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.
Act IV, Scene 3 · Hamlet
Context
When Claudius asks where Polonius is, Hamlet replies that Polonius is at supper—not eating, but being eaten by worms. He then delivers a speech about the food chain, arguing that worms reduce kings and beggars alike to the same flesh.
Analysis
Hamlet's diction switches register mid-sentence: 'supper' sounds social and civilized, but 'eaten' drops into the grotesque physicality of decomposition. The repetition of 'fat'—'we fat all creatures...fat us...fat ourselves'—turns consumption into a grim, mechanical cycle with no room for human dignity. By calling a king and beggar 'two dishes, but to one table,' he strips monarchy of its metaphysical claim, reducing royal authority to meat.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Hamlet's obsession with bodily decay is not madness but a deliberate leveling tool—he forces Claudius to confront the one realm where kingship means nothing, collapsing the political hierarchy into biological sameness.