SCENE I. A room in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN
KING CLAUDIUS: There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
QUEEN GERTRUDE: Bestow this place on us a little while.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
As usual, Gertrude has no patience or trust for Claudius' lieutenants, R&G and the late Polonius. This is consistent throughout the play, but subtle and easily missed (or ignored) because she never makes a speech about it, part of her "under-written" nature.
Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!
KING CLAUDIUS: What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
QUEEN GERTRUDE: Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
Note the accumulation of sea-going imagery building up to Hamlet's departure for England. He's "as mad as the sea and wind", and before that, Claudius speaks of "heaves", Gertrude as the swelling waves of the ocean, her signs and tears poetically carrying Hamlet out of her life. In Hamlet, water portents terrible things, whether it be any given character's tears, Hamlet's exile at sea or Ophelia's impending drowning.
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 CLAUDIUS: O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
Obviously, Claudius thinks of himself first. And he's right. Hamlet was angling for him. In the following lines, he includes Gertrude and everyone at Elsinore, but he thought of himself first.
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 GERTRUDE: 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.
In the text, it is clear that Gertrude does not divulge what Hamlet has said to her, either about his father's murder, or that he's only playing at madness. One thing to watch as we go through the various adaptations is how each actress interprets this. Is Gertrude now betraying Claudius' trust? Or did she not believe Hamlet in the first place? Performance will be everything.
KING CLAUDIUS: 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 envious slander,
Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports his pois’ned shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air. O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
SCENE II. Another room in the castle.
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET: Safely stowed.
ROSENCRANTZ: GUILDENSTERN: [Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
HAMLET: What noise? who calls on Hamlet?
O, here they come.
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
ROSENCRANTZ: What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
HAMLET: Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
ROSENCRANTZ: Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
And bear it to the chapel.
HAMLET: Do not believe it.
ROSENCRANTZ: Believe what?
HAMLET: That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.
Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what replication should be made by the son of a king?
As Hamlet denies R&G's right to question him by reasons of class, he slips into prose, making it clear to them that he does not consider them worthy of verse.
ROSENCRANTZ: Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
HAMLET: Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
A notable pun here is "ape", which means "apple", but can also be the primate. Hamlet simultaneously turns R&G into something to be slowly devoured, and the King into a brutish beast. As we'll see in Scene 3, Hamlet will expound on the carnivorous metaphor, in a way that informs this line as well with additional insult. The point of the worm speech is an alchemical transformation through words of the King into baser matter. So if the King eats R&G in this particular image, he becomes like them (and in Scene 3, will deserve the same kind of disrespect).
ROSENCRANTZ: I understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.
HAMLET: The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing--
GUILDENSTERN: A thing, my lord!
HAMLET: Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
A veiled threat. Hamlet considers Claudius already dead - part of his fatalism, though some may be expected to die sooner than others - so he is "with" the corpse spiritually, if not physically. Hamlet nihilistically turns Claudius first into a thing (an object) and then into nothing at all, denying his existence, right to the throne, and life. Again, these are alchemical transformations using words to denature a person and an office.
Exeunt
SCENE III. Another room in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended
KING CLAUDIUS: I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's loved of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.
In this speech, Claudius reveals why he can't have Hamlet executed. Because the Prince is so loved, he fears a revolt from the common population of Denmark. This speaks to the political climate he's created by marrying Gertrude, interrupting the normal line of succession. When Laertes returns later, the rabble will be at the gates. Without their Prince, the population is quick to object to the usurper king.
Enter ROSENCRANTZ
How now! what hath befall'n?
ROSENCRANTZ: Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
KING CLAUDIUS: But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ: Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
KING CLAUDIUS: Bring him before us.
ROSENCRANTZ: Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN
KING CLAUDIUS: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET: At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS: At supper! where?
HAMLET: 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: 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.
Note how Hamlet shows disrespect by speaking in prose to the King. The alchemical transformations in this little speech loop around to undermine everything about Claudius' right to rule. The worms are "politic", a reference to Claudius' Court (and Polonius in particular) bowing to him for political gain. The worm is an "emperor", a title well above the "king". And the King is equal to the beggar on the worm's dining table (one insultingly fat, the other virtuously lean). The fatalistic image Hamlet creates here mocks everything Claudius stands for, but will be repurposed in the graveyard scene as a more sober acceptance of one's own death.
KING CLAUDIUS: Alas, alas!
HAMLET: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
KING CLAUDIUS: What dost you mean by this?
HAMLET: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
The alchemical process reaches a crescendo as the King becomes a worm, then a fish, then food for a beggar. This equalizing metaphor not only threatens the King with death (which is its topic), but with revolution, the beggar devouring the King.
KING CLAUDIUS: Where is Polonius?
HAMLET: In heaven; send hither 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 CLAUDIUS: Go seek him there.
To some Attendants
HAMLET: He will stay till ye come.
Exeunt Attendants
KING CLAUDIUS: Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,--
Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence
With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.
HAMLET: For England!
Part of the disjointedness of the time element in Hamlet is that it seems like Hamlet knows he's to be shipped to England three scenes before he's actually exiled. We can resolve this with the text, as nothing contradicts the idea that Claudius is merely accelerating his plans in the wake of Polonius' murder, but it nevertheless creates the effect.
KING CLAUDIUS: Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET: Good.
KING CLAUDIUS: So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Claudius gives himself away, and if Hamlet didn't know to watch himself on this voyage, he would now.
HAMLET: I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.
KING CLAUDIUS: Thy loving father, Hamlet.
HAMLET: My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
One final alchemical transformation (for the road, you might say): Hamlet transforms Claudius into the Queen as a parting insult (or so Claudius receives it). Using the marriage vows as his metaphor, Hamlet changes his stepfather's gender - the weaker in this society - while also reminding him of his de facto coup d'etat. The real power is the Queen, because Claudius is only allowed to rule through marriage with her. Though it may also represent remnants of bitterness against his mother, tying her into Claudius' misdeeds once more, I prefer to think of it as a transference of the anger he felt towards her into Claudius alone. All the sins to be avenged are in a single vessel.
Exit
KING CLAUDIUS: 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 the affair: pray you, make haste.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
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 mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,
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.
Exit
Is there a satirical function to making England the instrument of Hamlet's death? Scholars better versed in history may be able to make that determination better than I. If England kills Hamlet, then it kills everything he represents. Should we infer an attack on the part of Shakespeare on English elements that would stifle intellectualism, poetry, a strong and vibrant theater, and other values Hamlet espouses? After all, this scene wasn't just an attack on Claudius, but on Royalty itself. I do not, however, feel well-equipped enough to make a determination on Shakespeare's opinions on the matter, nor the historical context that might have prompted such an attack.
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