something is rotten in the state of Denmark

A line spoken by Marcellus in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, scene iv.

• "If the authorities knew about the problems and chose not to prevent them, then clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
• "Something is rotten in the ſtate of Denmarke."
• "If divided roughly, two-thirds of them work in desk jobs while one-third are involved in field work. When one gets that sort of proportion one begins to think, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”."
• "My belief that something is rotten in the State of Denmark is bred by recent developments, both political and cultural. I feel that the feminist movement is now more on the defensive than the offensive, […]"