Hamlet

toward an end with you.

Good night, mother. Exeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in Polonius.

Act IV

Scene I
A room in the castle.




Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.


King

There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:

You must translate: ’tis fit we understand them.

Where is your son?



Queen

Bestow this place on us a little while. Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ah, mine good lord, what have I seen to-night!



King
What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?


Queen

Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend

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.



King

O heavy deed!

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?



Queen

To draw apart the body he hath kill’d:

O’er whom his very madness, like some ore

Among a mineral of metals base,

Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.



King

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. So haply slander⁠— 2

Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,

As level as the canon to his blank,

Transports his poison’d shot, may miss our name,

And hit the woundless air. O, come away!

My soul is full of discord and dismay. Exeunt.






Scene II
Another room in the castle.




Enter Hamlet.


Hamlet
Safely stowed.


Rosencrantz

Guildenstern
Within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!


Hamlet
But soft, what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.



Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.


Rosencrantz
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 thence

And bear it to the chapel.



Hamlet
Do not believe it.


Rosencrantz
Believe what?


Hamlet
That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what replication should be made by the son of a king?


Rosencrantz
Take you me for a sponge, my lord?


Hamlet
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: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.


Rosencrantz
I understand you not, my lord.


Hamlet
I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.


Rosencrantz
My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.


Hamlet
The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing⁠—


Guildenstern
A thing, my lord!


Hamlet
Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. Exeunt.





Scene III
Another room in the castle.




Enter King, attended.


King

I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.

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?


Rosencrantz

Where the dead body is bestow’d, my lord,

We cannot get from him.



King
But where is he?


Rosencrantz
Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.


King
Bring him before us.


Rosencrantz
Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.



Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.


King
Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?


Hamlet
At supper.


King
At supper! where?


Hamlet
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain 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.


King
Alas, alas!


Hamlet
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.


King
What dost you mean by this?


Hamlet
Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.


King
Where is Polonius?


Hamlet
In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger 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.


King
Go seek him there. To some Attendants.


Hamlet
He will stay till ye come. Exeunt Attendants.


King

Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety⁠—

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