Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth; / And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, / With windlasses, and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out.
Act II, Scene 1 · Polonius
Context
Polonius explains to Reynaldo the purpose of his spying scheme: by planting false rumours about Laertes, he will 'fish' for the truth about his son's real behaviour from others' reactions.
Analysis
Polonius coins a paradox—'bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth'—that treats lying as a legitimate epistemological tool. The fishing metaphor makes deceit sound patient and skillful rather than morally suspect, while 'indirections find directions out' turns indirectness into a method, not a flaw. His language dignifies scheming by dressing it in the vocabulary of wisdom ('we of wisdom and of reach'), positioning himself as clever rather than dishonest.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Shakespeare uses Polonius's wordplay to critique a political world where 'indirection' has replaced honesty—the very structure of his sentence mirrors the crooked logic it describes.