Oh royal knavery! an exact command, / Larded with many several sorts of reasons, / Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s too, / With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, / That on the supervise, no leisure bated, / No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, / My head should be struck off.
Act V, Scene 2 · Hamlet
Context
Hamlet tells Horatio what he found in the sealed commission Claudius sent to England: an order demanding Hamlet's immediate execution, framed with exaggerated warnings about how dangerous Hamlet supposedly is.
Analysis
'Bugs and goblins in my life' uses the language of fairy tales and superstition to mock Claudius's overblown rhetoric in the letter. Hamlet ridicules how the king had to invent imaginary threats ('bugs') to justify murder, exposing the gap between Claudius's public justifications and his actual motives. The nursery-rhyme tone makes the king's murderous intent sound absurd, even childish.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Hamlet uses humor to deflect horror—by turning Claudius's death warrant into a joke about 'goblins,' he distances himself emotionally from nearly being killed, making dark comedy a survival tool.