"May the Flesh of Kings Feed the Earth"

King Claudius: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

Hamlet: At supper.

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.

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.

Claudius: What dost you mean by this?

Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

– William Shakespeare, Hamlet

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