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All Site ContentHamletAct 4Scene 5
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"false Danish dogs"
Metaphor
Act 4,
Scene 5
Lines 95b-107

An explanation of the “Danish dogs” metaphor in Act 4, Scene 5 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Messenger

                                 Save yourself, my lord! 
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impiteous haste
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him Lord.
And as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known —
The ratifiers and props of every word.
They cry, "Choose we! Laertes shall be king!"
Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds.
"Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!"

Gertrude

How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! 
Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!    

In this metaphor, Gertrude describes the masses crying out in support of Laertes to hunting dogs who are barking excitedly, having picked up the scent of their prey, even though they are following that scent in the wrong direction (the direction from which the animal has come instead of the direction in which it is going).