She does, though. That’s the thing. That oath the lady just swore is too damn much. And even though the Queen could easily be implicated in remarking on it, she does – because that oath is off the charts over the top. Seconded only by the previous speech’s over the top-ness.
And so far, there’s no action in this play. It’s just these two boring royals over swearing. The dumb show before it is much more interesting. And always raises the question for me of why Claudius waits so long to freak out about it. Is he not paying attention during the dumb show? Or is it a slow build and he’s simmering all through the epic speeches and then boils over eventually.
The Queen takes a lot of crap but in so many ways she is quite sensible. And this line becomes one of the world’s favorite zingers.
The Hamlet Project 