| Another room in the castle. |
| [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended] |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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; | 5 | ||
| 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, | 10 | ||
| 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 CLAUDIUS | But where is he? | 15 |
| ROSENCRANTZ | Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Bring him before us. |
| ROSENCRANTZ | Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. | ||
| [Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN] |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? |
| HAMLET | At supper. | 20 |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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 | 25 | ||
| maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but | |||
| variable service, two dishes, but to one table: | |||
| that's the end. |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Alas, alas! |
| HAMLET | A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a | 30 | |
| king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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 CLAUDIUS | Where is Polonius? | 35 |
| 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. | 40 |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Go seek him there. | ||
| [To some Attendants] |
| HAMLET | He will stay till ye come. | ||
| [Exeunt Attendants] |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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 | 45 | ||
| 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. |
| HAMLET | For England! |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Ay, Hamlet. | 50 |
| HAMLET | Good. |
| KING CLAUDIUS | So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. |
| HAMLET | I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for | ||
| England! Farewell, dear mother. |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Thy loving father, Hamlet. | 55 |
| HAMLET | My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man | ||
| and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! | |||
| [Exit] |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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 | 60 | ||
| 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 | 65 | ||
| 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, | 70 | ||
| And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done, | |||
| Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. | |||
| [Exit] |