Enter KING and two or three. Full Summary
KING
1 I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
2 How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
3 Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
4 He's loved of the distracted multitude,
5 Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
6 And where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
7 But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
8 This sudden sending him away must seem
9 Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
10 By desperate appliance are relieved,
11 Or not at all.
11 How now! what hath befall'n?
ROSENCRANTZ
12 Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
13 We cannot get from him.
KING
13 But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ
14 Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
KING
15 Bring him before us.
ROSENCRANTZ
15 Ho, bring in the lord.
They [HAMLET, GUILDENSTERN,
and the Guards] enter.
KING
16 Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET
17 At supper.
KING
18 At supper! where?
HAMLET
19 Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
20 convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
21 worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
22 creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
23 maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
24 variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
25 that's the end.
KING
26 Alas, alas!
HAMLET
27 A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
28 king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING
29 What dost thou mean by this?
HAMLET
30 Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
31 progress through the guts of a beggar.
KING
32 Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
33 In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger
34 find him not there, seek him i' the other place
35 yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
36 this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
37 stairs into the lobby.
KING [To some Attendants.]
38 Go seek him there.
HAMLET
39 'A will stay till you come.
KING
40 Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety—
41 Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
42 For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence
43 With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
44 The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
45 Th' associates tend, and everything is bent
46 For England.
HAMLET
46 For England!
KING
46 Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET
46 Good.
KING
47 So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
HAMLET
48 I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for
49 England! Farewell, dear mother.
KING
50 Thy loving father, Hamlet.
HAMLET
51 My mother: father and mother is man and wife;
52 man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother.
53 Come, for England!
KING
54 Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
55 Delay it not; I'll have him hence tonight:
56 Away! for every thing is seal'd and done
57 That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
Full Summary
58 And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught—
59 As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
60 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
61 After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
62 Pays homage to us—thou mayst not coldly set
63 Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
64 By letters congruing to that effect,
65 The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
66 For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
67 And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
68 Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.