Act 4, Scene 3

Another room in the Castle.

[Enter King,attended.]
King Claudius
2602 I have sent to seek him and to find the body.
2603 How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
2604 Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
2605 He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
2606 Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
2607 And where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
2608 But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
2609 This sudden sending him away must seem
2610 Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
2611 By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
2612 Or not at all.
[Enter Rosencrantz.]
King Claudius
2613 How now! what hath befall'n?
Rosencrantz
2614 Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
2615 We cannot get from him.
King Claudius
2616 But where is he?
Rosencrantz
2617 Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
King Claudius
2618 Bring him before us.
Rosencrantz
2619 Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
[Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.]
King Claudius
2620 Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet
2621 At supper.
King Claudius
2622 At supper! where?
Hamlet
2623 Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
2624 convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your
2625 only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and
2626 we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar
2627 is but variable service,—two dishes, but to one table: that's
2628 the end.
King Claudius
2629 Alas, alas!
Hamlet
2630 A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat
2631 of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King Claudius
2632 What dost thou mean by this?
Hamlet
2633 Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through
2634 the guts of a beggar.
King Claudius
2635 Where is Polonius?
Hamlet
2636 In heaven: send thither to see: if your messenger find him not
2637 there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you
2638 find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
2639 the stairs into the lobby.
King Claudius
2640 Go seek him there.
[To some Attendants.]
Hamlet
2641 He will stay till you come.
[Exeunt Attendants.]
King Claudius
2642 Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,—
2643 Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
2644 For that which thou hast done,—must send thee hence
2645 With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
2646 The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
2647 The associates tend, and everything is bent
2648 For England.
Hamlet
2649 For England!
King Claudius
2650 Ay, Hamlet.
Hamlet
2651 Good.
King Claudius
2652 So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Hamlet
2653 I see a cherub that sees them.—But, come; for England!—
2654 Farewell, dear mother.
King Claudius
2655 Thy loving father, Hamlet.
Hamlet
2656 My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is
2657 one flesh; and so, my mother.—Come, for England!
[Exit.]
King Claudius
2658 Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
2659 Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
2660 Away! for everything is seal'd and done
2661 That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
King Claudius
2662 And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,—
2663 As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
2664 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
2665 After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
2666 Pays homage to us,—thou mayst not coldly set
2667 Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
2668 By letters conjuring to that effect,
2669 The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
2670 For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
2671 And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
2672 Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.
[Exit.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2605cultural context
“He's lov'd of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes”
'Distracted' here means confused, unable to think clearly — not angry or upset. Claudius is making a standard Elizabethan argument against democracy: the common people judge by appearances ('their eyes') rather than by rational assessment ('their judgment'), so punishing a popular prince will look like tyranny even if it is justice.
TLN 2610archaic vocab
“Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are reliev'd”
'Appliance' is an archaic word for a remedy or treatment, and 'deliberate pause' means a considered, intentional delay. The medical metaphor (desperate disease needs desperate remedy) is a common Elizabethan proverb, roughly equivalent to 'desperate times call for desperate measures.'
TLN 2617archaic vocab
“Without”
'Without' here means outside (the room or door), not lacking something. Rosencrantz is saying Hamlet is waiting just outside, under guard. The spatial sense of 'without' as 'outside' was common in Elizabethan English but is now obsolete.
TLN 2623historical topical
“a certain convocation of politic worms”
A double pun: a 'convocation' is a formal assembly (like a parliament or church synod), and 'politic' means shrewd, statesman-like. Shakespeare is riffing on the Diet of Worms — a famous Imperial assembly held in the German city of Worms in 1521 where Martin Luther was condemned. The joke layers the political meeting on top of the literal grave-worms eating Polonius's body.
historical The Diet of Worms (a pun)
TLN 2624wordplay
“Your worm is your only emperor for diet”
'Diet' puns simultaneously on (1) food / eating and (2) a formal political assembly (as in the Diet of Worms, the 1521 Imperial council). The worm outranks even an emperor because it alone feasts on all flesh without distinction. The joke undercuts human hierarchy: kings and commoners alike end up on the worm's menu.
TLN 2625rhetorical device
“we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots”
Antimetabole: the same words ('fat') are repeated in reversed grammatical roles — we fatten animals, they fatten us, we fatten the worms. The circular structure enacts the food chain as a closed loop, mocking human self-importance. 'Fat' here is a verb (to fatten), now mostly obsolete in that sense.
TLN 2626cultural context
“your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service,—two dishes, but to one table”
'Variable service' is a culinary term: different courses or dishes served at the same banquet table. The fat king and the lean beggar are merely two menu items for the worms — death is the only truly egalitarian host. The image collapses the social order into a single dinner party.
TLN 2633historical topical
“a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar”
A royal 'progress' was the Tudor/Elizabethan monarch's ceremonial journey through the country — a grand procession through towns and great houses, demanding hospitality and displaying power. Queen Elizabeth I's progresses were famous annual events. Hamlet's joke is that the king's greatest journey ends inside a beggar's intestines, which perfectly inverts the pomp of royal travel.
TLN 2646archaic vocab
“The bark is ready”
'Bark' (also 'barque') is an archaic word for a sailing ship or boat. Claudius means the vessel to carry Hamlet to England is prepared and waiting.
TLN 2653biblical allusion
“I see a cherub that sees them”
In the Hebrew Bible and Christian tradition cherubim are celestial beings associated with God's omniscience — they guard Eden and surround God's throne, their eyes seeing everything. Hamlet is claiming divine or angelic knowledge of Claudius's secret purposes (his plan to have Hamlet killed in England), hinting he has seen through the plot even before he is told outright.
TLN 2656biblical allusion
“father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh”
Hamlet quotes the marriage formula from Genesis and the Gospels — 'they twain shall be one flesh' — to argue that Claudius and Gertrude are one body, so Claudius is Hamlet's mother. It is a deliberately twisted piece of logic that mocks Claudius by stripping him of his fatherly claim and identifies him entirely with Gertrude.
TLN 2664archaic vocab
“cicatrice”
A cicatrice (also cicatrix) is a scar left by a healed wound. Claudius is reminding England that its armies were recently defeated by Denmark — the scar of that defeat is still 'raw and red,' meaning the English still feel the humiliation and therefore owe Denmark obedience. The medical term signals that the political wound has not fully healed.
TLN 2670archaic vocab
“the hectic in my blood”
A 'hectic' (from Greek hektikos, habitual) was an Elizabethan medical term for a persistent, wasting fever — the kind associated with tuberculosis or consumption — that burned steadily in the body rather than coming and going. Claudius is saying Hamlet is a chronic, incurable illness in him that only Hamlet's death can cure.