HAMLET. William Shakespeare

Believe what?

       Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge!—what replication should be made by the son of a king?

       Ros.

       Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

       Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

       Ros.

       I understand you not, my lord.

       Ham.

       I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

       Ros. 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.

       [Exeunt.]

       SCENE III. Another room in the Castle.

       [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 lov’d 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 reliev’d,

       Or not at all.

       [Enter Rosencrantz.]

       How now! what hath befall’n?

       Ros.

       Where the dead body is bestow’d, 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.

       King.

       Alas, alas!

       Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

       King.

       What dost thou mean by this?

       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. [To some Attendants.]

       Ham.

       He will stay till you come.

       [Exeunt Attendants.]

       King.

       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 everything is bent

       For England.

       Ham.

       For England!

       King.

       Ay, Hamlet.

       Ham.

       Good.

       King.

       So is it, if thou knew’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;

       Delay it not; I’ll have him hence tonight:

       Away! for everything 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,—

       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 were ne’er begun.

       [Exit.]

       SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.

       [Enter Fortinbras, and Forces marching.]

       For.

       Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king:

       Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras

       Craves the conveyance of a promis’d 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.

       Capt.

       I will do’t, my lord.