Figurative Language In Hamlet

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet provides a lengthy plot which contains many powerful soliloquies and weighty lines that hold significant meaning. As Hamlet himself grows obsessed with avenging his father’s death and murdering Claudius, he consequently questions himself due to his uncle’s cunning nature and smooth transition into kingship. Claudius’ ultimate betrayal of Hamlet’s family sets the action of the play into motion and focuses on the thematic importance of how one man can cheat his way to the throne. In one of his last moments, Hamlet labels his uncle’s actions as “cozenage”, a word which rarely appears in Shakespeare’s writing and therefore holds significance when it is used throughout English texts.
Shakespeare’s use of this word corresponds to the colloquial definition which categorizes it as, “cheating, deception, and fraud” (Oxford Dictionary). While cozenage is definitely out of date in modern day, it also remained unpopular during the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. In fact, John Cowell defined it in his book The Interpreter: or Booke Containing the Signification of Words, which actually got him in trouble with the English courts in 1609. The word only appears in dictionaries and compilations of words from Europe between the years 1450
Bardolph actually attends to Falstaff, the beloved character from Henry V and Henry VI. When Bardolph repeatedly cries “cozenage” throughout Act 4, Scene 5, it appears comedic since he overuses a word which holds serious meaning and depth for Shakespeare. This repetition diminishes the meaning of the word, which contradicts how Hamlet emphasizes Claudius’ faulty attempt at deception. Both A Comedy of Errors and The Merry Wives of Windsor use “cozenage” in looser terms than Hamlet, which makes sense since cheating and betrayal are main sources of Hamlet’s madness (Open Source