Note to Hamlet, 3.2.93-95: "Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so"


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Hamlet,
Act 3, Scene 2, line 93
This whole speech may sound like the rantings of a madman, but every word contains an implication about Hamlet's situation vis-à-vis the king.

First of all, Hamlet deliberately misinterprets the King's question. When the king asks, "How fares our cousin Hamlet?" he is simply asking Hamlet how he is doing, but Hamlet answers as though the king has asked "How's your food [fare]?" Hamlet answers that question by saying that he eats air, like a chameleon.

I believe that in using the word "air," Hamlet is making a pun on the word "heir" and that in making that pun, he is heavily hinting that he is deeply dissatisfied with his position as heir to the throne of Denmark. Much later in the play, he says to his friend Horatio that the present king "Popp'd in between the election and my hopes", which means he had hoped to become king upon his father's death, but his uncle Claudius had won over the powerful families who choose the king, so that Hamlet once again has only hopes, or as Hamlet puts it, "I eat the air, promise-crammed."

Following that remark, Hamlet adds "You cannot feed capons so." A capon is a male chicken castrated and force-fed ("crammed") to fatten it up for the slaughter, so Hamlet seems to be hinting that the King has mistaken him for a human capon, who can be used for the king's own purposes.