Act 4 Scene 3

Enter King and two or three.

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, th' offender's scourge is weighed,
But never the offense. 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.

KING
How now, what hath befallen?

ROSENCRANTZ
Where the dead body is bestowed, 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! Bring in the lord.

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 if, indeed, you find him not
within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
the stairs into the lobby.

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,
Th' associates tend, and everything 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.

KING
Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.
Delay it not. I'll have him hence tonight.
Away, for everything is sealed and done
That else leans on th' affair. Pray you, make haste.
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 will ne'er begin.

He exits.

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