SARAH:  Hamlet is not the only one who makes inappropriate innuendos about Ophelia and her chastity — surprisingly, Polonius does the same thing in his conversation with Claudius just before this section — though he probably does it unintentionally.

RALPH:  You’ll remember that Claudius and Polonius are cooking up their scheme to have Ophelia engage Hamlet in a conversation while they secretly listen behind a curtain. Polonius says that he will “loose” his daughter to Hamlet. This verb, “to loose” was also used on farms to refer to turning loose male animals to breed with the females.

SARAH:  Polonius unfortunately reinforces this farming metaphor as he continues, saying that if his theory about Hamlet is wrong, he’ll quit as chief counselor and go keep a farm and carters.

RALPH:  A carter, or a driver of a crude farm cart, was synonymous with an uncultured country peasant — which, sadly, is exactly what Polonius sounds like when he suggested he would loose his daughter to Hamlet.