HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK

Act 4 Scene 1

(Enter King Claudius to Queen Gertrude)
l1l	King Claudius	 There’s matter in these sighs, these profound heaves#
l2l		You must translate. ’Tis fit we understand them.
l3l		Where is your son?
l4l	Queen Gertrude	Ah, my good lord, what have I seen tonight!
l5l	King Claudius	What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
l6l	Queen Gertrude	Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
l7l		Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
l8l		Behind the arras hearing something stir,
l9l		He whips his rapier out and cries “A rat, a rat!”,
l10l		And in his brainish apprehension kills
l11l		The unseen good old man.
	King Claudius	O heavy deed!
l12l		It had been so with us had we been there.
l13l		His liberty is full of threats to all—
l14l		To you yourself, to us, to everyone.
l15l		Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
l16l		It will be laid to us, whose providence
l17l		Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt
l18l		This mad young man. But so much was our love,
l19l		We would not understand what was most fit,
l20l		But, like the owner of a foul disease,
l21l		To keep it from divulging, let it feed
l22l		Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
l23l	Queen Gertrude	To draw apart the body he hath killed,
l24l		O’er whom—his very madness, like some ore
l25l		Among a mineral of metals base,
l26l		Shows itself pure—a weeps for what is done.
l27l	King Claudius	O Gertrude, come away!
l28l		The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
l29l		But we will ship him hence# and this vile deed
l30l		We must with all our majesty and skill
l31l		Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern!
		(Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
l32l		Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
l33l		Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
l34l		And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him.
l35l		Go seek him out, speak fair, and bring the body
l36l		Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
		(Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
l37l		Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends
l38l		To let them know both what we mean to do
l39l		And what’s untimely done. O, come away!
l40l		My soul is full of discord and dismay.
		(Exeunt)