Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

King Claudius
Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
Hamlet
At supper.
King Claudius
At supper where?
Hamlet
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.

A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King Claudius
Alas, alas!
Hamlet
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King Claudius
What dost thou mean by this?
Hamlet
Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar.