Act 4; Scene 3

Another room in the Castle.

Enter King, attended.

KING.
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 lov’d of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes;
And where ’tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weigh’d, I would lock him up, but the people of Denmark love him so. I guess I’ll secretly arrange for his death. I’m not above murdering someone after all. I just don’t want to look like I would. Again, appearance vs. reality. The people of Denmark see Hamlet as a good young man based on his looks (He looks princely but is diseased like a rotten tooth), but Claudius sees him as a threat. Claudius may look kingly (and probably resembles his brother), but he is not; he is a malignant narcissist and a canker on the state of Denmark.
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 reliev’d, We should excise the offender like plucking out a weed from the garden before it takes over the whole space. But didn’t Hamlet know that Claudius was going to send him to England? Perhaps he was just anticipating that Claudius would send him to England when Hamlet got to be a bigger thorn in his side. Mirroring imagery from earlier about an unweeded garden.
Or not at all.

Enter Rosencrantz.

How now? What hath befall’n?

ROSENCRANTZ.
Where the dead body is bestow’d, my lord,
We cannot get from him.

KING.
But where is he?

ROSENCRANTZ.
Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING.
Bring him before us.

ROSENCRANTZ.
Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

KING.
Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

HAMLET.
At supper.

KING.
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. We all, beggar and king, end up as worm food.

KING.
Alas, alas!

HAMLET.
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?

HAMLET.
Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar.

KING.
Where is Polonius?

HAMLET.
In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger
find him not there, seek him i’ th’ other
place yourself. But if, indeed, you find him not
within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
the stairs into the lobby.

KING.
[To some Attendants.] Go seek him there. 

HAMLET.
He will stay till you come.Gallows humor to show that Hamlet is truly not repentant of Polonius’ murderer or that he is horrified by it. Horror of oneself, one’s deeds, and one’s own corruption.

[Exeunt Attendants.]

KING.
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, Winds that kept Agamemnon at Aulis; the sacrifice of a king’s child.
Th’associates tend, and everything is bent
For England.

HAMLET.
For England?

KING.
Ay, Hamlet.

HAMLET.
Good.

KING.
So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes.

HAMLET.
I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England! Farewell, dear mother.

KING.
Thy loving father, Hamlet.

HAMLET.
My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, Throwing Claudius’ incest with his brother’s wife in his face.
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 tonight.
Away, for everything is seal’d and done Hamlet’s fate is sealed, and he has only himself to blame, as does Claudius
That else leans on th’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 Denmark has given England scars.
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe England may owe Denmark fealty, but most likely only because of Hamlet’s father. Claudius is no warrior. Claudius is a politician.
Pays homage to us,—thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process, which imports at full,
By letters conjuring 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. I’ll never be happy again until I know Hamlet is dead…Doesn’t sound to me like he loves Hamlet, and I doubt if it’s because of Polonius. Hamlet is the only thing that could stand in his way of keeping the throne. If Hamlet is too young or immature to take the throne, as Claudius claims, what will happen when he does become mature enough to sit on the throne? There might be conflict brewing due to succession. It’s inevitable.

[Exit.]

Clytemnestra wasn’t upset by the news that Orestes had died either. She was relieved because she knew that he could never take revenge for Agamemnon.