Hamlet
act 2 scene 2
what are some of the slang expressions and puns hamlet uses in his first exchange with polonius? why are they significant?
what are some of the slang expressions and puns hamlet uses in his first exchange with polonius? why are they significant?
Hamlet is doing double-speak the whole conversation with Polonios (Act 2 Scene 2), alternately trying to make Polonios think that he is mad, or insulting the older man.
HAMLET: Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
Here Hamlet is insulting Polonios (a fishmonger was a lowly, smelly personage in Hamlet's time), and also saying that Polonios is "fishing" for answers from Hamlet. This also makes Hamlet look like a madman, in that he does not recognize Polonios, whom he knows so well.
HAMLET: Then I would you were so honest a man.
There are several puns in "honest". Polonios is trying to get information from Hamlet on the sly, so that makes him, in a way, "dishonest". Also, the wily courtier to the corrupt king does not take kindly to being told he is not as honest as a humble trader like a fishmonger. There is also the sexual pun, in that Hamlet may be in love with his daughter -- sexual virtue in a woman was called "honesty".
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