Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service – two dishes, but to one table: that’s the end.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3. When Claudius asks where Polonius is at supper, Hamlet makes this reply admitting that Polonius is dead, but in a roundabout way. He uses vulgar, graphic imagery of death and decay, saying the corpse of Polonius is now a feast for worms. And he speaks of the democracy of death, with rich and poor, high and low, ending up as dishes at the same meal.