Ay, sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
Act IV, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Context
When Rosencrantz protests being called a sponge, Hamlet elaborates the metaphor: Rosencrantz absorbs the King's favor now, but Claudius will eventually squeeze him dry and discard him once he's no longer useful.
Analysis
The extended sponge-to-ape image works through a grotesque trajectory of consumption—absorption, chewing, swallowing—that turns political service into bodily disgust. Hamlet piles up possessives ('the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities') in a rhythm that mimics greedy accumulation, then reverses it with the passive verbs 'mouthed' and 'swallowed,' showing how quickly the courtier's agency disappears. The shift from sponge (inanimate) to ape (animal) to swallowed food makes Rosencrantz less human with each image.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Hamlet sees the Danish court as fundamentally dehumanizing—this quote shows him describing political advancement not as honorable service but as a process that reduces people to objects the powerful use and discard.