Mother, good night.-Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you :-
Good night, mother.

[Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS.

ACT IV.

SCENE I-The same.

Enter KING, QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them:

Where is your son ?

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.

[To ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, who go out.

Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to night!

King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, A rat! a rat!
And, in his brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.

King. O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;

To you yourself, to us, to every one.

Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd.

It will be laid to us, whose providence

Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,*

This mad young man: but, so much was our love,

We would not understand what was most fit;

But, like the owner of a foul disease,

To keep it from divulging, let it feed

Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd :
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,
Among a mineralt of metals base,

Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:

Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: so, haply, slander,-
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,*

Transports his poison'd shot,-may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.-O come away!

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

SCENE II-Another Room in the same.

Enter HAMLET.

[Exeunt.

Ham.- -Safely stowed,-[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft!-what noise ? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

Ros. Tell us where 'tis ; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Be

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. sides, 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.t

SCENE III.-Another Room in the same.

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;

* Mark.

† A sport among children.

[Exeunt.

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,

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen?
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.

Ham. He will stay till you come.

[To some Attendants.

[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.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night:
Away for everything is seal'd and done

That else leans on the affair: Pray you, make haste.

Exit.

[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 may'st 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 will ne'er begin.

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 licence, Fortinbras
Craves the conveyance of a promised 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.

Cap. I will do't, my lord.

For. Go softly on.

[Exit.

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS, and Forces.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &c.

Ham. Good Sir, whose powers § are these?

Cap. They are of Norway, Sir.

Ham. How purposed, Sir,

I pray you?

Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Who

Commands them, Sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir, Or for some frontier ?

Cap. Truly to speak, Sir, and with no addition,

We go to gain a little patch of ground,

That hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;

Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack || never will defend it.

* Value, estimate.

+ Presence.

§ Forces.

+ Whatever else happens.

Polander.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,
Will not debate the question of this straw:

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace.
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, Sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, Sir.

[Exit CAPTAIN.

Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little before.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market* of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse,†
Looking before, and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom,
And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know

Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;
I

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,
To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,

Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument; §
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot ||
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause
Which is not tomb enough, and continent, T
To hide the slain ?-O, from this time forth
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Queen.

SCENE V.-Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.
Enter QUEEN and HORATIO.

-I will not speak with her.

[Exit.

+ Power of comprehension. Piece.