ACT FOURTH

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 own 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.

4. Omitted in Ff.-I. G.

10

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, 20
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, Guilden-

stern!

Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

31

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.

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter

As level as the cannon to his blank

40

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.

Ham. Safely stowed.

Ros.

Guil.

} [Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet.

Ham. But soft, what noise? who calls on Hamlet?

O, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

40-44. F. 1 omits these lines, and ends scene with the words"And what's untimely done. Oh, come away,

My soul is full of discord and dismay."

Theobald proposed to restore the line by adding "for, haply, slander.” -I. G.

Ros. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Ham. 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?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Aye, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But

10

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 swal- 20
lowed: when he needs what you have
gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge,
you shall be dry again.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.

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

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

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing— 30 Guil. A thing, my lord?

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

[Exeunt.

19. "like an ape"; so Ff.; Qq., “like an apple"; Farmer conj. "like an ape, an apple"; Singer, from Q. 1, “like an ape doth nuts"; Hudson (1879), "as an ape doth nuts.”—I. G.

25. “A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear"; a sentence proverbial since Shakespeare's time, but not known earlier.-I. G.

32. cp. Psalm cxliv., "Man is like a thing of naught"; 32-33, "“Hide fox, and all after,” the reading of Ff.; omitted in Qq.—I. G.

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 offense. To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending 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?

Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, We cannot get from him.

King.

But where is he?

10

Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your

pleasure.

King. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius?