Quote Analysis

When Polonius asks if Hamlet recognizes him, Hamlet responds by calling him a fishmonger—a term that could mean fish seller but also carried connotations of pimp in Elizabethan slang.

The word 'fishmonger' operates on two registers at once: literal nonsense if Hamlet is mad, or a pointed insult if he is performing. The ambiguity is the point—Hamlet's language destabilizes Polonius's attempt to diagnose him, since the same words can signal either madness or critique.

Support a thesis that Hamlet's 'madness' is a strategic performance that lets him speak dangerous truths—this quote shows how his double meanings allow him to insult Polonius (by calling him a pimp who trades his daughter) while maintaining deniability.