ACT IV. | |
Scene I. A room in the Castle. | |
| [Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] |
King. | |
| There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves |
| You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them. |
| Where is your son? |
Queen. | |
| Bestow this place on us a little while. |
| [To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who go out.] |
| Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! |
King. | |
| What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? |
Queen. | |
| Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend |
| Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit |
| Behind the arras hearing something stir, |
| Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!' |
| And in this brainish apprehension, kills |
| The unseen good old man. |
King. | |
| O heavy deed! |
| It had been so with us, had we been there: |
| His liberty is full of threats to all; |
| To you yourself, to us, to every one. |
| Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? |
| It will be laid to us, whose providence |
| Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt |
| This mad young man. But so much was our love |
| We would not understand what was most fit; |
| But, like the owner of a foul disease, |
| To keep it from divulging, let it feed |
| Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? |
Queen. | |
| To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: |
| O'er whom his very madness, like some ore |
| Among a mineral of metals base, |
| Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. |
King. | |
| O Gertrude, come away! |
| The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch |
| But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed |
| We must with all our majesty and skill |
| Both countenance and excuse.--Ho, Guildenstern! |
| [Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] |
| Friends both, go join you with some further aid: |
| Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, |
| And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: |
| Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body |
| Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. |
| [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] |
| 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 haply slander,-- |
| Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, |
| As level as the cannon to his blank, |
| Transports his poison'd shot,--may miss our name, |
| And hit the woundless air.--O, come away! |
| My soul is full of discord and dismay. |
| [Exeunt.] |