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"the toe of the peasant"
Metaphor
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 125-131

An explanation of the “toe of the peasant” metaphor in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Hamlet   

Who is to be buried in't?

First Gravedigger

One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

Hamlet

[To Horatio] How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, 
or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio,
these three years I have taken note of it — the age is grown
so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the
heels of the courtier he galls his kibe.     

Hamlet says that the lower classes have begun mimicking their social superiors by being meticulous in their use of words. In this metaphor, he compares this mimicking to walking so closely behind someone that you step on his or her heels. Gall means to irritate, to hurt; a kibe is a chilblain, an area of sensitive, damaged tissue in the feet.