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