One of my favorite lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet occurs in Act IV when Hamlet, asked the whereabouts of Polonius, the man he has just killed, states that Polonius is "At supper."
However, it is "Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten."
Hamlet then explains to the now confused king that "Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, 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."
This quip, completely over the head of the king, manages encompass perfectly Hamlet's dim view of life and belittle the king's title at the same time.
For all their struggles and worries while alive, all they are really doing is preparing themselves to be food for the ultimate and final emperor: the worm. In this case, title or standing matters very little, as both are but two different dinner courses.
The troubled prince goes on to say that "A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm."
In this statement, to which the king retains his utterly perplexed and nerve-wrecked state, Hamlet expresses the all-too-natural predicament of man: They feed off of one another whether aware of it or not. Clearly hinted at here by Hamlet is the king's betrayal and murder of his brother for his own gains, as well as the probability that someday he too will be someday be the meal of another.
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