_King._ I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie: How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5]
Yet must not we put the strong Law on him: [Sidenote: 212] Hee"s loved of the distracted mult.i.tude,[6]
Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes: And where "tis so, th"Offenders scourge is weigh"d But neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen, [Sidenote: neuer the]
This sodaine sending him away, must seeme [Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne, By desperate appliance are releeved, Or not at all. _Enter Rosincrane._ [Sidenote: _Rosencraus and all the rest._]
How now? What hath befalne?
_Rosin._ Where the dead body is bestow"d my Lord, We cannot get from him.
_King._ But where is he?[8]
_Rosin._ Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.
_King._ Bring him before us.
_Rosin._ Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord.
[Sidenote: _Ros._ How, bring in the Lord. _They enter._]
_Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne_[10]
_King._ Now _Hamlet_, where"s _Polonius?_
[Footnote 1: "The body is in the king"s house, therefore with the king; but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body."]
[Footnote 2: "A thing of nothing" seems to have been a common phrase.]
[Footnote 3: The _Quarto_ has not "hide Fox, and all after."]
[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt.
Possibly there was a game called _Hide fox, and all after_.]
[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]
[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet"s safety.]
[Footnote 7: "must be made to look the result of deliberate reflection."
Claudius fears the people may imagine Hamlet treacherously used, driven to self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _he_; the point of importance with the king, is _where he is_, not where the body is.]
[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched, according to the _Folio_--left much to himself according to the _Quarto_. 192.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 188]
_Ham._ At Supper.
_King._ At Supper? Where?
_Ham._ Not where he eats, but where he is eaten, [Sidenote: where a is]
a certaine conuocation of wormes are e"ne at him.
[Sidenote: of politique wormes[1]]
Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe [Sidenote: ourselves]
for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one [Sidenote: two dishes]
Table that"s the end.
[A]
_King._ What dost thou meane by this?[2]
_Ham._ Nothing but to shew you how a King may go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger.[4]
_King._ Where is _Polonius_.
_Ham._ In heauen, send thither to see. If your Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i"th other place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not [Sidenote: but if indeed you find him not within this]
this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the staires into the Lobby.
_King._ Go seeke him there.
_Ham._ He will stay till ye come.
[Sidenote: A will stay till you]
_K._ _Hamlet_, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety [Sidenote: this deede for thine especiall]
Which we do tender, as we deerely greeue For that which thou hast done,[5] must send thee hence With fierie Quicknesse.[6] Therefore prepare thy selfe, The Barke is readie, and the winde at helpe,[7]
Th"a.s.sociates tend,[8] and euery thing at bent [Sidenote: is bent]
For England.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--
_King_ Alas, alas.[9]
_Ham._ A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eate of the fish that hath fedde of that worme.]
[Footnote 1: --such as Rosincrance and Guildensterne!]
[Footnote 2: I suspect this and the following speech ought by the printers to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speeches of the Quarto they are not accounted for.]
[Footnote 3: a royal progress.]
[Footnote 4: Hamlet"s philosophy deals much now with the worthlessness of all human distinctions and affairs.]
[Footnote 5: "and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for the death of Polonius."]
[Footnote 6: "With fierie Quicknesse." _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: fair--ready to help.]
[Footnote 8: attend, wait.]