Act 4

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 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, 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	But where is he?
Rosencrantz	Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
King	Bring him before us.
Rosencrantz	Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
	Enter Hamlet* and Guildenstern.*
King	Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
Hamlet	At supper.
King	At supper! where?
Hamlet	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!
Hamlet	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 you mean by this?
Hamlet	Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
King	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	Go seek him there. To some Attendants.
Hamlet	He will stay till ye 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 every thing is bent For England.
Hamlet	For England!
King	Ay, Hamlet.
Hamlet	Good.
King	So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes.
Hamlet	I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.
King	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	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— 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. Exit.