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 politic worms are e'en at him.' Your worm is your only emperor for diet: wo 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! 2

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

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."

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. [To Attendants.] Go seek him there.
Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants.

1 Alluding, no doubt, to the Diet of Worms, which Protestants of course regarded as a convocation of politicians. There were little need of saying this, but that Mr. Collier's second folio supplies palated for politic, the word being omitted in the folios; and Mr. Collier thinks palated is "certainly more applicable in the place where it occurs." More applicable!

H.

2 This speech and the following one are omitted in the folio. 2 Alluding to the royal journeys of state, styled progresses,

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safe

ty,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve

For that which thou hast done,

hence

must send thee

With fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself:
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,

Th' associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England?
King. Ay, Hamlet.
Ham. Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub that sees them.come; for England! - Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

But,

Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England.

[Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed

aboard:

Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:

Away; for every thing is seal'd and done,

That else leans on th' affair: 'Pray you, make haste. [Exeunt ROSEN. and GUILDEN.

And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
(As 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 may'st not coldly set 5

4 That is, the associates of your voyage are waiting. -"The wind at help" means, the wind serves, or is right, to forward you. The words, "With fiery quickness," are not in the quartos.

--

H.

5 To set formerly meant to estimate. "To sette, or tell the pryce; æstimare." To set much or little by a thing, is to estimate it much or little.

Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,R

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."

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 license Fortinbras

Claims the conveyance of a promis'd march

1

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.

Cap.

3

For. Go softly on.3

I will do't, my lord.

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

6 The folio has conjuring; the quartos, congruing, which may be right, in the sense of concurring or agreeing. Conjuring is earnestly requesting. See Romeo and Juliet, Act v. se. 3, note 3.

H.

7 Thus the folio; the quartos, "my joys will ne'er begin." The folio reading is preferred on account of the rhyme; with which the scenes in this play are commonly closed.

H.

1 The quartos have craves instead of claims, the reading of the folio.

H.

2 In the Regulations for the Establishment 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."

3 These words are probably spoken to the troops. The folio has safely instead of softly. — What follows of this scene is wanting in the folio.

н.

21

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &c.

Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these?

Cap. They are of Norway, sir.

Ham. How purpos'd, sir, I pray you?
Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Who 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.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:

This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit Captain.
Will't please you go, my lord?

Ros.

Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little be

fore.

[Exeunt ROSEN. and GUILDEN.

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 unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event,
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wis-
dom,

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 egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour's at the stake. How stand I, then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,*
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause;
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,"
To hide the slain ?—O! from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[Exit.

4 Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance.

5 Continent means that which contains or encloses. "If there be no fulnesse, then is the continent greater than the content.". Bacon's Advancement of Learning.