Page 313 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

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, [20]

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
To draw apart the body he hath kill’d,

O’er whom − his very madness, like some ore [25]
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure − a weeps for what is done.

KING
O Gertrude, come away.
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch

But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed [30]
We must with all our majesty and skill
Both countenance and excuse. − Ho, Guildenstern!

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. [35]
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], [40]
Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports his poison’d shot, may miss our name
And hit the woundless air. O come away,
My soul is full of discord and dismay. [45]