Most scholars are most concerned with the “not” in this sentence – because it would seem that it’s the word Ophelia has added to a popular song as in, “Did you ever feel NOT like a paper bag?”
The concern being that perhaps Polonius has already been buried without ceremony and that this is what’s messing with Ophelia’s head.
The word I am most concerned with is “larded.”
“Larded.” I mean.
Lard is just sitting right there in the middle of the word. It’s, like, animal fat sitting right there next to sweet flowers. These two things do not go together. I can’t help but picture a bouquet of flowers with lard dripped all over it. Gross.
Now. I know technically the word can have connotations of embellishing and I can see how flowers could embellish a corpse. But larded is such an unpleasant word. Even if you ignore the meaning of lard sitting right there at the heart of it. It still is an ugly sounding word. Larded. I mean. Could it be lauded? Lauded I can understand. But larded is so odd.
The Hamlet Project 