Internet Shakespeare Editions

Toolbox




Jump to line
Help on texts

About this text

  • Title: Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604)
  • Textual editor: Eric Rasmussen
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-434-9

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604)

    Enter King, and two or three.
    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;
    2665He's loved of the distracted multitude,
    Who like not in their judgment but their eyes,
    And where 'tis so, th'offender's scourge is weighed,
    But never the offense. To bear all smooth and even,
    This sudden sending him away must seem
    2670Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
    By desperate appliance are relieved,
    Or not at all.
    Enter Rosencrantz and all the rest.
    How now, what hath befall'n?
    Rosencrantz
    Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
    2675We cannot get from him.
    But where is he?
    Rosencrantz
    Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.
    Bring him before us.
    2680Rosencrantz
    [Calling] Ho! Bring in the lord.
    They [Guildenstern and Guards] enter [with Hamlet].
    Now Hamlet, where's Polonius?
    At supper.
    At supper? Where?
    Not where he eats, but where 'a 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 service: two dishes 2690but to one table. That's the end.
    Alas, alas!
    A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
    What dost thou mean by this?
    Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
    Where is Polonius?
    In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i'th' 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.
    [To some attendants] Go seek him there.
    'A will stay till you come.
    [Exeunt attendants.]
    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.
    Therefore prepare thyself.
    2705The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
    Th'associates tend, and everything is bent
    For England.
    For England!
    Ay, Hamlet.
    Good.
    So is it if thou knew'st our purposes.
    I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England! Farewell, dear mother.
    Thy loving father, Hamlet.
    My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, so, my mother. Come, for England!
    Exit.
    Follow him at foot.Tempt him with speed aboard.
    2720Delay 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.
    [Exeunt all but the King.]
    And England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
    As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
    2725Since 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 letters congruing to that effect
    2730The 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,
    Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin.
    Exit.