Hamlet · William Shakespeare
[B]
_King:_ Oh _Gertrude_, come away: The Sun no sooner shall the Mountaines touch, But we will ship him hence, and this vilde deed, We must with all our Maiesty and Skill [Sidenote: 200] Both countenance, and excuse.[6] _Enter Ros. & Guild_.[7] Ho _Guildenstern_: Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde: _Hamlet_ in madnesse hath Polonius slaine, And from his Mother Clossets hath he drag'd him. [Sidenote: closet | dreg'd] Go seeke him out, speake faire, and bring the body Into the Chappell. I pray you hast in this. _Exit Gent_[8] Come _Gertrude_, wee'l call vp our wisest friends, To let them know both what we meane to do, [Sidenote: And let] [Page 184] And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,] My soule is full of discord and dismay. _Exeunt._ _Enter Hamlet._ [Sidenote: _Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others._] _Ham._ Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,] _Gentlemen within._ _Hamlet_. Lord _Hamlet_? _Ham._ What noise? Who cals on _Hamlet_? Oh heere they come. _Enter Ros. and Guildensterne._[4] _Ro._ What haue you done my Lord with the dead body? _Ham._ Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5] [Sidenote: Compound it] _Rosin._ Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And beare it to the Chappell. _Ham._ Do not beleeue it.[6] _Rosin._ Beleeue what? [Sidenote: 156] _Ham._ That I can keepe your counsell, and not mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge, what replication should be made by the Sonne of a King.[7]
_Guild._ A thing my Lord? _Ham._ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide Fox, and all after.[3] _Exeunt_[4] _Enter King._ [Sidenote: _King, and two or three._] _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 multitude,[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?_ [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.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.