>if ambition is a shadow of a shadow, then kings and heroes are the shadows of beggars
What did he mean by this?
>>7820032
Read it in context and it will make sense.
>>7820059
HAMLET: Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ: Then is the world one.
HAMLET: A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
ROSENCRANTZ: We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET: Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ: Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind.
HAMLET: O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN: Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET:A dream itself is but a shadow.
ROSENCRANTZ:Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
HAMLET:Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
>>7820032
>What did he mean by this?
This should be an instaban phrase.
>>7820079
He knows rosencrantz and guildenstern are spying on him for his uncle and he is fucking with them with wordplay to get the truth out of them subtly. He's also making fun of his uncle (monarch) by saying he is a beggars shadow.