178 179 Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd, Queen. King. Attend! [A noise within. Alack! what noise is this? | Enter a Gentleman. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. Gent. Save yourself, my lord; The ocean, overpeering of his list,. Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste, Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, lord; Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry, "Choose we; Laertes shall be king!" Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! [Noise within. | Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following. Laer. Where is this king? Dan. We will, we will. Sirs, stand you all without. I pray you, give me leave. [They retire without the Door. Laer. I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king, Give me my father. Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard; Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother. King. Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with. To bell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! King. Who shall stay you? King. Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge, Laer. None but his enemies. King. Will you know them, then? Laer. To his good friends thus wide I 'll ope my arms; And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood. Why, now you speak King. As day does to your eye. Danes. [Within.] Let her come in. Re-enter OPHELIA. - O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, 180 181 182 159 Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. | ACT IV. SCENE I. The Same. Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. There 's matter in these sighs: these profound heaves You must translate; 't is fit we understand them. Where is your son? Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out, and cries, "A rat! a rat!" The unseen good old man. King. O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there. To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? 160 It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt, But, like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd; Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, We must, with all our majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse. Ho! Guildenstern! | - Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. - may miss our name, SCENE II. Another Room in the Same. Enter HAMLET. Ham. Safely stowed. - [Exeunt. [Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] 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 't is kin. Ros. Tell us where 't is 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? 161 162 Ham. Ay, Sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his163 rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape doth nuts, 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. Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. 164 165 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 Guil. A thing, my lord! Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all [Exeunt. after. 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 lov'd of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And where 't is so, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd, Enter ROSENCRANTZ. Or not at all. How now! what hath befallen? King. But where is he? Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. | 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 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! Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. |