Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/115
Ham. I am glad of it: a knavish speech
sleeps in a foolish ear.
Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the
body is, and go with us to the king. 28
Ham. The body is with the king, but the
king is not with the body. The king is a thing—
Guil. A thing, my lord!
Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide
fox, and all after. Exeunt.
Scene Three
[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, 4
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 8
Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
Or not at all.
Enter Rosencrantz.
How now! what hath befall'n?
Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, 12
We cannot get from him.
29 The . . . body; cf. n.
32 Hide fox, and all after: signal cry in the game of hide-and-seek
4 distracted: without power of forming logical judgments
6 scourge: punishment
weigh'd: estimated, considered
7 bear: execute
smooth and even: pleasantly and equably
10 appliance: remedy