ACT IV.

SCENE I.-The same.

Enter KING and QUEEN.

King. There 's matter in these sighs-these profound heaves

ou must translate: 't is fit we understand them :

Queen. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend hich is the mightier: In his lawless fit,

ehind the arras hearing something stir,

e whips his rapier out, and cries, A rat! a rat ! nd, in this brainish apprehension, kills

ne unseen good old man.

King.

O heavy deed!

had been so with us, had we been there:

Is liberty is full of threats to all,

you yourself, to us, to every one.

las! how shall this bloody deed be answered?

will be laid to us, whose providence

hould have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt,1
his mad young man: but so much was our love,
e would not understand what was most fit;

ut, like the owner of a foul disease,

· Out of haunt.] Out of company; away from places of resort.

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 killed,
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,1

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!
Enter ROSENCRantz and GUILDENSTERN.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid :
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

2

And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him :
Go, seek him out; speak fair,
Into the chapel. I pray you,

and bring the body haste in this.

[Exeunt Ros. and G

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,
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,3

Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air. O come away!

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

SCENE II.-Another Room in the same.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Safely stowed

1 Ore among a mineral.] Gold in a mineral mass.

2 Fair.] Gently, softly.

[Exe

3 Blank.] Originally a white mark in the centre of a but which aim was taken.

Ros. &c. without. Hamlet! lord Hamlet !

Ham. What noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they

ome.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

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

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 't is kin.

Ros. Tell us where 't is; that we may take it thence, nd bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. esides, to be demanded of a sponge !—what replication hould be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, is rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king est service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape doth uts, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last wallowed: When he needs what you have gleaned, it 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 2 in a -olish ear.

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

Ham. The body is with the king,3 but the king is not ith the body. The king is a thing—

1 Compounded, &c.] So in 2 K. Henry IV. iv. 4, 'Compound me Ith forgotten dust.'

2 Sleeps, &c.] Is in no danger of being told.

3 The body is with the king, &c.] The body is still in the king's use, but the king is not yet with the body, i.e. not yet numbered th the dead.

Guil. A thing, my lord?

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

after.1

[Exer

SCENE III.-Another Room in the same.

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 't is so, the offender's scourge is weighed,
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,

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Or not at all.-How now ? what hath befallen?
Ros. Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.

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

sure.

King. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Of nothing.] Hamlet here, perhaps, merely means that will say no more about the thing.

2 Hide fox, &c.] Hide fox, and all [have, or follow] after, was name of a game, now called Hide and seek. Hamlet refers Polonius being hid and, as it were, hunted for.

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.

King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius?

Ham. At supper.

King. At supper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a cerain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your vorm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures lse, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: Your fat ing, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two ishes, but to one table; that's the end.

King. Alas, alas !

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a ing; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King. What dost thou mean by this?

Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a rogress through the guts of a beggar.

1

King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heaven: send thither to see; if your messenger ind him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose im as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there.

Ham. He will stay till you come.

[To some Attendants.

[Ex. 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,2 and everything is bent

For England.

1 A progress.] Alluding to the occasional 'progresses' of sovereigns hrough their dominions.

2 Tend.] Attend or wait.