translate:[1] 'tis fit we understand them.
How does Hamlet?

_Queen._ Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries _A rat, a rat!_
And, in this brainish apprehension,[2] kills
The unseen good old man.

_King._ O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
Where is he gone?

_Queen._ To draw apart the body he hath kill'd.

_King._ 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!

_Enter_ ROSENCRANTZ _and_ GUILDENSTERN (L.H.)

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.

[ROSENCRANTZ _and_ GUILDENSTERN _cross to_ R.]

I pray you, haste in this.

[_Exeunt_ ROSENCRANTZ _and_ GUILDENSTERN, R.H.]

Go, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done.

[_Exit_ QUEEN, R.C.]

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 judgment, but their eyes;
And where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence.[3]

_Enter_ ROSENCRANTZ (R.)

How now! what hath befallen?

_Ros._ Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.

_King._ But where is he?

_Ros._ Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.

_King._ Bring him before us.

_Ros._ Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

_Enter_ HAMLET, GUILDENSTERN, _and_ Attendants (R.H.)

_King._ (C.) Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?

_Ham._ (R.) At supper.

_King._ At supper? Where?

_Ham._ Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a
certain convocation of politick worms[4] are e'en at him.

_King._ Where's Polonius?

_Ham._ In Heaven; send thither 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._ Go seek him there.

[_To_ GUILDENSTERN.