ACT IV.

SCENE I. The same.

Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN

STERN.

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.—
[TO ROSENCRANTZ and Guildenstern,
who go out.

Ah,2

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

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.

Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answered?

It will be laid to us, whose providence

Should have kept, short, restrained, and out of haunt,3

This mad young man: but, so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;

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?

1 This line does not appear in the folio, in which Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are not brought on the stage at all.

2 Quarto-Ah, mine own lord.

3 Out of haunt means out of company.

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath killed;
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,
Among a mineral1 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! Guildenstern!

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him.
Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. 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,2 Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name, And hit the woundless air.3]-O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Another Room in the same.

Ham.

Enter HAMLET.

Safely stowed,-[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft! what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

1 Shakspeare uses ore for gold, and mineral for mine. Bullokar and Blount both define "or or ore, gold; of a golden color." And the Cambridge Dictionary, 1594, under the Latin word mineralia, will show how the English mineral came to be used for a mine. Thus also in The Golden Remaines of Hales of Eton, 1693 :-"Controversies of the times, like spirits in the minerals, with all their labor nothing is done."

2 The blank was the mark at which shots or arrows were directed. 3 The passage in brackets is not in the folio. The words "So, haply, slander," are also omitted in the quartos; they were supplied by Theobald. 4 "But soft!" these two words are not in the folio.

Enter ROSENCRrantz and Guildenstern.

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

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. 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. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities.' But such officers do the king best services in the end. He keeps them, like an ape doth nuts,2 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.

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.3 The king is a thing

Guil. A thing, my lord?

Ham. Of nothing; bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.1

[Exeunt.

1 Here the quarto 1603 inserts "that makes his liberality your storehouse, but," &c.

2 The omission of the words "doth nuts," in the old copies, had obscured this passage. Dr. Farmer proposed to read “like an ape an apple." The words are now supplied from the newly-discovered quarto of 1603. 3 Hamlet affects obscurity. His meaning may be, The king is a body without a kingly soul, a thing-of nothing."

4" Hide fox, and all after." This was a juvenile sport, most probably what is now called hoop, or hide and seek, in which one child hides himself, and the rest run all after, seeking him. The words are not in the quarto.

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 'tis 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.

King.

But where is he?

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?
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.

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath ate of a king; 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 progress through the guts of a beggar.

2

King. Where is Polonius?

If your

Ham. In heaven; send thither to see. messenger find him not there, seek him '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.

[To some Attendants.

King. Go seek him there.
Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt 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,3

The associates tend, and every thing is bent

For England.

Ham.

King.

Ham.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good.

King. So is it, if thou know'st our purposes.
Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come;

for England!-Farewell, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother. Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England.

[Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

1 "Alas, alas!"

omitted in the folio.

This speech and the following one of Hamlet, are

2 A progress is a journey.

3 i. e. in modern phrase "the wind serves," or is right to aid or help you

on your way.

4 i. e. attend.