Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERNKING CLAUDIUS
There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:QUEEN GERTRUDE
You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
Bestow this place on us a little while.KING CLAUDIUS
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?QUEEN GERTRUDE
Mad as the sea and wind, when both contendKING CLAUDIUS
Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!'
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.
O heavy deed!QUEEN GERTRUDE
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:KING CLAUDIUS
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done. O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
Exeunt
Enter HAMLETHAMLET
Safely stowed.ROSENCRANTZ: GUILDENSTERN:
[Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!HAMLET
What noise? who calls on Hamlet?ROSENCRANTZ
O, here they come.
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?HAMLET
Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.ROSENCRANTZ
Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thenceHAMLET
And bear it to the chapel.
Do not believe it.ROSENCRANTZ
Believe what?HAMLET
That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.ROSENCRANTZ
Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what
replication should be made by the son of a king?
Take you me for a sponge, my lord?HAMLET
Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, hisROSENCRANTZ
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: when he needs what you have
gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you
shall be dry again.
I understand you not, my lord.HAMLET
I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in aROSENCRANTZ
foolish ear.
My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and goHAMLET
with us to the king.
The body is with the king, but the king is not withGUILDENSTERN
the body. The king is a thing--
A thing, my lord!HAMLET
Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
Exeunt
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attendedKING CLAUDIUS
I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.ROSENCRANTZ
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's loved of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.
Enter ROSENCRANTZ
How now! what hath befall'n?
Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,KING CLAUDIUS
We cannot get from him.
But where is he?ROSENCRANTZ
Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.KING CLAUDIUS
Bring him before us.ROSENCRANTZ
Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.KING CLAUDIUS
Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN
Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?HAMLET
At supper.KING CLAUDIUS
At supper! where?HAMLET
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certainKING CLAUDIUS
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.
Alas, alas!HAMLET
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of aKING CLAUDIUS
king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
What dost you mean by this?HAMLET
Nothing but to show you how a king may go aKING CLAUDIUS
progress through the guts of a beggar.
Where is Polonius?HAMLET
In heaven; send hither to see: if your messengerKING CLAUDIUS
find him not there, seek him i' the other place
yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
stairs into the lobby.
Go seek him there.HAMLET
To some Attendants
He will stay till ye come.KING CLAUDIUS
Exeunt Attendants
Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,--HAMLET
Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence
With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.
For England!KING CLAUDIUS
Ay, Hamlet.HAMLET
Good.KING CLAUDIUS
So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.HAMLET
I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; forKING CLAUDIUS
England! Farewell, dear mother.
Thy loving father, Hamlet.HAMLET
My mother: father and mother is man and wife; manKING CLAUDIUS
and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
Exit
Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
Away! for every thing is seal'd and done
That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught--
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.
Exit