Hamlet - Hamlet 4 - Polonius' Long-Winded Style of Speech

Polonius is the chief counselor to King Claudius and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. He speaks in a slightly confusing, bumbling sort of way where he never means to speak long, yet always ends up being long-winded. An example of this is when Polonius says: "My liege, and madam, to expostulate / What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time / Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time" (II.ii.92-96). This sentence, which is supposed to express how short Polonius wants his speech to be, is in fact long and unnecessary. While he speaks of how "[wasting] night, day, and time" is bad, he wastes more time explaining himself elegantly than by simply saying what he means straight out. Polonius is also using this sentence to speak of "what majesty should be," therefore comparing showy speech and over exaggerated words to what it means to have stateliness. This juxtaposition displays that Polonius is not as stately as he believes himself to be. Another example of this sort of speech is when Polonius is talking to Hamlet about the troop of actors that are coming. He states that they do "tragedy, comedy  history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral , tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastorical, scene individable, or poem unlimited" (II.ii.421-424). Reciting all of these types of plays all at once takes a while and is almost like a tongue twister. Polonius goes to the extremes with his long speech, even if he does not realize it himself.