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- $Unique_ID{SSP03114}
- $Title{Hamlet: Act IV, Scene III}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*03100.TXT}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- HAMLET
-
-
- ACT IV
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE III: Another room in the castle.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended.}
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: 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 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, 10
- Or not at all.
-
- {Enter ROSENCRANTZ.}
-
- How now! what hath befall'n?
-
- ROSENCRANTZ: Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
- We cannot get from him.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: But where is he?
-
- ROSENCRANTZ: Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Bring him before us.
-
- ROSENCRANTZ: Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
-
- {Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.}
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
-
- HAMLET: At supper.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: At supper! where?
-
- HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain 20
- 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.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!
-
- HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
- king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that
- worm. 30
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: What dost you mean by this?
-
- HAMLET: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
- progress through the guts of a beggar.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Where is Polonius?
-
- HAMLET: In 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.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Go seek him there. 40
-
- [To some Attendants.]
-
- HAMLET: He will stay till ye come.
-
- [Exeunt Attendants.]
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: 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,
- The associates tend, and every thing is bent
- For England.
-
- HAMLET: For England!
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Ay, Hamlet.
-
- HAMLET: Good.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
-
- HAMLET: I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for 50
- England! Farewell, dear mother.
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Thy loving father, Hamlet.
-
- HAMLET: My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man
- and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for
- England!
-
- [Exit.]
-
- KING CLAUDIUS: Follow 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-- 60
- 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. 70
-
- [Exit.]
-