Hamlet Page #17

Come, Gertrude.

We'll call up our wisest friends...

...and let them know

both what we mean to do...

...and what's untimely done.

So envious slander,

whose whisper o'er the world's diameter...

...as level as the cannon to his blank,

transports his poisoned shot...

...may miss our name

and hit the woundless air.

O, come away.

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

[SCREAMING]

-Safely stowed.

GUARD 1 :
Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!

But soft, what noise?

-Who calls on Hamlet?

GUARD 2:
Lord Hamlet!

O, here they come.

-What have you done with the dead body?

-Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.

-Tell us where 'tis, we may take it thence.

-Do not believe it.

-Believe what?

-That I can keep your counsel.

Besides, to be demanded of a sponge.

What replication should be made

by the son of a king?

Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

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

an apple in the corner of his jaw...

...first mouthed to be last swallowed.

When he needs what you have gleaned...

...it is but squeezing you,

and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

I understand you not, my lord.

I am glad of it.

A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Tell us where the body is,

and go with us to the king.

The body is with the king, but the king

is not with the body. The king is a thing--

A thing, my lord?

Of nothing. Bring me to him.

OPHELIA:

My lord!

Hide fox and all after.

OPHELIA:

My lord!

My good Lord Hamlet!

[GLASS SHATTERING]

Hamlet!

[PEOPLE SHOUTING]

GUARD 1:

Hamlet!

[SIGHS]

[GUN C*CKS]

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 loved of the distracted multitude...

...who like not in their judgment,

but their eyes...

...and where 'tis so...

...the offender's scourge is weighed,

but never the offense.

To bear all smooth and even...

...this sudden sending him away must seem

deliberate pause.

Diseases desperate grown...

...by desperate appliance are relieved,

or not at all.

[DOOR OPENS]

How now, what hath befall'n?

Where the dead body is bestowed

we cannot get from him.

-Where is he?

-Without, guarded, to know your pleasure.

-Bring him before us.

-Ho, Guildenstern.

Bring in my lord.

-Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

-At supper.

At supper? Where?

Not where he eats, but where he 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, but 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?

-Nothing...

...but too 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 this month...

...you shall nose him

as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

Go seek him there.

He will stay till you come.

Hamlet, this deed of thine,

for thine especial safety--

Which we do tender as we dearly grieve

for that which thou hast done.

--must send thee hence

with fiery quickness.

Therefore prepare thyself.

The bark is ready, and the wind at help...

...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.

-Mother.

Father and mother is man and wife...

...man and wife is one flesh...

...and so my mother.

Come...

...for England.

Stay.

[GRUNTING]

Follow him. Tempt him with speed aboard.

Ill have him hence tonight.

Away. Everything is sealed and done

that else leans on th' affair.

Pray you, make haste.

And England...

...if my love thou hold'st at aught--

My great power thereof may give thee sense

since 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...

...the 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 were ne'er begun.

[OPHELIA SCREAMING]

Go, captain.

From me, greet the Danish king.

Tell him that by his license, Fortinbras

craves the conveyance...

...of a promised march over his kingdom.

You know the rendezvous.

If that his majesty would aught with us...

...we shall express our duty in his eye...

...and let him know so.

-I will do't, my lord.

-Go...

...softly on.

HAMLET:

Good sir, whose powers are these?

They are of Norway, sir.

How purposed, sir, I pray you?

Against some part of Poland.

-Who commands them, sir?

-The nephew of Old Norway, Fortinbras.

Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,

or for some frontier?

Truly to speak...

...and with no addition...

...we go to gain a little patch of ground

that hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay 5 ducats, 5...

... I would not farm it.

Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

a ranker rate should it be sold in fee.

Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

Yes, it is already garrison'd.

Two thousand souls

and 20,000 ducats...

...will not debate

the question of this straw.

This is the impostume

of much wealth and peace...

...that inward breaks...

...and shows no cause without

why the man dies.

I humbly thank you, sir.

God be with you, sir.

-Will't please you go, my lord?

-Ill be with you straight.

Go a little before.

How all occasions

do inform against me...

...and spur my dull revenge.

What is a man...

...if his chief good and market of his time

be but to sleep and feed?

A beast, no more.

Sure, he that made us

with such large discourse...

...looking before and after...

...gave us not

that capability and godlike reason...

...to fust in us unused.

Now, whether it be bestial oblivion...

...or some craven scruple

of thinking too precisely on the event--

A thought which, quarter'd...

...hath but one part wisdom

and ever three parts coward.

--I do not know...

...why yet I live to say

this thing's to do...

...sith I have cause and will

and strength and means to do't.

Examples gross as earth exhort me:

Witness this army

of such mass and charge...

...led by a delicate and tender prince...

...whose spirit,

with divine ambition puff'd...

...makes mouths at the invisible event...

...exposing what is mortal and unsure...

...to all that fortune, death,

and danger dare...

...even for an eggshell.

Rightly to be great

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