Act IV, Scene 3
KING CLAUDIUS
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 weighed,
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 befallen?
ROSENCRANTZ
Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
KING CLAUDIUS But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ
Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
KING CLAUDIUS Bring him to us.
ROSENCRANTZ Ho! Bring in the lord
[They enter with HAMLET.]
KING CLAUDIUS
Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
HAMLET At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS 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 servicet—two dishes but to one table.
That’s the end.
KING CLAUDIUS 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 CLAUDIUS 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 CLAUDIUS Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger
Find him not there, seek him i’ the 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 CLAUDIUS [To ATTENDANTS]
Go seek him there.
HAMLET He will stay till you come.
[ATTENDANTS exeunt.]
KING CLAUDIUS
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 brak is ready, and the wind at help,
The associates tend, and everything is bent
For England.
HAMLET For England?
KING CLAUDIUS Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET Good.
KING CLAUDIUS 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 CLAUDIUS 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.
[HAMLET exits.]
KING CLAUDIUS
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.
[All but CLAUDIUS exeunt.]
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 letter 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,
However my haps, my joys will ne’er begin.
[KING CLAUDIUS exits.]
End of Act IV, Scene 3