Hamlet, William Shakespeare [reading women TXT] 📗

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