| ACT IV SCENE III | 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, | 5 |
| | 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 | 10 |
| | 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. | 15 |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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. | |
| | Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN | |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? | 20 |
| HAMLET | At supper. | |
| 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 | 25 |
| | 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 CLAUDIUS | Alas, alas! | 30 |
| HAMLET | A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a | |
| | 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. | 35 |
| KING CLAUDIUS | 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 | 40 |
| | stairs into the lobby. | |
| 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 | 45 |
| | 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. | 50 |
| HAMLET | 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; for | 55 |
| | England! Farewell, dear mother. | |
| KING CLAUDIUS | Thy loving father, Hamlet. | |
| 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; | 60 |
| | 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, | 65 |
| | 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, | 70 |
| | 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 | |
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