ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 3
1Another room in the castle.
2Enter King, attended.
3KingI 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.
4Enter Rosencrantz.
5How now! what hath befall’n?
6RosencrantzWhere the dead body is bestow’d, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
7KingBut where is he?
8RosencrantzWithout, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
9KingBring him before us.
10RosencrantzHo, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
11Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.
12KingNow, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
13HamletAt supper.
14KingAt supper! where?
15HamletNot 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.
16KingAlas, alas!
17HamletA man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
18KingWhat dost you mean by this?
19HamletNothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
20KingWhere is Polonius?
21HamletIn 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.
22KingGo seek him there. To some Attendants.
23HamletHe will stay till ye come. Exeunt Attendants.
24KingHamlet, 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 bent
For England.
25HamletFor England!
26KingAy, Hamlet.
27HamletGood.
28KingSo is it, if thou knew’st our purposes.
29HamletI see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.
30KingThy loving father, Hamlet.
31HamletMy mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! Exit.
32KingFollow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
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,
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,
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.