log out

Hamlet: Act IV, Scene 2

Hamlet
Act IV, Scene 2

Elsinore. Another room in Elsinore castle.

  1. Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet

1
  1. Safely stow’d.

Gentleman

2
  1. Within.
  2. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

Hamlet

3 - 4
  1. But soft, what noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they
  2. come.
  1. Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Rosencrantz

5
  1. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Hamlet

6
  1. Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.

Rosencrantz

7 - 8
  1. Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence,
  2. And bear it to the chapel.

Hamlet

9
  1. Do not believe it.

Rosencrantz

10
  1. Believe what?

Hamlet

11 - 13
  1. That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to
  2. be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by
  3. the son of a king?

Rosencrantz

14
  1. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

Hamlet

15 - 20
  1. Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards,
  2. his authorities. But such officers do the King best service
  3. in the end: he keeps them, like an ape an apple, in the
  4. corner of his jaw, first mouth’d, to be last swallow’d. When
  5. he needs what you have glean’d, it is but squeezing you,
  6. and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Rosencrantz

21
  1. I understand you not, my lord.

Hamlet

22
  1. I am glad of it, a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Rosencrantz

23 - 24
  1. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us
  2. to the king.

Hamlet

25 - 26
  1. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the
  2. body. The King is a thing

Guildenstern

27
  1. A thing, my lord?

Hamlet

28
  1. Of nothing, bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
  1. Exeunt.
© 2021 Unotate.comcontactprivacy policyCreative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.comAll illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons