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I do repent: but the heavens have pleas'd it fo
To punish 7'him with me, and me with this`
That I must be their fcourge and minifter.

I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him; fo again, good night!
I must be cruel, only to be kind;

Thus bad begins, and worfe remains behind.
Queen. What fhall I do?

Ham. Not this by no means that I bid you do.
Let the fond King tempt you again to bed,
Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse,
And let him for a pair of reechy kiffes,

Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I effentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know.
For who that's but a Queen, fair, fober, wife,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gibbe,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do fo?
No, in defpight of fenfe and fecrecy,

Unpeg the basket on the houfe's top,

Let the birds fly; and like the famous ape

To try conclufions in the basket creep,

And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou affur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou haft faid to me.

Ham. I muft to England, you know that.

Queen. Alack, I had forgot; 'tis fo concluded.

Ham. There's letters feal'd, and my two fchool-fellows,

(Whom I will truft as I will adders fang'd,)

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery: let it work,
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer

Hoift with his own petar: and't fhall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,

6 heav'n hath

8 concluded on.

7 me with this, and this with me,

And

And blow them at the moon. O'tis moft fweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet!
This man fhall fet me packing;

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room;
Mother, good night! Indeed this counsellor
Is now moft ftill, moft fecret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother!

[Exeunt, Hamlet tugging out Polonius.

ACT IV.

IV.

SCENE I.

T

A Royal Apartment.

Enter KING and QUEEN.

KING.

HERE's matter in thefe fighs; thefe profound heaves
You must tranflate, 'tis fit we understand them.
Where is your fon?

Queen. Ah, my good Lord, what have I feen to-night!
King. What Gertrude? how does Hamlet?

Queen. Mad as the feas, and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier; in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing fomething stir,
He whips his rapier out, and cries, a rat!
And in his brainifh apprehenfion, kills
The unfeen good old man.

King. Oh heavy deed!

It had been fo with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all,

To you your felf, to us, to every one.

Alas, how fhall this bloody deed be anfwer'd?
It will be laid to us, whofe providence

Should

Should have kept fhort, reftrain'd, and out of haunt,
This mad young man. But fo much was our love,
We would not understand what was moft fit;
But like the owner of a foul difeafe,

To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Ev'n on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd,
O'er whom his very madnefs, like fome ore
Among a mineral of metals base,

Shews it felf pure: he weeps for what is done.
King. O Gertrude, come away:

The fun no fooner fhall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed
We muft, with all our majefty and skill,

Both countenance, and excufe. Ho! Guildenstern!
Enter Rofincroffe and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with fome further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius flain,

And from his mother's clofet hath he drag'd him.
Go feek him out, fpeak fair, and bring the body
Into the chappel. Pray you hafte in this.

[Exeunt Rofincroffe and Guildenstern.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wifeft friends,
And let them know both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done. Oh come away,
My foul is full of difcord and difmay.

[Exeunt.

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Ham. Safely ftowed

Rof. and Guil. within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
Ham. What noife? who calls on Hamlet?

Oh here they come.

Enter Rofincroffe and Guildenstern.

Rof. What have you done, my Lord, with the dead body?

Ham.

Ham. Compounded it with duft, whereto 'tis kin. Rof. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chappel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Rof. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Befides, to be demanded of a fpunge, what replication should be made by the fon of a King?

Rof. Take you me for a fpunge, my Lord?

Ham. Ay, Sir, that fokes up the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities; but fuch officers do the King best service in the end; he keeps them, like an ape, a in the corner of his jaw, firft mouth'd, to be laft fwallow'd: when he needs what you have glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and, fpunge, you fhall be dry again.

Rof. I understand you not, my Lord.

Ham. I am glad of it; a knavish speech fleeps in a foolish ear.

Rof. 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 'nothing."

I

Guil. Nothing, my Lord?

2

Ham. A thing or nothing bring me to him; hide fox, and all after.

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[Exeunt.

King. I've fent to feek him, and to find the body;
How dang'rous is it that this man goes loose!
Yet muft not we put the ftrong law on him;
He's lov'd of the diftracted multitude,

Who

(a) It is the way of Monkeys in eating to throw that part of their food which they take up first into a pouch they are provided with on the fide of their jaw, and there they keep it 'till they have done with the reft. (b) There is a Play among children call'd Hide fox and all after. 2. Of nothing

(9) a thing.

1 A thing,

Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes:
And where 'tis fo, th' offender's fcourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all fmooth,
This fudden fending him away must seem
Deliberate paufe: difeafes defp'rate grown,
By defperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.

Enter Rofincroffe.

How now? what hath befall'n?

Rof. Where the dead body is beftow'd, my Lord, We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?

Rof. Without, my Lord, guarded to know your pleasure. King. Bring him before us.

Rof. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my Lord.

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Ham. At fupper.

King. At fupper? where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten ; a certain convocation of politique worms are at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures elfe to fat us, and we fat our felves for maggots. Your fat King and your lean beggar is but variable fervice, two dishes to one table, that's the end.

King. Alas, alas!

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a King, and eat of the fifh that hath fed of that worm. King. What doft thou mean by this?

Ham. Nothing but to fhew you how a King may go a progrefs through the guts of a beggar.

King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heav'n, fend thither to fee. If your meffenger find him not there, feek him i'th' other place your felf. But indeed, if you find him not this month, you fhall nofe him as you go up the stairs into the lobbey.

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