Imatges de pàgina
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mine own. 4tos.

+ Whips out his rapier,

cries, 4tos.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The same.

Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUIL

DENSTERN.

a

KING. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves;

b

You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them:
Where is your son?

[QUEEN. Bestow this place on us a little while.-]
To ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, who
who go out.
Ah, my good* lord, what have I seen to night!
KING. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
QUEEN. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both
contend(2)

Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,

He whips his rapier out, and cries, A rat! a rat!
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills

‡ his. 1623, The unseen good old man.

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с

O heavy deed!

It had been so with us, had we been there:

His liberty is full of threats to all;

To you yourself, to us, to every one.

Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer❜d?

It will be laid to us, whose providence

a there's matter in these sighs] i. e. they import something of moment. See Othel. III. 4. Iago.

b translate] i. e. interpret. "With private soul did thus translate," i. e. characterise him. Tr. & Cr. IV. 5. Ulyss.

in this brainish apprehension] i. e. distempered, brain-sick mood, or conceit.

Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,"
This mad young man: but, so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life.

Where is he ?

gone

QUEEN. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: O'er whom his very madness, like some ore, Among a mineral of metals base,

Shows itself pure; (3) he weeps for what is done.

KING. O, Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,

Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
Tot let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: so haply slander,
[Whose whisper(4) o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,(5)
Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.-] O come away!
My soul is full of discord, and dismay!

a

[Exeunt.

kept short—and out of haunt] i. e. narrowed the range, and prohibited from places of public resort.

* lets.

1623, 32.

+And. 4tos.

These words were supplied by Theobald.

SCENE II.

Another Room in the same.

Enter HAMLET.

HAM.- -Safely stowed.

GENTLEMEN within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet! Hamlet!

HAM. [But softly,] what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

HAM. Compounded it with dust,(6) whereto 'tis kin.

Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

HAM. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

HAM. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge!" what replication should be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

HAM. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw ;(7) first mouthed, to be last swallowed: When he needs

a to be demanded of a sponge] Of, for by, was the common phraseology of the day; and more particularly in the use of this verb.

what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.(8)

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.

HAM. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

HAM. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing

GUIL. A thing, my lord?

HAM. Of nothing:(9) bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.(10) [Exeunt.

The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body] This may mean, "the king is not yet cut off from life and sovereignty: his carkass remains to the king; but the king is not with the body or carkass, that you seek the king is not with Polonius."

But Hamlet, whose meaning is, not merely to baffle these persons (not intitled to approach and question him with so little respect), but also to make allusions to matters, of which he could not, with prudence or safety to himself, speak openly, returns answers necessarily enigmatical.

A more natural meaning is suggested; "The image raised, the impression made upon the King's fears by the fate of Polonius makes his body or carcase present to the fancy of the king; who knew and has said that " it had been so with him, had he been there" but the King is not with the body, i. e. is not lying with Polonius, as Hamlet wished him to be, and would have said, had his situation made such an avowal safe."

Others interpret, plainly enough, if admissibly," The body is with the king," i. e. intombed or in the other world with the late, the real king: but the King, i. e. he who now wears the Crown, the usurper, " is not with the body."

SCENE III.

Another Room in the same.

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 judgment, but their eyes;

And, where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd, So 4tos. But never the offence. To bear all smooth and

neerer.

1623, 32.

even,

This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen?
Ros. Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.

KING.

But where is he?

Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

a Where the offender's scourge is weigh'd,

But never the offence] i. e. when an offender is popular, the people never consider what his crime was, but they scrutinize his punishment.

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