as a way to circumvent the subject of where Polonius's body lies.  It's not that he does not remember where the body is, it's the principle of witholding the information from Claudius.  Hamlet wants to get at Claudius in any way possible, and enjoys how much this bothers Claudius.  Talking circles is a way to get out of blatantly refusing to share the location, as well as a way to insult Polonius's intelligence.