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?

2

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

Ham. In heaven; send thither 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.

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

[To some Attendants.

[Exeunt Attendants. for thine especial

King. Hamlet, this deed, for

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.

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!" This speech and the following one of Hamlet, are omitted in the folio.

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.

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night.
Away; for every thing is sealed and done

That else leans on the affair. Pray you, make haste.
[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 mayst not coldly set!
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring 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 will ne'er begin.

SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark.

Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching.

[Exit.

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him, that, by his license, Fortinbras

3

Claims the conveyance of a promised march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye,*
And let him know so.

Cap.
For. Go softly on.

4.

I will do't, my lord.

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

1 To set formerly meant to estimate. "To sette, or tell the pryce; astimare."

2 The folio reads:

"Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.”

3 The quarto reads craves.

4 Eye for presence. It was the formulary for the royal presence.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &c.

Commands them, sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
Or for some frontier?

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.

Το pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrisoned.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw.

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir.

Rus.

[Exit Captain. Will't please you go, my lord? Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,3

1 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio. 2 i. e. profit.

3 See note on Act i. Sc. 2. It is evident that discursive powers of mind are meant. Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocination and discourse convertible terms.

Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven1 scruple

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought, which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom,
And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,
To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me.
Witness, this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honor's at the stake. How stand I, then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,"
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot3
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,"
To hide the slain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[Exit.

1 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be traced from crant, creant,

the old French word for an act of submission.

2 Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance.

3 A plot of ground.

4 Continent means that which comprehends or incloses.