What does hamlet mean when he says' "ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. but such officers do the king best service in the end. he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed, to be last swallowed?

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

an argumentative essay presents objectively a topic and its main characteristics. besides, it states all this information and facts by giving authentic and substantiated proof to the audience. by contrast, a persuasive text purpose is to convince the audience about some facts by presenting them according to his/her emotions and feelings. the main purpose of a persuasive text is to convince the audience to agree with the author´s opinion. on the other hand, in the argumentative essay, the author leads the writer to recognize his/her point of view as the correct one.