Her father and myself, lawful espials, / Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, / We may of their encounter frankly judge,
Act III, Scene 1 · Claudius
Context
Claudius explains his plan to Gertrude: he and Polonius will hide and spy on Hamlet's encounter with Ophelia, hoping to determine whether rejected love is the cause of Hamlet's distress.
Analysis
Claudius calls himself and Polonius 'lawful espials,' dressing up spying in the language of legal authority. The oxymoron 'seeing unseen' exposes the contradiction at the heart of his power: he must hide to rule, watching in secret because open governance would require honesty he cannot afford. The word 'lawful' is doing heavy lifting here—it tries to legitimize surveillance that feels anything but legal.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Claudius's power depends on deception—he has to constantly justify morally dubious acts with respectable language, and this quote shows the verbal work required to make spying sound like kingship.