Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown, Enter ROSENCRANTZ. Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, 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. Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? Ham. At supper. King. At supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politick 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. [King. Alas, alas! Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm1.] King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. 2 1 Alas, Alas! This speech, and the following one of Hamlet, are omitted in the folio. 2 A progress is a journey. Steevens says 'it alludes to the royal journies of state, always styled progresses.' This was probably in Shakspeare's mind, for the word was certainly applied to those periodical journeys of the sovereign to visit their King. Where is Polonius? Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i'the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safe ty, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done,-must send thee hence With fiery quickness: Therefore prepare thyself; Ham. King. Ham. For England? Ay, Hamlet. Good. King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. Ham. My mother: Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England. [Exit. noble subjects, but by no means exclusively. Sir William Drury, in a Letter to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, among the Conway papers, tells him he is going a little progresse to be merry with his neighbours.' And that popular book of John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress, is surely not the account of a regal' predatory excursion.' 3 i. e. in modern phrase the wind serves,' or is right to aid or help you on your way. 4 i. e. attend. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard ; Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night; That else leans on the affair: 'Pray you, make haste. The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark. [Exit. Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching. For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras Claims 1 the 1 conveyance of a promis'd march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye 2. And let him know so. 5 To set formerly meant to estimate. There is no ellipsis, as Malone supposed. 'To sette, or tell the pryce; æstimare.' To set much or little by a thing, is to estimate it much or little. 'I would forget her, but a fever she 6 Reigns in my blood.' 7 The folio reads: Love's Labour's Lost. 'Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.' The quarto reads-craves. 2 Eye for presence. In the Regulations for the establishment Cap. For. Go softly on. I will do't, my lord. [Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces. Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN [3 Ham. STERN, &c. Good sir, whose powers are these? Cap. They are of Norway, sir. Ham. I pray you? Cap. Ham. How purpos'd, sir, Who Against some part of Poland. Commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier? Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. Το pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats, Will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace; Cap. God be wi' you, sir. of the Queen's Household, 1627:- All such as doe service in the queen's eye.' And in The Establishment of Prince Henry's Household, 1610 :—' All such as doe service in the prince's eye.' It was the formulary for the royal presence. 3 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio. Ros. Will't please you go, my lord? Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little before. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. 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 5, Looking before, and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be 6 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 Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, 4 i. e. profit. 5 See note on Act i. Sc. 2, p. 174. It is evident that discursive powers of mind are meant; or, as Johnson explains it, 'such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future.' Since I wrote the former note, I find that Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocination and discourse convertible terms. 6 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be satisfactorily traced from crant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metrical romance of Ywaine and Gawaine (Ritson, vol. i. p. 133) : : 'Or yelde the til us als creant.' And in Richard Cœur de Lion (Weber, vol. ii. p. 208): 'On knees he fel down, and cryde, "Créaunt."" It then became cravant, cravent, and at length craven. It is superfluous to add that recreant is from the same source. |