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Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3

Claudius dispatches Hamlet to England · William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

Previously, in Act 4, Scene 2

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern demand to know where Hamlet has placed Polonius's body, but he mocks them and refuses a direct answer. Hamlet finally agrees to be taken before Claudius.

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 judgement, but their eyes;And where ’tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weigh’d,But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,This sudden sending him away must seemDeliberate pause. Diseases desperate grownBy desperate appliance are reliev’d,Or not at all.
Enter Rosencrantz.
KING
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 thou 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 thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ th’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.
HAMLET
He will stay till you come.
Exeunt Attendants.
KING
Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,—Which we do tender, as we dearly grieveFor that which thou hast done,—must send thee henceWith fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself;The bark is ready, and the wind at help,Th’associates tend, and everything is bentFor 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 tonight.Away, for everything is seal’d and doneThat else leans on th’affair. Pray you make haste.
Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
KING
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 redAfter the Danish sword, and thy free awePays homage to us,—thou mayst not coldly setOur sovereign processa royal warrant or authoritative legal command., 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.