Enter ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. Friends both, go join you with fome further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius flain,

And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: Go, feek him out: fpeak 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: for, haply, flander,
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,

Tranfports his poifon'd fhot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundlefs air.-O come away!
My foul is full of difcord, and dismay.

Ham.

SCENE II. Another Room.

'Enter HAMLET.

Safely ftow'd, but foft,

[Exeunt.

Rof. &c. within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
Ham. What noife? who calls on Hamlet? O, here

they come.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILdenstern.

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

Ham. Compounded it with duft, whereto 'tis kin. Rof. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Rof. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not

mine own.

Befides, to be demanded of a spunge! -what replication fhould be made by the fon of a king.

Rof. Take you me for a fpunge, my lord?

Ham. Ay, fir; that foaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But fuch officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouth'd, to be laft fwallowed: When he needs what you have clean'd, it is but squeezing you, and, fpunge, you shall be dry again.

Rof. I understand you not, my lord.

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

Rof. 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 after,

SCENE III. Another Room..

Enter the King.

[Exeunt.

King. I have fent to feek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose? Yet must not we put the ftrong law on him : He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,

Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And, where 'tis fo, the offender's fcourge is weigh'd, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This fudden fending him away must seem Deliberate paufe: Difeafes, defperate grown,

By

By defperate appliance are reliev'd,

of Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen ?

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Rof. Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?

Rof. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

King. Bring him before us.

Rof. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Enter HAMLET, and GUILDENSTern:
King. How, Hamlet, where's Polonius ?
Ham. At fupper.

King. At fupper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politick worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures elfe, 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 fifh with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King. What doft thou mean by this?

Ham. Nothing, but to fhew you how a king may go a progrefs through the guts of a beggar. King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heaven; send thither to fee: if your meffenger find him not there, feek him in the other place yourfelf. But, indeed, if you find him not

within this month, you shall nofe him as you go up the ftairs into the lobby.

King. Go feek him there.

Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants.

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine efpecial fafety,Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve

For that which thou haft done,-muft fend thee hence
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyfelf;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,

The affociates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England?
King. Ay, Hamlet.
Ham. Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'ft our purposes. Ham. I fee a cherub, that fees 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, fo my mother. Come, for England.

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

Delay it not, I'll have hence to-night:

Away; for every thing is feal'd and done

That elfe leans on the affair: Pray you make hafte.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
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 may'ft not coldly fet
Our fovereign procefs; which imports at full,

By

By letters conjuring to that effect,

The prefent death of Hamlet. Do it, England; For like the hectic in blood he rages,

my

And thou must cure me: 'Till I know 'tis done, Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. The Frontiers of Denmark. ̧

Enter FORTINBRAS, with an Army.

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him, that by his licence, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majefty would aught with us, We fhall exprefs our duty in his eye,

And let him know fo.

Capt. I will do't, my lord.

For. Go foftly on.

[Exit FORTINBRAS, &'c.

Ham. Good fir, whose powers are these?

Capt. They are of Norway, fir.

Ham. How purpos'd, fir, I pray you?

Capt. Against fome part of Poland.

Ham. Who commands them, fir?

Capt. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, fir, Or for fome frontier ?

Capt. Truly to speak, and with no addition, go to gain a little patch of ground,

We

That hath in it no profit but the name.
pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it,

Το

Nor